Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide

[ipedro]

If you need to read a buyer's guide to decide if you need the power of the Mac Studio, you probably don't need the power of the Mac Studio.

We're all here because we're interested in Macs and Apple tech but not everyone who is a professional in an area that benefits from the power of a Mac Studio (in cinema, tv, photo editing, design music, etc) is an expert in computers too. Try to open your mindset outside of yourself. Nobody likes a snob.

 

[tomtad]

Same sausage different lengths. Can Apple employ some designers please? This stuff was great a decade ago but we are really crying out for something new now.

 

[Rychiar]

its embarrassing that the low end product gets the new chips and internals while the high end product is still on sale. I sure wouldn’t buy a Mac Studio right now.

 

[crsh1976]

The other shoe expected to fall is what will be the base model of upcoming 2023 Mac Pro? So from both a lower and higher price perspective along with consumers considering updated 2023 M2 Pro/Max MBPs as a option also you will see consumers considering other Mac solutions than March 2022 Mac Studio + Studio Display solution.

What a difference a year makes for sure.

Given some rumors of Apple being directionless with the Mac Pro could indicate how the Studio is essentially the top of the crop already (save for moving up to M2 Max/Ultra chips and other improvements) - the architecture limits the use of external components such as GPUs or accelerators, not to forget soldered RAM and storage are part of the design as well, which goes directly against the customization we were accustomed to with the pro towers.

The other piece is the 2 x Ultra chip that was/is supposed to power the Mac Pro, which apparently is not happening - they hit a technical roadblock, it would be too expensive in the end, who knows. If that is the case and the M2 Ultra is the only top contender at this time, it makes me wonder what sort of edge the Mac Pro is going over the Mac Studio (assuming the Mac Studio gets the M2 Ultra).

In the event the Mac Pro is also an all-soldered "unified" design, I wonder why we would need a tower case at all - the Mac Studio form factor is pretty much all we need.

 

[adamw]

I sold one of my Mac Studies (M1 Max) yesterday, and just kept the Mac Studio M1 Ultra (for now) and another Mac Studio M1 Max. Waiting to see the Max Tech YouTube benchmark videos on the M2 Pro and M2 Max before deciding if I should ditch my other 2 Mac Studios, and wait for new Mac Studio models (M2 Max or M2 Ultra), the Mac Mini M2 Pro, or the Mac Pro with the M2 Ultra chip.

 

[dbwie]

The M2 Pro Mac Mini would be the choice over the M1 Mac Studio for single core performance tasks. That is a pretty significant conclusion given what most people use their computers for.

 

[Ethosik]

I need to say that I am confused now. Nothing negative, just not very clear. We now have Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. How to really understand it?

I don't understand why people get so confused.

Mac Mini - Base and Pro variants of M*
Mac Studio - Max and Ultra variants of M*
Mac Pro - Perhaps ultra and Extreme? We need to wait to see, but expandability will be there vs the other two.

Back in the Intel era, for a desktop mac my only options were the horribly slow Mac mini and the horribly overpriced 2019 Mac Pro. Nothing in between so I was forced to use an iMac. I really don't like All in ones, like I really can't stand them. But I like saving money more. Maxed out iMac blew the base Mac Pro away and was still cheaper.

 

[Ethosik]

Mac Studio + Display is $3500 with the minimum configuration. To me that's not a middle ground

I already have three displays. Even if I didn't, I can get just any $200 monitor and use it. You have the flexibility if you want to use the Studio Display.

 

[Mac Hammer Fan]

The Mac Studio will probably get updated with M2s Max/Ultra chips in Spring time.

I wouldn't count on it. It will be next year, I think.

 

[gund1234]

I need to say that I am confused now. Nothing negative, just not very clear. We now have Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. How to really understand it?

Apple will release another model Mac Mini Pro Max Ultra to create more confusion.

 

[gund1234]

Yeah, really. It's not that complicated. Folks just want to be confused so they have something to complain about.

Where does Mac Mini with M2 Pro fit in here ?

 

[HDH]

The Mac Studio debuted in 2022 as Apple's most powerful custom silicon standalone desktop computer. Now, with the launch of the latest Mac mini models, the Mac Studio faces a formidable competitor that offers "Pro" capabilities at a substantially lower price point.

The Mac Studio starts at $1,999, dwarfing the $599 starting price of the M2 Mac mini and even the $1,299 starting price of the M2 Pro Mac mini, so do you need the highest-end Apple silicon Mac, or is the humble Mac mini sufficient for your needs? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two desktop Macs is best for you.

Comparing the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio

The Mac mini and the Mac Studio share some fundamental features, including a familiar, boxy silver aluminum design, Apple silicon chipsets, and two USB-A ports. That being said, the two machines have much more in contrast than they do in common, including different chip options, memory capacities, ports, and external display support capabilities.

Key Differences


Mac mini

• Height of 1.41 inches (3.58 cm)
• M2 chip or M2 Pro chip
• Up to 12-core CPU
• Up to 19-core GPU
• Media engine with video decode engine, video encode engines, and ProRes encode and decode engine
• Up to 200GB/s memory bandwidth
• Up to 32GB unified memory
• Support for up to two displays (M2) or three displays (M2 Pro)
• HDMI 2.1 port
• Up to four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port
• Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Starts at $699 for M2 model or $1,299 for M2 Pro model

Mac Studio

• Height of 3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
• M1 Max chip or M1 Ultra chip
• Up to 20-core CPU
• Up to 64-core GPU
• Media engine with two video decode engines, up to four video encode engines, and up to four ProRes encode and decode engines
• Up to 800GB/s memory bandwidth
• Up to 128GB unified memory
• Support for up to four Pro Display XDRs and one 4K display
• HDMI 2.0 port
• Six Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports
• SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
• 10Gb Ethernet port
• Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
  Bluetooth 5.0
• Starts at $1,999 for M1 Max model or $3,999 for M1 Ultra model

Desktop Apple Silicon Chips Compared

In single-core tasks, the M2 and M2 Pro Mac mini models perform distinctly better than either of the Mac Studio configurations. In multi-core, the picture is less clear-cut. The M2 Mac mini is less powerful than either of the Mac Studio models, but the M2 Pro Mac mini is more powerful than the M1 Max Mac Studio. The M1 Ultra Mac Studio remains the most powerful in multi-core tasks. In GPU tasks, the chips scale as one would expect, with progressively better performance through the M2, M2 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra. As such, users who need maximum GPU power should still buy the Mac Studio over the Mac mini.

See the approximate Geekbench 5 scores for each Mac mini and Mac Studio below, including the scores for the now-discontinued M1 Mac mini for reference:


Single-Core Scores

• M1: ~1,700
• M2: ~2,000
• M2 Pro: ~2,000
• M1 Max: ~1,750
• M1 Ultra: ~1,750

Metal GPU Scores

• M1: ~22,500
• M2: ~30,500
• M2 Pro: ~52,700
• M1 Max: ~64,700
• M1 Ultra: ~94,500

Multi-Core Scores

• M1: ~7,500
• M2: ~9,000
• M2 Pro: ~15,000
• M1 Max: ~12,350
• M1 Ultra: ~23,350

Unless you plan on buying the M1 Ultra Mac Studio with a focus on multi-core and GPU performance, the M2 Pro Mac mini should be the best all-round choice in terms of performance for most users.

Memory

If you need more than 32GB of memory, the Mac Studio can provide greater quantities up to 128GB. Likewise, the Mac mini's memory bandwidth maxes out at 200GB/s memory bandwidth. The Mac Studio, on the other hand, offers up to 400GB/s or 800GB/s memory bandwidth. As such, if you need extreme quantities of memory and a large amount of memory bandwidth for professional tasks, only the Mac Studio can meet these requirements. It is still worth noting that the M2 Pro Mac mini's 32GB memory option, along with 200GB/s memory bandwidth, should be more than enough for most users.

Ports and External Display Support

The Mac Studio offers a more versatile selection of ports, with two extra Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a SDXC card slot compared to the M2 Pro Mac mini, which could be an important consideration for users with a lot of peripherals.

The Mac mini has an HDMI 2.1 port, meaning that it will be better for a small number of users who work with 8K and high refresh-rate external displays, but otherwise the Mac Studio offers better external display support.

Final Thoughts

To some extent, purchasing decisions should be driven by budget, but it is worth bearing in mind that any savings on the desktop computer itself can be put toward a good external display such as Apple's Studio Display, which starts from $1,599. For example, an M2 Pro Mac mini paired with a Studio Display comes to $2,898, which is just $899 more than a lone base model Mac Studio and $1,101 less than the M1 Ultra Mac Studio with no display.


Buy Mac Mini if...

• You need a high-level of performance and versatility at a comparatively low price
• You need maximum single-core CPU performance
• You need maximum multi-core CPU performance and cannot afford the M1 Ultra Mac Studio
• You need HDMI 2.1 and support for 8K external displays
• You need Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) or Bluetooth 5.3

Buy Mac Studio if...

• You need maximum multi-core CPU performance and can afford the M1 Ultra model
• You need maximum GPU performance
• You need amounts of memory over 32GB and high memory bandwidth
• You need more than four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports
• You need support for more than three external displays
• You need a built-in SDXC card slot (UHS-II)

You should only consider the Mac Studio if you have a professional workflow that can leverage the extreme power of M1 Ultra, as well as its additional ports and memory options. If you need the Mac Studio, you will likely know that you are looking for a highly powerful machine that is capable of supporting specific intense workflows. Most customers should choose the M2 Pro Mac mini over the M1 Max Mac Studio, saving $700 when looking at the base models. There will likely still be substantial savings when it comes to custom configurations.

Article Link: Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide

Capping ram at 32GB 😡. When's the Studio M2Max coming out?

 

[MacMeHappy]

I need to complain about these new products because...this is a forum and it's the LAW to complain about products on a forum.

I have no idea why I'm complaining, what I'm complaining about or what the point of this post is either but that's not going to stop me from complaining.

 

[smetvid]

Funny thing is how many pros bought a M1 Mac mini because out was so darn good. Now the M2 model is slight better.

Articles like this compare side by side specs but don't really get into the true needs of different people and explain how much can actually be done with both.

I still know pros who have not upgraded to the Mac Studio because they just did not need the performance yet. Its ironic that on the PC side Macs get criticized for performance and yet a lot of Mac users still do not see the need for the Max or Ultra.

I have since upgraded from a base M1 MBA to a base 14" M1 Pro MBP and could not be happier with this machine. I think for 98% of users creating content the M1 Pro Mac mini is more than enough. A lot of creative industries right now really don't need more. Graphic design, illustration, video editing, 3D animation, VXF, UX design, app development, web development, writing, photography you name it. None of those fields are really held back very much at all. Video and animation could depending on the use case but in the end the only difference is time. 2 hours to render a video vs 1 hour does not impact the level of video one can produce. It's still time so one might as well go find something else t odo like sleep, eat or whatever. The only video pros truly impacted now are those that have tight deadlines like getting footage at 4:00 for the 5:00 news. Render speeds are so fast now that the majority of under 15 minute type videos we see more commonly today are not really impacted by render speed very much at all.

The ability to import video, cut it, grade it, tweak it, tell a story with it is not impacted at all. Unless one starts getting into new age complex formats like 8k raw. Even then the M1 still works well. The M1 Pro works great.

3D animation again just comes down to time. the majority of 3D work involves modeling, texturing, lighting, animating poses and movements and finally rendering. Only the rendering part is impacted. Everything else already works phenomenally on the M1. I know because I used Blender on the MBA. Rendering is getting faster as well and even Blender now has some Metal GPU based rendering support for Cycles. It's still not Nvidia levels of course but it's completely realistic to be able to create 3D assets and render them out on a M1 and M1 Pro. Blender also has the Eevee render engine which is super fast on the M1 and M1 Pro. Not as photo realistic but if one needs to create animation motion graphic assets we are not talking photo realism anyway. Children's cartoons don't need to be photo realistic either. There is a lot that can be done in 3D that does not need photo realism.

In the end the only thing really impacted in 3D is render speed. Does it take 8 hours to render an animation vs 4 hours. Do it overnight and it's not really a big deal. If you have no deadlines at all and just doing this for fun and to learn the time to render doesn't matter either. There are also very affordable online render services now. When it comes to client work I am more likely going to pay someone a few bucks to render it within minutes vs letting my main machine chug through it for days. Just pass the cost on to the client for an extra $25 or so. The days of needing to render an entire project on the main machine are kind of over.

Keep all of this in mind when selecting a machine. The M2 Mini can already do so much. The M2 Pro Mini is a solid production machine for just about any use case. The Mac Studio is really impressive and for those rare individuals that do need to save time they are worth every single penny. We have just reached a place with video and other creative fields where that power is no longer needed like it once was. I love my M1 Pro MBP and have zero desire to upgrade anytime soon. In fact the only reason I would upgrade is to go from 512 GB to a 4 TB machine mainly for my photos library. On a laptop I like to have my photos library with me all the time and it's faster if all my raw photos are local vs in iCloud. The added space would also allow me to edit video anywhere in world vs using my 2TB external SSD which is sometimes a pain to have dangling off my MBP when I'm moving around. Yes it costs more but I now value having that project storage internal and never having to fart around.

As for gaming well Apple has done a lot for gaming with modest resources. Sure maybe not edge pushing AAA titles but not ever gamer needs that photo realism. Many are happy to game at lower quality settings. I'm becoming more of a fan of developing optimizing the code so they can get more out of mobile GPUs for a fun experience. That same extends to the M1 and M1 Pro. I would like to see more games push whats possible on those chips. We can actually do a lot with Metal and the M2 and M2 Pro. At least enough so to look impressive and have fun. With that said I prefer to game on a Switch, Apple TV (which has much less GPU power) or an affordable PC I whipped together for $1,200 for just that purpose. A M2 Pro base Mac mini and a Switch are a pretty fun combination and the best of both worlds for a productive machine and a device designed just for gaming. Either portable or on a TV. Yea hthat still doesn't cover every game under the sun. Thats why I built an affordable PC with a 3060 in it. For those handful of games I'm greedy for like Jedi: Fallen Order. I pretty much built this thing so I can play Jedi: Survivor in a few months. That and Diablo 4 along with a few other games I never got to play like Witcher 3 which is likely one of my favorite games ever.

 

[smetvid]

Capping ram at 32GB 😡. When's the Studio M2Max coming out?

Why is that such an and thing? I keep hearing this complaint and yet each time I don't think those doign the complaining truly understand how well MacOS and Apple Silicon handle unified memory and the swap file on really fast flash storage.

I had a M1 MBA with 8 GB and it should be illegal what that thing could handle. I now have a M1 Pro 14" MBP with 16 GB and it can do so much. I develop mobile apps for my career and also edit raw 4k video, UX design and 3D animation. I also live video stream in HD live DJ mixes and the 16 GB has never once held me back. Thats doing cross platform mobile app development with Xcode and Android Studio along with many other apps and Chrome running.

32 GB is a ton of ram on these machines. I know people producing 4k feature films with 32 GB of ram on a M1 Max MBP.

I'm sorry but I just don't buy this as a valid argument at all. Besides by the time you factor in the cost you really are better off just getting the Mac Studio at that point if you really need more than 32 GB of ram. The Pro Mini only makes sense if you keep it close to the base model for those that want a bit more than what just the M2 can do. There is zero logical reason to want a Mini with less space for cooling on a system that actually truly needs more than 32 GB.

 

[saulinpa]

The Mac Studio will probably get updated with M2s Max/Ultra chips in Spring time.

Or get cancelled so as to not compete with the upcoming Mac Pro.

 

[nihil0]

I am really pondering buying M2 Pro Mac Mini with 12-cores, 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD as the cheaper alternative to M1 Ultra Mac Studio (as that combo with Studio Display costs the same as M1 Ultra Mac Studio costs alone). The question is, how would it operate under pressure because of smaller space for heat dissipation.

 

[tYNS]

This is exactly what Jobs did when he came back to Apple. Got rid of all the overlapping product categories. Now they are so jumbled up and stepping on each other. It confuses people on what to buy and what the real reason is to jump from consumer to pro. Of which, neither of these are pro level unless you are using only logic or final cut full time. I have a feeling there is no true Pro grade version of the M processor. Already into a new generation and there is no Mac Pro version of the SoC. I am so confused what Apple is trying to do anymore. I can only speculate they either made a very poor decision moving to ARM for long term growth, have a new chip design in the works that is more independent core with a branch to discrete GPU or they just don't care about true Pro's anymore.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

What are the chances of Apple releasing the Mac Mini Ultra or Mac Studio Ultra?

 

[BrianM_CAN]

The base Mac mini with M2 Pro is ok, but if you start doing upgrades, it quickly shows it is over priced compared with the Mac Studio. Configured with as close to the same specs as possible, and you see that the Mac mini with M2 Pro is actually more expensive. I do love the Mac mini, and the M2 (non-Pro) mini is a great deal, especially for typical home users)

Mac mini with M2 Pro - with upgraded chip to get more GPU cores (12 CPU cores, 19 GPU cores), 32 GB of ram, 512 GB storage and 10 Gb Ethernet to match the Mac Studio is $2,099 USD. It will have better CPU performance, but lower GPU results. It is thinner and lighter. Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6E are both current advantages.

The Mac Studio base model is $1,999 USD with the M1 Max (10 CPU cores, 24 GPU cores), 32 GB of ram, 512 GB of storage, 10 Gb Ethernet. It supports more displays (up to 5), has more ports built-in including an SDXC card reader, more memory bandwidth, two video encode engines (instead of 1 in the M2 Pro), two ProRes encode & decode engines (instead of 1 in the M2 Pro). I'd expect the M2 version of the Mac Studio to gain most of the improvements the Mini has gotten rendering it an even worse deal in comparison.

If the Mac mini with M2 Pro was about $200 USD less as a base price, it would make it more compelling.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

I'm waiting to see professional developer Xcode benchmarks for the mini M2 Pro vs. Mac Studio. Would be interested to hear what other Xcode developers are choosing. Most reviews ( except for maybe Max Tech ) cover intense usage ( video editing etc. ) and standard usage ( web browsing, email, light photo work ) but limited coverage of Xcode usage and more ( what I call ) "middle ground" tasks. Sure is good to have options. Thanks for the good discussion.

 

[phazedout]

The complication comes when defining demanding. We don’t all do video editing or photo work. When do Chrome, Office, and Preview tasks become more demanding?

You most likely don't need a studio or a pro.

 

[Ken Burns Effect]

Mini mostly more quiet than Studio!

"in our testing, the M2 Pro mini runs just as cool and quiet as the M1 mini did"
According to Ars.

 

[phrehdd]

I am really pondering buying M2 Pro Mac Mini with 12-cores, 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD as the cheaper alternative to M1 Ultra Mac Studio (as that combo with Studio Display costs the same as M1 Ultra Mac Studio costs alone). The question is, how would it operate under pressure because of smaller space for heat dissipation.

I have wondered the same thing as well. It is one thing to run bench tests but to do real-world stress loads with multiple apps open and see how the Mini fairs compared to a counterpart Studio would provide information to help people make a more informed decision on what item would best suit their needs.

 

[crsh1976]

I am really pondering buying M2 Pro Mac Mini with 12-cores, 32 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD as the cheaper alternative to M1 Ultra Mac Studio (as that combo with Studio Display costs the same as M1 Ultra Mac Studio costs alone). The question is, how would it operate under pressure because of smaller space for heat dissipation.

But it isn't cheaper - if you bump the Mini with a M2 Pro to 12 CPU cores/19 GPU cores and the RAM to 32 GB, it's already slightly more expensive than the base Mac Studio with a M1 Max with 10 CPU cores/24 GPU cores/32 GB of RAM, for a different chip too.

Again, the main advantage of the M2 over the M1 is GPU power, so the M1 Max is presumably a better option than the M2 Pro in this case.

This is how screwed up the line-up is.