Apple Unveils New Mac Mini with M6 and M5 Pro Chips at Increased Prices

Apple has unveiled the latest generation of the Mac Mini, featuring two models: one equipped with the new M6 chip and a higher-end variant powered by the M5 Pro, which is also found in this year’s MacBook Pro. These new Minis retain the compact design of the 2024 M4 and M4 Pro models but come with enhanced internals, improved performance, and faster ethernet ports.

The M6 Mac Mini starts at $899, while the M5 Pro model kicks off at $1,699, both reflecting a $100 increase over the previous M4 generation’s starting prices. Preorders are available now, but the new Mac Minis won’t ship until September 22nd, allowing Apple some time to build up inventory after the last-gen models faced shortages due to unexpectedly high demand for AI applications.

Similar to the previous generation, the entry-level M6 Mac Mini comes with 16GB of unified memory and 256GB of storage, while the M5 Pro variant starts with a configuration of 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Notably, the storage speeds in all models have doubled, aligning with the latest MacBook Air and Pro releases. Additionally, both the M6 and M5 Pro Mac Minis feature 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports (with an optional upgrade to 10 gigabit) and utilize Apple’s N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support.

The M6 Mac Mini boasts a 12-core CPU and a 12-core GPU, offering 170GBps of memory bandwidth, a significant upgrade from the M4’s 10-core CPU and GPU with 120GBps bandwidth. The CPU architecture includes two super cores, four performance cores, and six efficiency cores, marking Apple’s first chip built on a 2nm process. Apple claims that the M6’s enhanced core configuration results in a 40 percent increase in CPU performance compared to the M4, while the new 12-core GPU, equipped with neural accelerators, can render graphics with ray tracing up to twice as fast in certain games.

The M5 Pro variant of the Mac Mini is customizable, similar to the MacBook Pro, allowing configurations with up to 18 CPU cores and 20 GPU cores, maintaining the same 307GBps memory bandwidth. Apple asserts that the M5 Pro Mac Mini delivers substantial improvements in AI computing and graphics performance over the previous M4 Pro model, aided by the neural accelerator in each GPU core. This enhancement is expected to facilitate more demanding AI tasks, including photo and video upscaling and running larger diffusion models.

While some aspects remain unchanged in the new Mac Minis, the ethernet port is the only upgrade. Both models feature two front-facing 10Gbps USB-C ports, with the M6 offering three Thunderbolt 4 ports on the rear, while the M5 Pro includes even faster Thunderbolt 5 ports. Both the M6 and M5 Pro Mac Minis will come preloaded with macOS 27 Golden Gate, ensuring full compatibility with Apple’s new Siri AI and other Apple Intelligence features.

There’s no confirmed launch date for the final public release of macOS 27, but with the announcements today, it is expected to be available by the September 22nd shipping date.