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Mac Mini M2 vs M2 Pro
- Thread starter Mojer
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Similar question if anyone can offer any advice.
I'm a scientist and quite like the idea of playing around with some of the possibilities with the large GPU memory on these.
I'd also use the device as a Plex media server. Probably a local webserver and development box too.
Because of the machine learning stuff I'm leaning towards the 24GB or 32GB models but obviously the latter means the CPU upgrade too so it getting a bit expensive.
Any thoughts? Either on it's capabilities as a Plex server or on using it for data science activities?
I'm a scientist and quite like the idea of playing around with some of the possibilities with the large GPU memory on these.
I'd also use the device as a Plex media server. Probably a local webserver and development box too.
Because of the machine learning stuff I'm leaning towards the 24GB or 32GB models but obviously the latter means the CPU upgrade too so it getting a bit expensive.
Any thoughts? Either on it's capabilities as a Plex server or on using it for data science activities?
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. I use some USB-A cables, because I still have USB-A ports.
Have you considered an M1 iMac? Personally I think they’re a good deal and you can possibly get them refurbished
How are you going to use your M2? Depending on what you are doing, 24 GB could make a significant difference, considering 24GB is unified memory for CPU and GPU. I don't watch Youtube videos unless the Youtuber has the same usage patterns.
Edit: The unified memory could be useful if the Visual design and 3d modeling apps use GPU.
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I'd stick to just the M2, but get 16GB RAM, and keep an eye on the storage options as if you want to save photos and videos it'll fill up. Although you always can add storage too for that by plugging in an external storage drive.
A Mini would be perfect for the uses you've outlined.
That’s definitely a factor for me.
I’m looking at either M2/24GB or M2Pro/32GB. I currently have an M1 Mini with 16GB and 256GB SSD - primarily for Logic Pro. I’d actually keep using it except for 2 issues:
1) I easily get into yellow/red memory pressure when loading lots of sample libraries
2) The internal 256GB keeps getting close to full with system stuff, even though I use an external Thunderbolt SSD for all my samples, photos, videos, etc
I admit it’s a weak justification, as the M1 absolutely crushes anything I do in Logic, except for my sample-loading stress test. But I just like to future-proof as much as possible. My *other* Mac Mini is a 2011 Server model, which is currently running headless in my basement as a media server. I’d like to finally retire it so my current M1 would take that spot, and I’d finally banish spinning disks from my house for good.
Leaning toward the M2Pro with 32GB and 512GB ssd, and the 12-core version beats the M1Max. It won’t have the noise of the Mac Studio which is around the same price. That should last another 10-12 years.
And then the question is whether it's worth it for *another* $300 bump to the non-binned version with 12 cores. That's the one that will beat the M1Max in multi-core work.
IMO, not worth it... though I would just have anxiety about having a binned chip for some reason. But the base M2 Pro for me is worth it in order to get 32GB memory, more ports, and more future-proof HDMI.
Tl;dr If I'm unhappy with my M1 iMac @ 16GB, is there a chance I will be happy with an M2 Mini @ 24GB?
Thank you. Yeah the YT video was food for thought, not taken as gospel. These are going into a classroom... but one that sees daily use of multiple Creative Cloud apps, Autodesk simulations, etc. I currently have two personal data points that I use every day and are the source of my consternation: an M1 MBP @ 32GB and an M1 iMac @ 16GB. I love my laptop and it performs all of my tasks with confidence and speed. It's not overkill though—I'm frequently using 20-30GB of memory. The iMac is fine, but definitely struggles at the top end of my workflow.
The pricing on the M2 Mac Mini is so good though. Even at 24GB, I can pair them with a great monitor and end up at the same price as the M2 Mini Pro (that has less memory). Perhaps I just need to wait for the benchmarks to come out next week. I assume the M1 vs M2 benchmarks already exist though...
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The M2 Pro package isn't going to 'buy' anything productive for that kind of workload. If have "M2 Pro Mini" like budget the money is probably better spent elsewhere.
1. Pretty decent chance that the 256GB SSD offered in the base M2 model is the same dubious kneecapping fumble that Apple made on the MBA M2 system. It is a backslide on bandwidth . That has nothing to do with the SoC package and everything to do with the number of Flash NAND packages Apple put on the board. It is too few.
That $599 version is somewhat a tease to get folks to trade up to a decent SSD at $799. (surprise , surprise , surprise ... pragmatically not much of a 'change in price'. )
That 256GB model would be decent as a home theater PC where tossed the huge media storage job off onto an external HDD and just using the SSD to run apps and the macOS. I wouldn't but a 'basic user' with any sort of decent storage requirements on that drive.
2. If it is a really old iMac there is a decent chance it has a HDD (hard disk drive) in it. You should check to see what the capacity usage is of the old iMac. The workload may be light but if the iMac has 50,000 pictures on it there is a ton of 'static' data there. Might need to tweak up to a 0.5 or 1 TB SSD. Often when folks have larger storage capacity they never throw anything away ( photos ... etc. )
Also not a particularly good long term idea to fill the drive up close (10-18% ) to the limit. So 450GB of data already and a 512GB SSD is a 'miss'. If there is 295GB now, then 512GB could work with a slow growth rate.
If collecting a tons of stuff hardly ever look at I'd look at an external drive as oppose to chase Apple's internal SSD prices higher than 1TB.
3. Depending on how 'old' the iMac is then probably need a new Monitor also. The more affordable 'plain' M2 allows more money for a decent ( $400-600 ) monitor. ( skipping the M2 Pro gives more budget to buy a new monitor.)
4. If getting a new monitor there is still some budget left over there are VESA mounting brackets that allow you to mount a monitor and Mac Mini to a stand. You get a "modular iMac" where the Mini isn't soaking up desktop space. ( if the current iMac was placed on a relatively small desktop this will help. And again skipping the M2 Pro frees up money to pay for this. )
When you say CC applications, do you use Premiere at all? While I will never subscribe to Adobe ever again, I do have a FCPX license/purchase and am looking strongly at DaVinci Resolve.
All my projects are only 1080p but will be edited on a 4K screen and the entire hours+ (Analog conversions) will need to have things like de-interlacing, slight cropping, etc done to them.
Coming from the world of 2018 era x86 equipment, I still don't fully understand the low memory amounts. I would guess if 16GB is problematic for you, 24GB would be a good spot?
Note: this M2 Mini would be a secondary computer to my main Dell workstation. I'm looking at the Mini strictly from a budget video editing perspective.
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Got an M2/24GB/1TB. Arriving Feb 1st-3rd.
The M2 Pro in my local currency was too expensive for me, especially since I wanted more than 16GB of RAM.
I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with this machine as a developer with mobile simulators, docker, etc running at different times.
Best of luck to everyone with their choices and configuration!
The M2 Pro in my local currency was too expensive for me, especially since I wanted more than 16GB of RAM.
I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with this machine as a developer with mobile simulators, docker, etc running at different times.
Best of luck to everyone with their choices and configuration!
Plex is [edit: not] a "bigger GPU core count" issue. If the software is halfway decent most transcoding is going to be done on the fixed function media en/decode units of the M2 and M2 Pro. They both have them. The M2 Pro has more, but that is really more so for doing far more upscale multiple camera output work for editing. Not predigested and already compressed video streaming work.
A local web server with 4-5 concurrent users max ( like a household) also isn't a big differentiator between M2 and M2 Pro.
If doing tons of recompiles of medium - large codebases the M2 Pro has more traction. If it is a modest app and doing long test runs far more often than recompiling the whole thing from scratch, then if only have a M2 budget you won't be in 'bad' shape. It is still relatively fast compared to several other options in its price category.
If a substantive portion of the ML stuff can be routed to the NPU cores by specialized Apple libraries ... not much of a difference there either. If you ML stuff is 100% completely blind to the NPU cores then M2 Pro has more brute force grunt.
if the training model is 26GB big then that is show stopper for the plain M2. If you ML training approach is eye ball deep in the 'quickly pile the input data pile higher and deeper to get better results' methodology, then neither one of these options is really much good. If at 20GB now and expecting to jump to 40GB in 14 months then neither one of these are a good choice. If at 20GB and expect increment 1GB/yr for next four years then probably a coin toss as to which one (M2 24GB or 32GB. ). If have 10GB now and go to 22 in 4-5 yrs then even bigger coin toss.
IF the answer is "I don't know how much I'm going to need" then the next move is go find out. If just blindly grabbing at a "big number" then guessing really isn't going to usefully differentiate these two. Find current level and do some historical growth rate projections.
IF the real primary job ( and budget limiter ) of this is as a Plex server (and the other stuff is a couple of hours a day , hobby exercise) then M2 is probably a better fit.
If the primarily job is 80% full package utilization out of every day ( 20 hrs) as a data science server and in 'copious spare time' do some tertiary duty as a Plex server , then the M2 Pro.
P.S. The primary storage for Plex ... don't chase Apple SSD internal prices to higher capacities. Drop that on an external drive. There is no performance upside of keeping it internal.
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Hi @dartae I don't see a reason for you to upgrade yet, a 2020 MBA is not old at all and satisfies your usage just fine.
If you want a desktop maybe you can look at a dock for your MBA to connect to a monitor and keyboard easier.
You should probably pick up a console for gaming or look for undemanding games that run just fine on your new MBA.
If really want a desktop, an M2 mac mini, I think you would be satisfied with M2 16GB or 24GB with your preferred storage amount. Photos you can easily store on external USB SSDs.
I am personally choosing your first lower priced option M2/24GB/1TB for myself because like you my local currency is not as strong as USD but I also don't want to overpay for features I don't use!
Depends upon how much "other stuff" ( simulators , other dev tools , size of app+data being debugged , XCode plug-ins , etc. )
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2022/04/25/how-ram-affects-xcode-compilation-speed/
16GB and more cores will get more "build from scratch" workload done faster. If often rapidly flipping between 3-5 different simulators and have a VM running the 'web services backend' to test against 24GB may offset the core count drop. But shouldn't need to do 'build from scratch' for every single edit-compile-debug iteration. When recompiling just one or two files more than 3 cores isn't going to help much. Nor is tons more RAM. ( if often iterating on the same 2 files for 10-50 mins then both likely cached. )
The way macOS does file caching (and if XCode touches a very large number of files while building) whatever more RAM you throw in will partially just get sucked into a bigger file system cache.
Not sure if this has already been recommended but if you're coming from a 10 year old iMac and money is tight then I would recommend looking for a discounted M1 Mini. It will be more than sufficient for your needs.
Benchmarks rarely take regular usage in to account. Order one with 24 GB, Use it for few days with your work flow. If it works keep it, if not send it back. I usually test my machines on my workflow and then decide to keep it return.
Plex probably won’t make a difference in either configs. The AI compute is getting mainstream, say you want to upscale your old videos or movies to 4k. An app like Topaz Video AI with unified memory will consume what ever you throw at it from hardware perspective. My M1 Max with 64 GB hasn’t run out of memory yet, compared to frequent OOM errors on 3090 or 4090.
It really depends on how long you keep your macs. I usually refresh every 4-5 years, unless there is a major upgrade. If you prorate over 4-5 years, it’s not a big deal.
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Sure. Notice how you can configure the Mac Mini with two different versions of the M2 Pro: the base version is 10-core with 16 GPU cores, and for an extra $300 you can get 12-core and 19 GPU cores.
But both chips are built exactly the same way. They all have the same number of CPU cores (12) and the same number of GPU cores (19). However, due to microscopic manufacturing variances, not every chip is perfect. So if you get the 10-core version, it actually has 12 cores but two of them are disabled (And 3 of the GPU cores are also disabled).
A small number of them will have all 12 cores tested and functional. Those go into the “12-core” bin meant for the higher end version. The chips that didn’t pass testing with 12 cores, but passed testing with a couple of cores disabled, go into the “10-core” bin. So more chips get into the low-price 10-core bin, because it doesn’t have to have any many cpu and GPU cores that are actually able to pass testing.
So my “anxiety” about a binned chip is knowing that all those processing cores are there on the chip, but a few of them are permanently disabled.
Looks like the binned (10 core) M2 pro scores 12074 with 16GB ram, around 9000 for the M2 and 15000 for the M2 with 12 cores..
Mac14,9 - Geekbench
Benchmark results for a Mac14,9 with an Apple M2 Pro processor.
browser.geekbench.com
This is interesting. I never knew this. I'm sure the chips in the 10 core bin meet Apple's quality control and will function as they should.