Air or Mini for desktop?

[Lvivske]

I currently have a 2018 MB Pro with a LG 5k display and use the laptop open as my secondary display. My use case is 95% desktop and was about to get the Mini, but then realized I should sell my Pro and need a device for the other 5% and the $340 difference to upgrade to an Air seems better than buying a whole 'nother laptop or tablet

Is there anything I should know before I pull the trigger? External 5k displays fine with the Air? (my pro slightly lags when switching desktops for example). Is there any reason at all to get the Mini over the Air in terms of performance? (I plan on doing the thermal mod so last I checked benchmarks were identical)

Ports are fine, I only use the 1 USB-C on my MB Pro and the rest are in the back of my monitor anyway

 

[UltimateSyn]

Is there any reason at all to get the Mini over the Air in terms of performance?

Absolutely, yeah: the Mini has active cooling (a fan) and the Air does not. For sustained performance the Mini will trump the Air, and that's why I would recommend the Mini if your use case is going to include driving a 5K display 95% of the time.

 

[Toutou]

The "immediate" performance is identical between the Air and the Mini. If you're planning on doing the thermal pad mod, you're getting pretty much the same performance, but I personally wouldn't even bother. The machine only throttles noticeably after a few minutes of 100 % load and even then the difference isn't that tragic.

I would recommend the Mini if your use case is going to include driving a 5K display 95% of the time

I agree that 5K is a pretty large display, but only driving the display should not be a very significant load. My Air drives a 4K display all the time and the SoC is currently at 28 °C with some dev stuff open in the background. I don't notice any lag in Mission Control even when both screens are on, but then again, even the MacBook display and my monitor combined are slightly less pixels than your LG.

 

[thelookingglass]

I've got both the M1 MBA and the Mini. But, in retrospect, I'd be just fine with only the MBA. I'm not 100% sure on the performance with a 5K display, but I agree with Toutou above that it really shouldn't be an issue. You've got two weeks to test it anyway (assuming you're in the US).

 

[Lvivske]

does scaling the display affect performance? i always pick the 'More Space' option fwiw - which i guess means it has to render 6400x3200 (then scale down for retina) on the primary display, in addition to the laptop display as well

but the mac mini can push two 4k displays on the same chip (and im not talking gaming or any rendering) so i guess its all the same in the end?

edit: i guess the extra 1 GPU core on the Mini doesnt matter at all right?

 

[xraydoc]

does scaling the display affect performance? i always pick the 'More Space' option fwiw - which i guess means it has to render 6400x3200 (then scale down for retina) on the primary display, in addition to the laptop display as well

but the mac mini can push two 4k displays on the same chip (and im not talking gaming or any rendering) so i guess its all the same in the end?

edit: i guess the extra 1 GPU core on the Mini doesnt matter at all right?

The extra GPU core provides less than 10% improvement in GPU tasks. It's good if you want the best available performance but some people would rather budget more RAM than an extra GPU core.

The benefit the M1 mini has over the MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air is that it supports two external displays as opposed to just one external display on the laptops.

I'm finding the M1, even without active cooling in my MacBook Air, more than sufficient for my needs. It benchmarks faster than my big ass desktop PC with a 4.6GHz Intel i7-9700K.

 

[Mike Boreham]

edit: i guess the extra 1 GPU core on the Mini doesnt matter at all right?

In case you aren't aware, only the base model Air has the 7 core GPU...you can have 8 core with 512GB. (You can have the 7 core with 512 as well)

 

[Lvivske]

In case you aren't aware, only the base model Air has the 7 core GPU...you can have 8 core with 512GB. (You can have the 7 core with 512 as well)

yeah am aware, but wasnt interesting in paying for the SSD upgrade to 512, so was comparing 256/16gb mini vs mba in my case

 

[mr_jomo]

Both are really good using a 5K display for instance the LG Ultrafine, which I've used both on extensively.

If I were to render a verdict, I slightly prefer my 16GB mini on the desktop, it seems a bit faster and more responsive when working with many open documents and browser tabs. Most likely on account of the extra 8 GB memory.

Also, the macBook Air does get a little toasty when driving an external 5K display. Not alarmingly so, but does get warm to the touch.

 

[darngooddesign]

FYI. The 512GB SSD is 30%-40% faster than the 256GB SSD.

 

[Apple_Robert]

In my opinion, either model would work well for your usage. I have both Macs and my M1 MBA (with a dock) is my go to Mac.

 

[spiderman0616]

I know this won’t help, but we have both. I have the Air and my son has the mini. To me there is no discernible difference, and I’ve never once heard the mini’s fans kick on. Haven’t used it for anything crazy though.

 

[xraydoc]

Also, the macBook Air does get a little toasty when driving an external 5K display. Not alarmingly so, but does get warm to the touch.

Interesting. My Air doesn't get noticeably warm at all running my 4K display. Guess those extra pixels are pushing the limit.