So... anyone want to buy a 2020 Mac Mini?

The benchmarks on the M1 Mac Mini look shiny…

1682 single-core, 7097 multi-core.

Here’s an exemplar of the previous model:


1150 single-core, 6351 multi-core.

(Edit: when I first posted I chose a poor example of the 2018 model. This one’s more comparable. Not so stark!)

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I have a six-month old MacBook Pro. I need at least 3 USB ports for camera, sound board, and power. Or at least a better hub.

Woof. Benchmarks appear to be poor representations of this thing’s performance. This thread on MacRumors provides account after account of the M1 chip outperforming a highly specced iMac Pro, literally by completing tasks faster.

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Jason Snell talked about his experience editing 4K video on the M1 in his review over at Six Colors:

I was also able to edit this week’s “20 Macs for 2020” video in 4K using the new Universal version (meaning it runs natively on either Intel or Apple processors) of Final Cut Pro—and I did it with the display settings set to the highest quality, using the 4K files directly. There was no pausing, nor any sluggishness. Compare this to my iMac Pro, where I have to cut quality and edit from low-resolution proxy media in order to have a smooth 4K editing workflow.

Basically, the $5000 iMac Pro I bought three years ago has been humbled by a $999 MacBook Air and a $699 Mac mini. This is real life. This is where we are now.

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This is bonkers, is this with the 8gb standard?

I’ve seen a couple of other reviews and both were singing the praises of the new M1 Macs. The Verge YouTube review rated them “almost 10 out of 10”.

I expected them to perform well. An iPad Pro can render 4K video at better than real time. Even the $329 iPad can render 8min of 4K video in 12 minutes. But I didn’t expect the first M1s to be this good. The next two years are going to be interesting.

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Would you clarify this, please?

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Ok, thanks. This is a lot different than “won’t run”, though.

If you don’t want to do that Rosetta Terminal method, just prepend arch -x86_64 to a command you want to run as Intel. E.g., arch -x86_64 brew install mysql@5.7. A clipboard history manager or macro makes it easy.

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I’m tempted to buy an M1 Mac Mini.

Something tells me there’s something wrong in Apple’s manufacturing planning/forecast. The 8GB version can be delivered straight away. While there is an almost 2 week delivery time for the 16GB version. Seems strange to me. Especially since 16GB is really not that exceptional.

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I have a 16" MacBook Pro, and with all of the news coming out, I feel desperate for an M1 Mac. iMac wasn’t at the event, and now Mac Mini is so tempting. I don’t know if I can hold off until March/June!!

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Don’t know for certain but it is a typical manufacturing approach to only make the high end parts (16GB and 8 GPU core) parts and then if something doesn’t work you disable it and sell as a lower performance/price part. So those 7 GPU base MBAs are ones where not all eight worked and the 8GB M1s are those where one of the 8GB banks didn’t work.

Perhaps yields are not high enough to satisfy the demand for the 16GB M1s. Eventually almost all parts with have 16GB and 8 GPUs working, but that won’t stop them from offering 8GB 7GPU versions.

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For what it is worth, when I ordered my 16 GB version on launch day, I was given a delivery date of the 24th or 25th, but it ended up being delivered on the release date this past Tuesday.

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