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It’s time for another Mac buying guide! This time, it’s the battle of the M4 Pro Mac mini versus the Mac Studio – a question I get asked a lot.
I understand why, too, because as you start speccing up the M4 Pro Mac mini, it very quickly creeps into Mac Studio territory. In fact, on the face of it, there appears to be very little separating these two machines, especially with the new M4 chipset added to the discussion.
That is until you really dig into the details and apply some good, old-fashioned common sense. I’ve done both of those things and arrived at an ultra-simple conclusion for you.
There are still some numbers to wade through, I’m afraid. But it will all become clear, and the pay-off is you buying the right desktop Mac for your requirements – and saving a whole heap of money in the process.
The numbers: price and specifications
The M4 Pro Mac mini starts at $1,399/£1,399. This nets you the M4 Pro chip, a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB unified memory and 512GB of SSD storage. This compares to the M2 Pro Mac mini which comes with a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory, and 512GB of SSD storage.
The M2 Pro Mac mini can no longer be purchased from Apple directly. BestBuy currently sells them for $1,299, and you can find them on Amazon for $1080 at the time of writing, saving somewhere between $200 and $350 compared to the M4.
Although you are saving money, it is absolutely worth spending the extra cash to get the M4 Pro Mac mini instead of the M2 Pro Mac mini. The cost will be irrelevant in a few years time and you are getting so much more power and longevity with the M4.
The Mac Studio starts at $2,099/£2,099. For that extra $700/£700, you get the M2 Max chip with a 12-core CPU, 30-core GPU, 32GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage. Oh, and some additional capabilities, which I’ll cover later.
Neither of these machines can be upgraded after you’ve hit that checkout button – it’s important to remember that. So, regardless of how high the specs of these Macs can go, you’re stuck with what you choose from the outset.
The closest we can get the M4 Pro Mac mini to the base model Mac Studio is by spending the exact same $2,199/£2,199. For that, you get the M4 Pro with a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 46GB of unified memory, and 1TB SSD storage. Basically, for the same price, you end up with a machine that has less graphics performance, fewer ports, and some other internal concessions.
Read our M1 vs M2 vs M3 chip guide for more info
Just from this, you can see that the main difference with the Mac Studio is its graphics processing. Put simply, if that’s what you need and your budget is $2,000 or more – get a Mac Studio.
However, the story doesn’t end there, because this comparison reveals exactly where the magic lies for both of these machines – and for whom they’re intended.
Apple doesn’t tell you this stuff. Obviously.
Who should buy an M4 Pro Mac mini?
We’ve established that the Mac Studio has more graphics processing power than the Mac mini. And that’s for a reason. These two machines have very different intended use cases.
If you spec up the M2 Pro Mac mini beyond that $2,000/£2,000 mark, it’s a fool’s game; you really are well and truly into Mac Studio territory by that stage. You simply get more for your money with the latter once you break that price barrier.
This is good news for everyone else, though, because it means that the M4 Pro Mac mini really is at its best and most impressive in the lower spec range.
I know this from first-hand experience. If you haven’t watched my M4 Pro Mac mini stress test on YouTube yet, I urge you to check it out. The things you can do with the base spec M4 Pro Mac mini are utterly mind-blowing.
And, to be fair, the same can be said for the M2 Pro Mac mini. It is still a beastly machine and if you own one, there is no reason to rush to upgrade. My Mac mini music production test will reassure you on that!
Want more on Apple’s new releases? Check out my iPad mini 7 review
The M4 Pro Mac mini outperforms and plays in arenas that should be well above its pay grade. It makes a strong contender for one of the most impressive Macs Apple has ever released.
In my opinion, this makes the M4 Pro Mac mini the perfect desktop Mac for a much wider audience than the Mac Studio. Even the standard M4 Mac mini, with no Pro chip, is powerful enough for most everyday users. That’s how good Apple Silicon has become.
The best way to describe the perfect M4 Pro Mac mini owner is to look at yours truly. I could run my entire business from this thing; it would handle everything from admin to production work without fuss. Heavy video editing, multi-track-laden music production, photography editing; you name it, the M4 Pro Mac mini will handle it.
If your use case matches mine, or you run a similar business, side hustle, or passion project – the base spec M4 Pro Mac mini is for you (just keep an eye on that final number as you add the upgrades!).
Who should buy a Mac Studio?
You might be thinking, if the Mac mini is so powerful, then why even consider the Mac Studio? Well, it’s a question that’s become harder to answer with the existence of the M4 Pro chip, but there is still an answer.
The Mac Studio can be configured far beyond the M2 Pro Mac mini.
If you’ve got the budget and stomach for it, you can kit up the Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra chip and as many as 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores, and 192GB of unified memory. At the top end, this computer will set you back nearly $9,000.
This is a seriously different machine to its mini brother. It’s made for those who need to maximise graphics processing; 3D graphic modellers, game developers, those sorts of strenuous workloads.
The Mac Studio also has twice the memory bandwidth, one extra ProRes encode and decode engine and can support a frankly ludicrous eight 4K displays (or a paltry three 8K displays, if that’s your jam). Oh, and let’s not forget the SD card slot on the front of the thing, eh?
My advice remains the same as it has throughout this buying guide. If you begin to stray beyond $2,000/£2,000 while speccing up your next desktop Mac, it makes sense to opt for the Mac Studio. The amount of additional headroom you get for the money and the additional I/O makes it an obvious choice when you head into that territory.
Wrapping up
I love creating buying guides like this because the conclusion is often so simple.
When it comes to the M4 Pro Mac mini, very few people need to go beyond that base spec model. It offers possibly the most bang-for-buck out of any current base model Mac and will satisfy a huge user base.
In all honesty, the base-level M4 Mac mini is more than enough for most, so consider that too when making the final decision, especially when it costs just $599/£599!
Read my iPhone 16 review here!
The Mac Studio is for people with larger budgets and for whom every single second counts. It’s for creators with big ambitions and businesses that need to extract every ounce of efficiency from production lines. As I always say – if you need a Mac Studio, you know you need a Mac Studio. For everyone else, there’s the M4 Pro Mac mini.
Before you go
