The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming

[Gudi]

Apple chose not to use the 12 GB chips in these configurations, but there likely isn't any technical reason why they couldn't. The reason they wouldn't bother is marketing and product mix. ie. From a technical standpoint, they could offer a 48 GB option, but chose not to. Similarly, M2 Pro has 2x8 GB = 16 GB and 2x16 GB = 32 GB, but if they had wanted, they could have offered 2x12 GB = 24 GB.

3×8 = 24GB

There are no 12 GB chips, it's always a multiple of 8. And there is a technical reason for that. But you're right Apple is choosing its product mix. The goal is to offer something for every use case and all income groups without creating too many different variants.

 

[Boil]

3×8 = 24GB

There are no 12 GB chips, it's always a multiple of 8. And there is a technical reason for that. But you're right Apple is choosing its product mix. The goal is to offer something for every use case and all income groups without creating too many different variants.

Apple is using 12GB chips for their 24GB RAM configurations...

 

[Gudi]

Apple is using 12GB chips for their 24GB RAM configurations...

View attachment 2144059

How do you know this picture doesn't show the M2 with 16 GB? It's not an accurate photo, but an artificial rendering for advertising purposes anyway.

 

[Boil]

How do you know this picture doesn't show the M2 with 16 GB? It's not an accurate photo, but an artificial rendering for advertising purposes anyway.

So an entirely new package for your third RAM chip, doubtful...

And how would you get a three chip array when the memory controller has eight 16-bit channels...?

Apple Announces M2 SoC: Apple Silicon for Macs Updated For 2022

www.anandtech.com

M2 devices are available with either, 8GB, 16GB, or 24GB of memory. Given that Apple is still using just two stacks of memory, it looks like the company is finally taking advantage of LPDDR’s support for non-power-of-two die sizes (e.g. 12Gb dies), which allows them to get 12GB of memory into a single package without any further shenanigans. And assuming Apple replicates this down the line for the obligatory Pro/Max/Ultra SoCs, we should see the top memory capacities of all of Apple’s SoCs increase by 50% over the previous generation.

 

[Chancha]

We will need to wait for teardowns and whatnot, but I have a feeling the M2 Pro is probably designed differently than the M2 and the M2 Max for its lack of 24GB / 48GB options. Perhaps the data links are used for other things instead? Like how they forced the HDMI 2.1. Also it is the M2 Max that needs to be concerned about doubling and quadrupling into Ultra and Extreme, the M2 Pro like the M1 Pro is more or less a standalone / chopped version of the Max.

 

[Gudi]

Apple Announces M2 SoC: Apple Silicon for Macs Updated For 2022

www.anandtech.com

I will not doubt AnandTech.😅 Let's say they do use 2×12GB RAM chips for the 24GB package. Building a 12GB variant with only one chip would half the memory bandwidth to only 50GB/s, wouldn't it?

 

[Boil]

I will not doubt AnandTech.😅 Let's say they do use 2×12GB RAM chips for the 24GB package. Building a 12GB variant with only one chip would half the memory bandwidth to only 50GB/s, wouldn't it?

It would cut the number of memory channels in half, so half the bandwidth...

 

[AppleNooble]

Ok I got what I wanted a mini with 32Gb RAM, not sure about the price though. That insta buy comment I made is making me eat my own words. $900 for 16Gb additional RAM? I'll think about it for now at least the option is there.

 

[Boil]

Ok I got what I wanted a mini with 32Gb RAM, not sure about the price though. That insta buy comment I made is making me eat my own words. $900 for 16Gb additional RAM? I'll think about it for now at least the option is there.

That $900 also gets one the double-binned M2 Pro SoC rather than the base M2 SoC...

But yeah, even when one takes the SoC upgrade out of the equation, it is still $600 for an additional 24GB of RAM...

 

[Gudi]

Yes it is, but the tax is also a subsidy for the base model customers. Without a healthy profit margin Apple wouldn't be able to invest heavily in a brand-new chip architecture. Even as M1 users, we benefit massively from those advancements. We should be thankful for all the stupid rich people supporting the platform. Those who mindlessly bought the Mac Studio plus Studio Display, because they couldn't wait for a large iMac or a Mac mini Pro, are paying our research bill.

 

[Madonion]

3×8 = 24GB

There are no 12 GB chips, it's always a multiple of 8. And there is a technical reason for that. But you're right Apple is choosing its product mix. The goal is to offer something for every use case and all income groups without creating too many different variants.

that's because in the distance past when the invited the jacquard loom with punch cards the manual machine needed both thumbs to make it punch the card so " 8 fingers for the code and the tabs to operate the machine " hence the birth of 8 bits , or is that two nibbles , yes I was building computers from the Zilog Z80 2 MHz days

but the loom punch cards of that day make you think

 

[icemantx]

Yes it is, but the tax is also a subsidy for the base model customers. Without a healthy profit margin Apple wouldn't be able to invest heavily in a brand-new chip architecture. Even as M1 users, we benefit massively from those advancements. We should be thankful for all the stupid rich people supporting the platform. Those who mindlessly bought the Mac Studio plus Studio Display, because they couldn't wait for a large iMac or a Mac mini Pro, are paying our research bill.

Still waiting for the larger iMac…

 

[EugW]

3×8 = 24GB

There are no 12 GB chips, it's always a multiple of 8. And there is a technical reason for that.

12 GB chips have been available for years, albeit at lower volumes in previous years. As @Boil has mentioned, that's what they're using for M2's 24 GB option.

I will not doubt AnandTech.😅 Let's say they do use 2×12GB RAM chips for the 24GB package. Building a 12GB variant with only one chip would half the memory bandwidth to only 50GB/s, wouldn't it?

No need to have a 1-chip 12 GB M2 Pro machine. It would be 2-chip 16 GB minimum for the M2 Pro. And it's 2-chip 8 GB for M2.

 

[reallynotnick]

Just to add you can see all the variants of LPDDR5 that Micron and Samsung make online. Interestingly it looks like Samsung is even making an 18GB (144Gb) chip now, in addition to there being 6GB and 12GB chips (doesn't look like Samsung makes a 6GB 6400Mb/s 64-bit chip but Micron does so a 12GB M2 would be possible with 2 of those)

LPDDR5 part catalog

Explore Micron's LPDDR5 DRAM part catalog, offering comprehensive info for low-power mobile and embedded solutions, ensuring reliable performance.

www.micron.com

LPDDR5 | DRAM | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Meet LPDDR5 powering next-generation applications with performance and efficiency by 6,400 Mbps of pin speed, massive transfer at 51.2Gb/s, and 20% power saving.

semiconductor.samsung.com

 

[Pezimak]

Waiting for the tear down if the new Mac Mini M2 Pro, see if you can actually Clean the fan out without having to take the entire computer apart, also will be interesting to see if it suffers from the same bluetooth connectivity issues the Studio does.

Trouble with Apples M chips is the RAM, probably be fine with 16GB but what about later on? When you can’t upgrade it.

 

[EugW]

Waiting for the tear down if the new Mac Mini M2 Pro, see if you can actually Clean the fan out without having to take the entire computer apart, also will be interesting to see if it suffers from the same bluetooth connectivity issues the Studio does.

Trouble with Apples M chips is the RAM, probably be fine with 16GB but what about later on? When you can’t upgrade it.

Buy accordingly, but that's why I'm a little disappointed with the lack of a 24 GB option for the M2 Pro. It's moot now since I bought a M1 Mac mini with 16 GB and 1 TB storage, but my holy grail machine would have been a non-existent 24 GB M2 Pro with 1 TB storage and with the M2 Pro ports.

Truth be told, it turns out for my current usage, 16 GB is more than fine, and it seems macOS may manage memory usage better on these Apple Silicon machines than with my 24 GB Intel iMac. However, given that sometimes needs change and I tend to keep my machines a long time, a 24 GB machine would have been desirable. 32 GB is complete overkill for me, and is considerably more expensive. A 32 GB M2 Pro Mac mini with 1 TB SSD on the edu store is over twice what I paid last year for a 16 GB M1 Mac mini. (It was used, but to my pleasant surprise, it had less than 1 week power on time.)

Anyhow, I can't say I'm really surprised. I suspected Apple would specifically not allow 24 GB for the M2 Pro, partially because I didn't think they would have more M2 Pro memory configurations than the 14/16" MacBook Pros. If you want 24 GB memory, you can get the M2, but if you need more power, more screen support, and/or more ports, in a machine with more than 16 GB memory, you can get upsold to the 32 GB M2 Pro... or else get upsold even higher to the Mac Studio.

 

[Gudi]

that's because in the distance past when the invited the jacquard loom with punch cards the manual machine needed both thumbs to make it punch the card so " 8 fingers for the code and the tabs to operate the machine " hence the birth of 8 bits , or is that two nibbles , yes I was building computers from the Zilog Z80 2 MHz days

Nope, nothing to do with punchcards. All computer numbers come from the power of 2, because every digit has only two states 1 or 0. Three bits can distinguish 2³ = 8 different states.

1) 000
2) 001
3) 010
4) 011
5) 100
6) 101
7) 110
8) 111

2¹ = 2
2² = 4
2³ = 8
2⁴ = 16
2⁵ = 32
... 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, ...

 

[Pezimak]

Buy accordingly, but that's why I'm a little disappointed with the lack of a 24 GB option for the M2 Pro. It's moot now since I bought a (used) M1 Mac mini with 16 GB and 1 TB storage, but my holy grail machine would have been a non-existent 24 GB M2 Pro with 1 TB storage with the M2 Pro ports.

Truth be told, it turns out for my current usage, 16 GB is more than fine, and it seems macOS may manage memory usage better on these Apple Silicon machines than with my 24 GB Intel iMac. However, given that sometimes needs change and I tend to keep my machines a long time, a 24 GB machine would have been desirable. 32 GB is complete overkill for me, and considerably more expensive.

Anyhow, I can't say I'm really surprised. I suspected Apple would specifically not allow 24 GB for the M2 Pro, partially because I didn't think they would have more M2 Pro memory configurations than the 14/16" MacBook Pros. If you want 24 GB memory, you can get the M2, but if you need more power, more screen support, and/or more ports, in a machine with more than 16 GB memory, you can get upsold to the 32 GB M2 Pro... or else get upsold even higher to the Mac Studio.

The Apple ladder, you look at the base but it only comes with this and this, you go a step up great but then it doesn't have this, you go a step up.. always trying to upsell you.
But I think the fact they even offer the new Mini with a Pro chip is fantastic. I personally think the next Studio will see a significant price bump to clear the Mac Mini.

 

[EugW]

The Apple ladder, you look at the base but it only comes with this and this, you go a step up great but then it doe t have this, you go a step up.. always trying to outsell you.
But I think the fact they even offer the new Mini with a Pro chip is fantastic. I personally think the next Studio will see a significant price bump to clear the Mac Mini.

Yup, I've glad that they slipped in the M2 Pro tier. I didn't expect they'd drop the M2 Mac mini prices to make that work, but fortunately they did.

As for price increases for the M2 Max/Ultra Mac Studio, I'm thinking they may not do that in the US or Canada, but will in Europe. (The US dollar hasn't gained much in value vs. the Canadian dollar, but both of those currencies have gained significantly vs. the Euro.)

 

[fischersd]

Still didn't bring it out in black - but at least we finally have an HDMI port that's supporting higher refresh rates!

*sigh* The 10Gb ethernet option isn't available until Feb 23???

 

[jmpage2]

Might have to pull the trigger on this. I have a late 2017 i7 iMac that has started to show its age and after getting issued a 14" M1 MBP for work the advantages of Apple silicon are undeniable.

I had been waiting on a refreshed 27" iMac but realistically if/when that machine shows up it's going to be $3500 in the configuration I want, so effectively I can get the M2 pro Mini now or wait another 9-12 months for a faster new 27 iMac that may or may not even materialize.

Does anyone know if the existing docks/hubs for M1 Mini should fit the footprint of the new unit? I probably would need to put this thing on a hub so that I can get some front facing ports.

 

[Pezimak]

Yup, I've glad that they slipped in the M2 Pro tier. I didn't expect they'd drop the M2 Mac mini prices to make that work, but fortunately they did.

As for price increases for the M2 Max/Ultra Mac Studio, I'm thinking they may not do that in the US or Canada, but will in Europe. (The US dollar hasn't gained much in value vs. the Canadian dollar, but both of those currencies have gained significantly vs. the Euro.)

It's got nothing to do with currencies if they do bump the price up outside the US, and everything to do with protecting sales in their home market by forcing all other markets to make up the shortfall to increase profits.
I think you'll find considering a Max Mini M2 Pro specced up with 1TB SSD and 32GB ram cost just a bit more then the base Studio, even in the US, the next Studio will see a price increase in the US like other markets to separate itself. And I expect an updated Studio to drop very soon now the chips have been launched in the MacBook Pro.

 

[Pezimak]

Still didn't bring it out in black - but at least we finally have an HDMI port that's supporting higher refresh rates!

*sigh* The 10Gb ethernet option isn't available until Feb 23???

Eh? That makes no sense, they've offers a 10GB option in the Mini for ages I thought, seems odd to delay it.

 

[EugW]

It's got nothing to do with currencies if they do bump the price up outside the US, and everything to do with protecting sales in their home market by forcing all other markets to make up the shortfall to increase profits.

Nah, it has everything to do with currencies. The Euro has dropped significantly in the last while.

 

[Boyd01]

Still didn't bring it out in black

Yeah, I really don't get that. Why didn't they make the pro version black or space grey?