Apple has announced its latest Mac mini, and this time there are two versions to pick from. One runs the new M6 chip, the other carries over the M5 Pro chip that’s already in the latest MacBook Pro lineup. Both keep the small size Apple settled on with the M4 redesign, so the shape hasn’t changed, just what’s inside it.

Apple Mac mini M6 / M5 Pro Specifications

The M6 model is the one most buyers will end up with. Apple says the AI performance is up to 4x faster than the M4, storage and graphics up to 2x faster, and CPU speed up 40%. The chip has a 12-core CPU, two more cores than before, and Apple says it’s the fastest single-threaded chip available right now. 

The GPU also moves to 12 cores, and each core now has its own neural accelerator built in — the first time Apple has done that on a Mac mini. If you run something like LM Studio locally, Apple’s numbers put first-response times at nearly 5x faster than the M4. The M6 model starts at 16GB and is upgradeable to 32GB, with bandwidth up to 170GB/s.

For heavier workloads, there’s the M5 Pro option. It goes up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, with the same per-core neural accelerators for AI tasks. It’s configurable up to 64GB of memory and 307GB/s of bandwidth, which is what lets you run larger local AI models or work with ProRes RAW footage without things slowing down. 

Apple’s own numbers show Blender ray-traced rendering up to 4.5x faster than an M2 Pro Mac mini, and Affinity image processing over 2x faster than that same machine. 

Both models add Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and a 2.5 Gb Ethernet port that can run up to 10 Gb. Up front, there are two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. On the back, the M6 model has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M5 Pro model gets three Thunderbolt 5 ports, along with HDMI and Ethernet on both. 

The new Mac mini ships with macOS 27, which brings faster AirDrop transfers, quicker Safari loading, and a rebuilt search system behind Spotlight, Photos, and Mail. On the build itself, the casing is 100% recycled aluminum, and the magnets use fully recycled rare earth elements, part of an overall design that’s now 50% recycled materials.

Pricing and Avaibility

The new Mac mini starts at $899 for the M6 model and $1699 for the M5 Pro model. Pre-orders are already open through apple.com or the Apple Store app, with sales starting September 22 in 30 countries and regions.

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The post New Mac Mini Lineup: What You Get With M6 vs M5 Pro appeared first on Gizmochina.