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I am genuinely crestfallen that there was no update to Mac Mini. That thing has the right balance for most computer science folks who want a Mac. Not everyone n

I am genuinely crestfallen that there was no update to Mac Mini. That thing has the right balance for most computer science folks who want a Mac. Not everyone needs/runs a silicon Godzilla on their desk after all. As of the current lineup, Mini is still stuck with 16 GB RAM and a disappointing number of ports.

xienze 5y ago
What update were they going to do? Make an M1 Max model? That would cut into sales for the base Studio.
- infinityio 5y ago
  They don't have a desktop M1 Pro implementation yet afaik?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dopu 5y ago
    This would make sense -- you can get the mac mini at the base M1, upgrade it to an M1 Pro, or jump up to a Mac Studio for M1 Max and above.
thaw13579 5y ago
There's only a gap of roughly $500 between a maxed out mini and the entry studio, so perhaps the studio is the answer to what you're looking for?
- tonguez 5y ago
  M1 mini with 16GB RAM (most possible RAM): $1100 entry studio: $2000 That's a pretty big gap. Basically it means you have to shell out $2000+ if you want to do video editing on any M1 mac. Buying a brand new computer to do video editing that has only 16GB RAM in 2022 is unjustifiable. $2k+ is too much for most people especially young "creatives" that are making entertainment (videos). Lots of people here make hundreds of thousands a year but none of those people make that money doing video editing or working in entertainment.
  - CharlesW 5y ago
    > Basically it means you have to shell out $2000+ if you want to do video editing on any M1 mac. 16GB is plenty, and in fact the conversation when the M1 Macs were introduced was whether having 16GB vs. 8GB of RAM made a difference. (Mostly, it doesn't.) https://www.4kshooters.net/2021/01/27/8gb-or-16gb-ram-for-video-editing-on-a-m1-mac/ https://www.4kshooters.net/2021/01/27/8gb-or-16gb-ram-for-vi...
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    > 16GB RAM in 2022 is unjustifiable. MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it. They can only print so many M1max chips at a time, they want to sell them in a high margin machine. Give em a year and the M1max will trickle down to the mini.
    - krunkcoin 5y ago
      "MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it." The only sense in which this claim is true is that macOS on Arm uses a 16KiB page size, while macOS on Intel uses a 4KiB page size. This is actually less space efficient (more wasted RAM due to partially filled pages), although it has performance benefits (N CPU TLB entries cover 4x as much RAM). If you needed 32GB RAM to avoid swapping on Intel hardware, you still do. There isn't anything which profoundly reduces memory use. Arm Mac hardware does tend to perform lots better while swapping than Intel, which fools some into thinking it is using less memory, but it isn't. (The reasons for the better performance: one, Apple put in a hardware accelerator block for the memory compression feature which allows macOS to sometimes avoid swapping to disk, so light swapping which only invokes the compression-based pager is faster. And two, the SSD controllers integrated into Apple Silicon are sometimes much faster than the SSDs in the Intel Macs they replaced.)
    - tonguez 5y ago
      "MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it." Wow, you sure have given me a lot to think about.
      - 5y ago
heartbreak 5y ago
> Not everyone needs/runs a silicon Godzilla Right, which is why the Mini exists. > Mini is still stuck with 16 GB RAM and a disappointing number of ports. Because people who need more are expected to buy the Studio.
yurishimo 5y ago
WWDC is a few months away. There might be a refresh of the Mini there? If we don't see a refresh of the mini this year, I can't see them not upgrading it for M2 next year.
BonoboIO 5y ago
Apple M1 | 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 16GB RAM, 10Gbit LAN = 899$ Apple Studio | 20-Core CPU, 48-Core GPU, 32-Core Neural Engine! 64GB RAM! 10Gbit LAN = 3999$ I think the M1 is a nice product for 95% of people including iOS Devs. Silent, „cheap“, cost effective, nice build server. If you need more power … well get the small studio or buy another one. Renting from hetzner is also cheap. 49€ with really unlimited bandwith. 20 TB traffic in a month? No problem, nobody cares. https://www.hetzner.com/de/dedicated-rootserver/matrix-apple https://www.hetzner.com/de/dedicated-rootserver/matrix-apple
dopu 5y ago
I initially thought the Mac Studio was the "pro" version of the Mac Mini. But no -- they're still selling the i5/i7 mini. This makes me wonder whether they're going to update it at all. Maybe they'll just quietly drop it at some point down the road?

xienze 5y ago

What update were they going to do? Make an M1 Max model? That would cut into sales for the base Studio.

infinityio 5y ago
They don't have a desktop M1 Pro implementation yet afaik?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dopu 5y ago
  This would make sense -- you can get the mac mini at the base M1, upgrade it to an M1 Pro, or jump up to a Mac Studio for M1 Max and above.

thaw13579 5y ago

There's only a gap of roughly $500 between a maxed out mini and the entry studio, so perhaps the studio is the answer to what you're looking for?

tonguez 5y ago
M1 mini with 16GB RAM (most possible RAM): $1100 entry studio: $2000 That's a pretty big gap. Basically it means you have to shell out $2000+ if you want to do video editing on any M1 mac. Buying a brand new computer to do video editing that has only 16GB RAM in 2022 is unjustifiable. $2k+ is too much for most people especially young "creatives" that are making entertainment (videos). Lots of people here make hundreds of thousands a year but none of those people make that money doing video editing or working in entertainment.
- CharlesW 5y ago
  > Basically it means you have to shell out $2000+ if you want to do video editing on any M1 mac. 16GB is plenty, and in fact the conversation when the M1 Macs were introduced was whether having 16GB vs. 8GB of RAM made a difference. (Mostly, it doesn't.) https://www.4kshooters.net/2021/01/27/8gb-or-16gb-ram-for-video-editing-on-a-m1-mac/ https://www.4kshooters.net/2021/01/27/8gb-or-16gb-ram-for-vi...
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  > 16GB RAM in 2022 is unjustifiable. MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it. They can only print so many M1max chips at a time, they want to sell them in a high margin machine. Give em a year and the M1max will trickle down to the mini.
  - krunkcoin 5y ago
    "MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it." The only sense in which this claim is true is that macOS on Arm uses a 16KiB page size, while macOS on Intel uses a 4KiB page size. This is actually less space efficient (more wasted RAM due to partially filled pages), although it has performance benefits (N CPU TLB entries cover 4x as much RAM). If you needed 32GB RAM to avoid swapping on Intel hardware, you still do. There isn't anything which profoundly reduces memory use. Arm Mac hardware does tend to perform lots better while swapping than Intel, which fools some into thinking it is using less memory, but it isn't. (The reasons for the better performance: one, Apple put in a hardware accelerator block for the memory compression feature which allows macOS to sometimes avoid swapping to disk, so light swapping which only invokes the compression-based pager is faster. And two, the SSD controllers integrated into Apple Silicon are sometimes much faster than the SSDs in the Intel Macs they replaced.)
  - tonguez 5y ago
    "MacOS on ARM handles memory differently, try it you might like it." Wow, you sure have given me a lot to think about.
    - 5y ago

heartbreak 5y ago

> Not everyone needs/runs a silicon Godzilla Right, which is why the Mini exists. > Mini is still stuck with 16 GB RAM and a disappointing number of ports. Because people who need more are expected to buy the Studio.

yurishimo 5y ago

WWDC is a few months away. There might be a refresh of the Mini there? If we don't see a refresh of the mini this year, I can't see them not upgrading it for M2 next year.

BonoboIO 5y ago

Apple M1 | 8‑core CPU, 8‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 16GB RAM, 10Gbit LAN = 899$ Apple Studio | 20-Core CPU, 48-Core GPU, 32-Core Neural Engine! 64GB RAM! 10Gbit LAN = 3999$ I think the M1 is a nice product for 95% of people including iOS Devs. Silent, „cheap“, cost effective, nice build server. If you need more power … well get the small studio or buy another one. Renting from hetzner is also cheap. 49€ with really unlimited bandwith. 20 TB traffic in a month? No problem, nobody cares. https://www.hetzner.com/de/dedicated-rootserver/matrix-apple https://www.hetzner.com/de/dedicated-rootserver/matrix-apple

dopu 5y ago

I initially thought the Mac Studio was the "pro" version of the Mac Mini. But no -- they're still selling the i5/i7 mini. This makes me wonder whether they're going to update it at all. Maybe they'll just quietly drop it at some point down the road?