The M6 Mac mini is here to replace the M4 Mac mini, but prices have risen as well. If you already have an M4 Mac mini, should you upgrade to the M6 Mac mini for $900? Or if you’re planning to buy a Mac mini, should you go for an M4 model while you still can (new or used) to save a few hundred dollars? And what are all the differences between them? Let’s find out.
Outside
On the outside, nothing has really changed from the last generation, so let’s get straight to the namesake difference, the chip.
M6 vs M4 Chips
The base Mac mini now has the M6 chip, which offers 12 CPU cores, 2 more than the 10-core CPU of the M4. In addition, the M6 core mix is 2 super, 4 performance, and 6 efficiency, the first time all 3 types of cores are found together in one chip. The M4 CPU split is 4 performance and 6 efficiency.
Since M6 is two generations newer, we can expect faster single core performance of around 19-28%. For multi-core, M6 is around 39-44% faster than the M4, making for a sizeable increase.
On the graphics side, the M6 has a 12-core GPU compared to M4’s 10-core GPU. In addition, there are 2 generations worth of GPU tech upgrades, including updates to the shader core, Dynamic Caching, ray-tracing, and having a neural accelerator on each GPU core for improved AI performance. Apple says to expect the M6 to be 4 times faster at AI than the M4, and 2 times faster in graphics workloads.
Speaking of AI, the M6 chip now has TWO 16-core neural engines, compared to just the one 16-core engine in M4, also providing 2 times the performance, which is kind of odd, as that means each individual core may not have seen an improvement.
Altogether though, Apple says you should expect 4.8 times the LLM prompt processing speed compared to M4, 1.5 times faster spreadsheet calculations, and 2 times faster ray-tracing game performance in a single title, Cyberpunk 2077, as an example.
Memory and Storage
The rising memory and storage prices are why the base model M6 Mac mini is now $300 more expensive than the M4 Mac mini was. And along with that price increase, you don’t get any additional memory or storage capacity either; they are still at 16 and 256 GB respectively for the base models.
However, there are some speed improvements for both. The M4 Mac mini’s memory bandwidth is 120 GB/s regardless of size. Now, the M6 Mac mini has bumped up the memory bandwidth to 153 GB/s for the 16 GB configuration (a 28% boost), and that increases to 170 GB/s (42% more) if you upgrade to 24 or 32 GB for $200 or $400 more.
For storage, both M6 and M4 mini’s go from 256 GB to 2 TB, though the costs of additional storage have increased again, even after prices already rose for the M4 mini earlier. For the M4 mini, you can still get a 1 TB model for $300 more than the base 256 GB, which is $400 per terabyte, and the 2 TB model costs $800 more, or $457 per terabyte.
Now for the M6 mini, it costs $200 more to get 512 GB, which is a whopping $800 per terabyte. 1 TB costs $500 more, which is $667 per terabyte, and 2 TB costs $1000 more, or $571 per terabyte.
Though the good news is that Apple says the storage throughput on the M6 Mac mini is 2 times faster than the M4. It’s uncertain exactly what this means, though, as usually the higher the capacity, the higher the storage speeds as well.
And sometimes the 256 GB capacity or non-Pro chip models have had half the speed as 512 GB or Pro chip models due to using fewer NAND chips, so I’m not sure if this means speeds across the board have doubled, or if lower capacity and non-Pro models are closer to higher capacity and Pro chip models in speed. I guess benchmarks will tell.
Connectivity
Another big improvement on the M6 Mac mini compared to M4 is in the area of connectivity, both wireless and wired.
For wireless, the M6 Mac mini now has Apple’s N1 networking chip, which means Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread networking support. That’s compared to the M4 mini’s Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and no Thread.
On the wired front, the Ethernet port on the M6 mini is now 2.5 Gigabit standard, which is a nice improvement over the 1 Gigabit port on the M4. You can still upgrade to 10 Gigabit speed for $100 extra, but this is now a bit less valuable. After all, you only get 2.5 times the speed for $100 more instead of 10 times.
For most people, 2.5 gig is fast enough (and setting up a 10 gig network at home is much more expensive). That means if you wanted faster than gigabit Ethernet, you can now just pick up a stock model Mac mini instead of custom ordering it, so you don’t have to wait several more weeks for it to be built, or you can choose to buy it from somewhere other than Apple.
Other than the Ethernet port, all the other ports are the same, including Thunderbolt 4.
Display Support
For display support, both the M6 and M4 Mac minis can support up to 3 external displays, and despite the specs between written with slightly different wording, I believe the overall capabilities are the same. It’s just the M6 mini’s specs are written to be more clear on which resolution and refresh rate combinations are supported across 8K, 6K, 5K, and 4K.
With one exception, and that is the new M6 Mac mini reportedly supports Genlock (or Generator Locking) over USB-C, which allows a display to be synced with a camera filming it, like the iPhone 17 Pro (which also supports Genlock). This prevents flickering and tearing from mismatched refresh rates and shutter speeds, all without additional hardware. Now, Genlock is a professional video production feature, so if you don’t know if you need it, you probably don’t.
Cooling
And the final difference between the M6 and M4 machines is the cooling solution, potentially. I’ve heard several reports that say that Apple says they’ve redesigned the internal cooling solution of the M6 mini to be more effective, but until someone gets their hands on one and breaks it down or does some benchmarks, we won’t know the full story.
And the weight of the M6 and M4 Mac mini’s are identical at 1.5 lbs, so it’s not using a larger and heavier cooler. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Summary: M6 vs M4 Mac mini
Alright, let’s summarize the differences. The M6 Mac mini starts at $900, while the M4 Mac mini used to start at $600 when launched, but then rose to $800. If you’re looking to buy new, here’s what you get for that extra $100 now:
- The M6 chip instead of the M4 Chip, which has 2 extra and faster CPU and GPU cores that are 2 generations newer. The M6 chip also has a DUAL 16-core neural engine. This contributes to 19-28% more single-core CPU performance, 39-44% faster multi-core performance, and according to Apple, 2 times the graphics performance and over 4 times the AI performance.
- 28-42% faster memory bandwidth of 153 or 170 GB/s, depending on capacity, compared to 120 GB/s.
- Potentially twice the storage speed.
- Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread networking support, compared to Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and no Thread
- 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port instead of just 1 Gigabit Ethernet
- Genlock for video timing and framerate syncing
- And a supposedly revamped and more effective cooling solution
Now, if the price difference is truly $100 between these machines, then by all means the M6 Mac mini is the way to go, even though the pricing this generation has unfortunately increased, again.
But soon, used M4 Mac mini’s may be flooding the market, so the opportunity comes if you can snag one at a discount. How much of a discount? Well, considering the CPU performance difference is around 40% and the GPU is 2-4 times, I’d say a price of $600 or less for an M4 mini could be a decent deal if you’re mainly concerned with CPU performance. Which is a bit awkward, since that was the launch price of the M4 Mac mini in the first place. You know, before the memory crisis.
If you have a use for the GPU and AI improvements, however, you’d probably need to find an M4 Mac mini around $400-$450 or so to have it be a reasonable alternative, which I think won’t happen for a long time. And if you fall into the AI camp, you probably need it for work, so you’d want the extra performance of the M6 mini anyway.
In conclusion, if you are buying new, the M6 Mac mini is still a “good” deal despite the price increase.
