Used Mac Pro 2013 6-core vs New Mac Mini 2020

[Max Law]

Used Mac Pro 2013
6-Core Xeon E5
16GB RAM DDR3
256 SSD
Dual AMD FirePro D500 3GB

vs

Mac Mini 2020
6-Core i5 3.0Ghz
16GB RAM DD4
512SSD
Intel UHD Graphics 630

Assuming both are similarly priced, which one should I choose? Any advice would be appreciated...

I'm a web developer and designer, work with Adobe and coding software. Currently owning a Mac Pro 2013 Quad Core version from 2016. Computer runs almost 12hours+ a day with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, VMWare and streaming netflix/youtube at the same time. This is to replace my aging Macbook Air 2013 used at home for the same workload when I'm not in the office... my concern is overheating issue with the mac mini when it's constantly on and the graphic requirement of the editing software... is there such an issue at all?

 

[mmomega]

Just personally what I did, I had a very similar machine to yours, just a 512gb SSD and 32GB RAM.

When the 2018 Mac Mini was introduced, I sold my 6Core Mac Pro immediately to get as much as I could for it.
That funded my
2018 6Core Mini
3rd party 32GB RAM
10Gb Ethernet (I was having to use a Thunderbolt 2 to PCIE adapter with a 10Gb SFP+ network card)
512GB SSD
eGPU box
and then I eBayed a VEGA 64 Watercooled card (at the time this was the quickest AMD GPU available for very simple plug and play eGPU functionality.

This setup isn't as "pretty" as the Mac Pro was but it gave me better overall speed and faster connections moving forward.

I purchased a mount to put the mini under the desk, the eGPU under and mounted to the side of the desk, then a Thunderbolt hub to put easy access to SD card, thumb drives, etc right up near my monitor.

Mine also stays on 24/7 and is worked on 7-7 4 days a week at work.

You lose ECC Ram which was pretty much all I do not have with this setup. I did need an eGPU for a much more powerful GPU for what little Adobe uses it, but Final Cut was much quicker and could sustain speed much longer than the built-in Intel Graphics, during all of this is where I found out the Mac Mini CPU is more so limited with power limitations when trying to push the CPU and Intel GPU both full beans at the same time. If the Intel GPU was working hard, the CPU would throttle way back, when I added the eGPU, the CPU could work much harder at a higher frequency.
I went through changing thermal paste almost straight out of the box with the Mini as well as additional cooling and that's when I found out that power limitations was a larger factor than heat on that particular CPU/GPU combo.

I know this is probably much more information than you were wanting but I thought I would share my experience with a similar workload as yours.

Enjoy either.

Oh you also can't push 4K 60 on the Mac Pro on an external monitor. The HDMI on the Mac Pro won't go above 4K 30.
You will have to get an active minidisplayport to HDMI 2.0 adapter to be able to get 4K 60 on an external monitor.

 

[StellarVixen]

If that Mac Pro had sufficient expansion options, or at least, TB3, I would say to go with Mac Pro. This way, I’d say Mac Mini, unless you need every bit of processing power that you can get. I think Xeons beat the i7 in that regard (at least in multi core).

 

[TrevorR90]

For me personally, I would get the Mac Mini for the simple fact that I can get AppleCare on it. UNLESS, you can find a Mac Pro that has AppleCare on it.