Unsure M4 or M4 pro with similar specs for Photo/Video

[ipoddin]

My current 2021 M1 14" laptop with 16gb of RAM and 1tb drive is starting to show some sluggishness, especially with Lightroom. I do a lot of RAW photo processing and also getting in to videography for Real Estate using Premiere Pro (but may switch to FCP). Apple will give me $850 to trade it in and I'm considering either the M4 or M4 Pro Mini.

Option 1 - $999

• Apple M4 chip with 10‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 32GB unified memory
• 256 GB SSD storage

Option 2 - $1,399

• Apple M4 Pro chip with 12‑core CPU, 16‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 24GB unified memory
• 512 GB SSD storage

With my trade in option 1 will only cost me about $150 and option 2 $550. I don't know enough about any differences in the RAM or SSD specs between the two options, so is it worth $400 more for the pro chip but less RAM for my use cases? I will likely need external storage anyway so the internal storage isn't an issue, and I archive files to a NAS. Thoughts?

 

[Gabebear]

Both are great, but also consider:

1. The M4-Pro's SSD is double the speed of the M4, which may or may not matter much to you. The M4 Mini can only use 2 NAND chips where Apple uses 4 chips on the M4-Pro. This might matter a LOT depending on your flow.
2. The M4-Pro's three rear ports are twice as fast as the M4(matters if you want faster external disks)

I agree on the 12‑core-CPU/16‑core-GPU version; the 14‑core-CP/20‑core-GPU is going to be perform identically for 99% of tasks.

 

[ipoddin]

Both are great, but also consider:

1. The M4-Pro's SSD is double the speed of the M4, which may or may not matter much to you. The M4 Mini can only use 2 NAND chips where Apple uses 4 chips on the M4-Pro. This might matter a LOT depending on your flow.
2. The M4-Pro's three rear ports are twice as fast as the M4(matters if you want faster external disks)

I agree on the 12‑core-CPU/16‑core-GPU version; the 14‑core-CP/20‑core-GPU is going to be perform identically for 99% of tasks.

Thanks for the additional info. I wasn't sure if there were differences in the specs for the ram and ssd. Double the speed for the ssd could be beneficial, unless I'm working off external drives. But if I am, then the faster rear ports would benefit for video and photo editing I would think.