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Mac Mini M1 VS Mac Pro 2013

D

djreal

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 14, 2012
26
0
Hi Guys,

I'm currently looking for a Mac but I would like to know you're thoughts.

I'm either looking at a mac mini M1 as I have heard good things regarding performance etc. Or a Mac Pro (2013)

I'll tell you why I'm considering both and maybe your input will help.

I use a lot of ram and i mean a lot of ram sometimes 10GB with VM's (windows and other operating systems)

I use Spotify to stream to music and i have my own collection around 270GB

I use VLC to play big video files around (5GB, 7GB)

I'm considering the mac pro because of the amount of RAM i can get but also thinking about future proofing i don't want to buy one and Apple drop support.

Any input on this will be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Using Winders = Intel Mac


It's just the way it is. Get an older Mac Pro that can boot Win 10.
 
Will it be future proof? I don't want Apple to just drop support on me
 
Sorry one other question I have what's the power consumption like on the 2013 mac pro? It's nothing like the early ones is it?
 
familychoice said:
You should be fine for a few years - they're still selling Intel based machines so there'd be an uproar if they cut them off too soon.
Click to expand...
Once the last Mac has been transitioned to ARM, you can expect the next macOS version to be ARM only. This happened with G5s (2005) and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (2009). The last version of macOS to support Intel will be maintained for 5 years after the last Intel Mac is sold, meaning it will receive service updates. Apple has no problem doing this. For example 64 bit macpro1,1 excluded from 64 bit OS X because it had EFI32, etc. They will drop support as soon as keeping support is any extra work they don't need to do.
 
Depending on what 2013 model you get will determine how much power it draws. Here's a decent guide to that.

Mac Pro power consumption and thermal output (BTU/h) information - Apple Support

Learn about the power consumption and thermal output of Mac Pro computers.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

Apple usually supports operating systems until the system is considered vintage which is 5 years until it was no longer sold. So The 2013 Pro stopped being available on the apple store December 2019, you MIGHT be able to squeak by into 2024 but keep in mind this computer is currently the oldest one apple supports so thats iffy.

It sounds like the M1 is a no go because you need emulators and RAM. Sounds like the 2013 Pro is iffy because of how old it is (I personally wouldn't touch those things with a 10 foot pole, especially with D700 graphics).

In my opinion your best bet would be a 2018 mini. You will get much longer support than the 2013 pro, better power consumption, up to 64GB of Ram, and be able to run all your emulators.

Heres just one example from the refurbished store.

Refurbished Mac mini 3.2GHz 6 core Intel Core i7 Space Gray - Apple

Apple Store Search Results
www.apple.com


Best of luck!
 
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dermeister said:
Once the last Mac has been transitioned to ARM, you can expect the next macOS version to be ARM only. This happened with G5s (2005) and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (2009). The last version of macOS to support Intel will be maintained for 5 years after the last Intel Mac is sold, meaning it will receive service updates. Apple has no problem doing this. For example 64 bit macpro1,1 excluded from 64 bit OS X because it had EFI32, etc. They will drop support as soon as keeping support is any extra work they don't need to do.
Click to expand...
I really don't think this is accurate. Apple will probably support Intel Macs until 2024-2026 based on that they only drop vintage products. The transition to Arm is also radically different than it was to intel and apple has a much larger team to support intel products unlike 2005 with Power Pc
 
I'd expect Apple to drop older Intel Macs long before they drop Intel at all, there are even rumors that the MacPro will get another spec bump.

Wouldn't be surprised if the 2013 get axed next year.

The question I would ask myself is if the "need more RAM" use cases are so important that I would accept worse performance pretty much everywhere else (+ limited long time support).

Or maybe keep a cheap PC around for those cases.
 
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dermeister said:
Once the last Mac has been transitioned to ARM, you can expect the next macOS version to be ARM only. This happened with G5s (2005) and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (2009). The last version of macOS to support Intel will be maintained for 5 years after the last Intel Mac is sold, meaning it will receive service updates. Apple has no problem doing this. For example 64 bit macpro1,1 excluded from 64 bit OS X because it had EFI32, etc. They will drop support as soon as keeping support is any extra work they don't need to do.
Click to expand...
Fine by me, as they usually knobble older, slower machines with OS updates anyway (2012 MBP crippled, until I upgraded to an SSD) - 5 years of security/bug fixes will keep my MBP’s happy.
 
If the PowerPC to Intel transition is anything to go by, Apple discontinued the Power Mac G5 and introduced the Mac Pro in August 2006. Three years later, on August 28th 2009, Mac OS X Snow Leopard was released dropping support for non Intel based Macs.

36 months after discontinuing the last PowerPC based Macintosh, Apple dropped software support for them*

*Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) received it's last security update on June 23, 2011, so the PowerMac G5 received security fixes until 5 years after discontinuation.
 
While I agree that looking at the past is a good indication about the future, you have to admit the quantity of Intel macs and usecases far outweigh the quantity of PPC macs.
Also, there was no upside to keeping a PPC mac running.
There are obvious usecases for people needing an Intel Mac, atleast for the foreseeable future.
 
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macsound1 said:
While I agree that looking at the past is a good indication about the future, you have to admit the quantity of Intel macs and usecases far outweigh the quantity of PPC macs.
Also, there was no upside to keeping a PPC mac running.
There are obvious usecases for people needing an Intel Mac, atleast for the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...
Agreed, it's also worth noting that Apple seems to be supporting hardware longer than they used to. How many folks were using a 2002-2004 iBook or PowerBook G4 in 2009-2010? My old 2012 MBP 13" is stuck on Catalina (unless I use a patcher) but it's getting security updates. My 2012 Mac Pro (pretty much identical to a 2010 Mac Pro) still receives security updates on macOS Mojave, and it's perfectly useable 9 years later (11 years later for 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 owners)
 
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djreal said:
Will it be future proof? I don't want Apple to just drop support on me
Click to expand...
I would not consider a 2013 Mac to be anything close to "Future proof" even though they were sold into 2019. These computers are not especially reliable and everything inside them, except for RAM, is proprietary. I would look at getting a 2018/2020 mini if you need an Intel Mac.
 
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djreal said:
Hi Guys,

I'm currently looking for a Mac but I would like to know you're thoughts.

I'm either looking at a mac mini M1 as I have heard good things regarding performance etc. Or a Mac Pro (2013)

I'll tell you why I'm considering both and maybe your input will help.

I use a lot of ram and i mean a lot of ram sometimes 10GB with VM's (windows and other operating systems)

I use Spotify to stream to music and i have my own collection around 270GB

I use VLC to play big video files around (5GB, 7GB)

I'm considering the mac pro because of the amount of RAM i can get but also thinking about future proofing i don't want to buy one and Apple drop support.

Any input on this will be appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I have a 6-core (12 thread) 2013 Mac Pro that I’ve updated to 64 GB and 2 TB SSD. It is broadly comparable in performance to my M1 MacBook Air. The Air is faster at compiling software—probably because of the SSD speed on the M1 but for many tasks they are very similar. Obviously the MP is more useful for VMs and for that the 64 GB comes in handy. You theoretically can go to 128GB but you have to use slower RAM. I’m not sure how much that matters but since 64 GB was fine for my use and quite a bit cheaper I didn’t look into it. The 2 TB upgrade came from OWC (macsales.com) and has a special M.2 carrier to make it compatible with the MP.

I’m sure you can get better performance with a 10 or 12 core Xeon and the MP hardware is upgradeable. So you might look for a 4-core MP and do the upgrades yourself.

You didn’t mention GPU so I assume that isn’t very important to you. Save some money and look for the D300 GPUs.

I wouldn’t expect support beyond MacOS 13 and maybe not even that. If I was considering buying a 2013 Mac Pro in 2021 I don’t think I would expect support beyond Monterey. Anything after that is a bonus. Apple will supply a few more years of security updates though after dropping MacOS version updates.

Needing Intel VM support makes your decision tougher. One thing you might consider is buying a PC to run VMWare remotely. Then you can pick up a modern M1 Mac and have the best of both.
 
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I had a 2013 Mac Pro*, sold it soon after buying an M1 Mini. Although I was a (rare) fan of the 2013 Mac Pro, I prefer the M1 mini in every way BUT since you're running a lot of VMs (esp. windows) and/or RAM intensive activities, I'd stick with Intel for now.

Apple won't completely drop the 2013 Mac Pro for a while, you could still buy one with a three year Apple Care warranty last year, and most of the buyers are institutions. That said, a local Mac Store may not be able to fix it on site (had to get mine shipped out for a fix in 2019) and Apple already dropped support for a lot of features like SideCar. The GPUs, if you have an app that will run both simultaneously are actually pretty quick, they just use obsolete architecture so the Metal support is there but primitive. By comparison the M1 GPU is much, much smaller/slower but cutting edge as far as Metal support goes. Which is faster depends on the application you're running.

Day-to-day usage the M1 feels much snappier.

6-core 3.5Ghz, Dual D700, 64GB RAM, 512GB SSD & 2TB SSD internal (AngelShark)
 
djreal said:
Hi Guys,

I'm currently looking for a Mac but I would like to know you're thoughts.

I'm either looking at a mac mini M1 as I have heard good things regarding performance etc. Or a Mac Pro (2013)

I'll tell you why I'm considering both and maybe your input will help.

I use a lot of ram and i mean a lot of ram sometimes 10GB with VM's (windows and other operating systems)

I use Spotify to stream to music and i have my own collection around 270GB

I use VLC to play big video files around (5GB, 7GB)

I'm considering the mac pro because of the amount of RAM i can get but also thinking about future proofing i don't want to buy one and Apple drop support.

Any input on this will be appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I didn’t look at all the replies so apologies if someone said this but for your situation the 2018 Mac mini sounds ideal. It has an Intel processor so perfect for running a VM. It’s also five years newer then the 2013 Mac pro plus Apple still sells it so support will be considerably longer. You can put 32 GB of RAM cheaply or even go to 64 GB.
 
russell_314 said:
I didn’t look at all the replies so apologies if someone said this but for your situation the 2018 Mac mini sounds ideal.
Click to expand...

That's what I am thinking too. The 2018 Mini is still in production, so it will be supported for quite a few more years. I use both Windows and legacy MacOS virtual machines on my 64gb 2018 i7 Mini that I got a year ago. Still delighted with it. The M1 is certainly cool, but it won't do what I need.
 
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The 2018 Mac mini isn’t a bad suggested. Nevertheless, because you’re considering a Mac Pro, I’ll toss out adding an iMac Pro to your research. The iMac Pro includes “pro” features like a workstation-class CPU, GPU, and ECC RAM; would address the support concern; and has notably newer tech overall. However, it will indeed cost more.
eshop.macsales.com

Used & Refurbished 27-inch Apple iMac Pro (2017) from OWC

Save money on a used 2017 27-inch iMac Pro professionally refurbished and inspected by Apple Certified Technicians. View our unbeatable prices online.
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A Mac Pro (2013), iMac Pro, and Mac mini (2018) comparison:
 
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