Apple's New M1 Chip Brings 6K Display Support to Mac Mini and Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro For the First Time

[Metrosey]

I’m curious as to how the new integrated graphics will perform. 3x better than the old Intel integrated is pretty much cheap to mid discrete GPU land so that would be pretty impressive for allowing low to medium settings on modern games.

Also does anyone know if the M1 in the mini is passively/fanless or actively cooled? The quiet cool design I keep seeing is sort of ambiguous

Remember though, Apple are comparing it to Icelake iGPU not Tigerlake iGPU (much better).

 

[vvrinne]

That part.

I know this is first gen, but the trade-offs for power/battery sacrificing Windows/Bootcamp and functionality will hit hard. Many who use MacBook's for both work and personal use as they need Windows for work preferred them over needing two systems. Now we're back to the PPC era and don't think for a second MS will work on a full silicon Windows OS - there's no financial benefit for them unlike Intel. I know a few engineers working at AutoDesk who have told me they have no intention on porting over AutoCAD and other engineering/design apps as they're already juggling Windows/Mac Intel versions. This will kill Apple's push in the business market as Intel Mac's opened up the ability for two-in-one systems, a financial and functional benefit. Even using emulation with Rosetta 2 won't cut it - they've tried. The graphics may be decent enough for casual usage but until discrete GPU support is official a lot of businesses looking to update their hardware are either holding off until more systems hit the market and whether or not other companies decide to port their apps, etc. or investing in Windows systems and restructuring their workflow as they don't have the time and money to wait out what if's.

Now they can build their own without licensing fees but I can't help wonder what the long term impact will be on Apple's Mac marketshare. Once you tell consumers they can't run Windows virtually or in Bootcamp, it will be hard to sell a $2499+ MacBook Pro when they have to maintain a Windows system as well. People are missing that key factor and don't realize just how much of an impact this move will have on consumers and businesses making financial and operational decisions moving forward.

I know it will be a few years and Apple will support Intel systems for a while but at some point they won't and it already has a lot very weary of investing money and time in a closed ecosystem. I'm all for improvements in power and efficiency but at what cost? I wonder what would have happened if Apple didn't cut their departments working with Intel and Intel leadership hadn't become a mess.

Interesting, I've used Mac for work for the last 10 years or so in many different corporations, from megacorps to ~500 man shops. Not once have I heard of somebody relying on Bootcamp for actual work. If you needed Windows for work you used a VM or a dedicated machine. I just don't see this affecting the business market in any major way.

 

[AAPLGeek]

who buys a cheap Mac mini and spends 5 grand on a 6k display??

come on.

I'm sure you'll find a few suckers on this very forum

 

[Metrosey]

Cool but how about a consumer-grade monitor, for the consumer-grade laptop?

Oh you mean the new £2999 monitor with a £600 stand?

 

[sean+mac]

I am confused between Air & Pro. Its the same M1 chip. Are you just paying $300 more for a Fan + Touch Bar?

Also for a much bigger battery.

There’s forum speculation that the Air model will be throttled because of the form factor. (Also the base Air has one less GPU core.) The fan should allow the Pro to run at faster clock speeds. They might be binning chips along product lines as well, but that’s just my own theory.

 

[Metrosey]

24" 4k ($300), 27" 5k ($750), 32" 6k (1k-2k), and 32" 6k XDR (bring price down to $3000). The product team for this could be very small and would cost Apple basically nothing in terms of lost focus.

No chance, you won’t get a 6K monitor for $1k-$2k anywhere that’s from a decent reputable brand with a focus on colour accuracy and quality. Same applies to the other prices you listed.

 

[rainfan]

Also for a much bigger battery.

There’s forum speculation that the Air model will be throttled because of the form factor. (Also the base Air has one less GPU core.) The fan should allow the Pro to run at faster clock speeds. They might be binning chips along product lines as well, but that’s just my own theory.

You can configure the Air with 7 or 8 GPU cores.

 

[sean+mac]

Sure, the iMac 5k display is awesome.

But then again, it cannot be bought separately.

Preach. I don't get Apple’s reluctance to release a 5k display. They already have it on the iMac, just take the computer out of it, narrow the bezels and voila. Done! I would buy two, maybe three in a heartbeat.

The LG Ultrafine 5K fills this gap. As an owner there are a few minor nitpicks I have with it that I believe a fully Apple-branded device would have avoided (a different/seemingly lower quality 1080p camera compared to iMac, slight wobble, the three USB-C ports could provide a tad bit more power when devices are plugged in. Also those USB 3.1 ports could have been Gen 2 not Gen 1 on this revision. At least the primary Thunderbolt/USB-C will charge things very quickly in a pinch.)

Otherwise than those small annoyances, I find the build quality quite good. It came well packaged, the base is metal (heavy as a result), the included cables were well wrapped and seem very durable with quite a bit of length – close to 2m I’d say. Looks a bit boring compared to Stainless Steel, sure. But also more refined than the random shiny plastic BenQ it replaced.

The Ultrafine 5K shares the same panel as the iMac 5K. It also offers auto-brightness, true tone, glass, speaker, mic’s, etc. So side-by-side they work well together as the pixel density, size and colours all match. If you want that nice crisp 5K iMac look for your Mini or MacBook, it is a reasonable option.

I have mine attached to a 5K iMac, so it is easy to offer the panel quality comparison.

 

[rainfan]

I love how they prefaced the GPU performance as better than other Windows computers "in their class" meaning with an integrated GPU. How does it fair versus a discreet GPU PC? I'm guessing it gets blown out of the water. With the M1 announcement, are we looking at never seeing a discreet GPU in a Mac again? Cause that would be a shame. Unfortunately, I don't think integrated GPUs will ever reach the same power level. So once again we'll be using machines that are not as fast or as powerful as they could be, while Windows PCs continue to outpace them. I mean at best the CPU and SSD could be better than Intel? But what's to prevent Intel from out-innovating Apple once again?

It's looking more and more like my next computer will be a self-built hackintosh or a Windows PC. I despise the Windows UI, but it's almost worth it to me to be able to finally enjoy games that I've been unable to play or have been horrendously slow and bug-ridden for the past decade due to Apple's stubbornness. I'm still gaming on my 2011 MacbokPro with a discreet GPU. I'll probably just get a larger SSD and partition and bootcamp it when my games drop support for older Mac OSs.

I like how Apple always wants to show people playing games but never actually want to even attempt to cater to major gaming developers or craft affordable and expandable PCs. And Metal is not a great answer to DirectX. In fact it screwed over people like me. Heroes of the Storm comes to mind. I can't even launch the game anymore, because Blizzard had to make it compatible with Metal. Even though my graphics card handled it just fine, they cut support for older OSs that didn't include Metal support. But what's hilarious is I could install Windows via Bootcamp, and Windows will run it just fine on my Mac, probably even better. I mean you just have to laugh.

I thought I'd give Apple a chance with this new ARM processor, but they're clearly going their own path again like what they did with the PowerPC. I suspect they will go through this great conversion only to find that Intel has once again out-innovated them. History might not repeat itself, but I bet will rhyme.

The previous Air, Mini, and 13” Macbook all came with integrated GPUs. Nothing has changed there so I don’t get your feigned upset. It looks like these will handle casual 3D games. Perhaps something like the GeForce MX 250 based on the specs provided. You can also still buy an Intel Mac from Apple if you want.

 

[twocents]

Or maybe just buy your next 3 or 4 MacBook Pro upgrades for the price of the monitor and get a normal monitor that will probably be just as good for almost all people.

I like the Apple monitor but the $6K is absurd, they really need a model well under $2K that is "good enough" and I'm on board.

I think main holdback on their end is sufficient mini-led production (corona) as this definitely will be added to iPad Pro and Mac for better ‘desktop’ experience. This is why first iMac redesign in 9 years along with sub-$5K display are M.I.A. in 2020

 

[architect1337]

Full price for a Mac Mini that doesn't use Intel chips (huge cost saving to Apple). This is just an exercise in increasing profit margins to ridiculous levels. Even if the price was cut in half, Apple would still be making a killing and consumers would be losing out big time. Remember the Surface RT?

 

[architect1337]

The previous Air, Mini, and 13” Macbook all came with integrated GPUs. Nothing has changed there so I don’t get your feigned upset. It looks like these will handle casual 3D games. Perhaps something like the GeForce MX 250 based on the specs provided. You can also still buy an Intel Mac from Apple if you want.

You can probably play mobile games on here - that's about it. Mac's were never AAA gaming platforms. If you are buying a non-Intel Mac, then you are looking to run purely Apple products, mobile games and niceties like external GPUs are no longer an option. You still pay the same price (or higher). If you need Windows, you should think about changing. Surface and Dell XPS devices are far better for running Windows, Windows apps and games than any form of emulation.

The latest Intel 11th Gen laptops with Intel Xe graphics can play triple A rated games at 1080p. The Intel / AMD war is heating up and Apple have decided to bail. You need to be honest about what you want.

 

[mike...]

Crazy, you can connect your MacBook to a $6000 6K display but you can't connect it to two $400 4K displays.

 

[aednichols]

Seriously, that’s the most laughable aspect of today without an announcement of a lower-priced Apple display. The mere suggestion is comical to me.

If Apple just took the fantastic 5K P3 panel from the 27” iMac and put it in an Apple-branded enclosure it would sell great.

Yes, I know the LG displays exist, but they’re ugly (can you imagine Apple using one in a presentation?) and finicky. I had one and sold it in no small part to glitches.

 

[Abstract]

From what I can remember when Apple released the updated Mac Mini (2018) it's configuration fully spec'd out was around $4,000. And that could only be configured with Intel UHD 630 graphics. This new Mac Mini announced today is only around $1,700 fully spec'd out. To me Apple just makes a price up in their head's and says that's it. Pretty much a slap in the face to us who wanted the most powerful Mac Mini back in 2018.

Did you think it was worth its asking price, or did you vote with your wallet and NOT buy it?

 

[BvizioN]

"Pair your $699 Mac mini with our $5,000 display. If you're feeling really lucky, splurge $1,000 on the stand too."

who buys a cheap Mac mini and spends 5 grand on a 6k display??

come on.

This was to showcase the capabilities of the Mac Mini with the M1. I would have though this was obvious.

 

[architect1337]

I’m curious as to how the new integrated graphics will perform. 3x better than the old Intel integrated is pretty much cheap to mid discrete GPU land so that would be pretty impressive for allowing low to medium settings on modern games.

Also does anyone know if the M1 in the mini is passively/fanless or actively cooled? The quiet cool design I keep seeing is sort of ambiguous

Apple are making some pretty bold claims. I can see where they say 3 x better CPU performance because that's against an old part but the claim of being faster than a $1000 PC? Also,, why is the case so large if everything is integrated onto a single CPU that requires much less cooling? Some very bold claims that need to be looked into.

 

[Jury]

Preach. I don't get Apple’s reluctance to release a 5k display. They already have it on the iMac, just take the computer out of it, narrow the bezels and voila. Done! I would buy two, maybe three in a heartbeat.

It's not a daunting task for Apple to launch the $999 5K display made by .

Why is Apple is forcing everyone to choose an overpriced $5000 6K display and a cheap plastic LG monitor that doesn't make any sense at all
for people who bought the mac mini or 13’ MBP.

 

[Jury]

I miss the days when Apple had award winning dedicated display lines. The 20", 23", and 30" CCFL LCD's were stunning and pro's bought up the 30" displays without blinking. Many I know still use the 30" ones. I wish Apple would produce a reasonable display. The 24" and then 27" LED Cinema Display's were simply repurposed iMac panels in an enclosure. Unfortunately, the PSU's failed on them due to poor soldering. I went through over a dozen 24" and 27" displays over the years but thankfully Apple replaced or repaired them.

I was ecstatic when Apple announced a return to the tower Mac Pro and a display, then like the audience spit out my coffee at the price points. When they announced the stand was extra for $999, I was done.

This is a reason why all part of humanity is destiny to become extinction and eventually mankind will be forgotten that it ever existed on the milky way.

 

[Falhófnir]

I’m curious as to how the new integrated graphics will perform. 3x better than the old Intel integrated is pretty much cheap to mid discrete GPU land so that would be pretty impressive for allowing low to medium settings on modern games.

Also does anyone know if the M1 in the mini is passively/fanless or actively cooled? The quiet cool design I keep seeing is sort of ambiguous

I understand it falls roughly between a GTX 1050Ti and GTX 1650 - exceptionally good compared to what these machines can do with Intel, even with the new Tiger Lake XE graphics! The Mini and Pro have active cooling, the Air is passive.

 

[HandITOVER]

SMH.

 

[FoxMcCloud]

my 2020 i7 MacBook Pro struggles with my 4k display, but I blame Intel's garbage GPU for that. Any improvement in performance in graphical capability is a welcome improvement. I kinda of wish I got the 16" with the AMD GPU but I didn't want a big laptop, I love the size of the 13".

 

[appahappa]

6k is total overkill. 4k offers more than enough pixels for the average Mac user.

It's not for average users. If you want to edit 4k videos you need more space for all the other UI elements of your application.

 

[rurza]

Anybody knows what 3D app is on the photo?

 

[Pressure]

I am confused between Air & Pro. Its the same M1 chip. Are you just paying $300 more for a Fan + Touch Bar?

It’s the same chip but it is limited to a Thermal Design Power of 10 Watt in the fanless MacBook Air. It will throttle to stay within that 10 Watt.

The 13” MacBook Pro features active cooling so can offer sustained performance at all times.