I’m sure the M2 Mac mini blows any $599 Intel based PC out of the water. If I’m wrong about this, please post some benchmarks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Devious marketing of M2
- Thread starter MacsAre1
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple is more interested in you buying a new computer (or phone) then having you upgrade what you already own. We saw the progression of Macs being more appliances, years ago. Now with the ARM based macs, there's not much to do other then replace the product
The M1 series also draws its lineage directly from Apple's A series phone processors, so that philosophy can be seen, low power, battery life mentality. This works great for Apple's laptop line, not so much for desktops.
This is exactly my gripe with the iPad, it is absurd powerful and runs iPadOS...
Rumors are swirling that apple may have macos running on an iPad.
I agree though, I have an iPad Pro (M1) and after buying it and using it. I'm left scratching my head, there's so much horse power but I can only scratch the surface of it. Don't get me wrong, its a great tablet, but I could have gotten away with something much much less powerful (and less expensive).
Yeah, not only are most games still played at 1080p the top sellers are still GTA and Minecraft.
Seems compatible spec wise on a sheet of paper, but there are others to consider. When you had that Dell how hot did it get and because of the heat I know for sure you were not able to even get sustained performance, because at my job we also use these similar machines but a little newer and I know mine lags quite often as the laptops/desktops that are needed to run certain applications are more beefy to handle it. I won't go into the build quality and other stuff since this is just a spec comparison because you've got the length of customer support also and plenty of others. You also have how both systems handle RAM differently which will also be noticeable especially when comparing something with 8GB of RAM.
So laptop vs laptop the M2 you will get your speeds even while unplugged since windows is defaulted to throttling the performance, and most people don't change this especially those buying the "best selling PCs". A lot of these cheap plastic laptops are not really worthy imo of being laptops because they will burn the crap out of you. I will also throw in the battery life in there because specs and battery life kind of go together. Basically yes you are right they do compare at face value, but are they really nearly equal?
Agreed. Best selling computers are i3s or i5s AT BEST. My parents and grand parents don't need anything more than an i3 for their work.
Yep. I am done with PCs with my 3080 Ti and 10th gen i9. Things are just getting hotter and more expensive. I am not dealing with water cooling and Noctua can only keep things cool for so long. I am already pushing 1000 watts with my current setup, let alone the newer hotter chips and 40 series requiring more than my 3080 Ti did.
And the funny thing is? Part of my workflow is SO MUCH FASTER on even the base M1 Mac mini its ridiculous. M* processors are more than just CPU core and speeds. Yes the media encoders are a great benefit to me and it allows a base $799 system to beat out my $4,000 PC custom built. Benchmarks, however tell a different story which is why I don't like people relying so heavily on benchmarks lately.
That word "appliance" caught my eye; I was reading an article on ArsTechnica about the Lisa and it's in there too (emphasis mine):
The article is linked here: Revisiting Apple’s ill-fated Lisa computer, 40 years on
People buying a Mac tend to be past Mac users. So a comparison to a PC isn't all that important.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.
Apple's performance comparisons to Windows PCs continue to be hilarious and ridiculous
The fruit company just can't help itself, can it?www.windowscentral.com
It gets highlighted on a Windows website because they want the high $ value clicks from people who can actually afford a Mac.
~80% of all PC units shipped globally have a MSRP below base Mac model prices.
Damn its crazy that you just discovered that marketers existSome 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.
Apple's performance comparisons to Windows PCs continue to be hilarious and ridiculous
The fruit company just can't help itself, can it?
Half buying Macs are prior Mac users. Half are folks that haven’t owned a Mac before. Some I would assume haven’t owned anything and some owned PC’s.
At the end of the day they're buying a newer computer that has better performance per watt than any and all old computer.
Mac mini also has a target demo that isn't the OP.
Agreed, it’s just that they don’t “tend to be” prior Mac users anymore. They’re just as likely to not own a Mac. I think this is a powerful point as there are 10-15 million folks a year that look at the computing landscape and choose Macs.
Odds are they're professional users or high end consumers.
People on budgets tend to buy cheap Windows PCs.
It’s Possible. I imagine there could be a lot of professional users and high end consumers that have never used a Mac before.
Mac minis make good office computers. That is most probably the reason that it was compared with the "best selling windows computer". It is probably harder to compete to a tower, but if space is important, it is much better than any i5/ryzen 5 mini pc. And most probably muuuch quieter.
Yeah totally true. There are many reasons to get a mac right now apart from dedication to macos or apple's ecosystem. I myself hated macs before, but when I saw how energy efficient the m1s were I jumped on and got an M1 air and I have been so much enjoying the silence since. Higher end tower desktops are another story, but no pure performance benchmark can convince me that there is any laptop or mini-desktop worth buying right now other than mac. Never going back to laptops who sound like jet engines and their battery will not last more than one hour when you do anything remotely demanding.
Not true, poor people yearn for status symbols and are more likely Apple customers. Whereas rich people like to think they are super smart because they bought a cheap Windows PC. All the unemployed I know are iPhone Pro users.
I agree with you. Worldwide & not just on the forums & your hometown 80% Macs & 20% x86 in the price bracket of $999 & higher
Correct. I listen for that with every event they have and it’s been pretty consistent for years. This is part of the reason why it appears that Apple isn’t as focused those who have been Mac users for a long time and dissatisfied with the current state of the Mac. In the, say 6 years since that long time user hasn’t bought a Mac, there’s likely been 1, 2, or more NEW persons per year that never used a Mac before that has bought one. That new user isn’t as focused on, say, legacy 32–bit apps, as they don’t have any. They don’t care much about upgrades because no Mac they’ve ever owned have had upgrades, etc.
When Apple STOPS saying it, it’s likely because it’s no longer true and mainly already Mac users are buying Macs. Not exactly the beginning of the end as it could always turn around But, if they consistently don’t mention it… then if only folks that have owned Mac are buying Macs, there will come a time when those Mac users won’t really be in any condition to buy more new Macs… eventually.