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Mac Mini with Apple Silicon = Big

M

MBX

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
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I believe the Mac Mini with Apple Silicon could rival an iMac Pro in power if Apple would only push it that far but I’m sure they won’t to not cannibalize sales.

I still hope Apple won’t hold back too much when it comes to the new Silicon based specs.

Imagine a A14X based 8-12 core CPU/ GPU, up to 128GB Ram, etc.
 
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Would not the MacMini be the easiest Mac to update to the ARM as they already put out a developer's version of that kit. So, why are the laptops seemingly first up for the new CPU?
 
jazz1 said:
Would not the MacMini be the easiest Mac to update to the ARM as they already put out a developer's version of that kit. So, why are the laptops seemingly first up for the new CPU?
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...because laptops are the most popular PC format. Also, however good Apple Silicon eventually turns out to be across the board, the "easy win" is going to be against the Intel mobile chips in the lower-end MacBooks. Against desktop Intel chips where battery life and heat dissipation is less of an issue, the ASi advantage could be more "nuanced" and dependent on software taking advantage of lots of cores and the various hardware accelerators on ASi chips.

The Apple Developers Kit is a short-term kludge using iPad processors (which Apple have pretty much said aren't going into real Macs) to allow developers to re-compile and test ARM versions of their Apps. It's not an ASi Mac Mini in waiting. Using the Mini form-factor for the developer kit made sense - no sense putting a display, keyboard, battery etc. in a machine that's going to be landfill after six months.

The big win for the ASi Mini should be better graphics (c.f. the only cruddy iGPU that Intel offers for desktop chips) and the rumour is that the second generation of ASi chips arriving next year will have better better graphics (no point in Apple over-specifying the GPU for the MacBook Air) so it makes sense to wait.
 
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There is also the rumored prosumer Mac Pro that Apple won’t allow the Mac Mini to compete with.
 
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Yes, this is what I want. The current Mac mini is far too expensive and has continuously used earlier generations of CPUs and charged the consumer as if they are the current generation of CPU.

Apple have always gouged on RAM and SSD upgrades, I get that. I wonder if there will be a change in the I/O perhaps they will remove a couple of USB ports? I'll likely buy as soon as Apple release an ASi Mac mini.
 
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I too am looking forward to a new mini. But it will all depend on compatibility. Will an external GPU still work? Will it even be necessary? Will my current apps still function, or will I have to wait for developers to catch up (Steam and Fusion particularly)? Will Rosetta be able to handle smooth transcoding of apps that do heavy processing? Right now I have lots of questions, and I won't know the answer until one actually ships.
 
I like the mini - a great space saver and wonderful general purpose machine. I'd love to see one in the sub-$700 price bracket like my mid-2011 (which I think I paid $580 for, tax included), but as intriguing as Apple's own silicon is, I think the days of packing mobile chips into a desktop package (my mid 2011 was a repackaging of MBA parts pretty much) is done.

I wouldn't mind seeing the base 21.5" iMac disappear to make room for a cheaper Mac Mini though. Could be a great way for Apple to test the waters with these new chips.
 
jazz1 said:
Would not the MacMini be the easiest Mac to update to the ARM as they already put out a developer's version of that kit. So, why are the laptops seemingly first up for the new CPU?
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I'm guessing because a) laptops have a much wider market and illustrate the battery life advantages of AS and b) Apple may not want to merely stick AS in a Mac Mini enclosure for a production model - AS gives them an opportunity to shrink the Mini and make it passively-cooled.
 
YESSSS!

Looks like the new M1 integrated graphics will be slightly faster than a Radeon Pro 560.
 
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All those powerful apps — but only 16GB? That’s a joke, right? No 32GB DIMMs? Does it use existing memory chips, or something new & exotic?
 
mlykke said:
Looks very impressive, but I must admit I'm extremely disappointed by only having 16 GB of ram and two USB-C ports. Thats a major downgrade from the previous models. It really doesn't make much sense to impose those limitations.
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padams35 said:
Looks like Apple is still selling the i5/i7 Intel Mac Mini for anyone who needs more ports or more ram.
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With the silver aluminum, this makes me pretty confident that this is not their replacement for the i7 mini. my guess is we’ll se an M1X chip in a space gray mini next year that will have up to 64gb of ram and 4TB ports.
Puonti said:
Curiously, the M1 Mac mini has a built-in speaker.
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So does the current mini.
 
IowaLynn said:
All those powerful apps — but only 16GB? That’s a joke, right? No 32GB DIMMs? Does it use existing memory chips, or something new & exotic?
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The memory is built into the M1 chip so there is no way to upgrade ram after purchase. And the unified architecture also seems to indicate that the GPU will have to share the ram, instead of having it's own ram.
 
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The missing USB-C ports and a *max* of 16 GB memory? You can't even get that small amount of memory as an *option* in the new iPhones anymore. What in the name of God is this? We must be missing something here, unless this is some-sort of alien memory technology that is the equivalent of 128 GB of regular human memory. Or more realistically, can the M1 use memory differently? I mean, no -- memory space is space, right?. Is there less data to store? Not unless image technology changed overnight as well. 16 GB can't even handle more than eight open tabs on Chrome.

I'm really confused here. Was this just meant to drive people to the iMac? Esp showing it used with a $6000 monitor lol.
 
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arctair said:
The missing USB-C ports and a *max* of 16 GB memory? You can't even get that small amount of memory as an *option* in the new iPhones anymore. What in the name of God is this? We must be missing something here, unless this is some-sort of alien memory technology that is the equivalent of 128 GB of regular human memory. Or more realistically, can the M1 use memory differently? I mean, no -- memory space is space, right?. Is there less data to store? Not unless image technology changed overnight as well. I'm really confused here. Was this just meant to drive people to the iMac?
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I think you're confusing RAM - Memory, and Disk Storage - Memory.
 
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