How many watts and amps?

[ivnj]

Mac mini power consumption and thermal output (BTU) information - Apple Support

Learn about the power consumption and thermal output of Mac mini computers.

support.apple.com

This says 65w max

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs

support.apple.com

And this says 155w continuous watts power.

So which is it? How many watts does base M4 mini use? And how many amps is that?

 

[MacCheetah3]

How many watts does base M4 mini use?

As noted in the document you linked, 4 to 65 watts. Also noted, a maxed out 2024 Mac mini consumes 5 to 140 watts.

And this says 155w continuous watts power.

That’s likely the PSU rating. The extra 15w is seemingly headroom in regard to powering peripherals. I can tell you from experience, having up to four USB4/3 storage drives connected simultaneously, the Mac will certainly drop connection to peripherals if you push too much against those power limits.

Related:

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forums.macrumors.com

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forums.macrumors.com

 

[ivnj]

Ok thanks

 

[ivnj]

Ok is that 65 w input or output.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Ok is that 65 w input or output.

(Up to) 65 W input (i.e., power consumption/draw) — according to Apple’s test, at least. I don’t have any kind of watt meter, therefore, I can’t test or validate those claims. However, using benchmarks and built-in power reporting tools, the M4 Pro (i.e., CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine; not including RAM, NAND/SSD, WiFi, BT, fan, etc) never consumes more than 40 W.

 

[ivnj]

Ok thanks.

 

[Greybeard2017]

As noted in the document you linked, 5 to 65 watts. Also noted, a maxed out 2024 Mac mini consumes 5 to 140 watts.

That’s likely the PSU rating. The extra 15w is seemingly headroom in regard to powering peripherals. I can tell you from experience, having up to four USB4/3 storage drives connected simultaneously, the Mac will certainly drop connection to peripherals if you push too much against those power limits.

According to a document on one of the original links the power supply efficiency is around 90% which might explain the difference between 140 and 155 (or it might just be a coincidence).

 

[dazey]

I run my modified m4 from a 45w usb-c power supply. The only way I can get it to overload is with a lot of peripheral load. I use two usb-c monitors, in normal use this is fine but if I ramp them to max brightness and run geekbench it will brown out. The m4 with no peripherals can’t get close to 65w (or 45w for that matter)
It has a much higher rated psu partly as it’s the same psu used in the m4 pro(and also for max load on all the usb-c ports)

 

[Mrbobb]

This says 65w max

And this says 155w continuous watts power.

So which is it?

The first number is for the M4 chip only.
The second number is for the whole box.

 

[dazey]

I do run an app called Power Monitor. Cant verify its accuracy but my general running is 2-4W, stepping up to 14 with USB-C screens, you can see the steps where one or two screens are attached which lifts the baseline. Not seen over 39W recently

 

[ivnj]

Thanks for all the great replys.

 

[carylee2002]

It's not so much the watts, but the amps and busses that is important. IE 2018 Intel Mac Mini with 4 thunderbolt 3 ports actually has only two busses to share into 4 ports. So it is the order in which you put your peripherals thats important. For example I have in port 1 (closest to ethernet) is my 650w egpu, port two I have Elgato Stream deck, nothing on port 3 and port 4 has my Elgato Camlink 4k to my Fuji X-T2 for my camera. The next two usb's goes to my KM switcher to run one keyboard and mouse between to computers and the other usb goes to my Elgato HD60+, that is connected to my other gaming pc. So I am running a lot of power and it still runs at about 89C fully loaded OBS output at 60fps@1080, on a 2pc streaming setup, to another 2018 Mac Mini with a dedicated epgu rx 6700xt. So I wouldn't worry about wattage. It's just understanding where to plug in the correct order to not be a problem. Needless to say the Intel mac were pretty beefy and using boot camp and egpu's take the load off the cpu. This is both on ethernet at a modest 5gb/sec output. Plus running IP Vanish VPN in the background. You're figures of 65w is about 6amps and the 155w is about 15 amps, most modern homes runs at about 20 amps from the wall, before you pop a fuse. You're power supply (PSU) rating should be a lot higher. I would say at least 650w internal. so round it up about 62 amps. Maybe someone here has the actual schematics to know what is the power supply. But the 155w is for power that you need from the wall, This is why a real good power conditioner is good to have and not a cheap $15 power strip that is just for looks. Especially if you live in a area with brownouts or multiple dwellings, I use tripplite and furman myself, there are other budget brands, I don't use them.

 

[fricotin]

Watts = amps X volts.

 

[MacCheetah3]

So, I decided to purchase a watt meter. Here are some quick tested, rounded figures:

• idle: ~25 to 30 watts
• Cinebench 2024 (GPU render): ~41 to 78 watts
• Cinebench 2024 (Single CPU): ~26 to 36 watts
• Cinebench 2024 (Multi CPU): ~87 to 92 watts
— adding internal SSD benchmark: ~80 to 95 watts
• Endurance (12 cores / ~90% load): ~86 to 88 watts
• Endurance (16 cores / 100% load): ~88 to 92 watts

* Reminder: This is an M4 Pro Mac mini with four external SSDs connected.

(Up to) 65 W input (i.e., power consumption/draw) — according to Apple’s test, at least. I don’t have any kind of watt meter, therefore, I can’t test or validate those claims. However, using benchmarks and built-in power reporting tools, the M4 Pro (i.e., CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine; not including RAM, NAND/SSD, WiFi, BT, fan, etc) never consumes more than 40 W.

How many watts does base M4 mini use? And how many amps is that?

Seeing as I can’t even push my M4 Pro mini to 100W of power consumption, I’m guessing @dazey is not far off. Basically, I assume no more than 55W. And...

Watts = amps X volts.

Or...

amps = watts ÷ volts

~0.445A = 55W ÷ 123.5V