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Apple Working on High-End Mac Mini With Additional Ports and More Powerful Chip From Next-Gen MacBook Pro
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Ditto, those 2012 Mac Minis are built to last, mine is chugging along.
I will buy a new high end Mini with a MX as soon as one comes around, the old one then will be connected
to my LG OLED Tv for movies and the like.
My first Mac was a 2000 Pismo.
Classic marketing strategy is 3 classes of product.
1. Baseline (currently M1)
MB Air
iMac 24"
MB Pro (low end)
Mini
2. Upgrade (more ports, more RAM, more CPU, more GPU)
MB Pro 14/16
iMac 27/30/32/Pro(?)
Mini Pro(?)
3. Top of the line (even more of the above)
Mac Pro
Historically, Apple has release a new generation of their processors each year. Last year was the A14/M1. The logical step would be A15/M2. For the iPads they used a letter designation to indicate a product class change (A14z).
It's unclear if they will introduce the second group of product before they move on to the M2 generation or not. It depends on whether these are released before or after September when they usually increment the generation.
I agree on having more memory, what people forget is the OS over time wants more that takes away from memory for your applications to use. An Applications get larger over time. So 16gb may seem like a lot today, but 3 years from now it could be at the bottom and you have no upgrade capability now on almost every Mac computer.
I agree with most of what you said, but it doesn't hurt to have extra RAM as cache, even if strictly speaking it won't make your application performance any faster. Having the extra RAM as cache can still affect overall perceived UI performance. But at Apple's prices, it's often hard to justify the extra cost.
My rough back-of-the-napkin estimate is that our memory needs increase by about 50% every 4-5 years or so on average, give or take. So, it can make sense to spec on the high side if you keep your machines a long time.
But at Apple's prices for soldered RAM, sometimes it may make sense just to upgrade more often. Depends on the individual's true needs though.
This is weird. It used to be small things were less powerful than larger things. Everything being M1, now a tablet is just as powerful as a desktop. As a desktop is to a laptop etc that now idk what to think anymore. What’s the point anymore. Just sell a giant folding screen the can be a tablet when folded. A monitor when unfolded. And when folded on a right angle be a laptop. End of story.
Don't hold your breath for any of that. I'm not even sure an Mx-based Mac Pro is going to have slots at this point.
Yep. I have my eyes set on the MBP 16" but would get also a Mini as my home base computer if it's powerful and have a great price point.
I'm running a 2018-era hexcore/dozen-threads mini, so I'm good for now. I don't think the M1 mini was enough to get me to retire what I currently have, but the next incarnation just might.
Don’t know about that. That new Mac Pro design is designed to be around for a fair few years I reckon.
AFAIK the M1 itself can't support more than 1 display via Thunderbolt, full stop. The GPU can only support 2 displays - and the Air,MBP and iMac need one of those (probably) Embedded DisplayPort streams on the outside of the SoC leaving only one stream for the internal Thunderbolt controllers. So it's more a legacy of the M1 being designed primarily for Airs and iPads than being down to the number of ports. The M1 Mini is kinda opportunistic in that it uses the stream intended for the MacBook internal display to drive a HDMI.... Personally, I'd have preferred DisplayPort, but then the M1 Mini is the bargain entry level Mac, and likely to be connected to a bargain entry level display, which is more likely to have HDMI than DisplayPort.
The M1x/M2/whatever is going to have to up the game and support more than 2 displays, however they are connected - and Apple can't start calling the ports "Thunderbolt 4" until they support at least two displays.
I can't see it launching this year as Apple is quite clearly spacing out the launches of every new "from-the-ground-up" Apple silicon machine very far as to not cannibalise sales and to make sure that as many of us prematurely give in right before they release the true pro machines.
Releasing an completely new, from-the-ground-up mini in 2021 would kill too many iMac M1 sales, regardless of whether this new mini is equipped with an M1 or "M2" processor. Giving it more ports, RAM, and GPU cores would render all but the highest speed M1 iMac very unattractive.
We'll probably get a new, from-the-ground-up MacBook Pro this year. But I don't see anymore than two new Apple ARM machines launching this year and one will be a MacBook.
The 1st crop of M1 machines isn't even a year old and tons of pro apps are yet to be optimised -No way Apple will kill them before the 11th-12th month rolls around.
Releasing an completely new, from-the-ground-up mini in 2021 would kill too many iMac M1 sales, regardless of whether this new mini is equipped with an M1 or "M2" processor. Giving it more ports, RAM, and GPU cores would render all but the highest speed M1 iMac very unattractive.
We'll probably get a new, from-the-ground-up MacBook Pro this year. But I don't see anymore than two new Apple ARM machines launching this year and one will be a MacBook.
The 1st crop of M1 machines isn't even a year old and tons of pro apps are yet to be optimised -No way Apple will kill them before the 11th-12th month rolls around.
From 2014 to 2018 the Mac mini was ridiculously underpowered for use as a developer box. For the headless spectrum there was the low end Mac mini, the high end can, and a big smoking hole where the middle ground had been.
Then in 2018 they fixed the missing middle by obliterating the low end.
With the M1 mini, finally, there were both entry and prosumer Mac minis again.
Definitely has to be. Amazon is going to be a huge buyer of these for their MacOS AWS offering. They’re currently using 2018 Mac Minis.
For the settings below, with a C172 and ORBX Northern California scenery, I'm getting between 35 and 55 (average around 40) fps on my M1 MBA. The processor is cranking pretty hard as it's the only time I feel the computer getting moderately warm (which is pretty good with no fan). I think an M2-based Mini will allow the settings to be bumped up some.
I got a small SSD on my Mini (256GB) and run an external SSD.
The thing is, larger SSDs are faster and therefore the overall Mac performance is better. So keep that in mind.
I'm in. My late 2012 still is running like new but Catalina is the end of the line as far as updates go. I originally got one of the M1 Mini's but had a change of heart and returned it without even opening it. Decided to wait for the second gen processor and really wanted more ports like my 2012 has.
I used to build my systems, but these days it is becoming not worth the time. The system I am typing on is an I9900K processor with 64 GB of RAM, 6 TB of SSDs, RTX 2070 GPU. But if I wanted to go to the latest and the greatest many of these components would have to be replaced.