Bought M4 Pro mini as stop-gap until M4 Max Studio. Now keeping it.

[ISignedUpToAskThis]

So I'd been looking to buy a Studio with M4 Max for a while, and like most was expecting it to launch in June/July this year. I had to buy a machine so bought an M4 Pro mini in January as a stop-gap, originally planning to sell it around June to go towards the Studio.

But I've been so impressed with the performance of the M4 Pro, I'm not going to bother, this more than meets my needs.

Spec I have: M4 Pro (14-core CPU, 20-core GPU), 24GB memory, 1TB SSD.

It flies through 4K in Premiere Pro, whilst having a bunch of other apps open, browser windows open etc. I haven't experienced anything yet that it hasn't handled easily.

Will be keeping this for a long time, or until my demands change.

Anyone else similar?

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

Yeah, same here. For my type of work usually I had to go for top tier intel Mac config. Recently I sold my Mac Pro 7.1 16 core and bought on sale MM M4 Pro 64gb RAM 1TB and it is amazing.
I could have waited for Mac Studio but nowadays my workflow is rather short bursts than long brutal heavy processing so I’m totally happy with Mac mini.
It’s 3x faster than MP7.1, so small i could stash it in my pocket and silent.
It is amazing and is sufficient for my needs.
The Mac Studio would be overkill and is so much bigger.
It is nice that technology changed so much that I’m able to better pinpoint the config I need.

 

[whitby]

Same for me. I had a 2020 i9 iMac with 64GB RAM and 4 TB SSD and had decided to keep it until a Mac Studio came out with an M4 Max. However my iMac started to show some issues (again), so I ended up purchasing a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD. I have an external 4TB Thunderbolt 5 SSD (which is as fast as the internal SSD) and added the Apple Studio display. I also have an LG 5K Ultrafine display (which has caused issues which I will probably go into in another post if anyone is interested) but is now also attached to my MM.

I had, like the OP, intended to trade the Mini in later this year and get a Studio if and when it came out. But this new setup has surpassed my expectations by a long way and I now see no need to move to the Studio even with the M4 Max. It waltzes through my Lightroom, Logic Pro and other applications with surprising ease and only once have I heard the fan become audible. Amazing. I love it. Difficult to appreciate this little power house until you use it. I think I am set for a few years now.

 

[tomstone74]

Same here with my MM M4 Pro 14/20/64G/2TB. 64GB RAM are important to me. M4 Studio would force me to an upgrade in the CPU/GPU area as well to get the 64GB RAM. In total, the Studio would be ~ 800 EUR more expensive, with the GPU departement being completely overkill for me. Kinda anticipated something like that, thus haven't waited for a rumored M4 Studio but went with a MM back then. Also the smaller form factor is a big plus for me and my contraint space on desk/shelf, where this tiny little box is located. The MM is a great machine.

 

[Ifti]

I was close to purchasing a MM M4 Pro but wasn't in a desperate need so decided to wait a while.
To be fair, while the MM M4 Pro would be more then enough for my requirements, I wanted the extra ports, especially the SD Card slot, and I knew deep down I would always have wanted the Studio over the MM, so am glad I waited. Will be picking up a M4 Max Studio instead, with 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD. And as I'm coming from a laptop solution and moving to desktop, I'll pick up the Studio Display too

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

I just bought mine, to be specific on the day they announced new Mac Studio, so it was very well thought decision.
I was a tempted to cancel the order and wait for the Mac Studio but I didn't do it.
I was scared about overheating and loud fans but for my work I do nowadays it is completely silent.
I tested some blender scenes, some 3d renders, working in after effects on 2d animations, rendering 2d animations, still silent and very efficient.
My thoughts was that if I want something bigger size than it need to be parts replacement ready.
New Mac Mini is so tiny and mobile that I'm alright that it isn't upgradable.
I'm planning to take it with me on longer journeys in backpack.

 

[bbbobbb]

Ok, same here, 48GB RAM M4 Pro, 1TB. Never seen it slow down and I am not sure I need (want?) to upgrade to a Mac Studio. I did by an OWC hub to get some older USB interfaces and whatnot.

Here's the weird part, when I went in to offer up the M4 mini as a trade-in it does not exist yet in the system. Even Apple does not want me to upgrade. ;-)

 

[MikePx96]

I bought my mini M4 Pro 12/16 48GB in November, replacing my ancient 2015 HP Desktop. All the rumors said that the Studio wouldn't be out until June so when it got announced in March, I definitely felt a little bit annoyed that I could've waited and got a better base M4 Max machine for only like $100 more. Of course, to get the same 48GB of RAM, I'd have to spend an extra $500 which I really don't want to do.

So far, the mini does everything I need it to and it's quiet 90% of the time except when I'm really pushing it with heavy video projects. The only thing I really miss are the extra ports built in on the Studio & better cooling.

If I decide that I need the Studio instead, I might try to sell the mini on Swappa, and buy a Studio in a few months when the refurbished M4 Max's become available.

 

[Chip Chanko]

I also have an LG 5K Ultrafine display (which has caused issues which I will probably go into in another post if anyone is interested) but is now also attached to my MM.

I'd be interested in what your issues were/are.

 

[rulymammoth]

Same. The Mac Minis are truly spectacular. I won't need to swap this thing out for a long time.

 

[MakaiMan]

How's temperature? Any extra heat? Fans? I mean, when you put it on high demand.

 

[CanPhantom]

Another same. Was waiting impatiently for the Studio to get updated and bought a top-spec M4 Pro mini last year, thinking come summer I'd buy that M4 studio and turn the mini into a server or something.

But honestly... I love this thing, and I'm not going to switch. At least not for this generation. I see nothing from the specs or reviews that a studio is going to give me that's relevant to me, that I don't already have.

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

How's temperature? Any extra heat? Fans? I mean, when you put it on high demand.

MM M4 Pro with my workflow, 2d animation work and renders, graphic design and small 3D renders benchmarks like blender classroom, cinebench r23 and 24 it is totally silent all the time in automatic mode. While 2d/3d renders the cpu and gpu heats up and hovers around 90-100c.
The fans goes from default 1000rpm to around 1500rpm.
After the 2-5minutes of renders it goes to base 40c fast, like in couple seconds.
I have it for 1 week and I haven’t heard fans yet.
But I can imagine pushing it further and longer will make it louder but with my current workflow it won’t probably happen any time soon.
For games and heavy 3D I have dedicated pc windows machine.

EDIT: Cinebench r24 gpu test is silent for whole 10 minutes, but the cpu multicore is too much and the fans runs like crazy

 

[whitby]

I'd be interested in what your issues were/are.

The issue revolves around the fact that the 5K LG Ultrafine monitor uses 2 DisplayPort channels since it only supports DisplayPort 1.2 and was designed to work with TB 3 initially which cannot support 5K over a single DisplayPort channel.

Apple chose to implement Thunderbolt 5 with only 2 DisplayPort channels (albeit version 2.1) per TB 5 port, unlike Windows that supports 3. Thus you can only connect one LG display to any TB 5 port on Apple devices. Also of note is that the LG monitor does not support display stream compression (DSC) so requires a full 27.72 Gb/s. The Apple Studio monitor only requires a single DisplayPort channel and uses DSC so requires only 9.24 Gb/s. Hence you can connect 2 Apple Studio monitors to a single TB 5 port on an Apple TB 5 port but only 1 5K LG Ultrafine monitor to a single Apple TB 5 port. And when you connect a LG 5K monitor is uses more bandwidth than even 2 x Apple Studio monitors!

Something to bear in mind when using older 5K displays.

 

[cjsuk]

I bought an M4 Pro mini. It felt the same as my M1 MBP for my workflow and tasks so I took it back and got the base M4 (with 512Gb disk). I can't tell the difference between any of them. I dislike laptops so wanted a desktop.

The heaviest thing I do is Lightroom though.

 

[SilverSpooned]

I don't need any high end stuff so I got the very base model. All I need is just to browse the internet.

 

[G5isAlive]

It flies through 4K in Premiere Pro, whilst having a bunch of other apps open, browser windows open etc. I haven't experienced anything yet that it hasn't handled easily.

Will be keeping this for a long time, or until my demands change.

Anyone else similar?

Similar but not the same. I brought the mini 4 pro... and I AM impressed with it. 95% of what I throw at it, it runs through. Photoshop, Lightroom, does just fine. I thought I could retire my Mac Studio M1 Ultra.

And then I tried to do some video enhancing with the Mini 4pro (Topaz VideoAI.... and it bogged down to almost a grinding halt. I started getting memory errors, and it was far slower WITH THAT SOFTWARE than my M1 Ultra. If you aren't familiar with Topaz VideoAI, it eats graphic cores for breakfast and is a memory hog. I can't say why my M4Pro bogs down, it 'only' has 24 gb Ram, but it also 'only' has 16 graphic cores (versus my M1 which as 64 gb Ram and 48 cores). Maybe it's a combination of both. Shrugs. And maybe its only an issue with Topaz Video AI, (which in both cases revs up the fans to max from the heat), but yes the Mini 4 Pro isn't up to everything I do.

The final nail in that conversation for me, is I got the new Mac Studio M3Ultra (base 96 gm Ram, 60 graphic cores) for a really good price from Microcenter, and it kills Topaz VideoAI. I get frame rates that are literally 10x faster and makes Video AI usable.

So all the reviewers out there saying the M3Ultra is really niche, I agree. I just happen to have a use case that fills that niche. Is it good value? Again the mini 4 pro is great value and for 95% of what I do I cant tell the difference. But I suspect to make it usable with Video AI I would have to max out the memory in M4 pro, and that would have been an extra $600. Anyway, I am keeping both as I have two offices. I will just restrict my Video AI work to one office.

 

[tizeye]

Good to read this tread as debating between the mini pro and the new studio as similarly equipped (retained ooriginal 32 gb ram in Studio, but upped the mini to 48 gb and upped both to 1 TB SSD), after taxes was only a $192 price difference. Like most posts above, appears the mini will more than meet my needs as a photographer. It will also complete my dumping of Windows that having major problems with. No more "on the wrong computer" for the file I want to access or Windows couldn't read if attached the Apple files external hard drive. The external hard drive resolves that problem, simply attached to either the MBP or Mini as needed.

 

[magbarn]

I got my M4 mini’s base model for LRC/PS usage as a stopgap for the then rumored M4 Max Studio. I still do plan on getting the studio, but only after 3rd parties start making SSD upgrades like they do for the M4 mini. 2TB internal storage for around $200 is just too good to pass up.

 

[ISignedUpToAskThis]

How's temperature? Any extra heat? Fans? I mean, when you put it on high demand.

Very occasionally under high demand the fan will start up but it's very quiet. Only very slightly warm, never hot.

I "only" have 24GB memory too (compared to others in this thread) and editing/rendering 4K and have multiple other things running it never maxes out on memory or uses swap memory. Not once. Most I've seen it is around 19GB/24GB.

 

[0186279]

I bought an M4 Pro mini. It felt the same as my M1 MBP for my workflow and tasks so I took it back and got the base M4 (with 512Gb disk). I can't tell the difference between any of them. I dislike laptops so wanted a desktop.

The heaviest thing I do is Lightroom though.

What don’t you like about laptops?

 

[cjsuk]

What don’t you like about laptops?

Quite a few things:

• Difficult to leave things dangling off them all the time
• The first thing I kill on any computer is usually the keyboard (wears out) which is a really expensive problem on macbooks.
• Has a consumable part (battery) which is a pain to replace and is quite hazardous.
• Generally slightly compromised thermals which makes long workloads irritating to the hands unless it's winter.
• Working position is terrible - neck problems. I don't want to encourage myself to sit somewhere "comfortable" and find it's not. I've got a very nice desk and chair which eliminate that issue.
• Expensive thing to break if you're out and about.
• Screen is tiny. Much prefer working on Studio Display.

Also for what I do, it's better I have something to write on than type on when I'm out, so the iPad Pro fits the portable niche more. Also easier to lug around and use on planes. I don't really need a laptop then so I've got an M4 mini and Studio Display at home.

I will note that I do have an M1 Pro MBP but it's a backup machine really only. When I was using it, it was used as a desktop. When the AppleCare ran out there wasn't much point in buying another MBP which was going to sit closed all day and take up a lot more desk space. So I got the M4 mini.

 

[Norbert Mikołajczyk]

Quite a few things:

• Difficult to leave things dangling off them all the time
• The first thing I kill on any computer is usually the keyboard (wears out) which is a really expensive problem on macbooks.
• Has a consumable part (battery) which is a pain to replace and is quite hazardous.
• Generally slightly compromised thermals which makes long workloads irritating to the hands unless it's winter.
• Working position is terrible - neck problems. I don't want to encourage myself to sit somewhere "comfortable" and find it's not. I've got a very nice desk and chair which eliminate that issue.
• Expensive thing to break if you're out and about.
• Screen is tiny. Much prefer working on Studio Display.

Also for what I do, it's better I have something to write on than type on when I'm out, so the iPad Pro fits the portable niche more. Also easier to lug around and use on planes. I don't really need a laptop then so I've got an M4 mini and Studio Display at home.

I will note that I do have an M1 Pro MBP but it's a backup machine really only. When I was using it, it was used as a desktop. When the AppleCare ran out there wasn't much point in buying another MBP which was going to sit closed all day and take up a lot more desk space. So I got the M4 mini.

Same decisions here. I sold macintel mbp and bought Mini M4 Pro. I also have iPad Pro. Mini is so powerful and small so I can “move” my desk into backpack and work from another location if needed.