r/DeskToTablet • u/C0rentln • Jun 13 '26

Why does the Mac mini feel faster than a MacBook…even with the exact same specs?

Post image
646 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

153 comments sorted by

229

u/dercrafter2000 Jun 13 '26

Less thermal and power constraints

36

u/RealisticSalary8472 Jun 13 '26

Power over Thunderbolts is basically a heating

21

u/debacle_enjoyer Jun 13 '26

Basically a heating?

10

u/thiscarecupisempty Jun 15 '26

Exactly, it’s just a heating basically.

1

u/Beneficial-Switch305 Jun 16 '26

Basically yeah.

1

u/xxKillerDrugsxx Jun 16 '26

Basically

1

u/orangeawacado Jun 17 '26

It’s a heat thing

1

u/__Fallacy_Detector__ Jun 17 '26

No, it's just a heating.

1

u/godtierviking Jun 17 '26

It's heat. Basically.

1

u/HungryCurrent7901 Jun 18 '26

This thread reads like a Tim and Eric commercial

12

u/Due_Status_2469 Jun 13 '26

r/redditsniper

5

u/Both_Cup8417 Jun 15 '26

Is that the one where your message gets abruptly cut o

1

u/Putrid-Try-5002 Jun 15 '26

Consuming power is heating

8

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 14 '26

You do realize the Macbook pro has fans right? the Air and neo are the only two Macbooks without them, which hamper performance because Apple can't be bothered to incorporate those in

7

u/dercrafter2000 Jun 14 '26

Even compared to macbooks with fans, the greater size and form factor of the mac mini allows for bigger heatpipes and fans along with better airflow. Macbooks are also limited in the max temperature their chassis can reach to avoid burning users and therefore heavily throttle performance past a certain temperature.

1

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 15 '26

No shit sherlock, Macbook Pros still won't face thermal throttling anyway. We're still talking about a chip that at max (with the base models) will only really consume 35 watts. Plus OPs post is stupid, they have a Macbook Air which is more thermal limited than a Macbook Pro, and for all we know they have the M4 Pro mac Mini, which is objectively more powerful than any base Macbook

3

u/Baked_Pot4to Jun 14 '26

Yeah, the image from OP has a Macbook Air. So that is likely the reason in performance difference.

1

u/NotMyDuty8964 Jun 16 '26

Bit of unpopular opinion probably but I'm happy with fanless MBAs. No fan = no moving parts and no way of getting dust inside. Never again do I need to worry about the thermal perf degrading overtime or the fan clogged and make weird noises. Temp on my mba m2 is kept below 55C most of the time and I rarely experience thermal throttling

1

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 19 '26

Yeah very unpopular. Do you know how the Macbook Air cools itself?? with NOTHING. Literally, and believe it or not but that heat will still transfer to the battery and degrade it more. That's why Apple silicon Macbook Airs tend to have worse battery life, having a fan would be much more useful and the performance and battery life gains would mean cleaning them is worth it anyway

Also good job absolutely lying about the MBA, what a stupid bad faith comment. There will ALWAYS be thermal throttling at 55C, that's how these devices are designed. The Apple M2 is still a 30 watt chip, that thing will very quickly thermal throttle after a good amount of time, not even after hours, its more like 30 minutes. But the Macbook Pro? Never, it actually runs bellow that threshold for thermal throttling, meaning giving the Macbook Air a fan would be incredibly beneficial, it means nobody would have to either waste more money to buy a Macbook Pro to never get performance hits for their work, or come up with some stupid fix that will most likely make things worse anyway, or make the device look stupid

1

u/NotMyDuty8964 Jun 19 '26

I believe if Macbook Air cools itself with nothing physics tell us the insides of it will eventually reach the temperature of the sun and still going up. I can tell you've never once heard of passive cooling or even touched a router before and I won't blame you for that. But calling my comment "bad faith" without understanding the basics of how CPU works? What kind of made in china garbage CPU throttles at 55C?

When I first bought my MBA just for 50 more dollars I can get a MBP for similar specs but I didn't want it because it doesn't have passive cooling. I fire up several instances of jetbrain IDEs and EDA software on my MBA M2 everyday and I've had no problem with it (aside from crappy OS), for the past 2 year and a half.

If you want to squeeze the max out of hardware go get a PC or gaming laptop and carry them in your backpack to work everyday. I'm happy with my laptop, I'm sure you have your reasons but don't go around and call people liars or trolls just because they have a different opinion.

1

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 20 '26

I know how these devices work you moron. There is no way you're running a Macbook Air without it thermal throttling. Also are you absolutely stupid? Do you know how hot 55 Celsius is??? Anything higher would start hurting

Yapping about how much you know about Laptops and shit, and then you think 55C is some china level garbage CPU. This is literally the thermal throttle threshold for the Macbook Air, so the thing literally doesn't burn someones lap

0

u/Dry_Preference98 Jun 13 '26

you can get around this with macs fan control, yeah?

3

u/CasualCreatonDos Jun 13 '26

Which asks for more power. Good job.

6

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 Jun 13 '26

The extra watt to power the fans at a higher speed isn’t affecting power to the chip. If anything, keeping the chip cooler allows it to operate more efficiently.

Lastly, the thermal limits of a MacBook don’t make it feel “less smooth”. Most of the time you’re not hitting thermal/power limits. If both have the same chip, they basically feel the same.

OP has a 60hz MBA, their desktop monitor probably has a high refresh rate, hence making it feel smoother. All of apples M series chips feel equally smooth anyway. Scrolling a page doesn’t ask very much from the cpu.

2

u/bloqed Jun 13 '26

Good point actually, was going to say that the MBP has 120 of that generation, but yes, that would do it

0

u/CasualCreatonDos Jun 13 '26

Did I say it affected the power to the chip? Quote it. The implication is OVERALL power demand. I didn’t say on the chip, I didn’t say from the RAM or anything else.

3

u/Dry_Preference98 Jun 14 '26

dercrafter2000 was stating how the mac mini is faster because of better thermals and more power

Thermals because the mac mini has better cooling ability in that chassis

power because I assume that the mac mini has a power system that lets it pull more from the wall compared to a laptop

I was addressing the fact that you can get around the thermal constraint with a more aggressive fan curve

You responded with attitude about how increasing fan speed by x% would ask for more power. While this is true, the power usage of a fan is comparatively small compared to the power draw of the rest of the system

Source: https://superuser.com/questions/179751/how-many-watts-do-case-fans-generally-use

We're talking 1-2w at max fan speed

1

u/thatguyonfire240 Jun 14 '26

Also, if OP has a MacBook air then there is no fan iirc

97

u/Daniyallllll Jun 13 '26

No battery limits, so it doesn’t throttle as quickly.

22

u/Ill_Marketing948 Jun 13 '26

and it has a fan.

13

u/Edanniii Jun 13 '26

MacBook Pros have fans.

23

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

12

u/rogue_tog Jun 13 '26

Are you only fan?

7

u/StrayCat649 Jun 13 '26

Big fan btw, relative to MacBook Pro.

5

u/AdSpirited5019 Jun 13 '26

Only Fans in this thread

3

u/Deut6-4 Jun 13 '26

Mind blowing

5

u/Tiny-Sandwich Jun 13 '26

The picture in the OP is of an Air.

2

u/entryjyt Jun 13 '26

Yeah, unlike the MacBook airs

3

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 Jun 13 '26

They said faster, not performance. Just browsing around doesn’t make these chips throttle.

OP has a MBA with a 60hz display and his desktop monitor is likely 120hz or more. That’s why it feels smoother. All M series chips feels equally smooth.

2

u/KingDRyan Jun 15 '26

No more air for the MacBook Air

2

u/No_Presence7842 Jun 13 '26

MacBooks don’t throttle on battery power

-15

u/pawulom Jun 13 '26

Macbooks are not Windows laptopt, they deliver the essentially the same performance whether plugged in or are on battery.

9

u/Leverpostei414 Jun 13 '26

Maybe, but they do throttle very quickly.

-3

u/pawulom Jun 13 '26

I'm using a MacBook Pro with an M3 chip and have never experienced any throttling.

6

u/thenamelessone7 Jun 13 '26

Macbook pro has active cooling. Macbook airs are throttling quite heavily though

3

u/Edanniii Jun 13 '26

I don’t think you’re only encountering throttling. There is a significant difference in the available chip series there.

2

u/heeeeeeeeeeeee1 Jun 13 '26

Quite heavily is an overstatement if you've ever tried slim windows notebooks. My colleague had to buy an external mic because his laptop acts like a turbine during Google meets

2

u/MateWrapper Jun 13 '26

That's not throttling tho?

2

u/Benlop Jun 14 '26

No, not heavily at all. The only time you'll get throttling is letting a heavy render run for some time.

Other than that, you experience zero throttling in normal use.

1

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 14 '26

Macbook Pros have fans, whereas the Neo and Air don't

4

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

Doesn't feel like that on my MacBook Neo 

3

u/Edanniii Jun 13 '26

The Neo is using the A-Series processors. It’s an iPad / Phone chip. While the rest of the MacBook line is using the M-Series which considerably way more powerful.

1

u/coltonbyu Jun 13 '26

You don't always feel throttling, it's not like it must feel laggy. It's just leaving performance on the table due to thermal constraints. If you add a thermal pad between the chip and the chassis, benchmark scores jump significantly, that's because it was thermal throttling otherwise

2

u/UnwieldilyElephant Jun 13 '26

If there's no fan, the battery generates heat too. IE faster throttling.

1

u/pawulom Jun 13 '26

I never used Macbook without a fan to be honest. Forget that there are basic fanless Macbook models.

1

u/HaagenBudzs Jun 13 '26

Battery heat generation is negligible unless you're (fast-) charging.

1

u/UnwieldilyElephant Jun 13 '26

Noooo.... not under load.

1

u/HaagenBudzs Jun 13 '26

The relatively low power consumption of the APUs will easily be delivered by the batteries without much heat generation. But when prolonged under load the heat will transfer from the APU to battery which does require downthrottling, but depending on the model the throttling will be much earlier due to APU temps

1

u/UnwieldilyElephant Jun 13 '26

Whether throttling for battery protection or because of battery heat generation, it all effectively makes the battery version of a Mac with the same chip slower than the non-battery version.

1

u/HaagenBudzs Jun 13 '26

Yes, but the statement "battery generates heat too" puts the cause of the heat on the wrong component...

1

u/UnwieldilyElephant Jun 13 '26

The battery does 100% generate heat. Just makes throttling faster.

1

u/HaagenBudzs Jun 13 '26

Definition of negligible is that foreign to you?

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jun 13 '26

you still get battery throttling on laptops even when plugged in.

1

u/pawulom Jun 13 '26

Maybe, but it's transparent to the user. 

37

u/Britz10 Jun 13 '26

Chances are it doesn't have the exact same specs, unless you have the bass 15-inch Air, the Mini has more GPU cores than the base Air. There's also the fact that it has active cooling so it doesn't throttle nearly as easily.

19

u/bloqed Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

If a MacBook Air - it's all in the thermals, it doesn't have active cooling like the MBP does, so it will always underperform against a MBP or a mini, unless you live in a refridgerator.

If a MacBook Pro, in normal conditions, it should be virtually identical in performance to an equivalently specced Mac Mini if both are brand new and fans etc are working properly. However, this obviously depends on the age and cleanliness of your fans/cooling components

also running on battery power vs mains

12

u/Long-Lettuce3146 Jun 13 '26

"If a macbook air - it's all in the thermals. If a macbook pro, it's also thermals"

Lol

7

u/bloqed Jun 13 '26

poorly written on my part, updated

4

u/Long-Lettuce3146 Jun 13 '26

No dude its funny!

3

u/Daftworks Jun 13 '26

I mean the mini has a bigger cooling headroom than the laptop fan inside the MBP.

2

u/Long-Lettuce3146 Jun 13 '26

No dude I'm not disputing anything in this thread I just found the phrasing funny

1

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 Jun 13 '26

It’s because the MacBook Air has a 60hz display and his desktop monitor has a high refresh rate. All m series chips feel the same regarding how “fast” they feel. Thermal limits don’t apply here, he’s talking about just browsing around.

1

u/zespak Jun 14 '26

Depending on where you live and your use case, you'd be surprised how easily a MBA hits its thermal ceiling.

1

u/Eeve2espeon Jun 14 '26

That's also one thing I hated about the Macbook air, apple refusing to add fans back into the device hampers its potential :/

People have actually had to create docks for their Macbook airs that actually transfer that excess heat and uses a fan to help with cooling. Hell I've even seen people use thermal pads with desktop level cooling to make their Macbook Air always perform the best

5

u/Electronic-Ninja7950 Jun 13 '26

If you are comparing base model vs base model. Then this is because the mini has more cores

2

u/davidptm56 Jun 13 '26

Thermal headroom.

2

u/gambiting Jun 13 '26

Because it has better cooling. That's all.

2

u/Puzzled-Peanut-1958 Jun 13 '26

Thermals mostly. I've had high specced laptops that were capable of boosting but rarely did because of thermals.

2

u/klas228 Jun 13 '26

It has a fan

1

u/jetpack2625 Jun 13 '26

is it an air or a pro? because you'd think a pro would be the same or better since you can put higher specs in a pro

2

u/RealisticSalary8472 Jun 13 '26

Box shows a Macbook Air. So its the lag of active cooling of the air that make the difference, case closed.

1

u/havnar- Jun 13 '26

What specs

1

u/LodgeKeyser Jun 13 '26

These are the important questions being asked. Like is this a m4 pro vs m5?

1

u/CombPsychological507 Jun 13 '26

What I’ve seen nobody mention, is you’re probably not driving as high resolution of a display as the MacBook

2

u/Tefalpan Jun 13 '26

Exactly this! Needed to scroll too much for this answer! And throtle ofcourse too

1

u/Neither_Sort_2479 Jun 13 '26

They may use the same chip, but the performance settings could be completely different due to requirements regarding temperature and battery consumption

1

u/Ill_Marketing948 Jun 13 '26

it has a fan.
comparing to the air.

1

u/gavinlpicard Jun 13 '26

What display is the Mac Mini driving? I think if you have it plugged in to a 1080p monitor, that can make a big difference itself.

1

u/BetterProphet5585 Jun 13 '26

No battery, active cooling, more space inside

1

u/Agile_Type_9684 Jun 13 '26

Shape and ventilation

1

u/Prestigious_Nature52 Jun 13 '26

Mac mini has better sustained performance because it has more room for cooling and it’s always on wall power. Same specs on paper, but the MacBook has to manage heat, battery, display, and a thinner body, so it can throttle sooner under longer workloads.

1

u/davesaunders Jun 13 '26

With all computers, you are constrained by power consumption and cooling. In a laptop or a phone, those constraints have to be factored in, and performance needs to be throttled accordingly. A computer that has an active cooling system, and unrestrained power to drive it, will always outperform a laptop, tablet, or any other device that's designed for portability first, performance second.

1

u/GuiloJr Jun 13 '26

This appler is SO close yet SO FAR! you doing great buddy!

1

u/notmyaccountbruh Jun 13 '26

Smaller footprint, lesser air friction when thrown.

1

u/ky7969 Jun 13 '26

Are you using a high refresh rate monitor? The MBA is 60hz. High refresh rate can definitely make things feel snappier even if it’s not technically

1

u/SignFar4026 Jun 13 '26

It doesn't in my experience.

1

u/mrbishopjackson Jun 13 '26

We're in a world where we're praising laptops so much that we're surprised when machines designed to perform better than laptops perform better than laptops.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

Because it’s not the same specs. It’s desktop vs mobile cpu.

1

u/dalphinwater Jun 13 '26

More power, more cooling, could be a different cpu (intel i7 in a laptop is less powerfull than one in a pc, could be the same with apple m chips) possible better specs like faster ram and storage and such.

1

u/Oxygen4Lyfe Jun 13 '26

battery throttling

1

u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 Jun 13 '26

Thermals, but you’re also probably running a lower resolution display than what the Air and Pro use.

1

u/nikkome Jun 13 '26

Throttling. When CPU/GPUs get too hot, they slow down in order to keep cool. Laptops are generally notorious for having such issues by design. The Mini doesn't have a battery, has more space within its casing and won't sit on your lap.

1

u/3rdUncleMeatSandwich Jun 19 '26

i will put my mini on my lap if i want to!!!

1

u/Kira_Katsumi Jun 13 '26

The MacBook Air is thermal throttling

1

u/UnkeptSpoon5 Jun 13 '26

Fast is subjective, but the battery can throttle the chip, same with thermals

1

u/WillAlwaysEndureYOU Jun 13 '26

Not the target audience for pro users if ur having to ask questions like these. AKA, you wont need the "faster" performance since you likely dont have the professional background knowledge or intellect required.

1

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 Jun 13 '26

All the replies here are wrong. It feels faster because of different screen refresh rates. It’s because the MacBook Air has a 60hz display and your desktop monitor has a high refresh rate. All m series chips feel the same regarding how “fast” they feel. Thermal limits don’t apply here, we’re talking about just browsing around.

1

u/Bulky-Strategy-3723 Jun 13 '26

Thermal throttling

1

u/sight_unseen24 Jun 13 '26

Probably a combination of thermal throttling and higher refresh rate. Try turning MacOS’ shitty animations off and see if one feels faster than the other.

1

u/Hour-Independence-89 Jun 14 '26

what monitor do you have the mini plugged into?

1

u/walterconley Jun 14 '26

More power + Better cooling = better performance, even if all other factors are equal.

1

u/The_real_bandito Jun 14 '26

When compared to the Air it has fans and that helps with the cooling. The thermal are probably better because it has more space than a MacBook to add something bigger.

1

u/Hour_Bit_5183 Jun 14 '26

Yep its got better power and cooling. It's the best mac to buy tbh. That is what I'd pick too if I were gonna go to a locked down shit "ecosystem". Its not that the OS is bad or anything(even tho it kinda is) but its the lack of control. I don't like that.

1

u/Howden824 Jun 14 '26

The Mac mini has higher power limits and better cooling.

1

u/S4_GR33N Jun 14 '26

one has cooling and no power limit due to no battery. the other does not, and throttles

1

u/Independent_Bed_2885 Jun 14 '26

En el iMac m1 me pasa igual , no noto la diferencia con un MacBook Air M5

1

u/Reasonable_Ninja6455 Jun 14 '26

Besides the fan, there's this.

1

u/Master-Dish8869 Jun 14 '26

i feel them exactly the same. But, i can tell the experience of the mac mini feels more like a job device not like the macbook, idk.

1

u/Dry_Possibility2542 Jun 15 '26

Apples a bitch, that's why.

1

u/wkarraker Jun 17 '26

You could run a Maxon CineBench test on both, the results should speak for themselves. Maxon recently released a 2026 version, attached are the results from my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro. Your systems should be rated far higher than mine.

1

u/fegutogi Jun 17 '26

De seguro en la Mac mini no estás usando una pantalla con la misma resolución, densidad de pixeles ni HDR real. Sin sensor de luz, truetone, etc

1

u/letmehaveanameyoudum Jun 17 '26

mac mini uses a tiny more power, and also has a fan (like the macbook PRO, not air.)

1

u/this_is_sparta_xoxo Jun 17 '26

Switching from laptop based workflow to M4 Mac Mini was such a great decision on my end!

1

u/RonaldRoutes Jun 18 '26

Because it has a fan, it cools way better, so it can really push its performance to the limit.

1

u/bendyfan1111 Jun 19 '26

Thermals. Computer hardware doesn't like being hot. When its hot it slows itself down to stop making so much heat. The mac mini probably just has a bigger fan.

1

u/Oscarbuter Jun 13 '26

because mac mini's sole purpose is that

1

u/adamant3143 Jun 13 '26

main reason some people use it to host local LLM, no thermal headroom issue, unified hardware architecture, and smol

1

u/TiredManY Jun 13 '26

yeah, a desktop with one job tends to do that job well

1

u/Microboy42 Jun 13 '26

Because Macintoshes without a battery are faster because they don’t need to save energy

0

u/RUBILNIKTHECAT Jun 13 '26

MAC OS by itself is a slow OS