Mac Mini 2.6 GHz vs 2.8 GHz

[NowakFilip]

I'm looking to get a Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD, but can't decide if I should go with the 2.6 GHz or 2.8 GHz CPU.

Is there a huge performance difference between the Core i5 2.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz?

It's only about $100 extra. Let me know if it's worth going for the 2.8 GHz.

 

[paulrbeers]

I'm looking to get a Mac Mini with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB SSD, but can't decide if I should go with the 2.6 GHz or 2.8 GHz CPU.

Is there a huge performance difference between the Core i5 2.6 GHz and 2.8 GHz?

It's only about $100 extra. Let me know if it's worth going for the 2.8 GHz.

I assume you are comparing if you went with a Mid-Mini w/ 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD drive means your cost is $1100 vs $1200 by specing the top end Mini to 16GB of RAM and swapping the Fusion for the 256GB SSD.

Doing that comparison it is really a price increase of about 9% (1200/1100). Geekbench states the 2.8GHZ is about 8% faster (7147/6619). If we just use the price to processing power equation it appears to be dollar for dollar the same % increase in both (9% increase in cost with an 8% increase in performance).

However, with all of that said, the real answer is no. Quite frankly you probably won't ever notice the extra .2GHZ. This isn't even a case where the base processor has limited turbo compared to the next one. They both turbo up the exact same amount (.5ghz). You wouldn't feel the difference on a day to day basis and nothing that is CPU intensive will really complete all that much faster (i.e. A Video encoding that takes 60 minutes with the 2.8ghz would take 65 minutes with the 2.6ghz).

Just my .02 worth though....

 

[xraydoc]

I had the same dilemma deciding between the 2.8GHz i5 or the CTO 3.0GHz i7.

Ultimately I decided on the i7, though I suspect the real-world difference will be small.

 

[Meister]

You haven't told anybody what the mini will be used for.

 

[paulrbeers]

You haven't told anybody what the mini will be used for.

While normally I would agree that this is necessary to determine, in this case we aren't discussing whether 2 vs 4 core or a low GHZ vs a high GHZ processor. In this case the only differentiators is exactly .2GHZ on CPU and .1GHZ on the GPU. Even the Cache is the same (3MB). There is virtually no use case for spending $100 more on an i5 4308U vs the i5 4278U. Now there might be use cases for spending $300 more on the i7-4578U (extra 1MB of cache), but even that is still a hard sell for what little extra (in fact geekbench shows little to no gains although I don't believe in geekbench being the end all be all of CPU benchmarks).

 

[ricktat]

The 2.6 and 2.8 both have the same MSRP from Intel. Makes me feel bad that I would pay $100 more.

If you are ordering from Apple and live in the US.... See if you can qualify for the education discount. It only takes $20 off the $699/$999 price but the upgrades also save the same 10-$20 per item.

Or just order from somewhere like BHphoto or Macmall where they discount pre-configured upgraded minis.