If you’re looking to buy a Mac desktop, but need a bit more than the base model Mac mini, then should you get the M5 Pro Mac mini starting at $1700 or the M5 Max Mac Studio that starts at $2500? That price difference isn’t as great as it seems at first glance. And what are all the differences between them? Let’s find out.
M5 Pro vs M5 Max Chips
The Mac mini’s M5 Pro offers 15 CPU cores, 5 super and 10 performance cores in its base configuration. You can also upgrade to the 18-core CPU (with 6 super and 12 performance cores) for $200, although that includes a GPU upgrade as well that we’ll talk about in a bit. That upgrade gives you around 5-10% faster performance in multi-core workloads.
The Mac Studio’s M5 Max chip also has 18 CPU cores, also split into 6 super and 12 performance cores. However, the M5 Max’s 18 cores are 12-29% faster than the 15-core M5 Pro, and 2 to 22% faster than the M5 Pro with the same amount of 18 cores.
We see the gains here primarily in the Cinemark benchmark and not Geekbench, which tells us that whether you’ll see any benefit in CPU performance from the M5 Max over the 18-core M5 Pro will depend on the type of task you are running, particularly if it benefits from the other differences between the chips such as memory bandwidth or GPU power.
Let’s talk about graphics next. The base M5 Pro has 16 GPU cores, while the $200 chip upgrade lets you have 20 cores, which is a theoretical up to 25% boost in core count and performance if all those cores can be utilized. The M5 Max starts at 32 GPU cores, which is 100% more than the 16 GPU cores in the base M5 Pro, and 60% more than the upgraded M5 Pro. And you can spend an extra $300 to get 40 GPU cores, which is 150% more than the base M5 Pro, 100% more than the upgraded M5 Pro, and 25% more than the base M5 Max.
However, do note that the minimum price for the 40 GPU core M5 Max Studio is actually $3100, $600 more than the base $2500 price, since you are forced to get 48 GB of memory as well instead of the base 36 GB.
Now for memory bandwidth, the M5 Max has a 100% advantage over the M5 Pro here, with 614 GB/s of speed compared to 307 GB/s.
And the final difference in the chips is in the media engine, where the M5 Max has 2 video encode engines compared to just the 1 in the M5 Pro, making the Max potentially much faster for dedicated video editing. I say dedicated because the usefulness depends on how much time you spend on encoding video and that being a bottleneck for your work, which even for most people doing video editing is probably not the vast majority of time.
Memory and Storage
Now let’s talk about memory. The M5 Pro Mac mini comes with 24 GB by default, and you can upgrade to 48 GB for $600 more, or 64 GB for $1000 more. That’s also a consistent $25 per gigabyte, so no discounts here for higher memory amounts.
The M5 Max Mac Studio comes with 36GB of memory standard, and this only comes paired with the 32-core GPU version of the chip. If you want more memory, you need to upgrade also to the 40-core GPU chip for $300 extra. Because that changes the total price from $2500 to $3100, that means the 48 GB memory upgrade is also $300 more from the 36 GB base. From there, you can go to 64 GB for $400 more, or all the way to 128 GB for $2000 extra. All of these memory prices are consistent at $25 per gigabyte.
For storage, both the M5 Pro Mac mini and M5 Max Mac Studio start at 512 GB, which is a shame given their pricing. And they both have the exact same upgrade options and costs. It costs $300 more to upgrade to 1 TB, which is a cost of $600 per terabyte. 2 TB costs $800 more, which is $533 per terabyte, 4 TB costs $1800 more, or $514 per terabyte, and 8 TB costs a whopping $3800 more, or $507 per terabyte.
Besides the capacity, upgrading storage sizes often gets you faster speed as well, as the smaller capacities sometimes use fewer chips than the larger ones, amongst other reasons. But for most people, internal storage speeds are fast enough, and I’d look toward external or network storage before upgrading the internal storage too high, unless you absolutely must have tons of space inside the unit for some reason.
Ports
The next major difference between the Mac mini and Mac Studio is in the ports. The M5 Pro Mac mini offers 2 USB-C and a headphone jack on the front. On the back, there’s a 2.5 gigabit Ethernet port, which be upgraded to 10 gigabit for $100 extra. There’s also an HDMI 2.1 port, and 3 Thunderbolt 5 ports.
The M5 Max Mac Studio also has 2 USB-C ports on the front, but adds an SD card reader there as well instead of the headphone jack. The headphone jack is instead on the rear, alongside the HDMI 2.1 port, 2 more USB-A ports, a 10 gigabit Ethernet port, and 4 Thunderbolt 5 ports.
The 10 gig Ethernet port means you get the $100 upgrade included in the Studio price, and the other extra ports are 1 additional Thunderbolt 5, 2 extra USB-A ports, and the SD card reader.
Display Support
For display support, the M5 Max wins, but may be way more extreme than most people require. The M5 Pro Mac mini can already support up to 3 external displays, and at high resolutions and refresh rates at that. You can even run 3 displays off a single Thunderbolt port.
The M5 Max takes it even further, supporting up to 5 displays. Importantly, the limits of resolution and refresh rate that you can use up to 3 displays is higher than the M5 Pro. Here, you can run 2 of them at up to 8K @ 60 Hz, 5K @ 120 Hz, or 4K @ 240 Hz, with the 3rd display at up to 5K @ 60 Hz over HDMI, whereas on the M5 Pro, using 3 displays meant being limited to 6K @ 60 Hz or 4K at 165 Hz. Going up to 5 displays on the Mac Studio does run into a similar limit, with 4 of them able to do 6K @ 60 Hz or 4K @ 165Hz, plus the 5th display limited to 5K @ 60 Hz.
I honestly don’t know who needs that many high resolution and refresh displays, but I guess that’s why this feature isn’t meant for me.
Audio
Just a quick note about audio: both the Mac mini and Mac Studio come with a built-in speaker, but as we all know, you shouldn’t rely on it for anything other than emergency needs. But, as the laws of physics dictate, more room means better sound quality, so I imagine the Mac Studio’s built-in speaker quality to be slightly better than the Mac mini, though that isn’t saying much.
Cooling, Size and Weight
And the final difference is also the one you notice first, the size. The Mac mini is definitely smaller than the Mac Studio, and, to no surprise, could be considered a mini version of it. As a result, you can expect better cooling performance from the Mac Studio with its more massive heatsink and cooling area.
The Mac mini sits at only 5 by 5 inches square and 2 inches tall, and only weighs 1.6 lbs. The Mac Studio is 7.7 x 7.7 inches square, which is 2.4 times the surface area. It’s also 3.7 inches tall, making it 4.4 times the volume of the Mac mini. The weight is also 6 lbs, which is 3.75 times as heavy.
Summary: M5 Pro Mac mini vs M5 Max Mac Studio
Alright, let’s summarize the differences. The M5 Pro Mac mini starts at $1700, while the M5 Max Mac Studio starts at $2500. Here’s what you get for that extra $800:
- The M5 Max chip instead of the M5 Pro, which has 3 extra CPU cores and 16 more GPU cores. This contributes to 12-29% more CPU performance, and potentially 100% more GPU performance.
- 50% faster memory bandwidth of 460 GB/s compared to 307 GB/s.
- Twice the video encoders in the media engine.
- 36 GB of memory instead of 24
- 1 extra Thunderbolt 5 port, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port instead of a 2.5 Gigabit, an SD card reader, and 2 extra USB-A ports
- Support for up to 5 displays instead of just 3, and at higher resolutions and refresh rates when using multiple displays
- Potentially almost worthlessly, slightly better audio quality
- And more effective cooling for sustained workloads, though at a cost of taking up considerably more space on the desk
Now, of the $800 price difference, $200 is the memory upgrade, and $100 is accounted for by the 10 gig Ethernet. That leaves $500 as the real price difference, which accounts for the M5 Max chip upgrade, along with the additional ports, display support, and cooling.
Analyzing this a bit further, the Max’s $300 chip upgrade gives you 8 GPU cores, while the Pro’s $200 chip upgrade gives you 3 CPU cores and 4 GPU cores. From a value perspective, the $200 M5 Pro chip upgrade seems a lot more worth it. But from there, we are then talking about adding just $300 more (or 15%) for 12 additional GPU cores (which is 60% more), +50% more memory bandwidth, better cooling, and more ports. Even if you don’t include the extra display support since most people probably won’t need it, that’s actually a pretty decent value, if you really need the extra power.
