Okay so... this requires a detailed explanation, because during the course of this weeks using both systems, an M4 and an M4 Pro, I've realized several facts that have changed my mind entirely. So this reply will work as a general update to the thread.
I've been really captivated by the monstrous raw power of the M4 Pro, both thanks to the all the reviews I've read and watched, as well as for my own benchmarks. A machine with a CPU performance of an M2 Ultra and a GPU performance of an M1 Max, on such a small and portable form factor, being smaller than an older Mac mini and at half the weight? Who wouldn't be captivated by it? I've been absolutely DELIGHTED. Performing 3D tests or playing AAA games at ultra settings and 60fps in the 4K native resolution of my new screen (yeah, I've used this jump from my old 2014 Mac mini to the new M4 Mac mini to replace my loyal and absolutely reliable 2008 Dell 24" WTF 2408 screen for a new, crisp 4K glossy screen @ 144Hz with VRR). Impressive. I was also considering spending more than 2 grand in a M4 Pro with 48GB of RAM and the 20GPU cores upgrade during that honeymoon, but luckily I came to my senses...
I decided then to buy a base model, an M4 with 256GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, and despite the fact that for my multitasking, the 16GB fall a bit short, and the 256GB are really close to unusable on a computer in 2025 (I need at least 1TB), this device has served it's purpose: No more and no less than showing me that I absolutely don't need the M4 Pro, and instead of spending 2.000€, I was fine spending way less on a well specced M4 Mac mini.
I started installing all the software I will use regularly, the same I had installed on the M4 Pro I bought at first, and I found it almost as fast as the M4 Pro with some differences. The first is that while the M4 Pro gets burning hot and starts blowing its fan at a really noticeable speed, generating considerably more noise than my previous Mac mini, which was dead silent, the M4 barely gets a bit warm, the fans, if they happen to -rarely- kick in, they just get a 10% speed increase, per iStat Menu info.
CPU performance:
The first task I tested was video compression/transcoding using different presets, all software based, not the hardware ones. I performed the same on both the M4 and the M4 Pro machine, using the same source file, the 4K@60fps version of the classic Big Buck Bunny file.
One using the HQ HEVC @4K preset, the M4 took 31 minutes, using all 10 CPU cores including the 6 efficiency ones. It was barely audible. Same file on the M4 Pro took 21 minutes to re-encode, just 10 less minutes, again using all 12 cores, and it became quite loud after a couple of minutes. The case was hotter, but not the hottest the M4 Pro has gotten during this days, because during demanding GPU tasks the case became really hot. Being in winter, with a relatively cold house, this had me a bit concerned, because summers here are quite warm (+35ºC).
Another Handbrake test, this time the Big Buck Bunny 4K video being "re-encoded" with the Fast 4K preset using the AV1 codec took 17 minutes to the base M4 Mac mini, with no perceivable noise and a slightly warm enclosure, whereas the M4 Pro did it in 14 minutes, again, getting hotter and louder.
This was already quite clarifying: If your tasks are CPU reliant, unless you need that multithreaded compute power, I wouldn't bother. I know some of you may be thinking "But Populus, Handbrake is not know by being well optimized for Mac", especially the new M4 chip family. And while I could agree, this test has been quite definitive in order to not to worry about the CPU performance of the regular M4, with one of the biggest jumps in single core performance of the Apple Silicon history.
I think many tasks aren't still as well optimized for 8 performance threads as they are for 4, so I'm fine with the 4 performance cores of the regular M4 which, bear with me, throttle way less than the M4 Pro Mac mini CPU cores. According to some tests, while the regular M4 throttles under sustained work down to stable 3.90GHz for p-cores and down to stable 2.80GHz for e-cores, the powerful M4 Pro throttles down to an irregular 3.40GHz for p-cores and stable 2.60GHz for the e-cores (this is without forcing the fans to run quicker and louder).
So, unless your software isn't heavily optimized to utilize all the 8 p-cores, or even all the 12 CPU cores, I don't think you will notice much difference with the M4's 10 core CPU, honestly. I'm not saying it won't be quicker, but definitely not worth for me, especially on this generation where the single core performance has been boosted so much.
GPU performance:
This is where the comparison gets tricky. Not because it is difficult to determine a clear winner (Spoiler: the M4 Pro is substantially more powerful GPU wise to nobody's surprise), but because we have to assess if the disadvantages of having so many GPU cores generating heat and noise, as well as the extra money of the M4 Pro, are worth it, especially on a device such as the Mac mini. I mean, honestly, if you really need the GPU prowess of the M4 generation but don't mind having a bigger, chunkier desktop computer on your desk, please wait a few months for the M4 Max Mac Studio. This is my humble advice. The M4 Pro sometimes seems to not be thought and designed for such heat-generating silicon, but rather for the little M4 brother. Don't get me wrong, it works very well as I'm going to detail in the following paragraph, and the copper heatsinks with double the fins make its work in keeping the M4 Pro from burning under intensive GPU+CPU tasks, but honestly, the power supply board is on the inner top of the Mini case. And the case gets really hot. I tried to place an aluminum dissipator onto it, and while it helped in keeping the Mini cooler for longer (for instance, instead of taking 5 minutes to reach maximum temperatures, it took 10 minutes), eventually it only managed to keep it one or two degrees cooler. I'm sure with proper thermal paste it could improve the cooling even further but... I didn't buy a Mac mini for this.
The most obvious test for GPU are games, so let's start with native and demanding games from the Mac App Store: Myst and Riven. Both Cyan games on their latest, remade versions (Myst 2021 and Riven 2024) and on the latest Unreal engine update. I purchased them both this holidays when they were discounted, and this is my experience with both on both machines: Both Myst and Riven run at 60fps at maximum settings on the M4 pro, as expected, even at 4K and enabling Ray Tracing on Myst (Riven doesn't have it implemented yet).
On the base M4 Mac mini the story is a bit different. Myst is a really enjoyable experience at 60fps with high settings, even with Metal FX disabled (I really don't like how it makes it look), as long as you play in 1080p and don't enable Ray Tracing. With Ray Tracing enabled, performance drops to 25-30fps and you have to lower quality quite a bit to maybe medium. As for Riven on the base M4... well, it is playable. But on the M4 Pro it is a really gorgeous experience, with 4K 60fps graphics and such impressive textures... On the base M4 you really have to tinker with Rive's settings, starting by using the 1080p resolution, or maybe a bit higher, and relying on AMD's supersampling that makes a good job. Still, don't expect to play Riven at 60fps without dropping the quality of the image/textures substantially. At 30fps it is quite fine.
Now, other games. All my Windows games running over a compatibility layer (Crossover, Heroic, Whisky) ran very well on the M4 Pro... as well as on my base M4. "
Wait, what?" Well, the performance was not quite exactly the same, obviously with the more modern AAA games such as Control (Windows version) the M4 Pro was able to run them smoothly in High settings and Ultra textures with Ray Tracing enabled, while the M4 was only able to run it with Ray tracing disabled and at 30fps... in High-Ultra settings as well. Honestly, even tho the gameplay of the Ray Traced DX12 version running on the M4 Pro looks gorgeous, what really impressed me is how a base M4 SoC is capable of running Control in High settings at 30fps. That means that lowering a bit the quality, you could get a quite enjoyable experience -but don't, Control is being released soon on the App Store, and I'm sure it will be even more optimized for this chips-.
I'm not interested in AAA gaming on a Mac mini, because I'm planning on getting a PS5 Pro at some point, or maybe waiting a few years for the PS6, so I'm only interested in the Mac mini for older, more niche PC games that run perfectly on the M4 Mac. Not only that: I did an extensive test with other contemporary games and the base M4 excels as long as you run them at 1080p resolutions, and set the macOS resolution at 1080p in Settings > Screens to not hit the GPU with the extra work of re-escaling. One example is Scorn: a smooth experience at 60fps even with high settings. More demanding games such as Metro Last Light Redux run at just 30fps but honestly, I don't like that game, I used just for the sake of benchmarking. Games like Bioshock 2 remastered, Arkane's Prey, Beyond Blue, Sable, or Sifu, run at smooth 60fps on high settings. Damn, even The Callisto Protocol runs close to 60fps at highest settings as long as you play it in 1080p. Really impressive, especially if we take into account it runs over compatibility layers based on Wine.
Other more demanding games, such as the gorgeous A Plague Tale Innocence start showing the differences between the M4 Pro's 16 core GPU and the regular M4 10 core GPU. While playing it on the M4 Pro provides you an exceptional experience, with smooth 60fps graphics set at the maximum quality (@ 4K if I remember correctly, but don't quote me on that) and all the effects enabled, on the M4 you really need to lower the resolution to 1080p, disable some effects, and the game runs at just 40-50fps. But equally enjoyable IMO.
What I was really interested to test on this M4 and M4 Pro Mac minis, was emulation of older consoles. Of course, with consoles up to PS2 there won't be any difference due to the low requirements. But today I was testing the RPCS3 PS3 emulator, and it runs smoothly on the base M4. I really wanted to test other, more complex emulators such as CEMU, Ryujinx or Xenia (Xbox 360), but the setting is too complex to put them up and running before I return the machines. I need to look for the firmwares, the keys, and it is way too complex to set them up, although if someone wants to help me via DM, I could compare both machines running those emulators.
However, something tells me that emulator's developers will narrow down the optimizations to the base models, such as the M2 or the M4 SoCs, leaving the extra performance of the Pro models to what the operating system can manage to use. Yet another reason to stick with the base M4.
Other tests I've seen online about video editing show little performance gains between the M4 and M4 Pro, although I'm pretty sure our pal
@waloshin can explain you better than me the differences between models in this regard. Basically, from what I've seen, you're perfectly capable of doing base video editing, even in 4K, with the base M4. Only when you start adding effects and stuff, you will notice the timeline to get frame drops (something that, from what I've been told, doesn't affect the final quality of the rendered video), and a moderately longer rendering time. Correct me if I'm wrong. Similarly for 3D modeling in software such as Blender, something I don't plan to do/learn in the short term. If you really do intensive 3D work anyways, will probably be interested on the Mac Studio.
RAM performance:
The base M4 Mac mini I've been testing is equipped with just 16GB of RAM, and while I haven't hit the red zone, or barely the yellow one, I haven't done RAM intensive tests on this machine to say 16GB are enough based on it. It will probably be enough for light users, but I multi-task a lot, have lots of tabs on different browsers, and want to future proof this purchase, that's why I'm not sticking to 16GB on my final machine, which, spoiler, won't be an M4 Pro Mac mini, but rather a regular M4 one.
On the M4 Pro however, I've been trying to push the boundaries of the 24GB of RAM and, while some games like RE2 bring up the RAM pressure to a considerable height, it barely hit the yellow zone. Only installing Parallels with Windows 11, which takes by default 6GB of RAM, and some Apple Arcade games open on macOS, and some browsing with tabs, and VLC playing a 4K video, and IINA playing another 4K video, was able to bring the memory to its knees hitting the yellow zone and affecting some games' performance. So now I'm not so sure I need the 32GB of RAM. Sure, in order to play with LLMs could be really useful, and if future Apple Intelligence features take more than the 2GB of RAM that currently take on macOS 15 Sequoia, and I multitask to the extent of having 3 or 4 desk spaces, each one running with different apps, and I want to virtualize other operating systems such as Windows 11 or Linux, then I think the extra 230€ of jumping from 24GB of RAM to 32GB could be worth it. Also, this is a possibility we don't have on the M4 Pro, so maybe I should take advantage of it, especially if I want to keep this machine to the end of its life (this is, the usual 7 years of macOS support plus the 2 extra years of security updates, that's 9 years in total).
TL;DR: After the hour I've spent writing this review/comparison, I'd really appreciate you taking time to read it. However, I understand it is a lot to read, so if you're in a hurry, here's my conclusion: CPU wise I've experienced small gains on the M4 Pro Mac mini compared to the base M4 Mac mini, not worth it IMO. GPU wise I've experienced more noticeable gains, and for people who use intensive 3D graphic intensive software, it may be worth the upgrade, but again, if you don't mind having a bigger computer sitting on your desk, I'd wait for the M4 Max Mac Studio because I feel the M4 Pro mini is a bit (just a bit, don't get angry at me M4 Pro mini users) thermally constrained, and being quite louder than the M4 Mac mini.
That's not to mention that the M4 Pro is, as you may already know, a bit heavier, and it gets quite hotter and louder. If power consumption is of your concern, I'm quite sure the M4 Pro power consumption is almost double, but I haven't had the chance to test it.
As for RAM and, if your workflow isn't relatively light or you like to multitask, I'd play it safe and go for the 24GB of RAM. Although I'm pretty sure the 16GB of memory on the base M4 Mac mini will be more than enough if you're on a budget and don't mind replacing this machine after a few years. But I haven't been able to shake from myself the feeling that
16GB of RAM in 2025 is the new 8GB of RAM. I don't want to trigger an argument here but... God... I can't imagine those who purchased 8GB Apple Silicon Macs in the last couple of years encouraged by the Apple loyal advocates on this forum...
Conclusion: After doing this test during the extended return period, which admittedly I've enjoyed as the geek that I am, something I deemed necessary given the money it costs and how long I plan on keeping it, my conclusion is that after returning this base M4 Mac mini and the base M4 Pro Mac mini, I'm ordering a customized M4 Mac mini with 1TB of storage (this is non-negotiable) and either 24 or 32GB of RAM. I still have to think a bit about it.
