Apple has announced its first Mac mini update in nearly two years, bringing the new M6 chip to the base model and the M5 Pro to the higher-end version while keeping the same compact desktop design. The new lineup starts at $899, is available to pre-order from August 25, and will begin reaching customers on September 22.
The biggest change comes with the M6 Mac mini, which uses Apple’s first 2-nanometer processor and introduces a 12-core CPU with two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores. Apple says this setup delivers up to 40 percent faster multithreaded performance than the previous M4 Mac mini while also improving single-threaded performance.
The M6 also includes a 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators built into every GPU core, helping the new Mac mini deliver up to four times faster AI performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the M4 model. Apple has also added a dual 16-core Neural Engine that offers up to twice the performance of the previous generation.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
M6 and M5 Pro bring major performance upgrades
The M6 Mac mini starts with 16GB of unified memory and supports configurations up to 32GB, while memory bandwidth increases to 170GB/s compared with 120GB/s on the M4. Apple has also doubled storage performance on both new Mac mini models.
According to Apple, the M6 Mac mini delivers several major gains over older generations:
- Up to 13.5x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio compared with the M1 Mac mini, and up to 4.8x faster than M4.
- Up to 2.3x faster spreadsheet calculations in Microsoft Excel compared with M1, and up to 1.5x faster than M4.
- Up to 2x faster ray-traced gaming performance in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition compared with M4.
- Up to 2x faster graphics performance compared with the previous-generation Mac mini.
The higher-end Mac mini uses the M5 Pro chip, which supports up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU. The GPU includes Neural Accelerators in every core, an enhanced shader architecture, and third-generation ray tracing for demanding workloads such as 3D rendering, game development, video production, and local AI processing.
Mac mini with M5 Pro supports up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s of memory bandwidth. Apple says it delivers up to 8.5x faster LLM processing than the M2 Pro Mac mini and up to four times faster performance than the M4 Pro in the same workload.
Faster connectivity and upgraded ports
Apple has also updated connectivity across the Mac mini lineup, with both models supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 through the company’s N1 chip. Standard Ethernet now runs at 2.5Gb, while buyers can configure the machine with 10Gb Ethernet.
The port setup depends on the processor:
- M6 Mac mini: Three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back, HDMI, Ethernet, two front USB-C ports with USB 3 support, and a headphone jack.
- M5 Pro Mac mini: Three Thunderbolt 5 ports on the back, HDMI, Ethernet, two front USB-C ports with USB 3 support, and a headphone jack.
- Both models support genlock over USB-C for precise synchronization between displays and professional camera systems.
The new Mac mini will ship with macOS 27 Golden Gate, which includes Siri AI, deeper Apple Intelligence features, Visual Intelligence, improved Shortcuts automation, and broader system-level AI tools.
Pricing starts at $899 for the M6 Mac mini with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage, while education pricing starts at $799. The M5 Pro model starts at $1,699, or $1,599 for education customers. Both starting prices are $100 higher than the previous M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini configurations.
Discussion