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MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
154
Florida
They clearly said best selling. That most likely does not include the latest and greatest from Intel, and no reasonable person would think so, so no, just no. The premise for complaint is flawed

Intels latest and greatest are energy hogs and hot hot hot. Even though they are getting better, that is still the case.

Now I guess you could make your case by finding a link to a comparably specked pc. And could compare geekbench scores, weight battery life, price. And by all means make sure the SSD is fast and the display is comparable. Many times I have seen “comparables” that werent
What kind of display does your Mac Mini have? Is it built in by Apple?
 

uller6

macrumors 65816
May 14, 2010
1,072
1,778
Catia, Solidworks, Inventor, etc. Static modelers are dead. I think AutoCAD still exists for architectural draftsmen to use for legacy documentation, but when its 1960s ip rights expired, free clones started showing up and even Autodesk realized it was outmoded by parametric solid modelers & put out their own with Revit, which took over by about ‘07. …15 years ago. Still, I think they teach it to kids as an intro to cad, so it made sense when they put it out for Mac.

Adobe thankfully hasn’t entered the design & engineering software market, or we’d be stuck with the equivalent of illustrator, some outdated klunky 1980s program with twenty years of ill-fitting features poorly shoehorned in lol
Unfortunately, Adobe has entered this market: Adobe Inventor (windows only though) and it is a true **** sandwich.
 

MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
154
Florida
So if Intel compared their new cpu performance to a 3 year old cpu you would have the same opinion?
I would expect Intel to compare their new CPU performance with last year's CPU as well as AMD and maybe even Apple's ARM chips. The comparison serves to show how they stack against the competition, not simply the upgrade cycle. And comparing against a 3 year old chip would be irrelevant for Intel to do when showing performance improvements...assuming performance didn't go down the previous generation.
 

MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
154
Florida
Apple is comparing to a desktop of similar size/form-factor and to a point thermal envelope. It's not their fault Intel (and AMD for that matter) lag behind in that area, particularly in GPU strength. Why should Apple compare their small-form-factor desktop to a full-size tower? If you are looking for a non-arm comparison for the m2 mac mini the best one you are going to find is the last intel mac mini.
They could compare it to a G4 Cube if they wanted and it might be a similar form factor and thermal envelope and the numbers would look good. But it'd still be comparing against obsolete hardware. No one is asking them to compare with a tower, just with a current gen Intel CPU in the same class (12th gen might be OK since very few 13th gen machines available right now).

It is Apple's fault that Apple still sold a 5 year old computer as new until this week.
 
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MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
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Florida
They're comparing to themselves instead of comparing to the competition.
It's understandable and it's not "crap".
But for a consumer, the truth is, for a well informed decision, you also need to know what the competition is doing.

Basically what their marketing translates to is just how bad the old Intel Mac Mini was. Let's put it this way : it sucked.

A LOT.

I actually feel bad for anyone who purchased one since the M1 came out. It was almost criminal to sell a machine like this, especially for such a high price point.
Did you read the article? They compared the performance to a 3 year old Intel PC, I expect at the announcement as I couldn't find it on their website. But yeah, the fact they were still selling the old Intel Mini at such a premium is absurd.
 

neuropsychguy

macrumors 68030
Sep 29, 2008
2,692
6,672
compare...with a current gen Intel CPU in the same class
Okay, what Intel CPUs are in the same class as Apple Silicon? Power draw matters because TDP is absolutely a factor in the "class" of CPUs. We have to consider power draw because it's important to Apple. Apple could lift the TDP cap and design something that could eat 300W of power. The M2 has a max TDP of about 22 W (with the M1 around 20W). Which current gen Intel CPUs are in that same class and what's their performance like?

The upcoming top "same class" (close enough with a 15 W TDP but their max power draw is higher than Apple Silicon at 55W) CPUs are the U series. The top one is the i7-1365U but it's not out yet. You can look at the 1265U benchmarks (which are respectable).
 

MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
154
Florida
It's marketing that is their job to get you interested in the product, great you didn't fall for the hook but you are still looking at the product.

Are you going to buy one? Or just bitch'in because you want to be a squeaky wheel?
I'm on the fence. A few years ago I invested in an eGPU that I figured I could use with my next Mac. A bit upset that they don't have support in the ARM chips. Again and again I've tried to go along with Apple's way - but they always change the rules when they feel like it. Now, if they can convince me the M2 Mini is more powerful than an Intel machine they'd have my attention. But this sort of shenanigans does nothing to help. I might either buy a used 2018 Mac Mini (as it's still newer than my 2015 MBP and can still dual boot Windows for gaming plus run a current Mac OS), or build my own PC.
 
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leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,530
19,709
No one is asking them to compare with a tower, just with a current gen Intel CPU in the same class (12th gen might be OK since very few 13th gen machines available right now).

What is the current-gen Intel CPU in the same class? The 12900HK? 1280P? 12950HX? 12900T? Or even the 12900K?

No matter which comparison they choose someone will accuse them for being manipulative. Choosing to stay within the Mac models and compare to the outdated Intel Mac is as good of a choice as any.

I think what many critics seem to be missing is that Apple's marketing is not targeted at a tech enthusiast (or a more common wannabe enthusiast), but at the Mac users. This is not about your perception of "honesty", but about delivering an effective marketing message.
 
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MacsAre1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
115
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Florida
What apps did you use on Intel Macs under MacOS that you can't use now running through Rosetta?
I'm still running Mojave because I don't want to lose support for all my 32 bit apps! Then of course there are all the Windows apps that I can run via dual boot but likely won't run well if at all on ARM.
 
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PsykX

macrumors 68030
Sep 16, 2006
2,769
3,971
Did you read the article? They compared the performance to a 3 year old Intel PC, I expect at the announcement as I couldn't find it on their website. But yeah, the fact they were still selling the old Intel Mini at such a premium is absurd.
I did but I do not see such comparison on Apple's website. Either the article lies or Apple updated the page sometime in-between. They really compare it to the old Intel Mac Mini.
 
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MallardDuck

macrumors 68000
Jul 21, 2014
1,680
3,225
Some sneaky marketing on Apple's part... This article points out that they're comparing the M2 Mac Mini to an older computer (2 generations back) and claiming it's 5x faster than this "bestselling PC." That's pretty devious. How does it compare to a current gen Intel CPU of a similar price? Apple's ARM chips sound great, but if they fudge the numbers here, where else are they fudging the numbers? I'm not sure if I can believe them.

The Mac Mini page also compares everything with the i7 Mac Mini as the baseline... Which came out in 2018 with a year old Intel CPU (8th Gen)... So compared to 5 generations ago I'd expect anything newer to be faster. In their benchmarks they include an i7 iMac, which is from 2020 and uses a 3 generations old Intel chip from 2019. I'd expect any chip in the same class to be faster today than one from 3-5 years ago. Notably, on some of the functions listed the M1 Mini was slower than the i7 iMac. The M2 beats them all... So congratulations, the M2 is finally faster than a Mac from 2020. But how does it compare with its true competition, a current PC running on the latest Intel or AMD chipsets? You can tout nm all you want but if the performance isn't there, what's the point? Power usage is a big selling point for the laptops but few people care about power usage on a desktop.

Apple, cut the crap and give us some real numbers to compare you performance with the competition.

Everyone in the industry does this - cherry pick benchmarks. Mx is clearly the winner in performance per watt, but Intel/AMD/NVidia clearly win the raw performance benchmarks for high end models.

It's actually somewhat pointless to compare intel to Mx, because it's all about workload optimization. Want to run windows workloads? Run intel/amd/nvidia. Want to run mac workloads? Run Mx. Simple as that.

I do think that Apple makes too much hay about performance per watt though. Yes, I care about battery life. I also care about performance. I'd rather have a machine that's 30% faster and only gets 12 hours of battery life than one that gets 22.

The M2 seems like it was a contingency plan, and based on stories about the GPU meltdown, I think that's probably right. The M3 is my target for an upgrade from M1.
 

MallardDuck

macrumors 68000
Jul 21, 2014
1,680
3,225
What apps did you use on Intel Macs under MacOS that you can't use now running through Rosetta?
The Witcher and Witcher 2 don't run under Rosetta.

Anything else that needs serious GPU accleration doesn't run very well, especially if they weren't metal to begin with.

And of course, virtualization engines won't run intel guests on ARM chips. Totally expected, but it is a loss.

Rosetta is amazing, but it's not perfect.
 

bobcomer

macrumors 601
May 18, 2015
4,949
3,699
I'm still running Mojave because I don't want to lose support for all my 32 bit apps! Then of course there are all the Windows apps that I can run via dual boot but likely won't run well if at all on ARM.
I still run Mojave on my Mac Mini, and for the same reason. I don't dual boot, but I do use x86 Windows VM's. I really wish there was some kind of hardware solution to running a vm x86 Windows on my Mac Studio... :(
 

Alex Cai

macrumors 6502
Jun 21, 2021
431
387
It's not crap - Apple is basing comparisons on machines existing Apple customers are upgrading from.

As a 2018 Mini owner, having the new comparisons be baselined on the 2018 was exceedingly helpful. This is a machine that was still available in the store up until the M2 release, so comparing "what you could have bought yesterday" with what just came out is a valid thing to do.

The iMac comparisons are also deliberate. We've been waiting and speculating on an Apple Silicon 27" iMac for years. Apple publicly benchmarking the M2 Minis against the last Intel iMac is Apple's way of telling us a big AS iMac isn't coming anytime soon, and that a Mini + ASD is our path. That's valuable information regardless of the benchmark numbers. 👍
That’s nasty if Apple expected us to use mini + Studio Display together instead of a more inexpensive display. Just couldn’t find the point of having the best 5k panel but don’t have 144hz and charges you $1500+. the 24in iMac is $1299.
 

ApplesAreSweet&Sour

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2018
2,299
4,255
Some sneaky marketing on Apple's part... This article points out that they're comparing the M2 Mac Mini to an older computer (2 generations back) and claiming it's 5x faster than this "bestselling PC." That's pretty devious. How does it compare to a current gen Intel CPU of a similar price? Apple's ARM chips sound great, but if they fudge the numbers here, where else are they fudging the numbers? I'm not sure if I can believe them.

The Mac Mini page also compares everything with the i7 Mac Mini as the baseline... Which came out in 2018 with a year old Intel CPU (8th Gen)... So compared to 5 generations ago I'd expect anything newer to be faster. In their benchmarks they include an i7 iMac, which is from 2020 and uses a 3 generations old Intel chip from 2019. I'd expect any chip in the same class to be faster today than one from 3-5 years ago. Notably, on some of the functions listed the M1 Mini was slower than the i7 iMac. The M2 beats them all... So congratulations, the M2 is finally faster than a Mac from 2020. But how does it compare with its true competition, a current PC running on the latest Intel or AMD chipsets? You can tout nm all you want but if the performance isn't there, what's the point? Power usage is a big selling point for the laptops but few people care about power usage on a desktop.

Apple, cut the crap and give us some real numbers to compare you performance with the competition.

You are 100% right.

But this is essentially the same every time Apple puts out a new product: Vague and abstract graphs paired the infamous "x faster than machine x", "best in class", "best battery life ever" statements instead of just including the details and numbers that they base these statements on.

It's the same drama about the graphs every time.

But I can't be bothered trying to guesstimate what I'm actually about to buy. Instead I just wait for reviews or benchmarks and take it from there.

On a sidenote, I'm also sure that Apple is deliberately as vague as possible about the exact numbers for M2 because of how crippled the baseline configurations actually might be(weaker SSD for 256GB, maybe also weaker than m1 baseline RAM this year?).
 

apparatchik

macrumors 6502a
Mar 6, 2008
889
2,709
Some sneaky marketing on Apple's part... This article points out that they're comparing the M2 Mac Mini to an older computer (2 generations back) and claiming it's 5x faster than this "bestselling PC." That's pretty devious. How does it compare to a current gen Intel CPU of a similar price? Apple's ARM chips sound great, but if they fudge the numbers here, where else are they fudging the numbers? I'm not sure if I can believe them.

The Mac Mini page also compares everything with the i7 Mac Mini as the baseline... Which came out in 2018 with a year old Intel CPU (8th Gen)... So compared to 5 generations ago I'd expect anything newer to be faster. In their benchmarks they include an i7 iMac, which is from 2020 and uses a 3 generations old Intel chip from 2019. I'd expect any chip in the same class to be faster today than one from 3-5 years ago. Notably, on some of the functions listed the M1 Mini was slower than the i7 iMac. The M2 beats them all... So congratulations, the M2 is finally faster than a Mac from 2020. But how does it compare with its true competition, a current PC running on the latest Intel or AMD chipsets? You can tout nm all you want but if the performance isn't there, what's the point? Power usage is a big selling point for the laptops but few people care about power usage on a desktop.

Apple, cut the crap and give us some real numbers to compare you performance with the competition.


show me a 599 (499 edu) PC that performs better.
 

ApplesAreSweet&Sour

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2018
2,299
4,255
M2 Mac mini for $599 has no rival
Judging by the cost cutting measures Apple did for the 256GB SSDs in the baseline configurations of M2 Air and M2 13" Pro, I wouldn't be so sure about that just yet.

Apple is usually very deliberate about streamlining production to cut costs for all of its products.

Makes me doubt the 256GB SSDs in M2 minis will be different from the 256GB SSDs in M2 Air and 13" Pro.

But I hope I'm wrong.
 
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camotwen

macrumors member
Jul 10, 2022
85
71

orionquest

Suspended
Mar 16, 2022
871
791
The Great White North
I'm on the fence. A few years ago I invested in an eGPU that I figured I could use with my next Mac. A bit upset that they don't have support in the ARM chips. Again and again I've tried to go along with Apple's way - but they always change the rules when they feel like it. Now, if they can convince me the M2 Mini is more powerful than an Intel machine they'd have my attention. But this sort of shenanigans does nothing to help. I might either buy a used 2018 Mac Mini (as it's still newer than my 2015 MBP and can still dual boot Windows for gaming plus run a current Mac OS), or build my own PC.
Oh I get it this can never be said enough "Apple giveth, Apple take away".

Users can be caught with something and have it pulled from them, in the line up.
I find as a long time user of Apple hardware it's best to be very strategic. Never buy into a first year or version of a product, usually they fix or settle the hardware on the 2nd go around. Of course that depends if you can.

As for AS transition I wouldn't be in a rush to buy into it. Right now I can wait as all my needs are met with my ancient Haswell system, also running mojave, but it does everything I ask of it. Also because that missing AS MacPro in Apple's line up will be very telling what Apple will "allow" us to do and give us more of a complete sense of direction of the hardware, even if I don't need a MacPro it's more clear overall what can be done. I expect if you are allowed the "privilege" of expansion either in storage or GPU they may continue with the absorbent cost attached to it, or we all could be surprised and they offer something worth the wait.

Yeah I have a PC gaming system just for that, it's honestly the best solution. 1 thing the PC excels at very well and having access to Nivida GPU's is an a full Steam catalogue is a no brainier.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,617
8,639
Thanks for doing the homework on that. Exactly my concern. Apple's chips have better thermal performance, but are not more powerful than Intel. Hopefully we can soon compare actual scores of 13th gen Intel chips vs. M2 chips.
And, never will be across all cross-platform metrics. Anyone waiting for Apple Silicon to completely dominate Intel and AMD across the benchmark board will be waiting for a LOOOOONG time. Apple’s taken their customers outside that entire way of thinking, way of working and has reset what their customers can expect from a computer.
 

schneeland

macrumors regular
May 22, 2017
246
784
Darmstadt, Germany
I'm guessing it doesn't run hotter than hell by design, requiring a wind tunnel of a case, the finest noctua fans artfully placed in the correct positions, liquid cooling requiring pumps and large radiators or air coolers the size of a football, vapor chambers that fail, power connectors that melt, or drivers that melt the GPU.
Not to mention that you regularly need to feed it with human blood and chant dark incantations while booting up the system ;)

Apple's Mx chips are definitely great, but reading stories about Windows computers here at Macrumors feels like the only PCs people use are outdated corporate laptops with at least 3 antivirus programs, which run only marginally faster than a calculator.
 
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