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Apple's 2024 M4 Mac Mini: What We Know

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Apple is working to refresh the entire Mac lineup with chips in the M4 series, and the Mac mini could get an update as soon as late 2024. Apple is expected to skip the M3 chip, going straight from M2 to M4.

M4-Mac-mini-Black-Ortho-Cooler.jpg

This guide highlights everything that we know about the Mac mini refresh so far.

Design

Apple hasn't changed the Mac mini design in many years, but that's set to change in 2024. Apple is going to introduce the first design change since 2010, slimming down the Mac mini.

The Mac mini is expected to be Apple's smallest ever desktop computer with a chassis that is around the size of the Apple TV. While it will have an Apple TV-like footprint, the Mac mini is expected to be slightly taller than the current Mac mini, which is 1.4 inches tall.

Apple has tested Mac mini models with at least three USB-C ports on the back, along with a power cable and an HDMI port.

M4 Chip

The Mac mini will be equipped with Apple's M4 and M4 Pro chips, with Apple skipping the M3 line entirely and going from M2 to M4.

Apple introduced the M4 chip in the iPad Pro, and the chip is built on a second-generation 3-nanometer technology. Compared to the M2 chip, the M4 chip offers 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 4x faster rendering performance.

The M4 chip features a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU. There is a variant of the M4 with a 9-core CPU, but Apple is unlikely to use it in the Mac mini, instead reserving it for the iPad Pro and a future MacBook Air.

There is also a more advanced 16-core Neural Engine and the GPU supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a feature not available with the M2. According to Apple, the Neural Engine in the M4 chip is an "absolute powerhouse for AI."

We don't yet know details on the M4 Pro because that chip is not expected to come out until later this year.

RAM

The M4 Mac mini models could start with 16GB RAM instead of 8GB, perhaps to better support Apple Intelligence features. All of the M4 Macs that have been spotted in developer logs have either 16GB or 32GB RAM.

Release Date

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Mac mini will be refreshed alongside the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models at an event set to take place in October, with a launch to follow on November 1.

Article Link: Apple's 2024 M4 Mac Mini: What We Know
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/guide/m4-mac-mini/
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Wasn’t the last revision not actually thicker and they instead changed how they rounded and converted from metric dimensions?
 
I'm catching other posts claiming it will not appear in 2024, being a first quarter 25 product launch. There is no earthly reason we have to wait that long...
 
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If I don’t end up getting an M4 iPad Pro (that will hugely depend on iPadOS 18), and Apple doesn’t release an M4 12” MacBook, I will definitely get an M4 or M4 Pro Mac mini.
 
I had been waiting for WWDC to buy a new desktop Mac, but then my spidey sense started whispering that WWDC would give us a big fat nothing, and so I bought a refurb Mac mini M2 Pro. Very happy to have it.
 
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I’ve been looking at some of the new Mini PC's lately. Some are very powerful and absolutely challenge and beat the Mac Mini in every way, except… Mac…. But there is so much they can do to the Mac Mini to make it a complete game changer. Upgradable NVME.m2 storage would be the first thing. There is no excuse to not include a secondary storage slot.
 
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“Apple did make the Mac mini a little bit thicker and lighter when it was refreshed in 2023”. No, they made it thinner and (in the case of the M2 Pro) heavier.
 
steve09090 said:
I’ve been looking at some of the new Mini PC's lately. Some are very powerful and absolutely challenge and beat the Mac Mini in every way, except… Mac…. But there is so much they can do to the Mac Mini to make it a complete game changer. Upgradable NVME.m2 storage would be the first thing. There is no excuse to not include a secondary storage slot.
Click to expand...
Yeah... except that the "Mac" part is a big deal. Almost every time I've tried to cheap out with non-Apple gear, I've ended up disappointed. The most recent misadventure was my purchase of a 'cheap' (relative to Apple, but not in absolute terms) Dell monitor. I was shocked by how bad it was. Now I've got an Apple Studio Display and, while I wish it had cost less, I'm a lot happier. (maybe if I had sprung for a more expensive Dell monitor I would have been happier with it, but then what's the point in not going Apple?)

Plus, and I know some people will roll their eyes, the Mac mini plus Studio Display *look so nice* on my desk. The PC guys really have no taste.
 
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Surrylic said:
I just need it to be able to output two 6k resolutions at once, please! And maybe not 8gb base ram…
Click to expand...

I don't see that happening, as many people (likely most of Apple customers that aren't tech-driven) will do fine with 8gb ram. And shouldn't have to pay more for 16gb ram they'll never need.

The good news is, if you need more ram, you can bump it up to whatever you need when placing your order.
 
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