Not sure who needs to hear this, but the Mac Mini Base M2 CAN drive two 5k displays

[StatFlow]

I was always disappointed with the fact that to drive two displays on the M1 Mac mini, one of the monitors had to use HDMI and thus, compatibilities with 5K Displays like the studio display or Ultrafine 5k was finicky and lower resolution at best and flat out didn't work at worst.

I thought there really weren't any major differences between the base M1 Mac mini and base M2 Mac mini. And I know technically in the documentation somewhere on Apple's site it says that the M2 Mac mini supported two 4k+ displays simultaneously, but it wasn't clear on what specific ports could push what since I knew the base M2 MacBooks can't drive two displays.

Anyway, enough rambling. The point is that the base M2 Mac mini can indeed drive two 5K displays. I just plugged both of my Ultrafines into the two thunderbolt 4 ports on a borrowed Mac mini and it worked flawlessly, full resolution, Magic Keyboard can control volume and brightness, etc. This is legitimately game changing enough for me to sell my m1 Mac mini and buy an M2 for $499. Hope this information can help anyone looking into this.

 

[chrfr]

I thought there really weren't any major differences between the base M1 Mac mini and base M2 Mac mini. And I know technically in the documentation somewhere on Apple's site it says that the M2 Mac mini supported two 4k+ displays simultaneously, but it wasn't clear on what specific ports could push what since I knew the base M2 MacBooks can't drive two displays.

It’s covered in the technical specs page for the M2 mini. It can drive 1 display up to 6k over thunderbolt and a second display up to 5k/60Hz with the other thunderbolt port, or up to 4k over HDMI.
The M2 MacBooks can drive 2 displays total, but that includes the internal as one of them.

 

[Mac47]

That’s pretty sweet for a base model! I remember when I owned a 2013 Mac Pro, which was a $3000 machine, and was looking with envy at the then-new 5k iMac, because my Mac Pro couldn’t drive a 5k display at all.

Amazing times we are living in.

 

[joevt]

It’s covered in the technical specs page for the M2 mini. It can drive 1 display up to 6k over thunderbolt and a second display up to 5k/60Hz with the other thunderbolt port, or up to 4k over HDMI.
The M2 MacBooks can drive 2 displays total, but that includes the internal as one of them.

An LG UltraFine 5K uses 2 separate DisplayPort connections over Thunderbolt to achieve 5K60. This means the M1 Mac mini has 3 DisplayPort connections (1 for HDMI, and 2 for Thunderbolt) and the M2 Mac mini has 4. The extra DisplayPort outputs can only be used with dual tile displays like the LG UltraFine 5K or Dell UP2715K.

Intel Macs are different. They count the second DisplayPort connection of a dual tile display as a separate connection. The Mac mini 2018 has an Intel GPU that supports 3 DisplayPort connections, one for HDMI and two from Thunderbolt. An LG UltraFine 5K takes two DisplayPort connections from Thunderbolt leaving only one remaining from HDMI.