Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Avoiding the M2 Mini slow SSD's - what to do

doolar said:
I would recommend going with the storage you actually need, not what I or anybody else suggests on a forum. On my work M1 Air I have 90Gb used after almost two years. I should’ve gone for the 256 but went 512.

It all depends on what you use it for. Recommend people to “going 1 Tb no matter the situation” is actually terrible advice. Just my 5 cents.
Click to expand...
I’m the same. My 2017 iMac has used 130gb so far but i’ve gone for the 512 pro mainly because my main use will be VMs which can take a fair bit of space when running. I do also have a 2TB ssd that will be attached via Thunderbolt which I’ll be trying out as the host for the VMs too
 
grandoflex said:
My understanding is that the standard M2 Mini is limited to 2 NAND chips which means that even a 1TB SSD upgrade will be capped at around 3000mbps. The M2 Pro Mac Mini has 8 chips, with 4 x 256GB apparently used in a 1TB configuration on the M2 Pro Mini, resulting in around 6000mbps. So, if you really want 6000mbps then you need to go for an M2 Pro Mini with at least 1TB...
Click to expand...
"standard M2 Mini is limited to 2 NAND chips which means that even a 1TB SSD upgrade will be capped at around 3000mbps" this part, is it confirmed?
 
Apple_Robert said:
Unless a person is copying or moving very large files on a regular basis, the slow down is merely academic and won’t be noticed in regular day to day use. The only people stressing over this are regs on MR and other Apple nerd sites.
Click to expand...

And copying isn’t that big a deal as copying within an APFS volume doesn’t require any data transfer and copying from an external volume is typically limited by the drive or bus speed.

In an effort to make this a big deal, people have turned this into a swap issue— rather than buying the additional RAM they need, people are buying more flash because it’s easier to complain about the factor of 2 from half the flash than the factor of 1000 going from RAM to flash. I’d love to see something definitive, but Blackmagic gives a benchmark for 5GB transfers and people apply it to swapping lots of little 16kB pages and I haven’t seen a relevant benchmark yet— just some reports on how it feels which is usually described as “it feels like Apple is ripping me off”, but without units on the y axis it’s hard to know absolute magnitude.
 
  • Like
Reactions: robotica, Basic75, jdb8167 and 2 others
Total storm in a teacup for the vast, vast majority.
it’s certainly not something I’d be wasting additional dollars on unless I could demonstrate an ROI.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luap and Basic75
Apple_Robert said:
Unless a person is copying or moving very large files on a regular basis, the slow down is merely academic and won’t be noticed in regular day to day use. The only people stressing over this are regs on MR and other Apple nerd sites.
Click to expand...
Totally agree with you Apple Robert. I think what irritates most people about this practice is that Apple is viewed as a premium brand.

So when Apple resorts to this penny pinching exercise in order to maintain there profit margins people just feel like they're being ripped off to some small extent.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: robotica, TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ and Basic75
Leon Ze Professional said:
Totally agree with you Apple Robert. I think what irritates most people about this practice is that Apple is viewed as a premium brand.

So when Apple resorts to this penny pinching exercise in order to maintain there profit margins people just feel like they're being ripped off to some small extent.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. I certainly understand the sentiment seen by many here. Apple likes their fat margins. The single NAND could be a combination of supply and Apple margin. If not, I think non MR nerds will still be thrilled. The best thing people looking for a new Mac on release is stay way from reading MR over and over. lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: racoop, russell_314, Analog Kid and 1 other person
ZipZilla said:
So from what I am reading and seeing from YouTubers, it seems the 256GB and 512GB SSD's are slower and to be avoided. That leaves me thinking of buying:

M2 Mini 16GB/1TB - $1199

M2 Mini Pro 32GB/1TB $1899

(I know the Studio is $100 more and is an option, but is back to 512GB)

What is everybody doing?
Click to expand...
Considering getting the M2 Pro 12/19 cores with 16/1 Tb. Mostly concerned with sustaining high frame rates playing WoW, hoping the cooling system is adequate!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ConvertedToMac
ShufromChina said:
I got the M2 Pro base model, which is 16GB/512GB. Read/write is at around 3000mb/s. I know it's still much slower than the previous-gen 512GB machines that had 4 NAND chips, but this current speed still more than suffices for my need.
Click to expand...

3gb/s is crazy fast, and definitely not what would be considered slow, I think people should visualize that even the base $500 m2 mac mini is faster in storage speed than the top-of-the-line still-sold Mac Pro's. To me this has been blow out of proportion full stop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ConvertedToMac, racoop, Luap and 2 others
Leon Ze Professional said:
Totally agree with you Apple Robert. I think what irritates most people about this practice is that Apple is viewed as a premium brand.

So when Apple resorts to this penny pinching exercise in order to maintain there profit margins people just feel like they're being ripped off to some small extent.
Click to expand...

I think people are primed to get irritated by the media they’re consuming giving them bad information. That MaxTech video last year was a freaking travesty of science and engineering, yet it framed the conversation and still is.

Let’s start by asking why people think they need that much bandwidth to storage on such small drives. I don’t think they really know, but they’ve been made to believe that it isn’t something extravagant, it’s something they deserve, yet Apple is withholding it out of greed.

And there’s a whole bunch of often self contradictory arguments made— it’s an effort to upsell, but they don’t actually advertise the speeds; they’re trying to increase profits, but they’ve drastically cut the price of this Mini in the face of 8% annual inflation; premium brand; it's not that they did it, it's the lack of transparency; etc, etc.

People talk about it like it's a personal insult-- it's a product design decision.

Truth is, only a handful of people know how the design came to be but I think Apple decided how much storage they wanted to support and put in the chips to do it. When they needed more than one chip for some configurations, they supported it with a raid controller. New system, new capacity decisions. They aren't making Machiavellian decisions, they had a 128GB model of the M1, they don't of the M2. I'd guess the engineering team looked at the tradeoff, came to the same conclusion most of the saner voices around here have (it's a 256GB drive, it'll barely get enough traffic to notice the bandwidth difference) and moved on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ConvertedToMac, uller6, TechnoMonk and 5 others
ShufromChina said:
I got the M2 Pro base model, which is 16GB/512GB. Read/write is at around 3000mb/s. I know it's still much slower than the previous-gen 512GB machines that had 4 NAND chips, but this current speed still more than suffices for my need.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this info! Just what I have searching for. 512GB speeds is what I am considering.

Just for reference, what were the speeds of the 512GB model in the previous generation?
 
Here are the updated SSD speeds for Mac Mini M2, Mac Mini M2 Pro, and 14" MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max:

Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 256GB SSD is about 1,500 MB/s. (1 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 1TB is about 3,000 MB/s. (Not sure about nand chips/sizes)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (This needs to be confirmed.)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (1 X 512GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (2 X 512GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (1 X 512GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (2 X 512GB SSD nand chip)

Note: The 16" MacBook Pro models with 512GB should also be limited to 3,000 MB/s. The Mac Mini M2 (Non Pro) model appears to have a PCI controller limitation that limits the 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB SSD models to 3,000 MB/s.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: ConvertedToMac, Yebubbleman, Cham2000 and 3 others
Here is a well balanced review of the Mac Mini M2 (Non Pro) 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD $599 model, including mention of the SSD speed issue:

 
doolar said:
I would recommend going with the storage you actually need, not what I or anybody else suggests on a forum. On my work M1 Air I have 90Gb used after almost two years. I should’ve gone for the 256 but went 512.

It all depends on what you use it for. Recommend people to “going 1 Tb no matter the situation” is actually terrible advice. Just my 5 cents.
Click to expand...
Agreed! Thanks for the correction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: doolar
So the 512gb base Mini is good at 3k MB/s? (not 6k MB/s, but wtf).

Is this correct? Cuz I can get a base Mini 24gb 512GB for around $1.2k, which is good for a Mac.

Sorry if these questions are idiotic.
 
Last edited:
Macalway said:
So the 512gb base Mini is good at 3k B/s? (not 6k B/s, but wtf).

Is this correct? Cuz I can get a base Mini 24gb 512GB for around $1.2k, which is good for a Mac.

Sorry if these questions are idiotic.
Click to expand...
Yes. Not once are you ever likely to notice it. It’s plenty fast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Luap
Here are the latest updated SSD speeds for Mac Mini M2, Mac Mini M2 Pro, and 14" MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max:

Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 256GB SSD is about 1,500 MB/s. (1 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 1TB is about 3,000 MB/s. (Not sure about nand chips/sizes)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (This needs to be confirmed.)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 X 256GB SSD nand chip)

Note: The 16" MacBook Pro models with 512GB also appear to be limited to 3,000 MB/s. The Mac Mini M2 (Non Pro) model appears to be limited on the 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB SSD models to 3,000 MB/s.

Interesting New Video by Max Tech "M2 Pro Slow SSD's a BIG Problem? Real-World Apps Tested!", where they do more extensive testing on the Mac M2 Chips SSD issue:

 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Yebubbleman, Cham2000 and gnohz
now i see it said:
It’s doubtful anyone would notice the difference in speed between the smaller SSD & bigger ones. Yeah - drive benchmarks will show it… but will an actual person using the computer normally really notice anything significant?
Doubtful.
Click to expand...
Here are some stats with the 512GB SSD model of the 16" M2 Pro MacBook Pro ($2500)
With no chrome tabs open in the background, the new M2 Pro was 13% faster to export 500 RAW photos in Lightroom Classic.

After opening 15 Chrome tabs and re-running the test again, the M1 Pro was now 17% faster than the new M2 Pro.
That's because photo editing uses a LOT of RAM and both systems had to dip into the SSDs for swap memory.
The new M2 Pro model's SSDs are slower, so the performance gets slowed down.

-Vadim from the Max Tech YouTube channel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ConvertedToMac and AAPLGeek
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)

What does that mean to basic user like me swapping files between drives 3000mbs per second?. Or download a file 3000mbs per second I’m confused excuse my lack of understanding please.
 
adamcarvell said:
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)

What does that mean to basic user like me swapping files between drives 3000mbs per second?. Or download a file 3000mbs per second I’m confused excuse my lack of understanding please.
Click to expand...
Is it going to matter to you whether copying a 10 GB file takes 1.7 seconds or 3.3 seconds? How often are you moving files that size or bigger?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Apple_Robert
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back