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Apple has gone big on artificial intelligence with the latest Mac mini. The compact machine gets new M6 and M5 Pro chips designed to handle both everyday work and demanding AI tasks. The company also highlights the ability to run large models locally without relying on the cloud. The new Mac mini is intended to be a small computer that can run continuously as an AI workstation.
Mac mini with M6 is set to be a true AI machine
Apple says the base Mac mini with the M6 chip delivers up to 4 times the AI performance compared with the M4-equipped predecessor. The new chip features a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU. For the first time, each GPU core includes Neural Accelerators designed for AI tasks. Apple also claims up to twice the graphics performance compared with the Mac mini with M4. A 16-core Neural Engine handles AI processing as well, with performance said to be twice that of before. The Mac mini M6 ships with 16 GB of unified memory in the base configuration, configurable to 32 GB. Memory bandwidth is now 170 GB/s, which should improve working with multiple apps at once. Apple also highlights running AI models locally, creating agents, and generating and editing content without sending data to external servers. According to the company, processing LLM prompts in LM Studio can be up to 4.8 times faster than on the Mac mini with M4. For ray-traced games, Apple says performance can be up to twice as high. All of this is packed into the Mac mini’s distinctive, very small enclosure.
M5 Pro turns the compact Mac into a professional workstation
Even greater capabilities are promised by the variant equipped with M5 Pro. The chip can have up to 18 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores, so it’s been designed for the most demanding applications. Apple is targeting this model at people working in video editing, 3D graphics, game development and advanced computing. The M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified RAM with bandwidth of up to 307 GB/s. This should allow the machine to run larger AI models smoothly directly on the device. For LM Studio, Apple even claims up to four times faster processing of LLM prompts than the Mac mini with M4 Pro. Rendering with ray tracing in Blender is said to be up to 1.4 times faster compared with the previous generation. An important new feature is also the inclusion of three Thunderbolt 5 ports. They allow, for example, multiple Mac minis to be linked into a single compute cluster for working with large AI models. There is also Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5 Gb/s Ethernet with an optional 10 Gb/s. The Mac mini M5 Pro could therefore be one of the more interesting compact machines for people who want to run demanding AI tools locally.
The new Mac mini marks a clear change in the direction Apple is taking with its smallest computer. The M6 is designed to deliver a substantial boost in AI performance while retaining a compact form factor, while the M5 Pro targets professionals who need significantly more power. Prices in Poland start at 4499 zł for a Mac mini with the M6 and 8499 zł for the M5 Pro version. Pre-orders are already underway, and the first units will reach customers on 22 September.
source: Apple
