Apple has just announced a brand new Mac mini, powered by the all-new M6 chip, and it is also available with the M5 Pro.
M6 and M5 Pro-Powered Mac mini Now Official With Huge Gains in Performance, Focusing Big on AI Compute
On the design-front, the new Mac mini looks exactly like the M4 Mac mini. In fact, if you put the new one and the old one side-by-side, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. However, once you lift the lid, that’s where the new computer starts to shine.
Powered by the New M6 Chip
The new Mac mini is all about performance in a tiny package. The new M6 chip feature a 12-core CPU, a 12-core GPU, and it features Neural Accelerators for the first time on Mac mini. And once again, Apple says the M6 has the fastest single-threaded performance of any CPU out there.
The new Mac mini with M6 delivers twice the graphics performance compared to the M4 model, and up to four times the AI performance.
Mac mini comes with 16GB of RAM as standard, but you can configure it up to 32GB with up to 170GB/s memory bandwidth.
Upgrade to M5 Pro for Faster Performance
Not satisfied with the M6’s performance? Apple will allow users to go for the optional M5 Pro upgrade, that delivers even faster number crunching in the same form-factor.
The M5 Pro comes with an 18-core CPU, and a 20-core GPU, and just like the M6 model, each GPU core is a Neural Accelerator.
The fun starts when you realize that the M5 Pro model can be configured with up to 64GB of RAM, allowing for a whopping 307GB/s of memory bandwidth. That’s completely overkill for a Mac mini, but it’s an option you can’t ignore.
Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thunderbolt 5
The new Mac mini comes with ultra-fast Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and Bluetooth 6. And, you can configure with up to 10Gb Ethernet, if you so like.
On the M6 model, you get three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back. If you get the M5 Pro model, you get three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back instead.
On the front, you get the same-old regular USB-C ports for connecting your devices.
It Doesn’t Come Cheap
The M6 Mac mini and M5 Pro Mac mini don’t come cheap at all. According to Apple, the new M6 Mac mini starts at $899, with education pricing starting at $799.
If you want the Mac mini with M5 Pro, it starts at $1,699, and you can save $100 off it once you apply the education pricing on it.
Pre-Order Available Today
You can pre-order the new Mac mini today, but it will start to ship on the 22nd of September, just under a month later.
