Apple today updated the Mac mini and Mac Studio, introducing the M6 Chip for the Mac mini, as well as the M5 Ultra Chip for the Mac Studio, which Apple describes as its "most powerful silicon ever."
Mac mini
The new Mac mini with M6 delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, up to 2x faster graphics and storage, and Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5 gigabit Ethernet connectivity, according to Apple's press release for the Mac Mini.
Apple lists the following additional claims related to the Mac Mini with M6:
- Up to 13.5x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio when compared to Mac mini with M1, and up to 4.8x faster than M4.
- Up to 2.3x faster spreadsheet calculations in Microsoft Excel when compared to Mac mini with M1, and up to 1.5x faster than M4.
- Up to 2x faster gaming performance with ray tracing in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition when compared to Mac mini with M4.
In addition to the M6, the Mac mini is also available with M5 Pro, which Apple claims delivers:
- Up to 8.5x faster LLM prompt processing performance in LM Studio when compared to Mac mini with M2 Pro, and up to 4x faster than M4 Pro.
- Up to 4.5x faster rendering performance with ray tracing in Blender when compared to Mac mini with M2 Pro, and up to 1.4x faster than M4 Pro.
- Up to 2.1x faster image processing in Affinity when compared to Mac mini with M2 Pro, and up to 1.5x faster than M4 Pro.
Besides the upgraded chips, the new Mac mini features Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5GB Ethernet by default (up from the prior generation's default 1GB Ethernet port), with a 10GB option available.
The new Mac mini can be preordered from Apple today for a starting price of US $899, and will begin shipping on Tuesday, September 22.
Mac Studio
Apple has also updated the Mac Studio, bringing the M5 Max and new M5 Ultra chip to Apple's most high-end Mac, as well as Thunderbolt 5, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6 connectivity, and a "next-generation SSD architecture that is up to twice as fast as before," according to Apple's press release for the Mac Studio
The new Mac Studio with M5 Max delivers up to 3.9x faster AI performance than the prior generation, with the M5 Ultra delivering up to 4.3x the peak AI performance of the M3 Ultra, and up to 9.8x the peak AI performance of the M1 Ultra.
Apple additionally lists the following claims related to Mac Studio with M5 Max:
- Up to 10.7x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and 3.9x faster than M4 Max.
- Up to 7.4x faster text-to-image performance when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3.5x faster than M4 Max.
- Up to 5.3x faster Magic Mask performance in Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 3x faster than M4 Max.
- Up to 3.5x faster basecalling for DNA sequencing in Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Max, and up to 1.9x faster than M4 Max.
In addition to the M5 Max, the new Mac Studio is available with the new M5 Ultra, which Apple claims delivers:
- Up to 15.4x faster CopyCat ML training performance in Foundry Nuke when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 3.3x faster than M3 Ultra.
- Up to 9.8x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4x faster than M3 Ultra.
- Up to 8.2x faster text-to-image performance when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 4.3x faster than M3 Ultra.
- Up to 4.7x faster scene rendering performance in Maxon Redshift when compared to Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 1.7x faster than M3 Ultra.
In addition, the Mac Studio with M5 Ultra is available with up to 512 GB of unified memory with 1.2TB/S of memory bandwidth, 50% higher memory bandwidth than M3 Ultra.
The new Mac Studio can be preordered from Apple today for a starting price of US $2,499, and most models will begin shipping on Tuesday, September 22, with the model with 512GB of memory shipping in late October.
Comments
Impressed with RAM performance
NVIDIA should be concerned, Apple is getting close to the RAM performance of its flagship datacenter GPU at a fraction of the price. Not only that, but the Mac Studio can now be clustered over Thunderbolt to essentially quadruple the amount of available memory, which significantly boosts the performance of some mixture of experts models.
I may have to skip this generation of the Mac Studio as I'll pay my sister for her half in the inherited apartment where I live in the near future so I'll be way shorter on money than I currently am, but if my economical conditions change for the better again, I may end up buying whatever Ultra spec is current in the future.
I’ve never had a Mac
I’ve never had or used a Mac. I really don’t know what all those technical specs mean to be honest. I’ve really only ever used windows and jaws and that’s basically it but that’s only because when you get trained on any technology through state agencies and schools and things like that at least in the US they’re always give you something withdraws and windows. At least that’s how it was when I was a kid. As far as a Mac if I was going to get one at all, that would definitely probably be a Mac mini most likely. I honestly don’t even think I have enough money to afford a Mac. I like to read these posts about new products to Apple introducing it, but if I don’t totally understand all of it just cause I think it’s kind of interesting to see what’s coming out. I think anything new from Apple for me would be if I were going to get another phone which I won’t need to for a while. I’ve only had my iPhone 15 for a year or so I really don’t need to upgrade plus it’s in perfectly good working order so I don’t really see any reason too. I kept my iPhone SE 2022 to use as an iPod. I wasn’t going to let Apple take that back because it’s the last device that has any kind of home button on it and I wanted to keep it around for as long as possible. That one thankfully is still working order as well so I guess this as long as I possibly can. Plus this thing is still getting software updates so I didn’t see any reason to trade it back in. I guess they must’ve figured that I was going to try that in with the iPad mini six generation that I ended up trading in order to get my iPhone 15. I don’t know, but I’m glad I kept this either way. I know that back in like my elementary school. I know the computers in the classrooms were max, but they weren’t you know anything that had voiceover on them or anything cause that was really 1995 or 96 maybe 97 something like that so might even been before that anyway I hope whoever gets this one enjoy it and I will still definitely keep reading these kinds of posts it’s interesting