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Justify M4 Pro Mac mini over M4 Purely for Future Proofing?

I have been following this topic of discussion in this and other threads. I went with M4 Pro base config and here's why.

I have been editing 4k from drone, dabbling in Logic and virtual instruments, and getting it all done just fine currently on my M2 Air 8GB. HOWEVER I have branched into coding that leads me to run virtual machines...like Windows 11. While keeping multiple VNC connections open. I'm seeing a severe penalty on my memory situation. And forget using Apple Intelligence features unless you close everything else.

Oh and I do some general gaming, and I wanted some extra GPU oomph.

I think I could get by just fine on M4 with a jump to 24GB ram, but it was the virtual machines and concurrent multitasking and gaming that made me splurge.

I hope whatever you choose you're happy. I'm practically salivating waiting on mine to arrive Friday if Best Buy can pull off its usual magic.
 
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PeteBurgh said:
I feel that often 'future-proofing' is basically just a pretext to spend more money than you need to.

Bearing in mind that even a base model MacBook Air can, for instance, edit 4K video perfectly capably, is it really that likely that you'll suddenly be given a task in the next few years that only be done on an M4 Pro, not a M4? The tasks you mention doing now can be comfortably accomplished on any current Mac.

A better form of 'future-proofing' might be to save some money on this purchase, and put it aside in a savings account for a new machine in 3-6 years. At this point, you'll know what you're actual needs are, and won't have to guess.

That being said, for many on this forum (myself included) powerful computers are a hobby and something to enjoy in their own right. If having a beefy computer brings you joy, go for it! It's fine to spend your money on your hobbies and be honest with yourself about the purpose of doing so.
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When it was released, I bought the M2 MacBook Air and max-ed it out at 16G.
Now Apple has upped the minimum Mac memory to 16G saying it's needed for AI and Apple Intelligence.

I always future proof by buying more memory than I need today because I always keep my machines for the seven or more years Apple supports them.

See my Sig for the Mac Mini I have coming end of this week.
That's going from a 2017 iMac 27" Intel i7 with 40G Ram and 1TB SSD.

I find that this iMac, for my uses today, has both Ram and SSD that are now not enough.
When I bought it a good friend asked me why I needed so much!?

It's not like Mac's are upgradable is it?
 
Seoras said:
When it was released, I bought the M2 MacBook Air and max-ed it out at 16G.
Now Apple has upped the minimum Mac memory to 16G saying it's needed for AI and Apple Intelligence.

I always future proof by buying more memory than I need today because I always keep my machines for the seven or more years Apple supports them.

See my Sig for the Mac Mini I have coming end of this week.
That's going from a 2017 iMac 27" Intel i7 with 40G Ram and 1TB SSD.

I find that this iMac, for my uses today, has both Ram and SSD that are now not enough.
When I bought it a good friend asked me why I needed so much!?

It's not like Mac's are upgradable is it?
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If you need the extra power by all means. Get what you need. But the OP said he doesn't need the extra power he just wants to "future proof' his machine. That is not the same as needing the extra power.

Future proofing is foolish at best, a waste at worst. The basic M4 is powerfull enough for most users. Are you going to see a difference in your daily tasks with a Geekbench score of 15500 vs 19000? Probably not. GPU is better but that is important only if you game or run engineering models.

In day to day tasks there will virtually be zero difference using the machine on a daily basis. It might make a difference is sustained workloads. Even then not much.

I went with a M4/512 because I upgrade often and insured me of having the latest Mini with little cost attached to it. In two years from now or when they are on the M6 you will still be rocking your M4 and the M6 will outperform your machine in everyday. So is that $600 spent worth it? Probably not.

I can trade in my old Mac mini for 350-385 and spend $700 on a new M6 mini. Out of pocket costs are $300-350 every two years since I get my Macs with a discount. That is about the same amount of money you spent on your M4 pro if you include the total price of the machine and the cost of upgrading in two years time.

Only difference is that is 2-3 years you will still have that same M4 pro when I will be on a new M6 model.
 
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Che Castro said:
When I got the 2012 i5 Mac mini in 2012 , years later I always regretted not getting the i7 for a few hundred more
So this time I went with the pro
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Back then, it made a bit of sense if it was from 2 cores to 4.

But with the M4 to Pro, not worth for the cores. Maybe for TB5.
AppliedMicro said:
i5 was a dual-core CPU though, compared to the quad-core i7s.
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Assuming it wasn’t just enabling hyperthreading, which was a “software” upsell on intel part.
 
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iamthedudeman said:
If you need the extra power by all means. Get what you need. But the OP said he doesn't need the extra power he just wants to "future proof' his machine. That is not the same as needing the extra power.

Future proofing is foolish at best, a waste at worst. The basic M4 is powerfull enough for most users. Are you going to see a difference in your daily tasks with a Geekbench score of 15500 vs 19000? Probably not. GPU is better but that is important only if you game or run engineering models.

In day to day tasks there will virtually be zero difference using the machine on a daily basis. It might make a difference is sustained workloads. Even then not much.

I went with a M4/512 because I upgrade often and insured me of having the latest Mini with little cost attached to it. In two years from now or when they are on the M6 you will still be rocking your M4 and the M6 will outperform your machine in everyday. So is that $600 spent worth it? Probably not.

I can trade in my old Mac mini for 350-385 and spend $700 on a new M6 mini. Out of pocket costs are $300-350 every two years since I get my Macs with a discount. That is about the same amount of money you spent on your M4 pro if you include the total price of the machine and the cost of upgrading in two years time.

Only difference is that is 2-3 years you will still have that same M4 pro when I will be on a new M6 model.
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Like minds.

I have the same config as you and agree with every single word you said.

And trust me i am tempted as hell to get the base m4 pro model even though i know it will do nothing for me in the next 3 years before i upgrade again.

I always get the pro models, like the phones, the tablets, so its difficult to not do so here.

I need to send a PSA though. Features are always more important than raw power, and the best way to get features is to upgrade more often over time than to overbuy on the current gen.
 
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Seoras said:
When it was released, I bought the M2 MacBook Air and max-ed it out at 16G.
Now Apple has upped the minimum Mac memory to 16G saying it's needed for AI and Apple Intelligence.

I always future proof by buying more memory than I need today because I always keep my machines for the seven or more years Apple supports them.

See my Sig for the Mac Mini I have coming end of this week.
That's going from a 2017 iMac 27" Intel i7 with 40G Ram and 1TB SSD.

I find that this iMac, for my uses today, has both Ram and SSD that are now not enough.
When I bought it a good friend asked me why I needed so much!?

It's not like Mac's are upgradable is it?
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AFAIK, all M chip macs are compatible with apple intelligence, many of which have 8GB Ram. The only AI feature that requires 16GB of RAM is predictive coding in XCode.
 
turbineseaplane said:
I always have to chuckle a little bit and wonder what folks are really doing with their machines

...as I type this on my 2015 15" MBP that runs alongside my 2017 (original build date - GPU & SSDs upgraded since) Hackintosh
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I will be using a M4 base model editing Pro Res 422 LT 480i videos ranging from 2 hours up to 6 hours I am sure this new Mini will fly! Coming from a 13700k, 3080 10 Gb. I will test and see if I need more ram but I don’t think so….

I am switching back to Mac for hopefully faster export times and for sure power efficiency!
 
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turbineseaplane said:
I always have to chuckle a little bit and wonder what folks are really doing with their machines

...as I type this on my 2015 15" MBP that runs alongside my 2017 (original build date - GPU & SSDs upgraded since) Hackintosh
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I love Hackintosh and I keep some really old MacBooks (2007 MacBook4,1 and a 2012 MacBook Air) going using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Do you use something similar?
 
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UltimateSyn said:
I'm worried that Apple will release a 5K 120Hz Studio Display in the next couple of years that's only fully supported by Thunderbolt 5
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Today’s rumour is that it’ll only be 90Hz.
Either way, buying such display will be a choice, not an obligation.

I also don‘t see why Thunderbolt 5 would be required, given that the current non-Pro M4 model supports „…and one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over Thunderbolt or HDMI“

Even Apple’s 6K Pro XDR display only requires Thunderbolt 3 to work with any Apple Silicon Mac (at up to 60Hz).
 
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I'd just take care of current needs, the future proof may never come when you will be ready to choose your next Mac.
 
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Seoras said:
When it was released, I bought the M2 MacBook Air and max-ed it out at 16G.
Now Apple has upped the minimum Mac memory to 16G saying it's needed for AI and Apple Intelligence.

I always future proof by buying more memory than I need today because I always keep my machines for the seven or more years Apple supports them.

See my Sig for the Mac Mini I have coming end of this week.
That's going from a 2017 iMac 27" Intel i7 with 40G Ram and 1TB SSD.

I find that this iMac, for my uses today, has both Ram and SSD that are now not enough.
When I bought it a good friend asked me why I needed so much!?

It's not like Mac's are upgradable is it?
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate every circumstance is different, and speccing up machines can make sense if you prefer to keep your computer for a long time. I put 64GB in my Intel Mac Mini and don’t regret it - though that was third party RAM installed myself for a fraction of the cost!

I definitely think upgrading an M2 Air to 16GB was a good decision (even at the time, not just for Apple Intelligence).

However, I think the calculation for the new Mac Minis and MacBook Pros is more complicated - here ‘maxing out’ the RAM is not just a question or a going up one notch for ~$150-200. It can involve doubling or even tripling the cost of the machine (partly because of the extreme markups, and partly because the highest RAM tiers need the more expensive CPUs). Here, a think a lower or mid-tier configuration with an intention of trading in/upgrading more frequently will make sense for a lot of people.

I hope you love your new Mini!
 
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waloshin said:
Well then upgrade in a few years because I guarantee you will upgrade to the latest Mini then. You’ll want a new mini when Apple brings out a 5K 120 display because you will feel your M4 Pro is not good enough to drive it…
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The bandwidth on Thunderbolt 3 is JUST enough for 5K @ 120hz when DSC is used. You would theoretically be able to handle two 5K @ 120hz monitors per Thunderbolt 5 port.

The main near-term benefit of TB5 for desktops is SSDs that are as fast as the internal SSDs. There are already a couple TB5 drives available to buy.

The long-term benefit is that TB3/TB4/USB4 is based on x4-PCIe-3.0(32 Gbit/s) where TB5 is based on x4-PCIe-4(64 Gbit/s). So TB5 is fast enough to fully support modern GPUs and TPUs/NPUs. Ampere ARM dev machines already support a handful of beefy Nvidia Geforce cards and that work could likely be used to make them work on Macs. https://www.ipi.wiki/pages/ava-docs?page=NVIDIA_cards.html
 
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Gabebear said:
The main near-term benefit of TB5 for desktops is SSDs that are as fast as the internal SSDs. There are already a couple TB5 drives available to buy.

The long-term benefit is that TB3/TB4/USB4 is based on x4-PCIe-3.0(32 Gbit/s) where TB5 is based on x4-PCIe-4(64 Gbit/s). So TB5 is fast enough to fully support modern GPUs and TPUs/NPUs. Ampere ARM dev machines already support a handful of beefy Nvidia Geforce cards and that work could likely be used to make them work on Macs. https://www.ipi.wiki/pages/ava-docs?page=NVIDIA_cards.html
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This is 100% what pushed me over the edge to M4 pro—thunderbolt 5 and working with really large files/scratch space externally
 
Good comments all. Op here.

I am leaning m4. I will say that I have a M2 15” Air that I loaded up with 24gb ram and 1tb storage and I like how I never worry about slowdown or running out of storage. So if anything, I would consider the 24gb ram and at minimum 512gb SSD. Can someone tell me how I can prevent my iMessages from caching everything to the Mac though? Bc it showed 140gb on my m2 pro Mac mini SSD just from that lol. If I can truly keep local storage to a minimum (I use iCloud files for everything), then maybe 512gb is fine? I just don’t know how to optimize it so it keeps stuff in cloud and not loading up Mac SSD.
 
sidgriffey said:
I am not into heavy video or photo editing. I do, however, wonder if it makes sense to go m4 pro mini based on future proofing. If I am set on getting 24gb of ram either way (do a lot of research and zoom conferencing and such so the multitasking piece), is it worth it to go pro or stay with standard M4?
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why spend $1200 future proofing a computer that costs $600?

If you NEED the power right now then get the more expensive computer.
 
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The other thing to say, is that Apple doesn’t base their OS minimum requirements on CPU, RAM, GPU anymore. It’s based on the product generation. Don’t quote me on this but the M4 and M4 Pro will probably lose support for Mac OS in the same year.
 
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Phonzoxd said:
I always find that funny, let me future proof my needs right now by basically buying the computer twice, so i dont need to buy again later.
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There is a difference between future proofing and workload needs.

When people say future proofing, they are buying way more than what they need and might need.

Workloads needs is based in knowing what you currently have and need and how you got there.

Lets say that you buy the base Mini for 600 and in maybe 3 years, you start noticing slowdowns, etc. Chances are that the Mini from 3 years from now will be twice or so as fast and still cost 600 or maybe 700.

That is a smart purchase.

Or using the car analogy, its like buying a gigantic truck because you might use it before you need to buy a new one.

It depends on your workloads.
 
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