Apple announced the release a new Mac Mini with the vaunted M4 chip and Apple Intelligence. Pre-orders began on October 30, 2024, and sales will begin on November 8, 2024.
The new Mac mini takes up less than half the space of the previous design, at 12.7cm square. It can be placed on a desk in a small space. The compact system is made possible by the power efficiency of Apple silicon and a thermal architecture that directs air through each layer of the system and exhausts all of it from the bottom.
Compared to the best-selling Windows desktop PC in the same price range, the Mac mini is 1/20th the size and up to 6 times faster. The Mac mini with M4 is a compact and powerful device that is suitable for a wide range of users, from students to aspiring creators and small business owners. The Mac mini with M4 has a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, and unified memory starting at 16GB.
Users can experience the M4’s performance in all tasks, from multitasking across multiple apps to streamline everyday tasks, to creative projects like video editing and music production, to writing and compiling code.
Performance of Mac mini with M4 compared to Mac mini with Intel Core i7
- Apply up to 2.8x more audio effect plug-ins in your Logic Pro projects
- Up to 13.3x faster game performance in World of Warcraft: The War Within
- Up to 33x faster image upscaling performance when enhancing photos in Photomator
Mac mini with M4 vs. Mac mini with M1
- Microsoft Excel spreadsheet calculations up to 1.7x faster
- On-device AI speech-to-text conversion is up to 2x faster on MacWhisper
- Up to 4.9x faster panorama merge in Adobe Lightroom Classic
For users who want pro-level performance, Mac mini with M4 Pro has CPU cores that deliver single-threaded performance, while the M4 Pro with up to 14 cores, with 10 high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, delivers multi-threaded performance.
With up to 20 cores, the M4 Pro’s GPU is up to twice as powerful as the M4’s GPU, and both chips bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Mac mini for the first time.
Neural Engine
The M4 Pro’s Neural Engine is more than three times faster than the M1-equipped Mac mini, allowing on-device Apple Intelligence models to run faster. Additionally, the M4 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory and 273GB/s of memory bandwidth, twice the bandwidth of any AI-enabled Windows PC chip, accelerating AI tasks. The M4 Pro also supports Thunderbolt 5, giving the Mac mini data transfer speeds of up to 120Gb/s, more than double the throughput of Thunderbolt 4.
Performance of Mac mini with M4 Pro compared to Mac mini with Intel Core i7
- Microsoft Excel spreadsheet calculations up to 4x faster
- Scene edit detection runs up to 9.4x faster in Adobe Premiere Pro
- Up to 20x faster on-device AI speech-to-text with MacWhisper
- Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW processes DNA sequence base calls up to 26 times faster
Mac mini with M4 Pro versus Mac mini with M2 Pro
- Apply up to 1.8x more audio effect plug-ins in your Logic Pro projects
- Render motion graphics to RAM up to 2x faster in Motion
- 3D rendering completes up to 2.9x faster in Blender
Upgraded Connectivity and Display Support
The new Mac mini is packed with a wealth of ports for a variety of setups. Front ports include two USB-C ports with USB 3 support and an audio jack for high-impedance headphones for more convenient access. On the back, the M4-equipped Mac mini has three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M4 Pro-equipped Mac mini has three Thunderbolt 5 ports. Mac mini comes standard with Gigabit Ethernet and can be configured with faster network speeds up to 10Gb Ethernet.
It also has an HDMI port for easy connection to a TV or HDMI display without an adapter. Mac mini with M4 can support up to two 6K displays and one 5K display, while Mac mini with M4 Pro can support up to three 6K displays at 60Hz for a total of over 60 million pixels.
A New Era of Apple Intelligence on the Mac with M4
Apple Intelligence harnesses the power of Apple silicon and the Neural Engine to enable new ways for users to work, stay in touch and express themselves on their Mac. Apple Intelligence is available in macOS Sequoia 15.1 and in English (US). Systemwide writing tools help users refine their language through rewriting, proofreading and summarizing for almost any writing experience.
The newly redesigned Siri allows users to seamlessly transition between voice and text to make requests, helping them get tasks done faster throughout the day.
Siri can also answer thousands of questions about your Mac and other Apple products. New Apple Intelligence features will begin rolling out in December, with more to come in the coming months.
Image Playground brings new ways to create fun and original images, while Genmoji allows users to create customized emojis in an instant. Siri becomes even more capable by taking actions across the system and referencing the user’s personal context to provide tailored intelligence. In December, Siri and the writing tool will integrate ChatGPT, allowing users to access ChatGPT’s expertise without having to switch between tools.
An unparalleled experience with macOS Sequoia
macOS Sequoia completes the new Mac mini experience with many features, including iPhone Mirroring, which lets users wirelessly control their iPhone, apps and notifications directly from their Mac. Safari introduces a new Highlights feature to quickly pick out relevant information from a site, a smarter redesigned Reader that shows a table of contents and a high-level summary, and a new video viewer for watching videos without distractions.
Distraction Control allows users to hide items on web pages that they feel are distracting while browsing, and features like personalized spatial audio, advancements to Game Mode, and a wide range of exciting titles, including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, make gaming more immersive.
Tiling windows is now easier, so users can organize their information in the layout that works best for them. The new Passwords app stores all your passwords, passkeys and other authentication information in one place for convenient access. Users can also apply beautiful new built-in backgrounds to their video calls, including a range of color gradients and system wallpapers, or upload their own photos.
John Tarnus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, comments on the Mac Mini with M4:
The power efficiency of Apple silicon and a new thermal architecture give the new Mac mini incredible performance in an incredibly small design. Combined with the performance of the M4 and new M4 Pro chips, enhanced connectivity on both the front and back, and the arrival of Apple Intelligence, Mac mini is more capable and versatile than ever before and there’s nothing like it.
