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Yes I bought the 512GB Mac Mini M2 Pro stock model from Apple today, and it is limited also in its SSD speeds to just 3,000 MB/s read and write, instead of 6,000 MB/s on the 1TB models. Not as bad as the 1,500 MB/s speeds on the 256 GB models, but still a major disappointment! I now have to spend time and gas to take it back to the Apple store which is far from me.
Tom's Guide reports 5000 Read and 6000 Write on their M2Pro 1TB, and I found about 3000/3500, so maybe not as sigificant as one might think. It would be interesting to see what R/W speeds are for the M2 512GB and 1TB SSD, would expect slightly lower all things considered.
 
Memory paging. Every user does it, unless they are barely using their machines.
I understand the theoretical, I’m asking if it’s user perceptible.

I ask because I’m constantly trying to upgrade users at work anytime I see an 8th gen Intel. I keep getting shot down by users because it’s plenty fast *from their perspective*. Sometimes I’ll convince them to let me bump up the RAM, but there’s a huge gap between what us tech nerds see and what user’s experience. That’s what I’m getting at here, this is a huge thread because it boils the blood of tech people, when the audience for these devices *in these configurations* couldn’t give less of a ****. The Apple silicon devices are simply magic in their eyes regardless of these shortcomings.
 
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So the new MacBook Pro’s price increased by hundreds of pounds/dollars for features that should have been included in the first iteration (Wi-Fi 6E, BT 5.3 & HDMI 2.1) and an M2 chip - but have a slower SSD config…. I can understand it for the base line of products - but not for products with the ‘Pro’ nomenclature.
It just dawned upon me that this accounts for the new baseline "Pro" M2 Pro mini.

I thought I was dead wrong by saying the baseline $1999 M1 Studio was better value than the 12/19/16+32RAM+512SSD M2 Pro mini.

But if the 512GB SSD in the M2 Pro mini is 50% slower than the one in the M1 Studio then I might be right after all.

Very happy I didn't jump the trigger.

Always so many caveats with new Apple products. Embarrassing how much fine print you have to read to make a good purchase.
 
To all the people defending Apple's cheapskate move to penny-pinch on components to save a dollar or two (literally), there's a thing called PRINCIPLE. Apple isn't some cheap computer company known for low end, low performance products. I would say most people put them on a pedestal as a company that puts the best tech in their products.

Why won't Apple publicly say why they're choosing the cheap road on SSD implementation? They have a choice. They could have done what they did last generation but instead they KNEW by choosing only one NAND chip that performance would be drastically cut. THEY KNEW IT and did it anyway.

I guess these same people that don't see a problem wouldn't mind buying a new car with one less cylinder, thinner tires, cheaper headlamps, etc? I mean, most car buyers would never notice, right? Is that the yardstick we measure things by now?
 
8 GB of core is already painful for me on my M1 MBA when paging at 3,000 MB/s speeds. I can't imagine the experience after cutting that bandwidth in half.
Personally, I’d never buy an 8 GB RAM config to begin with. I’d rather save up a little longer and get what I want/need.

Can I ask what you’re doing and running? You might have been underspecc’d for your usage from the very beginning.

I don’t like that Apple offers these configs to begin with, but being in IT and seeing how acquisition works from the inside it makes total sense. You can get business class machines spec’d out with 128 SSD’s (though thankfully they’ve mostly moved as an industry away from SATA to NVME at least) and 8 GB RAM from any of the big name OEM’s. So you can see how Apple still plays in that space given how large reoccurring leasing programs will always be ordering “base” configs as their standard units. The higher end machines get orders too, but in much lower quantities every quarter because it’s overkill for *most* of the white collar workers they get deployed to.
 
To all the people defending Apple's cheapskate move to penny-pinch on components to save a dollar or two (literally), there's a thing called PRINCIPLE. Apple isn't some cheap computer company known for low end, low performance products. I would say most people put them on a pedestal as a company that puts the best tech in their products.

Why won't Apple publicly say why they're choosing the cheap road on SSD implementation? They have a choice. They could have done what they did last generation but instead they KNEW by choosing only one NAND chip that performance would be drastically cut. THEY KNEW IT and did it anyway.

I guess these same people that don't see a problem wouldn't mind buying a new car with one less cylinder, thinner tires, cheaper headlamps, etc? I mean, most car buyers would never notice, right? Is that the yardstick we measure things by now?
Principle isn’t a thing in capitalism. You’re confusing PR with the cold hard reality of what’s required due to the “law of big numbers” in an economic system that mandates *rising* revenue/profit per quarter.

It’s not the players, it’s the game…which in this case the players happen to be on the rules committee but that’s a larger topic…
 
512GB is single NAND for both M2 mini and M2 MBPs, or just for the 512GB minis?

I actually suspected this and speculated that this would make several of the M1 Macs significantly better value per dollar since you only get "full speed" for 1TB configurations of M2 Macs.

Sucks if you want to upgrade but only need a 256GB or 512GB model.

And what a neat way to force sales of those 1TB+ SSDs! 😫

Let's hope Apple quits this cheap scheme when we get to M3. But it's probably is just going to get worse considering similar feature/spec cutting for other base config Apple products.

Current 512GB:
Mini = single NAND
MBP = double NAND

Previously 512GB:
Mini = double NAND
MBP = quad NAND
 
So…the headline is false. The SSDs are not of a lower spec speed but their performance is less.

We can safely assume ongoing supply chain issues because it’s usually more expensive to put one big one in instead of two small ones.
 
So…the headline is false. The SSDs are not of a lower spec speed but their performance is less.

We can safely assume ongoing supply chain issues because it’s usually more expensive to put one big one in instead of two small ones.

There are no supply chain issues.

Micron has cut NAND production. Samsung has cut NAND production. Kioxia has slashed production. Sales have plummeted for the last few quarters due to recession.
 
Seems like the M2 and M2 Pro 512GB is similar to the M1 512GB Mac Mini but is not similar to the M1 Pro Macbook Pro 512GB which is double as fast..
 
We can safely assume ongoing supply chain issues because it’s usually more expensive to put one big one in instead of two small ones.
There's also something to be said about reducing unique parts counts in production. Apple buying one massive batch of 256GB NAND chips, which work in multiple machine configurations, could have worked out favorably over splitting the order between different sizes.
 
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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...

I just measured the M2 14" w 512 and I get appox 3500 write 2800 read - half what this guy got.
 
"Most people won't notice" is not a defense of what Apple has done, because the point of a scam or fraud is to avoid detection by the majority. Rather, the question is whether most people are getting what they think they are paying for. And it is reasonable for most people to assume that they are paying for a device in which EVERY component would have equal or greater performance than previous models.

In addition, IF most people do not notice, it is not because the difference is negligible, but because they are not constantly comparing, or they have nothing to compare to (for example, if they do not have the previous model, or if they are coming from a much older model). The difference is indeed noticeable for certain operations, such as transferring large files.
 
There are no supply chain issues.

Micron has cut NAND production. Samsung has cut NAND production. Kioxia has slashed production. Sales have plummeted for the last few quarters due to recession.
But for whatever reason, Apple seems to have entirely moved away from 128gb nand. And only purchasing 256gb nand. Which is what is causing this issue. So perhaps their are supply issues at apples scale for 128gb nand. Maybe they'll move next generation to 512gb (2x256) base for m3 and 1tb (4x256) base for m3 pro/max/etc.

I think the main issue is people see this synthetic benchmark of 3000 vs 6000 (on the new m2 max models, the old one were apparently more like 3900), and think oh no its half as fast - my computer will be half as fast. But its very unlikely in almost any work load on a m2 pro chip, that you would actually encounter a situation where you could observe this as an issue.

SSD speeds have really increased in the last few years. A quick look on google found this PC gamers experience of moving from a 500mbp/s SSD to a 2000mbp/s drive:
I personally used two types of SSDs. The older one was only about 480 Mb/s Write and 500 Mb/s Read. Still, an incredible speed while gaming. Now I’m using one from Adata: 1500 Mb/s Write and 2000 Mb/s Read. And I honestly can’t see the difference in loading times. Those are still great, but are they faster? Perhaps. Not by much though.

What actually matters is that the whole computer can take advantage of the drive speed, if not, the theoretical max speed of 6000 is meaningless. Which is likely the case on the m2 pro.

The cost for upgrading to 1tb is not expensive. It's not likely to be noticeable in practice. And means, they are able to offer a lower entry price point for the machines up and down their line. People act like Apple's alternative was to give away more storage for less, but, its apple, they dont really cut margins, the option for them was increase the base price, or do this.

I look forward to seeing the youtuber/website which has a real world demonstration of this effecting performance.
 
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