M2 Pro Mac Mini Specs: Up to 32GB of RAM, Up to Three External Displays, 240Hz Support, and More

[rtjstevens]

For those 'audiophiles' amongst us, is there any difference in SQ between the Studio and the new mac Mini?

Still trying to ascertain the best cost/benefit balance between the various options (inc a Studio). I come from a late 2015 27inch iMac.

 

[rhaezorblue]

The SSD prices are still highway robbery. You can literally get an 980 pro 1tb for 109 dollars right now and a 2tb for 179.99. Yet apple is charging 200 just to go from 256gb to 512gb with substantially inferior flash.

Yeah I would agree with you there about being highway robbery. Same for their memory upgrades. Going from 16GB to 32GB is $400? In what world? The Apple world.

 

[compwiz1202]

Yeah I would agree with you there about being highway robbery. Same for their memory upgrades. Going from 16GB to 32GB is $400? In what world? The Apple world.

But as long as consumers spit out whatever they charge, they have no reason to change

 

[MacCheetah3]

Any power specifications posted for idle power consumption for M2/M2 Pro mac minis? I only see the maximum energy specs…

Nothing (i.e., not updated) yet.

Mac mini power consumption and thermal output (BTU) information - Apple Support

Learn about the power consumption and thermal output of Mac mini computers.

support.apple.com

However, you can get a range/guesstimate using the Mac Studio consumption values:

Mac Studio power consumption and thermal output (BTU) information - Apple Support

Learn about the power consumption and thermal output of Mac Studio computers.

support.apple.com

 

[sdugoten]

I am not sold on the M2 pro mini. Just quick comparison with lowest spec you can get to match.

Mac studio base model with 32GB ram, 512GB ssd, 10GB ethernet

Mac mini M2 pro with 32GB ram , 512GB ssd, 10GB ethernet (I can't think of a reason not to get 32GB ram if you are buying M2 pro)

If you don't need 32GB ram, then most likely you don't need M2 pro as well, just get the M2 base model. The choice is really only base Mac mini M2 or Mac studio.

$200 bucks less but look at what you get from the Mac studio. Will take Mac studio any day.

 

[Hat Tric]

Any power specifications posted for idle power consumption for M2/M2 Pro mac minis? I only see the maximum energy specs…

As per: https://www.apple.com/environment/#reports-product

https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/Mac_mini_PER_Jan2023.pdf

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Lots of options are available for Space Gray Mac Mini. All Intel tho 😂

 

[aliasfox]

I think the interesting thing here about the M2 Pro Mini is there's now a Pro chip with 16GB of RAM, at a lower price than Apple's ever offered. This is important because while you can pretty much only get CTO options through Apple, you can get default configs through a variety of resellers, who will run discounts - meaning that one may be able to find a 16GB M2 Pro mini for around $1100 in a few months.

I don't think it's likely, but I hope this also means that the next-generation, entry level Studio gets something beyond 'big heatsink' as its Unique Selling Proposition. I'd like to see the differentiation be user-upgradeable storage and/or user upgradeable RAM (implemented as secondary RAM of some sort, after the on-chip fast RAM is full?), but I'm likely to see pork wings at the local bar before that happens.

And before people say it's impossible for Apple to offer RAM expandability on M series chips - I'm sure it's something they've had to figure out to support a Mac Pro transition. I don't think anybody's going to order a terabyte of RAM straight from Apple...

 

[asdfjkl;]

I think the interesting thing here about the M2 Pro Mini is there's now a Pro chip with 16GB of RAM, at a lower price than Apple's ever offered. This is important because while you can pretty much only get CTO options through Apple, you can get default configs through a variety of resellers, who will run discounts - meaning that one may be able to find a 16GB M2 Pro mini for around $1100 in a few months.

I think this is important. You most certainly will see deals on these from various resellers. Also, I agree that Apple's SSD prices are totally insane but then again, in a desktop I've never understood why anyone would pay Apple for storage. Get a decent sized boot disk, say 512 GB and then buy external storage for all your large media files. You can decide on how fast you want that storage to be and how much you want to spend. It'd be hard to spend as much as Apple charges.

The stock M2 Mini Pro with 16GB/512GB fills a niche in Apple's lineup. It has more ports, RAM, and HDD space than the base Mini. If you just upgrade RAM to 32GB it's still $300 less than a Studio. Upgrading beyond that doesn't make sense and you should just go with a Studio after that.

It all depends on your workload and I think it fills a gap.

 

[rhett7660]

I think the interesting thing here about the M2 Pro Mini is there's now a Pro chip with 16GB of RAM, at a lower price than Apple's ever offered. This is important because while you can pretty much only get CTO options through Apple, you can get default configs through a variety of resellers, who will run discounts - meaning that one may be able to find a 16GB M2 Pro mini for around $1100 in a few months.

I don't think it's likely, but I hope this also means that the next-generation, entry level Studio gets something beyond 'big heatsink' as its Unique Selling Proposition. I'd like to see the differentiation be user-upgradeable storage and/or user upgradeable RAM (implemented as secondary RAM of some sort, after the on-chip fast RAM is full?), but I'm likely to see pork wings at the local bar before that happens.

And before people say it's impossible for Apple to offer RAM expandability on M series chips - I'm sure it's something they've had to figure out to support a Mac Pro transition. I don't think anybody's going to order a terabyte of RAM straight from Apple...

Wasn't that one of the rumors that the ram wasn't going to be upgradable on the Mac Pro with M series chips? I thought that was somewhere in here as a rumor.

 

[asdfjkl;]

Wasn't that one of the rumors that the ram wasn't going to be upgradable on the Mac Pro with M series chips? I thought that was somewhere in here as a rumor.

That was mentioned on MR is the last week or so. Frankly, I think Apple is still trying to figure out the Mac Pro. If it is not upgradeable (as rumors and logic indicate), and Apple has ditched the M2 Extreme, then what is it exactly? That would make it the Mx Ultra Studio in a cheese-grater case. No value or differentiation there.

 

[rhett7660]

That was mentioned on MR is the last week or so. Frankly, I think Apple is still trying to figure out the Mac Pro. If it is not upgradeable (as rumors and logic indicate), and Apple has ditched the M2 Extreme, then what is it exactly? That would make it the Mx Ultra Studio in a cheese-grater case. No value or differentiation there.

Gotcha... it was just a rumor though correct? I agree completely why get a cheese grater at that point.

 

[asdfjkl;]

Gotcha... it was just a rumor though correct? I agree completely why get a cheese grater at that point.

Yes, just a rumor.

 

[Nismo73]

Wonder if there’s gonna be an obvious fan ramp up on the Pro vs regular M2 chip with demanding tasks

 

[asdfjkl;]

Wonder if there’s gonna be an obvious fan ramp up on the Pro vs regular M2 chip with demanding tasks

Seems likely. Waiting on reviews as I'm sure everybody and their brother will test that.

 

[Pressure]

Any power specifications posted for idle power consumption for M2/M2 Pro mac minis? I only see the maximum energy specs…

You can find all the necessary information here.

Mode	100V	115V	230V
Off	0.08W	0.10W	0.11W
Sleep	0.55W	0.50W	0.51W
Idle - Display on	3.92W	3.96W	4.01W
Power supply efficiency	91.3%	91.8%	92.6%

Update: Which were already posted by Hat Tric above... 😅

 

[AppliedMicro]

Lots of options are available for Space Gray Max Mini. All Intel tho

Yeah, you better get the silver M1.

And refurbished it's only $759 instead of $749,saving you another -10 bucks:

 

[Luap]

Finally! I can almost certainly replace my trusty ol 2012 MacMini! 🤗
It has lasted me 10 years, a pretty good innings, even by Apple standards 😉

 

[aliasfox]

That was mentioned on MR is the last week or so. Frankly, I think Apple is still trying to figure out the Mac Pro. If it is not upgradeable (as rumors and logic indicate), and Apple has ditched the M2 Extreme, then what is it exactly? That would make it the Mx Ultra Studio in a cheese-grater case. No value or differentiation there.

I think it would make the most sense to do it this way:
- Mac mini. You buy it, that's how it is.
- Mac Studio. RAM and storage upgradeable, but only the default slots. No spare space here, continuing in the tradition of the Cube and the TrashCan.
- Mac Pro. Extra RAM and storage slots, as well as PCI-E and Afterburner cards.

I think part of the issue here is that Apple would need to do developer outreach (again) to make drivers available for (yet) another platform. I'm not in that space, but given Apple's historic track record on GPUs, both in the PPC and Intel eras, I don't think they have that much of an interest in doing such a thing.

Of course, coming out with a PCI-E equipped desktop who's base price is merely nosebleed territory (say, $2k) and not stratospheric (say, the $6k that a Mac Pro is today) would increase the market for Mac compatible PCI-E cards significantly, helping developers... but I don't think Apple's interested in that market.

 

[tubular]

They have TOTALLY called my mini bluff.

 

[dazey]

Finally! I can almost certainly replace my trusty ol 2012 MacMini! 🤗
It has lasted me 10 years, a pretty good innings, even by Apple standards 😉

I am also on a 2012 mini, was thinking that I might finally upgrade with the M2s but with the prices to spec a nice one, will probably wait longer. I have 8TB of SSD in the 2012 and 16GB ram. To upgrade I either run the old mini as a file server or get an enclosure for the two drives. Both add clutter. Probably get another few years out of my 2012 yet

 

[demars]

View attachment 2143644
No convincing me that $2199 spent on a new mini is better than on an equivalent Studio.

I guess I was right about my negative premonitions about M2 mini pricing/specs/value after all.

Yet again, no surprises. 😕

I'm not sure what you expected. Did you think you would be able to upgrade to get a computer equal to or more powerful than a Mac Studio for less money? I never thought that would be the case. What would be the point of the Mac Studio then?

Previously there was a gap in the desktop line up between the M1 Mac Mini and the M1 Max Mac Studio. I figured an M2 Pro Mac mini would bridge that gap in price and power and it looks like it is filling that role nicely. I only wonder why it took so long. The fact that they left the Intel Mac mini in the lineup so long seemed to indicate that an M1 Pro Mac mini was planned to replace it, but I don't know why they never released such a machine.

 

[Clix Pix]

32GB forces me up to the Studio or Mac Pro

It doesn't make much sense to me that the Mac Mini "Pro" allows for a customer to configure a BTO machine to as much as 8 TB storage (SSD) while at the same time hitting the wall at a mere 32 GB RAM.... ?? Huh???? Surely anyone who needs and who can afford to upgrade to 8 TB storage would also truly require (and be able to afford) more than a mere 32 GB RAM? This doesn't compute.

Obviously, those who are in the situation where they need both more RAM and more storage are then going to skip the MM and go right to the Mac Studio, and I suppose that is what Apple is anticipating. This applies to those who are not interested in the base level specs of either the Mac Mini or the Studio, of course.....

 

[asdfjkl;]

It doesn't make much sense to me that the Mac Mini "Pro" allows for a customer to configure a BTO machine to as much as 8 TB storage (SSD) while at the same time hitting the wall at a mere 32 GB RAM.... ?? Huh???? Surely anyone who needs and who can afford to upgrade to 8 TB storage would also truly require (and be able to afford) more than a mere 32 GB RAM? This doesn't compute.

Anyone that is considering buying 8TB of storage from Apple is just asking for Apple to rip them off. If you need that much storage just invest in an external storage solution. It'll be much less expensive and expandable to boot.

 

[Clix Pix]

Exactly! When I looked at the specs for the Mac Mini "Pro" and then clicked the "order" button as though I were going to order one I was genuinely started at this discrepancy in the potential configuration. Uh....WHAT???!!! Just makes no sense, does it?

And, yes, most of us who need extra storage for one reason or another do purchase and use external drives, space on online "cloud" drives, etc., etc. Using external drives is a much more flexible way to approach storage, especially as needs change and so on. I've been doing this for years and even though right now in my current machine I have more storage space available I am still adhering to the tried-and-true methods of working with and safely backing up and storing my important data and photographic images.