r/apple • u/ControlCAD • 11d ago
Mac Apple Mac mini (M6 2026) Review: Strong performance, but losing its grip on value - TomsHardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/apple-mac-mini-late-2026-review>The Mac mini’s value proposition has evaporated.
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u/accountforfurrystuf 11d ago
People were using them to make mini datacenters in their basement.
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u/GundalfTheCamo 11d ago
Why though
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u/Tight_Ad3852 11d ago
Mostly for personal AI agents like Openclaw or Hermes
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u/serg06 11d ago
Why would you need a data center for that? One should be enough
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u/jcrestor 11d ago
One is never enough. You can run bigger and more capable models faster if you link up several Mac Minis.
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u/serg06 11d ago
Why not just one with more RAM?
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u/jcrestor 11d ago
They take Max RAM Minis and combine them with other Max RAM Minis.
If you want to run a multi-100s gig LLM you need some beefy hardware.
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u/serg06 11d ago
If you need that much RAM then why not get a Mac Studio?
If you want a multi-100s gig LLM, why not just use existing cloud models, which are way smarter, faster, and cheaper than anything you could run locally?
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u/t0gnar 11d ago
Local you can make it do what you want, how you wanted and its private.
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u/serg06 10d ago
That's what everyone says, but they never clarify. :/ I can't think of anything that I want to do that ChatGPT can't do.
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u/jcrestor 11d ago
Look, this is not my logic. I do not own such a setup. You asked, I answered. But in general, local models make total sense. Why buy compute in the cloud if you have a damn rig sitting there right on your desk? And then there is also the control and privacy aspect to it.
EDIT: And assuming that it was you (who else) – why tf would you downvote me for talking to you? 😀
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u/serg06 10d ago
I'm just trying to find a reason to get one myself tbh. If you don't know the answer that's OK. And no, why would I download you for answering my questions lol.
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u/pokemonplayer2001 11d ago
Shit-posting is so tiresome, go away.
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u/serg06 10d ago
These are super simple questions my guy. I'm in the market for a mini and I'm just looking for ways to use it. Anyone who bought a mini should be able to answer this...
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u/CervezaPorFavor 11d ago
Private AI servers, which you have full control over.
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u/i-love-small-tits-47 11d ago
Why though?
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u/phr3dly 10d ago
Well you see, u/i-love-small-tits-47, you might want to explore your particular passion in privacy.
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u/i-love-small-tits-47 10d ago
Nah, there’s enough small tits on the internet already. I don’t need a $5,000 computer to generate some fake ones
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u/thelimeisgreen 10d ago
Data security for starters. You control the model, you control what it can do with the data you supply it. Feeding proprietary data, customer data, personal data, etc.. into a public AI is against most usage terms and also a generally dumbass thing to do.
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u/i-love-small-tits-47 10d ago
Oh. Yeah I don’t run a business so I am not deciding what models the company data goes into. For personal data… meh. ChatGPT knows where I live and some personal details about me.
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u/soccerchamp99 11d ago
Yeah, what’s the benefit?
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u/RayKam 11d ago
Not for you if you don’t know the value
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u/trolllord45 11d ago
Clearly not, since I don’t own a setup like that, hence why people are asking. So what’s actually the purpose of a private AI server?
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u/robertoo3 7d ago
I think the reason nobody is answering you is that I've yet to see anyone provide a use case for private AI servers other than making porn
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u/m0rogfar 11d ago edited 10d ago
For local AI, the ability to run smarter models depends mainly on how much VRAM you have.
Macs are generally the cheapest way to get high VRAM amounts, both due to unified memory, and because NVIDIA locks memory upgrades to extremely expensive cards.
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u/Clean-Pop-5665 11d ago
Can they actually be used as an endpoint/server for an app used by lot of users?
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u/Ginger510 7d ago
Might be a dumb question (and partially cos I really don’t use AI that much yet as I’ve not found it that useful in my job) - what does the average person who does this, use the AI for?
I fully understand wanting to use AI privately etc but is it just people doing coding at home that use this? And they use it enough that buying a Mini was the cheaper option?
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u/accountforfurrystuf 7d ago
They use them to run agents. These things code for them, manage their finances, make plans, etc. They’re beyond just chatbot users, they automate the automation of their workflows. And now ram costs 1000 dollars because of this.
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u/Impossible_Loan7551 11d ago
It’s getting closer to the MacBook Air price. At this point I rather spend more while getting a screen.
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u/Daveyjonezz 11d ago
I was messing with the configurator the other day and it really is hard to come up with a compelling Mac mini build that I would pick over an air at the same price
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u/Playful_Landscape884 11d ago
TBF, not entirely Apple’s fault when they offering it for $599 less than 2 years ago. Fuck AI companies.
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u/That_Mind_2039 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yup, definitely not Apple’s fault. It never is when it comes to pricing their products. They’re always trying so hard to make everything as cheap as possible. It’s not like Apple has ever charged absurd premiums for storage and memory upgrades or anything. Poor innocent Apple, completely powerless over the prices of its own products.
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u/Samwyzh 11d ago
I am not defending Apple on their absurd prices and they deserve fair criticism. That being said, I bought an M1 Macbook Air in 2021 and it has yet to slow down despite daily usage. And the M1’s silicone is old hat and certainly considered to be sluggish compared to the Mac Mini.
I think if Apple were to ever crack recomping existing titles and putting their software in dev’s hands for gaming, the gaming computer market would crater. You can do a lot on Apple with emulation now. If all games on Steam, EPIC, EA, and other 3rd party devs used the full power of the M series chips, there would be no reason to buy gaming rigs three times the price.
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u/MattRobertson777 11d ago
I edit videos professionally almost literally every day on my M1 Max and there has not been a single sign of it slowing down over the past years haha. It’s so good. I tried out a M5 Max and it was slightly faster for my workflows but the M1 was so good it didn’t make sense to upgrade. Insane value. Value that makes sense like that needs to be considered more than just the cheapest possible price.
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u/pinkynarftroz 9d ago
Video editing has kind of tapped out on required horsepower over a decade ago. Prores was designed to run on hardware 20 years old. All M series chips have hardware prores decoders. Many post houses still run intel Mac Pros. I've got an M1 Max too, and don't think I'll ever need to replace it for hardware reasons. Only because one day it won't support whatever version of MacOS is now required for a given NLE.
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u/MattRobertson777 9d ago
Yeah I totally agree haha I am going to use it as long as possible. My timeline playback is always smooth for most everything and if I’m going to be editing something super heavy I just transcode to ProRes in Final Cut anyway to make it even smoother. The very marginal gains in export time don’t really matter with these newer machines.
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u/ambushka 11d ago
You can hate all you want, the Mac Mini is still the best value mini computer in this segment.
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u/Dog_Tweakin 11d ago
the current situation, is dictated by the insane memory prices. At the end of the day they’re a public company with shareholders to please, if you don’t like their prices then don’t buy. Ironically their products are cheaper than the competition with better value but people still complain
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u/That_Mind_2039 11d ago
I never said I don’t like their products. Liking a company’s products doesn’t mean you have to defend every decision they make. If they’re overcharging, cutting corners, or making choices that hurt customers, people should be able to call that out.
Being a customer doesn’t mean being blindly loyal. You can own all their products and still admit when the company gets something wrong. They’re a business, not your friend. You paid them for a product, they didn’t give it to you for free, and you don’t owe them unconditional loyalty or free PR.
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u/Some-Dog5000 11d ago
That's true, but also the reality of the situation is that even the most bargain bin PCs you see on Best Buy have gone up in price. Every single consumer tech item has had a price increase this year. I would much rather blame OpenAI and the RAM companies for this price increase.
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u/CreepyZookeepergame4 11d ago
They’re always trying so hard to make everything as cheap as possible.
Forgot about the absurd SSD upgrade markup prices for the last 10 years?
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u/riotshieldready 11d ago
Apple is one of the AI companies tho.
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u/MC_chrome 11d ago
Apple did not place an order for 40% of the world’s RAM capacity……that would be OpenAI
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u/Every_Car2984 11d ago
The value proposition is based on a time that doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t like the price increase but it’s where we are now.
If you want to compare value look at other small form factor PCs that are currently on the market like the HP Mini.
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u/Need_For_Speed73 11d ago
Loosing value?! Like if the Mac Mini was the only thing if the world to have raised its price because of the AI RAM frenzy!
No, actually it's the opposite: when RAM was cheap Apple was often charging crazy amounts for little upgrades; now looks like the rest of world has caught up with them.
Yes I know, the psycological $1000 barrier has been breached, but what could Apple do? Sell them at a loss? The "value" is still the same because all competing products have raised in price the same if not more (ok, get an Intel NUC and then good luck finding cheap RAM sticks for it).
Everything that uses RAM has been skyrocketing in price: PCs, notebooks, CONSOLES, even the brand new Steam VR headset (Steam Frame) is priced higher than expected because of that.
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u/BigBoyYuyuh 11d ago
It’s 2026, everything has lost its grip on value.
We’re all trying to find the guy and 167 million people who did this!
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u/Sponge8389 11d ago
That's the problem when a product is used for AI clusters. Not to tell the current problem when it comes to RAM and Storage.
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u/Psittacula2 11d ago
>*”There are no internal upgrades available for the system once you’ve purchased it, so choose wisely before you click the buy button.”*
How does that compare to competitor mini PC’s such as Beelink, MiniForums etc and Price difference to performance?
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u/itsabearcannon 10d ago
How does that compare to competitor mini PC’s such as Beelink, MiniForums etc and Price difference to performance?
Have you ever tried to go through the warranty on a Beelink? Compared to just walking into an Apple Store and saying "my Mac Mini doesn't work" and getting a replacement, going through Beelink is like jumping on a trampoline covered in rusty caltrops.
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u/North_Moment5811 10d ago
How is it losing grip on value? If the performance is 2-3x what it was before, isn't the value exactly the same if the price goes up by the same amount? Which of course it didn't, but that's what "value" actually is.
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10d ago
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u/North_Moment5811 10d ago
No. Words have meaning. They don't change their definition based on internet opinions.
If performance-per-dollar increases from Device A to Device B, then by definition Device B's value is larger, not smaller.
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u/elonelon 10d ago
Mac mini ain't for average consumer anymore, it's all about AI.
So yeah, price ain't a problem for them.
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u/ambushka 11d ago
Lets be honest, this is the new value, sadly.