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So Mac mini with M2 Pro vs Max studio with m1 max

philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
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Howell, New Jersey
So I get a veteran discount on the new Mac mini with M2 pro

Apple M2 Pro with 10‑core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32gb ram
1tb ssd

cost me 1709


studio same discount of ten percent.

Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
32gb ram
1tb ssd

cost me 1979


Looks like a close one what should I get?

They have the exact same amount of ports.

I could likely buy the new mini with 16gb ram and be just fine with that. I used 32gb to keep the specs closer.

If I drop to 16gb ram the cost is only 1349 for the new mini.
I do not use tons of ram in general.
The 1tb ssd is needed
pretty sure either gpu will do.
 
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What type of work you do ?

Are you ok with 32 GB of Ram and lower GPU ? Get the M2 Pro Mini … it’s a no brainer.

Do you need more ports, 64 GB of Ram, better GPU ? … with a slightly less capable CPU (we need to wait and see exactly how they compare though) … get the specd up Mac Studio (64gb Ram, 32c GPU)

Do you need the ultimate performance ?
Aim for the Mac studio Ultra or wait for the Mac Pro (if you think you’ll have the cash for the mac pro territory)

PS: Get the 10 GB network for the Mini, for 100$ it’s worth it. Maybe you will add a 10Gbe NAS down the road.
 
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philipma1957 said:
So I get a veteran discount on the new Mac mini with M2 pro

Apple M2 Pro with 10‑core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32gb ram
1tb ssd

cost me 1709


studio same discount of ten percent.

Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
32gb ram
1tb ssd

cost me 1979


Looks like a close one what should I get?

They have the exact same amount of ports.

I could likely buy the new mini with 16gb ram and be just fine with that. I used 32gb to keep the specs closer.

If I drop to 16gb ram the cost is only 1349 for the new mini.
I do not use tons of ram in general.
The 1tb ssd is needed
pretty sure either gpu will do.
Click to expand...
This is a great question. Given that you spec'd them with the same RAM and SSD they are very close in price.

I'm curious what others have to say regarding this.
 
I’m in a similar situation comparing similar options with the only difference from the specs above and what I would like to get is 4TB vs the 1TB.

If you skip the 10GB Ethernet on the M2 Pro Mac Mini the prices are $2899 vs $3199. Add in 10GB Ethernet and the price difference is only $200.

For me, the question comes down to smaller form factor, WiFi 6e + BT 5.3 (M2 Pro Mac Mini) vs 2 additional USC-C ports plus SD card slot. I would imagine overall the performance will be fairly similar in many respects.
 
philipma1957 said:
I could likely buy the new mini with 16gb ram and be just fine with that. I used 32gb to keep the specs closer.

If I drop to 16gb ram the cost is only 1349 for the new mini.
I do not use tons of ram in general.
The 1tb ssd is needed
pretty sure either gpu will do.
Click to expand...

Personally, with the above being said, I would go for the $1349 configuration and save a good chunk of cash. Use it for extra storage beyond 1TB, AppleCare+ or just to keep in your wallet. If your usage calls for 32GB+ RAM that's one thing but it seems like the important spec here is the storage.
 
fwiw, if you are military, fire, police, or first responder, check out id.me as it will give you a connection to Apple for that discount.
 
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Id go with cheaper option.
And since you mentioned that you will probably go with 16GB, I see no point in comparing it to Studio since Studio doesn't come with 16GB option, so the price gap isn't 270$, it's much more in real life.
 
It comes down to CPU vs GPU performance. Which do you need more of? If its GPU then the Studio will be better if its CPU tasks the M2 pro will be quicker.

The difference between the M1 Pro and M1 Max is GPU, The M2 Mac mini in its binned base config comes with a 16 core GPU whereas the base Studio config comes with a binned 24 core. Even upgrade the pro to the non binned version you are getting 19 cores so the studio will be quicker but im not sure whether they have clocked the GPU too so it could be close.

The M2 pro in its binned config has the same core counts as the M1 Max but these are higher clock speeds so it will probably be a little quicker than the M1 Max. The M2 Pro in its non binned config has 2 more cores so it will be quicker than the Studio.

The other things are down to testing, the Mac mini enclosure is a lot smaller and as these chips are 5nm they have just given them a tune up so they will run hotter so there could be an element of thermal throttling maybe not but the Studio has no issues with thermal throttling as it has a much beefier cooling solution.

Other things to consider are usability. Amount of screens, 10gb ethernet, 2 or 4TB ports and with the studio 2 extra USB C the built in SD card reader. Bluetooth 5.1 and wifi 6e are big upgrades in the Mac mini but depends if you use wifi or ethernet but bluetooth 5.1 the Mac mini has struggled big time in the past with signal strength and a lot of people have struggled with reception and glitches with peripherals.

In the grand scheme of things even the M1 Pro is like 60%+ faster than the old fastest intel equivalents.

I have a 2020 full spec i9 iMac and use that professionally for graphic design, 3d modelling, video editing, illustration, photography the whole shebang really and it still feels very fast. The M1 Pro is faster than the i9 in this machine so the m2 pro will be more than adequate for even relatively serious tasks. I also love the screen I hate that the studio display is £1500 on its own.

I also have the 8 core M1 8 core GPU 16gb and 1tb ssd MacBook Air which I love and I can get away with doing my work on that. Ram is the main limiter for me I max it out a lot and even the 64gb in the iMac I max out. That would be the area if I was buying one that I would spend the money, or buy enough SSD for the swap to happen but honestly for me I would rather have more ram than rely on swap memory. It depends what your doing some of my indesign projects can take 16gbs on their own then if you have other things open like photoshop and Lightroom and making a 3D product sample in dimensions it will hammer the ram.

Thats the one thing on the apple silicon stuff that I need to pay attention to what I have open to maximise the speed especially if you are editing video off the internal SSD as 1TB isnt very big, one 4k project could be 6-800gb leaves 200 for the OS and the swap and if it cant swap then the swap won't work.

Probably not worth worrying about for the day to day but if using for pro usage it is worth considering. I would say my work flow isnt too taxing but on the higher end of the scale.

For day to day even the base m1 mini will run circles around most things so I think it's relatively arbitrary now as a machine that isnt taxed too much.
 
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philipma1957 said:
If I drop to 16gb ram the cost is only 1349 for the new mini.
I do not use tons of ram in general.
The 1tb ssd is needed
pretty sure either gpu will do.
Click to expand...
The extra SSD adds the same whether you get the Studio or Mini, so that's not an issue.

If you don't even need the 19 core GPU option or 32GB RAM, then I'd say that makes the Mini a no-brainer unless there are other features of the Studio that you like. You might even want to consider the regular M2 Mini.

However - just to point out that there's a difference in CPU cores too: The M1 Max is 8 performance cores + 2 efficiency cores, the "binned" M2 Pro is 6 performance cores + 4 efficiency cores... but remember that extra cores don't automatically make the machine faster, you have to be using software that is heavily multithreaded - and the fact that the M2 CPU cores are somewhat faster at single core could still make the difference.

Then there are things like the extra front USB-C ports and card reader on the Studio (which you may or may not find valuable) and the M1 Max supports more displays (but the M2 Pro display supports 2 full-res displays over TB/USB-C plus a 4k over HDMI which is a great improvement over the M1 Mini and will be fine for most people).

If you're actually considering the Studio - my guess is that the full-spec M2 Pro Mini is going to beat the base model on many types of "real world" application tests (as opposed to artificial benchmarks that are designed to use all available CPU and GPU cores) but probably not by a "game changing" margin. If you were running tasks that actually do light up all of the GPU cores on a 24 core Max then you'd probably do better spending the extra $200 to get the 32-core-GPU Studio which will probably beat the M2 Pro on those tasks. Sounds to me, though, like you're in the camp that needed something between the M1 Mini and the M1 Max Studio, and the base (+1TB) M2 Pro Mini pretty much fits that bill.

Personally I'd wait to see some "real" reviews and application benchmarks. Noise is another question - the Studio isn't completely silent but (unless you're unlucky and get a whiney one - in which case get it replaced) is very quiet and rarely, if ever, revs up the fans to noticable levels (c.f. my old iMac which was dead silent at idle, but got much louder whenever it had to think hard). Will be interesting to see how the M2 Pro Mini compares.
 
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tomscott1988 said:
It comes down to CPU vs GPU performance. Which do you need more of? If its GPU then the Studio will be better if its CPU tasks the M2 pro will be quicker.

The difference between the M1 Pro and M1 Max is GPU, The M2 Mac mini in its binned base config comes with a 16 core GPU whereas the base Studio config comes with a binned 24 core. Even upgrade the pro to the non binned version you are getting 19 cores so the studio will be quicker but im not sure whether they have clocked the GPU too so it could be close.

The M2 pro in its binned config has the same core counts as the M1 Max but these are higher clock speeds so it will probably be a little quicker than the M1 Max. The M2 Pro in its non binned config has 2 more cores so it will be quicker than the Studio.

The other things are down to testing, the Mac mini enclosure is a lot smaller and as these chips are 5nm they have just given them a tune up so they will run hotter so there could be an element of thermal throttling maybe not but the Studio has no issues with thermal throttling as it has a much beefier cooling solution.

Other things to consider are usability. Amount of screens, 10gb ethernet, 2 or 4TB ports and with the studio 2 extra USB C the built in SD card reader. Bluetooth 5.1 and wifi 6e are big upgrades in the Mac mini but depends if you use wifi or ethernet but bluetooth 5.1 the Mac mini has struggled big time in the past with signal strength and a lot of people have struggled with reception and glitches with peripherals.

In the grand scheme of things even the M1 Pro is like 60%+ faster than the old fastest intel equivalents.

I have a 2020 full spec i9 iMac and use that professionally for graphic design, 3d modelling, video editing, illustration, photography the whole shebang really and it still feels very fast. The M1 Pro is faster than the i9 in this machine so the m2 pro will be more than adequate for even relatively serious tasks. I also love the screen I hate that the studio display is £1500 on its own.

I also have the 8 core M1 8 core GPU 16gb and 1tb ssd MacBook Air which I love and I can get away with doing my work on that. Ram is the main limiter for me I max it out a lot and even the 64gb in the iMac I max out. That would be the area if I was buying one that I would spend the money, or buy enough SSD for the swap to happen but honestly for me I would rather have more ram than rely on swap memory. It depends what your doing some of my indesign projects can take 16gbs on their own then if you have other things open like photoshop and Lightroom and making a 3D product sample in dimensions it will hammer the ram.

Thats the one thing on the apple silicon stuff that I need to pay attention to what I have open to maximise the speed especially if you are editing video off the internal SSD as 1TB isnt very big, one 4k project could be 6-800gb leaves 200 for the OS and the swap and if it cant swap then the swap won't work.

Probably not worth worrying about for the day to day but if using for pro usage it is worth considering. I would say my work flow isnt too taxing but on the higher end of the scale.

For day to day even the base m1 mini will run circles around most things so I think it's relatively arbitrary now as a machine that isnt taxed too much.
Click to expand...
True…it looks like it comes down to what the user needs more: CPU power or GPU power.

Out of all of the haze with trying figure out what is needed to buy vs. cost, including desire or just plain “want”; one thing seems to help this time when deciding:

Looks like finally Apple is letting us piece together upgrades and decisions based on what you use the computer for, instead of forcing you to upgrade (cost) just to be able to do one thing.

So you buy the machine with the configuration that is needed for what tasks you need. Like video, graphics, audio, each can have a different configuration and cost and get the job done well.
 
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loby said:
True…it looks like it comes down to what the user needs more: CPU power or GPU power.

Out of all of the haze with trying figure out what is needed to buy vs. cost, including desire or just plain “want”; one thing seems to help this time when deciding:

Looks like finally Apple is letting us piece together upgrades and decisions based on what you use the computer for, instead of forcing you to upgrade (cost) just to be able to do one thing.

So you buy the machine with the configuration that is needed for what tasks you need. Like video, graphics, audio, each can have a different configuration and cost and get the job done well.
Click to expand...
Agree, although I think it's hard for people to know what they need. While people have an idea based on what they do or may do, it's still (as it's always been) difficult to know if the chip –and worse, the memory– you buy is going to be sufficient without causing issues. This often means people either underbuy (thinking it will be fine) and then run into annoyances, or completely overbuy (just in case) and waste money on power they didn't need.
 
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"Imi waiting for the m2 Studio myself"

Since the Studio is still relatively "fresh", I'm thinking Apple may not release an m2 version.
Instead, they may skip ahead and release an updated m3x Studio when the m3 CPUs come along... sometime in 2024...
 
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Highly likely in the autumn they'll almost certainly have to update the Studios to M2 Max (& Ultra) for probably the same prices as current ones (recessionary times we're in), given Apple must surely realise everyone knows they clearly have the whole M2-series chips ready to go given the laptop MBP's have at least the Max. If they don't they'll obviously suffer large numbers of buyers just waiting it out until they do.

Mac Pro I think they'll have to finally ship in between (c. WWDC) for the handfuls of buyers who can afford them (min. $8k, up to $60k!) using maybe an M2 Duo Ultra/Quad Ultra, as that two year 'transition period' is well overdue by now.

Hence why they're chucking stuff like the Mini's and Homepod out so early in the year, to give a space for everything throughout the year.
 
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loby said:
True…it looks like it comes down to what the user needs more: CPU power or GPU power.

Out of all of the haze with trying figure out what is needed to buy vs. cost, including desire or just plain “want”; one thing seems to help this time when deciding:

Looks like finally Apple is letting us piece together upgrades and decisions based on what you use the computer for, instead of forcing you to upgrade (cost) just to be able to do one thing.

So you buy the machine with the configuration that is needed for what tasks you need. Like video, graphics, audio, each can have a different configuration and cost and get the job done well.
Click to expand...
Also keep in mind that Studio with Max has 2X the memory bandwidth of the Mini even if it's specced with the top M2 Pro chip possible.

Additionally we don't know how loud Mini will get compared to studio, although considering how quiet current MBPs are it shouldn't be super loud.
 
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I am in exactly the same position as the OP.

I am into amateur music production using mainly Ableton Live and I am currently still using a 2009 4,1 MacPro (flashed to 5,1) running High Sierra with 32 GB of Ram, so I need to upgrade at some point :D.

Torn between the M2 Mac Mini Pro and the Studio. I believe that the CPU is more important for me than GPU (although GPU based audio VSTs are slowly being rolled out) so I will wait until the Mini is released and tested to see how it compares.
 
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The conclusion I’ve come to (which isn’t much consolation) is once a Mac Mini configuration matches a Mac Studio’s price, the Studio is the “better” choice. (At least for me).
 
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I've been looking at the GPU differences between the pro M2 and Max M1 and the 16gb 19 core Pro looks to be similar in a metal score in geekbench of around 52000 as the 24 core Max.
 
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It’ll be interesting to see the reviews in regards to noise and cooling. Visually, the cooling system seems to be the same as in the 2018 Intel mini. The Intel mini was listed with a max. power consumption of 122W iirc.

Also iirc, the 2018 mini cooling system was designed for a maximum of 150W. Now the new M2 mini is rated for 150W (and the M2 Pro even for 185W).

Thus either the cooling system has been made more powerful within the same restricted conditions of the unchanged mini case, which usually means it’s louder. Or it is unchanged, so the mini runs hotter and/or louder. Already the 2018 mini with its cooling system was neither cool to the touch nor silent, when under load for prolonged periods of time.

Therefore imho chances are that the Studio keeps cooler and more silent under load (and only under load the performance differences could be noticeable in the first place). Also, the Studio has a second internal SSD connector, where eventually someone might find a way to add SSD’s and make them usable in MacOS.
 
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Pete_202 said:
The M2 Pro is slightly heavier at 2.8 pounds vs the 2.6 pounds of the M2.
Click to expand...

Case dimensions also appear to be very slightly different. It seems unavoidable that there is a new cooling system in the new device even if it’s just a higher flow fan.
 
Fishrrman said:
"Imi waiting for the m2 Studio myself"

Since the Studio is still relatively "fresh", I'm thinking Apple may not release an m2 version.
Instead, they may skip ahead and release an updated m3x Studio when the m3 CPUs come along... sometime in 2024...
Click to expand...
The m1 MBPs were fresh too
 
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