Choosing a Mac for under $1400: Mac Studio vs Mac Mini vs iMac

[Dj64Mk7]

Hello! It’s been a really long time since I’ve asked for buying advice, but after years of trying and trying to make an iPad Pro work as my only computer, I’ve found that it no longer meets all my needs.

For context, my budget is $1400, and the computers I am looking at are the:

- Mac Studio (M1 Max, 10-core CPU, 24 Core GPU, 32GB RAM, 512GB SSD) ($1360)
- Mac Mini (M4 Base, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD) ($950)
- iMac (M4 Base, 8-Core CPU and GPU, 16 GB RAM. 256 GB SSD) ($1235)
- Mac Mini (M2 Pro, 16 GB RAM, 512GB SSD) ($800)

I like the M2 Pro and M1 Max just because my Satachi hub will work as is with both of them, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I also don't need to worry about supplying a keyboard, mouse, or display with either or those or the M4 Mini, since I already have those (but will need to supply them to WFH family if I don't get the iMac).

What will be using the computer for is as follows;

- Game capture/streaming (OBS, Twitch, and Discord)
- Communication and coordination with teammates (through Discord, at the same time as game capture/steaming)
- Editing videos/recordings and creating clips (through iMovie or Final Cut)
- Editing photos and graphic design for personal use (through Pixelmator)
- Telemedicine appointments and FaceTime with friends
- Writing essays, notes, emails for college and team stuff, browsing the web, scrolling social media, and watching YouTube
- Playing Steam games, or games like Stardew Valley or World of Warcraft
- Running Windows in a VM for games among other productivity tasks

Often, I'll be doing a number of these things at the same time, so multitasking is very important to me. I'll also be using my iPad for sidecar.

I'm particularly interested in M1 Max vs M2 Pro vs the base M4, in terms of multitasking ability, video processing speed, and game performance.

Any and all buying advice is appreciated, thanks!

 

[Basic75]

For that kind of multitasking especially with virtual machines you need RAM. I wouldn't get less than 32GB.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

All the machines you have there, will be sufficient for what you are doing. The Studio will be significantly better for World of Warcraft though, because of the much stronger GPU. It is an older machine now though. And I would recommend more than 16GB RAM.

Personally I would recommend you get an M4 Pro Mac Mini. It will be much faster than any of the machine you mention lasting you longer, you'll get 24GB RAM out the door, which is what I would recommend based on your usage, and it will be as fast in GPU as the M1 Max Studio. Also, it will be more modern as to what external peripherals it supports. And it costs that same as the M1 Mac Studio. I wouldn't pick the iMac, unless you really love small displays.

 

[ubinko]

I second the M4 Pro Mac Mini, specifically because you mention gaming capture. It will run games better than the other machines you mention and it's going to have better longevity compared to M1 or M2 models.

You also mention writing essays, notes, etc. Another reason to get an M4 machine - they are likely to handle Apple Intelligence more smoothly that the outdated machines.

The base M4 Pro Mac Mini will do you fine - you don't need to upgrade RAM or storage. I have one and it handles games and high resolution video editing with ease.

Look out for sales and discounts. I got one with 10% off over Black Friday. I'm sure there are deals to be had.

 

[Toutou]

All of the machines will have plenty of power for the other stuff, but please note that Mac gaming is still not quite there, and isn't even getting noticeably better, so maybe you should consider getting a separate machine for gaming if that's important to you.

Many older games don't work anymore, because of the 32bit apocalypse in Catalina. As for games that work, these range from exemplary support (games with ARM builds that use Metal for graphics, like WoW or Baldur's Gate 3) to titles that barely work, with x86 binaries running thanks to Rosetta 2 and OpenGL graphics.

Running games in a Windows VM is almost never a good experience, because of the double performance hit of the VM and the x86->ARM translation on the Windows side (remember you still need an ARM version of Windows). So that's mostly for older games.

Then there are compatibility tools based on Wine, like CrossOver (paid, doing well) or Whisky (free, AFAIK abandoned by the original dev), there are games that run wonderfully on them, and some that don't run at all.

 

[ubinko]

@Toutou makes a great point. @Dj64Mk7 - Are you intending to play specific games that you already know work well on mac? If not, PC might actually be a better option for your gaming needs.

From my experience, most mac compatible games in steam (that I own) run flawlessly, although I encountered some graphical bugs with one game (INSIDE) and for Dead Cells I couldn't get the controller to work, although I did solve that issue in the end.

 

[Fishrrman]

I agree about RAM -- 32gb. Nothing less.

You should be considering a 1tb SSD if you can work that into the picture.

Have you considered Apple Refurbished (if they have them where you are)?
More for your money that way.
I bought my 2018 Mini Apple Refurbished, still doing fine 6 years later.

Take your option 4 above (m2pro Mini).
Get it from the refurb store with 32gb of RAM and 1tb SSD.

This one is just a little over your budget, but close:

Refurbished Mac mini Apple M2 Pro Chip with 10âCore CPU and 16âCore GPU

M2 and M2 Pro scale up our breakthrough system on a chip (SoC) architecture, which combines the CPU, GPU, unified memory, and Neural Engine on a single powerâefficient chip. M2 brings a faster, nextâgeneration CPU and GPU to Mac mini, along with much higher memory bandwidth. M2 Pro delivers...

www.apple.com

It will do what you need, with "headroom" to spare.

(I didn't look further, buy they may have one with 512gb SSD that is closer to 1,400)

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

$1400 would buy a whole lot of PC to cover all of your tasks with abundant RAM and abundant SSD. It would also scratch all gaming wants natively vs. dealing with the overhead (slowdowns) within an emulator. Example with 32GB RAM + 1TB fast SSD with another open slot for another SSD if you want more inside (which can be third party, "at market" priced instead of super fat margin priced). That one comes with a laptop version of Nvidia 4070 graphics. And that's just one of many like it if you want to shop around.

You'd have to evolve away from Apple specific apps to do certain things but great video & photo editing apps run on PC too. OR, keep doing your FCPX and Pixelmator tasks on that iMac Pro and shift the rest of your work to PC.

What you need a lot of as shown by Apple people suggesting it in post after post is RAM & SSD. Apple charges steep premiums for both of those because they are the ONLY store for those in Mac. When you try to apply a hard-capped budget to buying a new computer with higher specs, you just about can't do that with Mac.

However, $1400 would easily buy plenty of both in a new PC with the flexibility to evolve if you get out there 6-8 years from now and realize you need even more of either... which will be much better for you than tossing the entire computer and replacing it with another (exactly what you are facing with that iMac Pro right now). For example, for video editing, plenty of fast SSD storage inside would be handy for you. The 4TB Apple SSD upgrade would cost almost your entire budget by itself ($1200 for only the 4TB upgrade alone). Or you could add 4TB fast SSD to the open slot in that Minsforum PC for under $200.

Or maybe buy it "barebones" and START with $200 4TB in 1 of the 2 slots so you can easily add much more storage inside later if you need more. Barebones could also let you shop around for competitive RAM prices to perhaps hop well beyond 32GB (that one can handle up to 96GB of fast DDR5 RAM). I'm seeing 96GB for about $250 (vs. an $800 upgrade for 96GB of Mac RAM from Apple) or 64GB for about $150 (vs. about $400 from Apple).

Apple is moving Mac towards budget-less buyers (no real cap on spending). I fully expect 3X-5X premiums like RAM & SSD storage to evolve into 4X-6X and then 5X-7X because apparently Apple people will just pay anything and because "another record quarter" seems to rule all. PC still has enormous competition and thus not towards 50% margin, so that more of the money you would spend on a PC, PC RAM and PC SSD is actually buying those products vs. flowing off to vault #177.

I've been an all Apple guy for about 24 years now but mixed in a PC when I went Silicon because I wanted full Windows vs. only ARM Windows. I've since (re)discovered that Windows is not nearly as bad as popularly spun by fans. And POWER vs. PPW generally translates to getting power-demanding tasks done faster vs. more power efficiently. The actual difference in power usage is relatively nominal. You probably wouldn't even notice a change to the electric bill.

Any and all gaming is going to be far superior with a PC instead of emulating one on a Mac. All those AAA games we keep waiting for in Appleland (that are almost certainly not coming anytime soon- if ever) are available yesterday on PC.