M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: In contrast

Launched in March 2022, the Mac Studio promised excessive efficiency in a compact casing. Successfully a Mac mini on steroids, the Mac Studio aimed excessive with its efficiency, whereas nonetheless sticking to the idea of a small block of computing energy.

The Apple Silicon chip generations have flown by, with the most recent Mac fashions sporting an M4 chip. This can be a three-generation distinction, however the unique Mac Studio continues to be exhibiting its price to shoppers.

A brand new Mac purchaser in search of a Mac Studio might doubtlessly discover the most recent Mac mini to be a greater buy. Particularly in the event that they have been to speculate the same sum of money into the configuration.

Here is how a base M1 Max Mac Studio compares towards $1,399 of recent M4 Professional Mac mini.

When the Mac Studio was launched, it earned commentary of being a a lot taller Mac mini. In lots of respects, that is fairly true, however not anymore.

For a begin, it used the identical 7.7-inch by 7.7-inch rounded sq. footprint the Mac mini was identified for. Besides right here, it is over twice as tall, at 3.7 inches.

It is nonetheless made with an aluminum enclosure, although with an total package deal measurement tipping the size at 5.9 kilos.

To the rear Apple included a powerful number of ports as typical. Across the entrance, Apple included two extra ports, with the M1 Max together with a pair of USB 3 Kind-C connections whereas the Extremely used Thunderbolt 4 once more.

An SDXC card slot on the entrance additionally made it helpful for videographers and photographers.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: Entrance of the brand new Mac miniM4 Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: Entrance of the brand new Mac mini

The Mac mini, for the M4 and M4 Professional launch, has been given a substantial facelift. Its redesign features a a lot smaller physique, with a footprint of 5 inches sq. and a two-inch top.

This does make it much less flat and extra squat than earlier than, and could possibly be likened to a tiny Mac Studio.

Including to the comparability is the additional ports on the entrance of the Mac mini, borrowing the concept from the Mac Studio. These ports are USB-C with help for USB 3 speeds, so as much as 10Gbps.

One different large distinction is the sheer quantity of venting on the rear of the Mac Studio. It is a tall enclosure, so it made sense to benefit from the lesser-seen house.

There is no such thing as a such venting on the rear of the Mac mini, because it’s too small and occupied with ports. The venting is within the base, as typical.

There’s another uncommon change for the Mac mini, in that the ability button is now within the base of the system. Whereas this can imply you will have to choose up the Mac mini to energy it on, you possibly can nonetheless attain across the rear to energy the Mac Studio.

There’s clearly going to be a giant distinction in weight. The Mac Studio is available in at 5.9 kilos, whereas the M4 Professional Mac mini is a petite 1.6 kilos.

Powering the M1 Max Mac Studio was, because the identify signifies, an M1 Max chip. This consists of a 10-core CPU, utilizing eight efficiency cores and two effectivity cores.

It was paired with a 24-core GPU, although it was configurable to 32 cores in the event you wished. The 16-core Neural Engine, a staple of Apple Silicon, was additionally onboard.

The Media Engine was a giant attraction for video producers, because it provided hardware-accelerated H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes RAW playback. It had one video decode engine, two video encode engines, and a pair every of ProRes encode and decode engines.

The M4 Professional begins with a 12-core CPU, with eight efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores. That is already a greater mixture than the M1 Max, however you could possibly additionally get a 14-core model with two further efficiency cores.

The Neural Engine and Media Engine additionally make a return, with Apple boasting of triple the efficiency for Apple Intelligence processing.

The lower-core CPU has a 16-core GPU, however the upgraded model has a 20-core GPU accessible.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: A illustration of the M4 Professional chip

In relation to reminiscence, Apple began the Mac Studio at 32GB of unified reminiscence, with an choice to go as much as 64GB on the time of buy. Reminiscence bandwidth was additionally excessive, at 400GB/s.

The M4 Professional begins on the a decrease 24GB of unified reminiscence, with upgrades accessible to 48GB and 64GB, matching the higher restrict of the M1 Max Mac Studio. The reminiscence bandwidth of 273GB/s is not as excessive because the M1 Max, however it’s nonetheless an admirable effort.

As for what number of screens you possibly can drive, the M1 Max Mac Studio can take care of as much as 5 screens directly. That features 4 Professional Show XDR 6K screens at 60Hz utilizing USB-C and one 4K at 60Hz over HDMI.

The M4 Professional Mac Mini can take care of as much as three 6K-resolution screens at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and HDMI. Alternately, for a two-screen configuration, it may well do one 6K 60Hz display screen over Thunderbolt in addition to both an 8K 60Hz or 4K 240Hz display screen over Thunderbolt or HDMI.

We can’t immediately evaluate the M1 Max within the Mac Studio towards the M4 within the Mac mini, just because there are not any benchmarks. We do must largely abide by what Apple claims concerning the chip’s efficiency, and extrapolate from that.

Whereas it does have the M4, we can’t actually evaluate the Mac mini towards the iPad Professional.

For a begin, you’ll find higher thermal administration in a hefty Mac than you’ll in an iPad Professional, just because the latter is made to be skinny and never get too heat. For the reason that Mac Studio can do a greater job at cooling the chip, it may well additionally afford to make the chip run sooner for longer.

In brief, you possibly can anticipate the Mac efficiency of the M4 chip to outpace the iPad Professional’s model, and the M4 Professional to do higher.

Apple claims the CPU efficiency of the M4 is about 1.8 instances that of the M1 Mac mini, with 2.2 instances the GPU efficiency.

Whereas Apple would not supply a correct CPU comparability for the M4 Professional, we do know that it has extra cores, so the multi-core testing shall be even increased. It does say the graphical efficiency is twice that of the M4 chip.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: Single-core and multi-core benchmark forecasts

The M1 Mac Studio with M1 Max is listed as having a single-core rating of two,419, and a multi-core rating of 12,627.

We will estimate that the M4 chip’s scores could be 4,252 and 15,203 for single-core and multi-core respectively. The M4 Professional shall be even increased for the multi-core facet, and can in all probability be similar for the single-core check.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: Metallic benchmark estimates

For Metallic, the M1 Max Mac Studio manages an excellent 81,009 within the check listings. Primarily based on Apple’s claims, the M4 ought to attain about 72,000, and the M4 Professional about 144,000.

If Apple’s claims are correct, the M4 Professional Mac mini is extra highly effective than the M1 Max Mac Studio in relation to processing efficiency.

The Mac Studio with M1 Max begins with 512GB as an SSD, with configuration choices going as much as 8GB. The Mac mini follows the very same path with its storage choices.

For connectivity, the Mac Studio has 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports together with 4 Thunderbolt 4 connections, a pair of USB 3 Kind-A ports, HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Because it was anticipated for use in skilled environments, it additionally shipped with 10Gbps Ethernet as commonplace.

On the entrance, the M1 Max has the SDXC card slot and two USB 3 Kind-C ports. The M1 Extremely model gives two Thunderbolt 4 ports as an alternative.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: the rear ports on the M4 Professional Mac mini

The M4 Professional Mac mini has a trio of Thunderbolt 5 ports to the rear, providing double the throughput of Thunderbolt 4, you probably have the equipment to make use of it. The rear additionally has HDMI and Gigabit Ethernet, with the latter upgradable to 10 Gig.

To the entrance are two USB 3 Kind-C ports. Nevertheless, there is no reminiscence card slot on the entrance, however there’s the headphone jack.

For wi-fi connectivity, Apple consists of Wi-Fi 6, in addition to Bluetooth 5.0 for equipment within the Mac Studio. The M4 Professional has Wi-Fi 6E help and Bluetooth 5.3.

In relation to audio, the each fashions have the headphone jack with help for high-impedance headphones. There’s additionally HDMI multi-channel audio help, so you possibly can drive sound by way of a monitor.

There is a built-in speaker in every, which is usable in a pinch, however exterior choices are all the time higher.

The M1 Max Mac Studio in its base configuration with the 24-core GPU, 32GB of unified reminiscence, and 512GB of storage, price shoppers $1,999 on the time of launch. A savvy shopper can get the identical configuration for round $1,400 if they appear in the appropriate locations.

M4 Professional Mac mini vs M1 Max Mac Studio: A Mac Studio on a desk

The M4 Professional Mac mini begins at $1,399, and consists of the 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of unified reminiscence, and 512GB of storage.

Upgrading to the 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU is $200. Reminiscence upgrades price $400 to get to 48GB and one other $200 to get to 64GB.

Storage upgrades from 512GB begin at $200 for 1TB, one other $400 to get to 2TB, one other $600 for 4TB, and an additional $1,200 for 8TB.

Upgrading the Gigabit Ethernet to 10-Gigabit Ethernet prices $100.

The introduction of the Mac Studio provided shoppers the perfect of each worlds. They might have the huge efficiency of what you could possibly get in a Mac Professional, however in a type issue that was very near the Mac mini.

With the introduction of the M4 Professional Mac mini, it is now doable to get M1 Max Mac Studio efficiency in an excellent smaller package deal.

In fact, there are some compromises, corresponding to a barely smaller port choice attributable to bodily constraints. However one thing like that may simply be handled utilizing a Thunderbolt dock.

As soon as once more Apple is offering the efficiency of a bigger product within the format of a a lot smaller one. The truth is, its smallest Mac ever.

For M1 Max Mac Studio house owners, the M4 Professional Mac mini offers a hefty efficiency bump, with out dropping an excessive amount of within the course of. For anybody else contemplating selecting up the M1 Max Mac Studio for affordable efficiency, the M4 Professional within the Mac mini ought to make them rethink.

The 2024 M4 Mac mini is out there to buy at Apple resellers, with Adorama knocking as much as $50 off the brand new fashions with promo code APINSIDER. The APINSIDER code additionally knocks $20 off three years of AppleCare for the brand new Mac mini. Yow will discover a breakdown of the gives in our M4 Mac mini Worth Information.

The M1 Max Mac Studio, in the meantime, is accessible on eBay — with many models in brand-new situation.