Apple Mac Mini Gets 4x Faster AI and 40% More Power, But Buyers Face a $100 Price Rise

Apple refreshed its Mac mini lineup on 25 August, marking the desktop's first major update in nearly two years. Though the housing remains just as small as before, the internal hardware gets a serious lift thanks to the introduction of M6 and M5 Pro chips. Pre-orders are open now, with the initial batch of orders set to reach buyers on 22 September.

Apple shifted gears from its previous M4 and M4 Pro strategy for the latest Mac mini lineup. The entry-level model now packs the brand's all-new M6 silicon, while the mid-range build gets the M5 Pro, a processor that made its first appearance in the MacBook Pro line earlier this year.

Mac Mini Gets a 2nm M6 Chip

The Mac mini's M6 processor marks Apple's debut in 2nm architecture. It packs a 12-core CPU — adding two extra cores over the M4 and M5 chips — and Apple claims it boasts the world's fastest single-threaded performance.

Apple built the M6 as its first processor to combine three distinct CPU core types into one package: two super cores, four performance cores and six efficiency cores. The super cores handle heavy single-threaded demands, the performance cores drive heavy multithreaded workloads, and the efficiency cores manage light background activity.

M6 Brings 40% Faster Multithreading and 4x Faster AI

According to Apple, that setup boosts multithreaded speed by up to 40% compared to the M4. Graphical capability also gets a lift with a 12-core GPU — adding two cores over the previous generation — while the addition of Neural Accelerators to the entry-level model drives up to 4x faster AI tasks and doubles graphics performance.

On top of that, the chip houses a new dual 16-core Neural Engine that Apple claims doubles the speed of its predecessor.

Base configurations for the M6 Mac mini begin at 16GB of unified memory, with upgrades available up to 32GB. Data throughput also sees a boost to 170GB/s, moving past the 153GB/s seen on the M5 and the 120GB/s on the M4.

Apple highlights several benchmark gains for the M6 model:

• LLM Prompt Processing (LM Studio): Executes up to 13.5x faster than the M1 Mac mini and reaches up to 4.8x the speed of the M4.
• Spreadsheet Calculations (Microsoft Excel): Processes up to 2.3x faster than the M1 version and delivers up to 1.5x the performance of the M4.
• Gaming with Ray Tracing (Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition): Achieves up to double the frame output compared to the M4 build.

M5 Pro Pushes Performance Further

For users needing higher performance, the upgraded Mac mini steps up to the M5 Pro chip, topping out at an 18-core CPU alongside a 20-core GPU. That graphics architecture integrates Neural Accelerators into every individual core, paired with a refined shader setup and third-generation ray tracing technology.

Memory capacity on the M5 Pro model scales up to 64GB, backed by 307GB/s of bandwidth.

Apple outlines the following speed improvements for the M5 Pro configuration:

• LLM Prompt Processing (LM Studio): Runs up to 8.5x faster than the M2 Pro Mac mini and up to 4x faster than the M4 Pro.
• Ray-Traced Rendering (Blender): Completes renders up to 4.5x faster than the M2 Pro build and up to 1.4x faster than the M4 Pro.
• Image Processing (Affinity): Delivers up to 2.1x faster performance compared to the M2 Pro and up to 1.5x over the M4 Pro.

Mac Mini Price Rises by $100

Pre-orders for the updated Mac mini are open now, with units scheduled to start reaching buyers on 22 September. Pricing for the base version — equipped with the M6 processor, 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage — begins at $899 (£658.91), while the M5 Pro option steps up to a $1,699 (£1,245.25) starting price.

To order the new Mac mini through Apple:

• Mac mini with M6: From $899 (£658.91)
• Mac mini with M5 Pro: From $1,699 (£1,245.25)

Notably, this represents a $100 (£73.29) price bump across the entry configurations compared to the previous M4 and M4 Pro generations.