The new M2 series MacBook Pro and Mac mini models were announced today, marking the debut of the first M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. We have an M2 Pro Mac mini on hand, and we wanted to take a look at the machine and do a series of benchmarks to see how it fits into Apple’s lineup.
Base-model Mac mini machines come with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip, and like the now-discontinued Intel model, the M2 Pro has four Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M2 version has just two. That difference aside, the two Mac mini models are visually identical, offering two USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Since Apple transitioned from older Intel chips to Apple silicon in the high-end M2 Pro Mac mini, we can’t make a direct comparison. Other M-series chips have outperformed the previous-generation Intel Mac mini, but to provide some perspective, we thought we’d share some benchmarks comparing the M2 Pro Mac mini to the M1 Max MacBook Pro.
The M1 Max MacBook Pro has a 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU, while the high-end base Mac mini with the M2 Pro chip has a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU.
Here are our test results:
Speedometer (Web Response)
- M2 Pro Mac Mini – 383
- M1 Max MacBook – 319
movie station
M2 Pro Mac Mini:
- Multicore – 11696
- Single Core – 1642
M1 Max MacBook Pro:
- Multi-Core – 12240
- Single Core – 1528
geek running score
M2 Pro Mac Mini:
- Single Core – 1886
- Multi-core 11862
- OpenCL-38712
- Metal – 45831
M1 Max MacBook Pro:
- Single Core – 1787
- Multicore – 12721
- OpenCL-55866
- Metal – 67403
Clearly, the M1 Max is better than the M2 Pro when it comes to the GPU, as it has twice as many GPU cores, but it doesn’t double the performance. The M2 Pro Mac mini is closer in performance to the M1 Max than you might expect.
The M2 Pro Mac mini starts at $1,299, which is a solid price compared to the performance it offers. If you’re looking for an affordable desktop that can still be used for video editing, 3D rendering, and similar tasks, it’s worth looking into. Be sure to watch our video above for our full suite of benchmarks, and tomorrow we’ll be releasing our M2 Max MacBook Pro video.