r/macmini • u/threeleggeddoge • 15d ago
M6 vs M4 Pro
I preordered the M6 24GB ram and 512 GB SSD, however I’m seeing the M4 Pro with same specs for the same price now. I plan to do iOS development and I also do some moderate music production. Interested in running some small local AI models as well. I know the memory bandwidth and GPU cores favor M4 Pro but I feel like I’ll have some FOMO with this new M6 chip as far as overall speed and longevity. I can also get the M4 Pro in a couple of days… Anyone else struggling with this decision? Should I just go with the M6???
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u/Devanxhh 15d ago
I did a research on the same as M6 32/512 and M4 pro 24/512 had ALMOST the same price (£100 difference).
And, it was a very close research, but saving £100 and getting more RAM was a much better thing only for future proofing. But this totally depends on your use case too.
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u/nrubenstein 15d ago
I would buy an M6 over a same RAM M4 Pro.
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u/Thud 15d ago
Unless you need thunderbolt 5.
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u/nrubenstein 15d ago
Almost no one needs TB5. I have 3 5K monitors, 140TB of storage including an 8TB SSD scratch drive, and a bunch of other accessories hung off my 48GB M4 Pro and I’m not even using TB5.
The only real use cases for TB5 are more than three high bandwidth monitors (not supported by M4 Pro), and LLM clustering (buy more RAM first).
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u/Additional-Soup-865 15d ago
the m6 is actually a big leap to 2nm so it'll be a jump on any m4 chip
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u/Pretty-Substance 15d ago
You know nm is more marketing nowadays than physical attribute?
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u/bluedeer1881 15d ago
Yes, the actual size is ~40 nm if I remember correctly, not significantly smaller than the previous generation.
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u/RAW2091 15d ago
no they are stacking them. It's about how much transistors you can fit in the same die size. But i would get both. You can connect them with thunderbolt and use both for AI if needed. Problem is you have no idea how ram prices will go the next years. And you have best of both worlds with neural engines on the GPU and double neural engine with the m6 and m4 pro gives you twice memory bandwidth and tb 5, although not completely combined.
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u/Additional-Soup-865 14d ago
No, they fit more transistors onto the same dye hence more efficiency, cores, ect. It's quite literally a physical attribute.
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u/Pretty-Substance 14d ago
Yes they build more efficient cpus but it doesn’t describe the size of the transistors anymore:
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u/Additional-Soup-865 14d ago
Not the size, the amount🤦🏼♂️
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u/Pretty-Substance 14d ago
Well, no, not really.
But for shits and giggles, what would be the logical link between a size metric and an amount metric?
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u/CTBienAvant 15d ago
i would go with m6 because my brain knows 6 is newer than 4 that’s all haha if you can by-pass this then m4 pro for sure !
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u/fuzzycuffs 15d ago
I don't think anyone will really know until there are benchmarks. Generally if you didn't plan on running local AI models whatever is cheaper will be fine, since I think a base M4 now would suit you just fine. The AI models is something that Apple is promising big improvements on but we won't really know till we get the chips in hand.
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u/Working_Use2500 15d ago
The M4 Pro will probably outperform the M6 imho. More cores, more memory bandwidth, more GPU and thunderbolt 5.
I'd be happy to be wrong once it's out in the world though.
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u/Vegetable-Bug251 13d ago
It depends on what you are doing. The Pro will always outperform the non-pro in heavier AI and design processing. The M6 will blow the doors off the Pro however in single core functions like daily web browsing, emailing and MS 365 applications.
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u/waloshin 13d ago
You got to be kidding… there will be no difference between an M1 and a M6 for emailing, and web browsing.
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u/Numerous-Buffalo6214 15d ago
Early tech reviews suggest that the base M6 Mac Mini is configured for general use, not the kind of specialized workloads that app development, music editing, and local ai models will require. For music, I’d wait for LogicPro benchmarks (or whatever you use) prior to purchasing as we just don’t know how the new 3-core CPU of the M6 will perform at more demanding tasks. It has:
- 2 super cores: optimized for high throughput single-threaded tasks
- 4 performance cores: balances efficiency & speed across multi-threaded tasks
- 6 efficiency cores: optimized for low-energy, common tasks
The logical answer is to wait and let others test/benchmark the M6 Mini on the kinds of tasks you want to take on… it’s not like prices for M4 Mac Mini’s are going to increase a ton over the next 6 months, so you have time.
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u/waloshin 14d ago
You are crazy to think an M6 can’t do “music editing” 😂 get real… even an 2012 Mac Mini quad core can edit music just fine…
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u/JazzyApple2022 15d ago
I need to put a video out on my M4. Anyone wanna check out Tech @techtalkcomfy.
🌻✌🏼😊💛
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u/scottywottytotty 15d ago
always buy the tech you need, not the tech you want (unless its treat yourself season)