Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide

In 2023, Apple updated the Mac Studio with the M2 Max and ‌M2‌ Ultra chips, with the latter being the most powerful Apple silicon chip to date. Earlier this year, Apple refreshed the Mac mini with the ‌M2‌ and ‌M2‌ Pro chips, meaning that the ‌Mac Studio‌ faces a formidable competitor that offers "Pro" capabilities at a substantially lower price point.

mac studio vs mac mini
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, dwarfing the $599 starting price of the ‌M2‌ ‌Mac mini‌ and even the $1,299 starting price of the ‌M2‌ 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.

Comparing the Mac Mini and the Mac Studio

The ‌Mac mini‌ and the ‌Mac Studio‌ share some fundamental features, including a familiar, boxy silver aluminum design, Apple silicon chipsets, and two USB-A ports. 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.

Key Differences

Mac Mini ‌Mac Studio‌
Height of 1.41 inches (3.58 cm) Height of 3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
‌M2‌ chip or ‌M2‌ Pro chip ‌M2‌ Max chip or ‌M2‌ Ultra chip
Up to 12-core CPU Up to 24-core CPU
Up to 19-core GPU Up to 76-core GPU
Media engine with video decode engine, video encode engines, and ProRes encode and decode engine Media engine with two video decode engines, up to four video encode engines, and up to four ProRes encode and decode engines
Up to 200GB/s memory bandwidth Up to 800GB/s memory bandwidth
Up to 32GB unified memory Up to 192GB unified memory
Support for up to two displays (‌M2‌) or three displays (‌M2‌ Pro) Support for up to eight 4K displays, six 6K displays, or three 8K displays
Up to four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports Six Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports
Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port 10Gb Ethernet port
SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
Starts at $699 for ‌M2‌ model or $1,299 for ‌M2‌ Pro model Starts at $1,999 for ‌M2‌ Max model or $3,999 for ‌M2‌ Ultra model

Desktop Apple Silicon Chips Compared

While we don't yet have benchmarks for the ‌M2‌ Ultra, it is still worth comparing the ‌M2‌, ‌M2‌ Pro, and ‌M2‌ Max to the M1 Ultra to get a sense of how their performance scales. Benchmark scores for the ‌M2‌ Ultra are likely to be around 20 to 30 percent better than the ‌M1 Ultra‌.

In single-core tasks, the ‌M2‌ and ‌M2‌ Pro ‌Mac mini‌ models perform very similarly to the ‌M2‌ Max and ‌M2‌ Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌. Yet in multi-core and GPU tasks, the ‌Mac Studio‌ makes considerable strides ahead of the ‌Mac mini‌, scaling as one would expect. Users who need maximum GPU performance, in particular, should buy the ‌Mac Studio‌ over the ‌Mac mini‌.

See the approximate Geekbench 5 scores for each ‌Mac mini‌ and ‌Mac Studio‌ below (‌M1 Ultra‌ in place of ‌M2‌ Ultra until benchmarks are available):


Single-Core Scores

  • ‌M2‌: ~2,000
  • ‌M2‌ Pro: ~2,000
  • ‌M2‌ Max: ~2,700
  • ‌M1 Ultra‌: ~1,750

Metal GPU Scores

  • ‌M2‌: ~30,500
  • ‌M2‌ Pro: ~52,700
  • ‌M2‌ Max: ~64,700
  • ‌M1 Ultra‌: ~94,500


Multi-Core Scores

  • ‌M2‌: ~9,000
  • ‌M2‌ Pro: ~14,200
  • ‌M2‌ Max: ~14,400
  • ‌M1 Ultra‌: ~23,350

Unless you plan on buying the ‌M2‌ Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ with a focus on multi-core and GPU performance, the ‌M2‌ Pro ‌Mac mini‌ should be the best all-round choice in terms of performance for most users.

Memory

If you need more than 32GB of memory, the ‌Mac Studio‌ can provide greater quantities up to 192GB. Likewise, the ‌Mac mini‌'s memory bandwidth maxes out at 200GB/s memory bandwidth. The ‌Mac Studio‌, on the other hand, offers up to 400GB/s or 800GB/s memory bandwidth. As such, if you need extreme quantities of memory and a large amount of memory bandwidth for professional tasks, only the ‌Mac Studio‌ can meet these requirements. It is still worth noting that the ‌M2‌ Pro ‌Mac mini‌'s 32GB memory option, along with 200GB/s memory bandwidth, should be more than enough for most users.

Ports and External Display Support

The ‌Mac Studio‌ offers a more versatile selection of ports, with two extra Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a SDXC card slot compared to the ‌M2‌ Pro ‌Mac mini‌, which could be an important consideration for users with a lot of peripherals.

The ‌Mac mini‌ can only support up to three external displays with the ‌M2‌ Pro chip, whereas the ‌Mac Studio‌ can support up to eight 4K displays, six 6K displays, or three 8K displays.

Final Thoughts

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 ‌M2‌ 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 ‌M2‌ Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ with no display.


Buy a Mac Mini if...

  • You need a high-level of performance and versatility at a comparatively low price
  • You prefer a smaller desktop machine


Buy a Mac Studio if...

  • You need extreme multi-core CPU or GPU performance
  • You need more than 32GB of memory and high memory bandwidth
  • You need more than four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports
  • You need support for more than three external displays
  • You need a built-in SDXC card slot (UHS-II)

You should only consider the ‌Mac Studio‌ if you have a professional workflow that can leverage the extreme power of the ‌M2‌ Max or ‌M2‌ 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. Most customers should choose the ‌M2‌ Pro ‌Mac mini‌ over the ‌M2‌ Max ‌Mac Studio‌, saving $700 when looking at the base models. There will likely still be substantial savings when it comes to custom configurations.

Related Roundups: Mac mini, Mac Studio
Related Forums: Mac mini, Mac Studio

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Top Rated Comments

temende Avatar
31 months ago
If you need to read a buyer's guide to decide if you need the power of the Mac Studio, you probably don't need the power of the Mac Studio.
Score: 72 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steve217 Avatar
31 months ago
I like the option of being able to devote more to the monitor than the CPU. The monitor to me is a much longer term acquisition. Swapping out a lower model CPU (Mini or low-end Studio) and upgrading that more frequently makes a better fiscal strategy.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HazardousT Avatar
31 months ago

I'd argue Mac Studio is the middle ground choice.

Mac mini is the lower ground (I hate calling it "low end" because it can handle serious workloads in certain areas) and Mac Pro is the "no limits" high ground.
Mac Studio + Display is $3500 with the minimum configuration. To me that's not a middle ground
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ixxx69 Avatar
31 months ago

Mac mini is capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
Mac Studio is a mid-ranged system that is capable of handling demanding workloads.
Mac Pro is a "no limits" system, capable of handling the most demanding workloads.
Yeah, really. It's not that complicated. Folks just want to be confused so they have something to complain about.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CWallace Avatar
31 months ago

I need to say that I am confused now. Nothing negative, just not very clear. We now have Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. How to really understand it?
Mac mini is capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
Mac Studio is a mid-ranged system that is capable of handling demanding workloads.
Mac Pro is a "no limits" system, capable of handling the most demanding workloads.


Update: Over a year has passed since this post and the 2023 Mac Pro ended up not having an "Extreme" class SoC and 256GB+ of RAM. So looking at the desktop lineup today:

The iMac and Mac mini are capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
The Mac mini Pro and Mac Studio Max are mid-ranged systems that are capable of handling demanding workloads.
The Mac Studio Ultra and Mac Pro are "no limits" (within the Apple Silicon architecture) systems, capable of handling the most demanding Apple Silicon workloads.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jasnw Avatar
31 months ago
My own metric is that I've been able to purchase the computer I need for $2,000 +/- $500, including monitor and everything else, for the past several decades. Now Apple is breaking this curve, and not in a good way.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)