My M1 Mac mini beats my Macbook Pro M1 pro, wtf?!

[Kaptajn Haddock]

I just ran a Speedometer test (https://browserbench.org/Speedometer2.0/) on my M1 Mac mini 16/512 vs my Macbook Pro M1 pro 14" 16/512, both freshly rebooted with no other apps running than Safari, and the mini (score 355) constantly beats the M1 pro (score 345). Wtf? Isn't the M1 pro supposed to be siginificantly faster than the M1?

 

[MajorFubar]

Presumably the M1 MBP you're talking about is the 13".

Yes it has fractionally worse performance than the Mac Mini.

Though, I don't know what your results are telling me compared to established metrics like Geekbench, which show Mac Mini single core score of 1714 and multi-core of 7437. The 13" M1 MBP achieves 1707 single and 7395 multi. In reality the difference is not going to be greatly noticeable: Mac Mini might shave a second off a task which takes two minutes on the M1 13" MBP.

EDIT: However the fact you thought the MBP was the faster, more 'professional' machine (I know, not literally your words), and probably thousands like you also assume the same, is actually not your fault: instead it speaks volumes about Apple's successful marketing strategies with their use of the 'Pro' moniker.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Nope, Macbook Pro M1 pro (14")

 

[Pressure]

That's within margin of error.

Web performance is not really heavily multithreaded so single core performance is more important. Since they both use the same Firestorm (High Performance) core the scores should reflect that (which they do).

The M2 is faster in this particular test.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

Yes, I saw that. Quite impressive that M2.

And you are right about that whole 'Pro' moniker. It misleads people.

 

[Pressure]

Yes, I saw that. Quite impressive that M2.

I mean if you were to run something multithreaded you would clearly benefit from the M1 Pro.

You need to understand exactly what you are testing with a given benchmark or test before "crying wolf" 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

I just assumed being an M1 pro and not "just" an M1 that it would be faster, also in single core. I mean, look at the size differences of the two chips.

 

[gradi]

The M1 Mac Mini 16gb/512gb comes out smelling like a rose in these rather heavy duty Lightroom Classic and Photoshop comparisons. The Mini is included in all the comparisons. Great performance and great price.

24GB M2 MacBook Air vs 24GB M2 MacBook Pro. How much faster is active vs passive cooling?

24GB M2 MacBook Air vs 14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro Base in Pro Photography Workflow

M2 Macbook Air Base Real World Photography Benchmark, vs M1 Air, M2 Macbook Pro

 

[MajorFubar]

Nope, Macbook Pro M1 pro (14")

Ah right. Very likely the Mini still out-performs it on single-core tasks (disclaimer: I haven't checked, but your own tests would indicate it does).

 

[boss.king]

I just assumed being an M1 pro and not "just" an M1 that it would be faster, also in single core. I mean, look at the size differences of the two chips.

But they’re the same cores. It’s like buying a 6-pack of beer and a case of the same beer and expecting one from the case to taste better; they’re the same thing, one just has more of them.

 

[MajorFubar]

Don't feel too bad.. You and probably every layman out there would expect a 14" MBP with a $1999 start price to beat a $699 Mac Mini in every measurable.
It certainly will in most of them, but the single-core performance is basically the same and in fact marginally favours the Mini, probably because of the form-factor.

 

[russell_314]

This thread is exactly why I dislike YouTube “content creators” who focus on benchmarks without any context or explanation on how it relates to actual use.

That’s it you found a secret. The Mac mini gets 10 points more so it’s clearly better than the MacBook Pro… No just no

It’s one specific benchmark that checks one specific metric and there’s less than 3% difference.

So what does this mean? Browsing the web on either machine will give you the exact same experience. If you spent a fortune for a MacBook Pro to read MacRumors I’m sorry 😢

 

[Toutou]

Wtf? Isn't the M1 pro supposed to be siginificantly faster than the M1?

The M1 Pro has more cores, but in single-threaded tasks the performance is identical to the base M1.
This benchmark runs JavaScript in the browser.
JavaScript in the browser is single-threaded.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

This thread is exactly why I dislike YouTube “content creators” who focus on benchmarks without any context or explanation on how it relates to actual use.

That’s it you found a secret. The Mac mini gets 10 points more so it’s clearly better than the MacBook Pro… No just no

It’s one specific benchmark that checks one specific metric and there’s less than 3% difference.

So what does this mean? Browsing the web on either machine will give you the exact same experience. If you spent a fortune for a MacBook Pro to read MacRumors I’m sorry 😢

I know it is for that specific task, but I was still expecting my M1 pro chip to beat the M1 chip. And no, I will not only use my M1 pro for macrumors, on occasion I will also visit Macworld.com

 

[Ethosik]

I just assumed being an M1 pro and not "just" an M1 that it would be faster, also in single core. I mean, look at the size differences of the two chips.

M1 up to M1 Ultra are the same performance in single core. Which is GREAT! Now we just base our choice on multi cores and GPU. Gone are trying to balance single core and multi core performance like with Intel.