New 256GB Mac Mini and 512GB MacBook Pro Have Slower SSD Speeds Than Previous Models

[628]

Wow I thought I would get around the SDD fiasco by getting the 512GB but turns out it is affected too…

 

[Turribeach]

2018 Intel Mini: 2451MB / 2538.9 MB
2020 M1 Mini: 2440.9MB / 2769.2 MB
2023 M2 Mini: 1639 MB / 1514.9 MB (5 years later!!!)

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass!"

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Memory bandwidth for either model M2 Mini is one fourth those of their comparative Studio models.

 

[gleepskip]

I don’t think it’s realistic to expect Apple to continue purchasing 128 NANDs just so the entry level model has the same write speed as the larger capacity models. The less variety of storage chips, the better as far as keeping a lean inventory is concerned.

Thanks for the input, Tim. Please step aside and let someone else run Apple.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

It appears it also effects the 512GB version now too (single NAND).

source ? that's horrible news if true

 

[redbeard331]

Well, the doomsayers were right.

 

[Jimmdean]

all the reviewers (influencers - whatever) that mentioned the specs said they were given 1TB - go figure...

 

[James Godfrey]

So quite clearly this is apples way of pushing people to spec up their macs and not go for the base model. It’s a price hike without an actual price hike.

 

[Turribeach]

It started!

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

It's called inflation, haha. Although, it does suck that 512 GB is also a single NAND.

It’s not though.
256 is one, 512 is two, a TB is four.

 

[russell_314]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Well said! I’ve been saying that for a while now too. Tim Cook has served his purpose. He did an amazing job for Apple. His taking a 40% cut from his pay salary doesn't do anything good to us. How about stepping down and letting someone else run for a year? Someone with a clear product vision instead of just worrying about 💰 and cutting corners. Steve Jobs himself said; "We don't offer strip-down lousy products".

Please let someone else run Apple with a product person's vision.

OK, but the question is what makes it a lousy product? Unless you're buying the top end of every Mac, you are getting a lesser something. If you're not buying the M2 Max, you're getting a cut down GPU. If you're buying the MacBook Air, you're getting an inferior screen if you're buying the regular iPhone you're getting a whole lot of inferior components compared to the Pro. It has a camera lens straight up missing from the phone.

It's all about meeting a price point and will that product do what the customer wants. If Apple only sold the best, every Mac would cost $50,000+ and every iPhone would cost $2000+. The 512 GB SSD in my MacBook Air is slower than a 2 TB one. I don't care. I didn't want to spend that much money. The customer has the choice. If you want to buy the faster SSD it's available, maybe I don't need this and I want the cheapest. I'm going to buy the base M2 mini and SSD speed is not a consideration for me. It's going to be for browsing the web, and back ups, which will be done on an even slower external drive.

 

[redbeard331]

I wonder how these speeds compare to those of us still using the 2012 Mac mini with its ancient hard drive?

 

[russell_314]

It started!

I think Max tech is the Louis Rossman of Apple upgrades....

 

[Rix__Mix]

I hope Apple are ready for the massive amount of returned units and the bad press they are going to get from this.

I did suspect this of the base M2 model after previous Macbook Air NAND history. But gimping the base M2 Pro model is just something else, a so called 'Pro' model and not mentioning it anywhere on their product page...

There's no other way to see this as being dishonest and screwing over the customer.

 

[racerhomie]

Rene Ritchie rebuttal in 3, 2, 1 about how it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter for most tasks. Blackmagic has optimization issues, on macOS at least.On other speed test apps, mac's ssds are much faster.But even then the $100 reduction in price is excellent news for price sensitive markets like India where more developers need to develop for Apple platforms. For 90% of day to day activities this reduction in speed won't be seen. Only in Very large 100s of gig file transfers & drive longevity

 

[Kazgarth]

Wow even the 512gb version?

 

[compwiz1202]

Apple really is just a terrible company now. I mean I like their phones and tablets, but the examples of how they rip off the end users could go on and on and on. Just with this latest example, it reminds me of the base m2 macbook, which underperformed its m1 counterpart. Or even how this latest gen mac mini uses older hdmi standard, so you STILL can't get anything more than 60hz over hdmi. I mean this is supposedly latest gen, cutting edge? Apple is a joke now.

You guys hyped for those VR goggles? ROFL

They've been pulling crap since way back when they went from 64 128 256 to 64 256 512. They knew most couldn't get by with 64 anymore but could with 128, "forcing" to pay even more for 256

 

[gleepskip]

I think Max tech is the Louis Rossman of Apple upgrades....

Is there an echo in here or are you still spouting the same outrage?

 

[High IQ Person]

Is Apple using low quality trash Japanese SSD instead of the superior Korean SSD?

 

[4743913]

For 90% of day to day activities this reduction in speed won't be seen. Only in Very large 100s of gig file transfers & drive longevity

Linux ISOs?

 

[gusping]

According to the below video, the 512GB SSDs are faster (at least in terms of write speeds) in the new MBPs than the M2 Pro mini - 3,500MB/s vs 6000MB/s in the laptops. Pretty interesting if that is true, for the exact same SSD size. Need a more reliable source to confirm it though...

 

[gleepskip]

For 90% of day to day activities this reduction in speed won't be seen.

It takes 2 times longer to write and read a memory page, which will certainly happen often on the 8 GB base model. Your statement makes no sense.

 

[gusping]

Is Apple using low quality trash Japanese SSD instead of the superior Korean SSD?

For the money, there is no excuse for the 512+GB SSDs not to be full speed PCIE 4.0 drives. It is 2023 for crying out loud.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

While Jobs was jousting with the audience Tim was imagining what the margins would be if the new iPod was made out of wood.

You joke but Jobs did make these kind of cost cutting measures all the time.
IE: the sixth and seventh generation iPod classics both had lower quality DACs than the fifth and the 06 revision of the fifth generation.
The 06 MacBook Pros used reduced super drives compared to the PowerBook G4 before it.
The iPhone 3GS had its base storage cut in half from 16 down to 8 GB when its price was lowered in 2010.
The iPod touch always used lower quality panels than the iPhone.
The iPhone 4 had 300 hours of standby time… Which was lowered to 200 hours for the 4S.
The original iPhone had a 1400 mAh battery, while the second generation iPhone 3G had its battery cut down to only 1150mAh.
The list just goes on…

 

[High IQ Person]

For the money, there is no excuse for the 512+GB SSDs not to be full speed PCIE 4.0 drives. It is 2023 for crying out loud.

Japanese companies produce inferior junk for cheap prices and sell to penny-pinching companies like Apple.