Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide: 20+ Differences Compared

In 2025, Apple updated the Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. Apple last year refreshed the Mac mini with the M4 and M4 Pro chips, meaning that the ‌Mac Studio‌ faces a formidable competitor that offers 'Pro' capabilities at a substantially lower price point.

There are now two desktop Macs and four Apple silicon chip options for users who do not need the expandability of the Mac Pro. The ‌Mac Studio‌ starts at $1,999, overshadowing the $599 starting price of the M4 Mac mini and even the $1,399 starting price of the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌, so do you need the performance of the ‌Mac Studio‌, or is the humble ‌Mac mini‌ sufficient for your needs? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two desktop Macs is best for you.

The ‌Mac mini‌ and the ‌Mac Studio‌ share some fundamental features, including a familiar, boxy silver aluminum design, two front-facing USB-C ports along with HDMI and ethernet on the rear, and Apple silicon chipsets. That being said, the two machines have much more in contrast than they do in common, including different chip options, memory capacities, ports, and external display support capabilities.



‌Mac mini‌ (M4, 2024)

‌Mac mini‌ (M4 Pro, 2024)

‌Mac Studio‌ (M4 Max, 2025)

‌Mac Studio‌ (M3 Ultra, 2025)





M4 chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 3nm (N3E) process)

M4 Pro chip (made with TSMC's enhanced ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process)

M4 Max chip (made with TSMC's ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process)

M3 Ultra chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 5nm (N3B) process)





4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed

4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed

4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed

4.05 GHz maximum CPU clock speed





10-core CPU (4 perform­ance cores + 6 efficiency cores)

12- or 14-core CPU (8 or 10 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores)

14- or 16-core CPU (10 or 12 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores)

28- or 32-core CPU (20 or 24 perform­ance cores + 8 efficiency cores)





10-core GPU

16- or 20‑core GPU

32- or 40-core GPU

60- or 80-core GPU





Improved ray-tracing engine

Improved ray-tracing engine

Improved ray-tracing engine

Ray-tracing engine





120GB/s memory bandwidth

273GB/s memory bandwidth

546GB/s memory bandwidth

819.2GB/s memory bandwidth





16GB, 24GB, or 32GB unified memory

24GB, 48GB, or 64GB unified memory

36GB, 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB unified memory

96GB, 256GB, or 512GB unified memory





LPDDR5X memory

LPDDR5X memory

LPDDR5X memory

LPDDR5 memory





256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage

512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage

512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage

1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, or 16TB storage





16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second

16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second

16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second

32-core Neural Engine, 72 trillion operations per second





Video decode engine

Video decode engine

Video decode engine

Two video decode engines





Video encode engine

Video encode engine

Two video encode engines

Two video encode engines





ProRes encode and decode engine

ProRes encode and decode engine

Two ProRes encode and decode engines

Four ProRes encode and decode engines





Dedicated display engine

Dedicated display engine

Dedicated display engine







Support for up to three external displays

Support for up to three external displays

Support for up to five external displays

Support for up to eight external displays





Three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports

Three rear Thunderbolt 5 ports

Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports

Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports





Two front USB-C ports

Two front USB-C ports

Two front USB-C ports

Two front Thunderbolt 5 ports









Two rear USB-A ports

Two rear USB-A ports





Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port

Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port

10Gb Ethernet port

10Gb Ethernet port









SDXC card slot (UHS-II)

SDXC card slot (UHS-II)





Bottom power button

Bottom power button

Rear power button

Rear power button





Starts at $599

Starts at $1,399

Starts at $1,999

Starts at $3,999



Following the ‌Mac mini‌'s redesign last year, the dimensions of the two devices are now radically different, with the ‌Mac Studio‌ dwarfing the ‌Mac mini‌ in every way.





‌Mac mini‌

‌Mac Studio‌





Height

2.0 inches (5.0 cm)

3.7 inches (9.5 cm)





Width

5.0 inches (12.7 cm)

7.7 inches (19.7 cm)





Depth

5.0 inches (12.7 cm)

7.7 inches (19.7 cm)





Weight

M4: 1.5 pounds (0.67 kg)

M4 Pro: 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg)

M4 Max: 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg)

M3 Ultra: 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)



Most customers should choose the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ over the M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌, saving $700 when looking at the base models. There will likely still be substantial savings when it comes to custom configurations.

You should only consider the ‌Mac Studio‌ if you have an professional workflow that can leverage the extreme power of the M4 Max or M3 Ultra, as well as its additional ports and memory options. If you need the ‌Mac Studio‌, you will likely know that you are looking for a highly powerful machine that is capable of supporting specific intense workflows.

If considering the M4 Max or M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌, it's worth bearing in mind that the cheaper machine uses newer chip technology with faster memory, improved ray-tracing, and better single-core performance. For multi-core, graphics, and video processing tasks, the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ will still be considerably more capable at tackling intense workloads.

To some extent, purchasing decisions should be driven by budget, but it is worth bearing in mind that any savings on the desktop computer itself can be put toward a good external display such as Apple's Studio Display, which starts from $1,599. For example, an M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ paired with a Studio Display comes to $2,898, which is just $899 more than a lone base model ‌Mac Studio‌ and $1,101 less than the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ with no display.Related Roundups: Mac Studio, Mac miniTags: M2, M4 Mac mini, M4 MacsBuyer's Guide: Mac Studio (Buy Now), Mac Mini (Buy Now)Related Forums: Mac Studio, Mac miniThis article, "Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide: 20+ Differences Compared" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums