Apple continues with its week of launches and, after having presented yesterday the new iMac M4today it was the turn of the Mac Mini and the news it brings is important. It has undergone a redesign, for the first time in more than a decade, which has made it truly tiny for what is expected from a computer, today, in its configuration with the M4 Pro chip, It is the company’s most powerful desktop computer and, in its catalogue, only surpassed by the latest MacBook Pro with the chip M3 Max.
The most striking thing is the format that Apple calls ultra compact. This means a height of 5 cm, while the width and depth are both 12.7 centimeters. The previous Mac Mini, released in 2023 with chips from the range M2era shorter but with considerably more width and depth: 3.58cm x 19.7cm x 19.7cm. And heavier. The new model loses weight 1,18 kg/1,28 kgdepending on whether you mounted the M2 or the M2 Pro, 0,67 kg/0,73 kgsame case with the M4 and M4 Pro chips.
Win in total number of connectionsgoing from 2 to 5 Thunderbolt and losing the 2 ports USB-A. The distribution is 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm jack for audio on the front. In the back, HDMI, Ethernet y 3 Thunderbolt USB-C which, in the variant with M4 Pro, will be Thunderbolt 5with higher data transfer speeds. The Mac Mini can now connect with up to 3 monitors.
Connections on the front of Mac Mini. Apple.Connections on the back of the Mac Mini.Apple.
With the Mac Mini, a new variant of the M4 chip also debuts, the M4 Prowhich probably It will be the most powerful chip ever created by Apple for just 24 hoursuntil presumably the company announces the new ones tomorrow MacBook Pro which should include a third variant, M4 Max. But today we can say that the Mac Mini is both the smallest computer that Apple has manufactured as the most powerful in its configuration with the M4 Pro. Now, the question is how much?
Apple is very reluctant to give too many details of technical specifications and performance numbers. Compared to the Mac Mini M2 Pro from last year, the new M4 Pro model applies up to 1.8 times more audio effects plugins in one project LogicProrenders animated graphics in RAM until 2 times faster in Motion and processes the 3D rendering up to 2.9 times faster in Blenderbut nothing more. It also compares it to older models, even from when they still used Intel processors, but that information says much less. But details such as the speed the cores reach and how long they last without overheating and reducing frequencies are still unknown.
Apple also points out as a reference that it is up to 6 times faster than the best-selling desktop PC in its price range. It happens that the price range of this product is very wide and ranges from a few hundred euros to several thousanddepending on the configuration chosen.
The Mac Mini, in its most basic configuration with M4part of the 719 € and the most expensive variant with M4 Pro does it since 1.669 €. And if you take the latter to the maximum configuration with the M4 Pro with more cores, 64 GB of unified RAM, 8 TB of storage and 10 gigabit Ethernet, it becomes at more than 5,400 euros.
Mac Mini.Apple.
The M4 that it mounts are the variant with CPU of 10 cores (4 performance and 6 efficiency) and GPU also 10. In the iMac presented yesterday you can see an M4 with 8 cores on CPU and others 8 en la GPU.
The processors M4 Pro are available in of the variants. one with 12 cores on the CPU (8 performance and 4 efficiency) and 16 on the GPU, and another with 14 cores on the CPU and 20 on the GPU, without the company having revealed how many are efficient and how many performance in the latter case.
In any case, the jump in performance between variants, both in CPU and GPU, is evident. The latter now admits the hardware ray tracingwhich improves lighting in video games and increases their spectacularity. Both M4s have the same NPUbut the system bandwidth goes from 120 GB/s to 273 GB/s in the Pro. The base RAM memory configuration is 16 GBas has happened with the new iMac, which seems to be the norm with Apple computers, with 8 GB disappearing from the scene.
And how is all that power cooled in such a small format? According to Apple, there is on the one hand the energy efficiency of the M4, something in which Apple chips have always stood out, and ‘an innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, while all ventilation is carried out through the base’.
The new Mac Mini can now be reserved in the Apple store and will be delivered starting November 8.
