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Apple has put a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence in the latest Mac mini. The compact machine features new M6 and M5 Pro chips designed to handle both everyday work and demanding AI tasks. The company also stresses the ability to run large models locally without relying on the cloud. The new Mac mini is meant to be a small computer that can run continuously as an AI workstation.
Mac mini with M6 is meant to be a real AI machine
Apple says the base Mac mini with the M6 chip delivers even up to 4x higher AI performance compared with the M4-based predecessor. The new chip features a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU. For the first time, each GPU core includes Neural Accelerator units dedicated to AI tasks. Apple also claims up to twice the graphics performance versus the Mac mini with M4. AI tasks are also handled by a 16-core Neural Engine, whose performance is said to be twice as high as before. The Mac mini M6 ships with 16 GB of unified memory in the base configuration, expandable to 32 GB. Memory bandwidth is now 170 GB/s, which should improve working with multiple apps at once. Apple points to local running of AI models, creating agents, and generating and editing content without sending data to external servers. According to the company, processing LLM commands in LM Studio can be up to 4.8x faster than on a 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 distinctive, very small Mac mini enclosure.
M5 Pro turns the small Mac into a professional workstation
The variant equipped with M5 Pro is said to offer even greater capabilities. The chip can have up to 18 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores, making it designed for the most demanding workloads. Apple is targeting this model at, among others, video editors, 3D artists, game developers and advanced compute tasks. The M5 Pro supports up to 64 GB of unified RAM with up to 307 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Thanks to this, the computer should be able to efficiently run larger AI models directly on the device. For LM Studio, Apple even claims up to four times faster LLM prompt processing than on a Mac mini with an M4 Pro. Ray-traced rendering in Blender is expected to be up to 1.4 times faster compared with the previous generation. Another important new feature is the presence of three Thunderbolt 5 ports. They allow, among other things, connecting multiple Mac minis into a single compute cluster intended 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 computers for people who want to run demanding AI tools locally.
The new Mac mini marks a clear shift in the direction Apple is taking with its smallest computer. The M6 is designed to deliver a substantial boost in AI performance while keeping a compact form, whereas the M5 Pro is aimed at professionals who need significantly more power. Prices in Poland start at 4,499 PLN for the Mac mini with the M6 and 8,499 PLN for the M5 Pro version. Pre-orders are already open, and the first units will reach customers on September 22.
source: Apple
