Miniaturized to Perfection: The M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini Shrinks to a Stunning 5×5 Inches

Miniaturized to Perfection: The M4 and M4 Pro Mac Mini Shrinks to a Stunning 5×5 Inches

October 30, 2024 Catherine Williams - Chief Editor World

Apple unveiled its latest Mac Mini model The new Mac Mini offers two chip options: M4 and M4 Pro. As previously rumored, Apple has significantly reduced the appearance of the Mac Mini this time around, leaving it at just 5×5 inches, less than half the size of the previous design.

Apple notes that the new Mac Mini offers 1.8 times faster CPU performance and 2.2 times faster GPU performance than the M1 model, thanks to the amazing performance-packed M4 chip in a 12.7 cm square size. . Models equipped with the M4 Pro further upgrade the M4’s advanced technology to handle heavy workloads.

The Mac Mini is equipped with ports on the front and back of the device for more convenient connectivity functions, while the M4 Pro model features Thunderbolt 5 for faster data transfer for the first time. The new Mac Mini is also designed for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that revolutionizes the way users work, communicate and express themselves while protecting their privacy.

Apple also emphasized that the new Mac mini is also Apple’s first carbon-neutral Mac computer, marking a major environmental milestone by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing, shipping and use by 80%. The new Mac Mini is priced from 19,900 yuan (16GB memory configuration) and will be available for order in Taiwan in the future.

M4

Officials note that the new Mac mini is only 1/20 the size of the most popular PC desktop computer at the same price, but is up to 6 times faster. The Mac Mini with M4 is a compact creative powerhouse for a variety of users, from students to aspiring creators and small business owners. Mac minis equipped with the M4 have a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU, and unified memory configurations now start at 16GB. From multitasking within daily productivity apps to managing creative projects like video editing, music production or writing and organizing code, users can appreciate the M4’s performance.

Mac mini with Intel Core i7 compared to Mac mini with M4:

  • Audio effects plug-in modules that can be implemented in “Logic Pro” projects can be used up to 2.8 times.
  • “World of Warcraft: War for the Core” brings game performance up to 13.3 times faster.
  • Image magnification performance in Photometer has been improved up to 33 times.

Mac mini with M1 compared to Mac mini with M4:

  • “Microsoft Excel” spreadsheet calculations can be up to 1.7 times faster.
  • “MacWhisper” uses device-side AI to generate speech-to-text verbatim transcripts 2x faster.
  • Fusion of panoramas in Adobe Lightroom Classic is up to 4.9x faster.

M4 Pro

For users who demand pro-level performance, the Mac Mini with M4 Pro features the world’s fastest CPU cores and lightning-fast single-threaded performance. The M4 Pro has up to 14 cores, including 10 performance cores and 4 power-saving cores, thus providing exceptional multi-threading performance. With up to 20 cores, the M4 Pro GPU is twice as powerful as the M4’s GPU.

In addition, the two chips bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Mac mini for the first time. The M4 Pro’s neural engine is also 3 times faster than the M1-powered Mac Mini. M4 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory and up to 273GB of memory bandwidth per second, which is double that of other AI PC chips, thus accelerating AI workloads. The M4 Pro also supports Thunderbolt 5, which brings Mac mini data transfer speeds of up to 120 gigabytes per second, more than twice the speed of Thunderbolt 4.

Mac mini with Intel Core i7 compared to Mac mini with M4 Pro:

  • “Microsoft Excel” spreadsheet calculations can be up to 4 times faster.
  • Perform scene cut detection 9.4x faster in Adobe Premiere Pro.
  • “MacWhisper” uses device-side AI to generate speech-to-text verbatim transcripts 20 times faster.
  • 26 times improved base calling performance in “Oxford Nanopore MinKNOW”.

Mac mini with M2 Pro vs. Mac mini with M4 Pro:

  • Audio effects plug-in modules that can be implemented in “Logic Pro” projects can be used up to 1.8 times.
  • Compute and draw dynamic graphics 2x faster in RAM.
  • 3D rendering speed can be increased up to 2.9 times in “Blender”.

connection upgrade

The new Mac Mini features a variety of ports to match a variety of devices, including front ports for easy access, two USB-C ports that support USB 3, and an audio jack that supports high-impedance headphones. The Mac mini with the M4 has three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back, and the model with the M4 Pro has three Thunderbolt 5 ports.

Gigabit Ethernet is standard on the Mac Mini, with maximum configurations up to 10Gb, bringing faster network speeds. It is equipped with an HDMI port, so you can easily connect to a TV or HDMI monitor without an adapter The Mac mini with the M4 supports up to two 6K displays and one 5K display, while the M4 Pro models can support three 6K displays (60Hz) for a total of 60 million pixels.

The new Mac Mini is available to order in 28 countries and territories, including the US, starting today, and will be available in the Taiwanese market at a later date.

In terms of price, the M4 Mac mini starts at 19,900 yuan, the educational discount starts at 16,400 yuan;

(Image source:apple)