Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Need a little help with deciding on M4 or M4 pro Mac mini

EricandSuebee

EricandSuebee

macrumors member
Original poster
My PC gaming system finally died and I need a new desktop system but I haven't really gamed that much in a while, I have my 15 "m4 air which I really like but I need a new desktop as my daily driver. So my dilemma do I get a M4 Mac mini or the M4 pro? I mostly watch videos on YouTube , edit photos, write emails, write stories and occasionally game. I thought maybe the m4 pro just because if I do game it has the higher GPU cores but I feel like I game now a days at like 5% and I do the above 95% so is the price bump worth it to jump up to the m4 pro? I did notice they say you get higher read/write speeds on the m4 pro as well as tb 5 so that might be worth it or not? What do you think I should go for with my use case scenario?
 
Thank you for the reply and your answers, that is what I figured as well, but wanted another opinion from someone who knows a little more than I do.
 
EricandSuebee said:
My PC gaming system finally died and I need a new desktop system but I haven't really gamed that much in a while, I have my 15 "m4 air which I really like but I need a new desktop as my daily driver. So my dilemma do I get a M4 Mac mini or the M4 pro? I mostly watch videos on YouTube , edit photos, write emails, write stories and occasionally game. I thought maybe the m4 pro just because if I do game it has the higher GPU cores but I feel like I game now a days at like 5% and I do the above 95% so is the price bump worth it to jump up to the m4 pro? I did notice they say you get higher read/write speeds on the m4 pro as well as tb 5 so that might be worth it or not? What do you think I should go for with my use case scenario?
Click to expand...

For your workflow, I would recommend the following configuration:

Mac mini M4
16GB RAM
512GB SSD storage

Good luck on your decision!


richmlow
 
  • Like
Reactions: EricandSuebee and bapegg
You won't really notice any difference between USB 3, TB 3, TB 4 and TB 5 if your external storage uses SATA drives. You will notice a difference if you are using good Gen 4 M2 NVME drives.

I went from a 2018 Mac mini with TB 3 to the M4 Mac mini with TB4. I did see an increase in transfer speed with my external NVME drives but the speed are the same with my SATA drives.

I run three monitors, two connected by USBc and the third by HDMI. again no noticeable difference in performance between TB 3 and TB 4.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EricandSuebee
EricandSuebee said:
So my dilemma do I get a M4 Mac mini or the M4 pro? I mostly watch videos on YouTube , edit photos, write emails, write stories and occasionally game.
Click to expand...
Its a slippery slope.

Last year I was looking at the M4 Mini, but given that I wanted to game, it was clear that the base model just wouldn't cut it for a number of reasons, ram/storage/cores, etc. So I started looking at the M4 Pro, and in fact I bought it, but I found it lacking for gaming. I'm not a hard core gamer, but running games through crossover, the M4 Pro Mini wasn't just not up to the task. Plus the M4 Pro runs hotter in that tiny enclosure.

I bit the bullet and opted for the M4 Max Studio, so see what I mean about a slippery slope. I started off at 499, and ended up spending 1800.

For my usage, and needs, the M4 Studio is a fantastic machine, for what you put as your use case, I'd say the M4 Mini is fine for everything but the gaming aspect. The M4 Pro Mini will clearly be the better option in that category.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScanPro, EricandSuebee and rafale77
Similar experience with @maflynn here. I wanted to replace a tiny Hackintosh as my main machine and started looking at the Mac Mini M4, then because of RAM requirements for my typical applications exceeding 48GB to be comfortable and wanting to future proof myself a little I started looking at the Pro with a 10GB Ethernet, as I up configured the Mac Mini M4 pro, the price of the Studio all of the sudden became very attractive so I went from $700 to little over $2K.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane and EricandSuebee
avro707 said:
What died? Can it be repaired - what are the components?
Click to expand...
I lost the video card, power supply. So looking at prices to replace those just wasn't cost effective and since I haven't been gaming recently just decided to not try and fix/replace the gaming pc but to go with a new computer and decided on the M4 Mac mini.
 
maflynn said:
Its a slippery slope.

Last year I was looking at the M4 Mini, but given that I wanted to game, it was clear that the base model just wouldn't cut it for a number of reasons, ram/storage/cores, etc. So I started looking at the M4 Pro, and in fact I bought it, but I found it lacking for gaming. I'm not a hard core gamer, but running games through crossover, the M4 Pro Mini wasn't just not up to the task. Plus the M4 Pro runs hotter in that tiny enclosure.

I bit the bullet and opted for the M4 Max Studio, so see what I mean about a slippery slope. I started off at 499, and ended up spending 1800.

For my usage, and needs, the M4 Studio is a fantastic machine, for what you put as your use case, I'd say the M4 Mini is fine for everything but the gaming aspect. The M4 Pro Mini will clearly be the better option in that category.
Click to expand...
Yeah I bought the M4 base mini with just the upgraded 10gb ethernet, at this time I just couldn't justify the price jump to the Studio which I wanted, maybe in a year time I'll make the jump to the studio.
 
fwiw i have a M4 Max MBP with souped up R/W speeds and i still run most storage/processing/files off a 4TB T9 SSD [probably only getting 1000/1000 as the 2000/2000 is only compatible with usb 3.2 gen 2x2 or smt] haven't had any bottlenecking or unusual behaviour yet so you should be fine.

if you edit photos on Adobe LR then definitely m4 pro... else just go on base M4 [save the $$ and up the ram to 24 if u need it]
 
And if you need fast transfer speed to an external drive, then stick with a NVME drive. Yes I know they are expensive right now but you will definitely see faster transfer speeds compared to a SATA HDD or SATA SSD.
 
I've never played "a computer game" (other than checkers, once or twice, with an old Mac). Never WILL play one, either (I can state that with confidence, I'm nearing 80).

BUT...
From everything I've read about gaming, it requires A LOT of graphics processing power.

If one is going to get a Mini for such purposes, I would think the m4pro would be needed (for the extra graphics cores). However, under such heavy graphics loads, be aware that the m4pro Minis can "get noisy". Maybe the upcoming m5 will be better in that regard.

Having said that, if you want a Mac for gaming, with plenty of headroom for graphics, you should be looking at the Studio model instead. It's designed for such processing power AND has a cooling system that is more likely to keep it quiet.

Just sayin' ...
 
Fishrrman said:
I've never played "a computer game" (other than checkers, once or twice, with an old Mac). Never WILL play one, either (I can state that with confidence, I'm nearing 80).

BUT...
From everything I've read about gaming, it requires A LOT of graphics processing power.

If one is going to get a Mini for such purposes, I would think the m4pro would be needed (for the extra graphics cores). However, under such heavy graphics loads, be aware that the m4pro Minis can "get noisy". Maybe the upcoming m5 will be better in that regard.

Having said that, if you want a Mac for gaming, with plenty of headroom for graphics, you should be looking at the Studio model instead. It's designed for such processing power AND has a cooling system that is more likely to keep it quiet.

Just sayin' ...
Click to expand...
That is exactly what I ended up doing, cancelled my mini order and placed it for the base m4 max studio.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gmaster and rafale77
maflynn said:
I have the base M4 Max Studio, and its a great machine, no complaints, no buyer's remorse.
Click to expand...
No remorse here either. After I received it, I actually pondered if I should return it for a while but then after I powered it on… and the rest is history.
 
  • Love
Reactions: maflynn
I have the base M4 mini and run games with and without Porting Kit. Have no complaints about anything thing I play, the most demanding of which is Cyber Punk which runs great at 1080p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back