M2 Pro Mac mini or Mac Studio - pick the RIGHT one!

Who’d have thought we’d ever have to work out whether to buy an M2 Pro Mac mini or Mac Studio? But we’re now very much in that world, and in today’s video, I’ll help you pick the right Mac!

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CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
01:16 - Pricing and specs
02:55 - Benchmarks
04:11 - Speccing them up
05:11 - Other differences
06:21 - Conclusion

[MarkEllisReviews]

So... which one are you going for, and why?

[AlexanderFox]

Currently I’m using a Studio Ultra. Not cheap but so far as a pro photographer and reluctant pro videographer I still can’t make it blink. The difference between the Studio and new Mini Pro is not what it can do under normal pressure but what it can do when pushing them hard. The studio has much more in reserve both in memory speeds and importantly cooling. For most photographers and videographers I’m sure the Mini would be fine. If on occasions it’s throttled by heat or buffers then so be it. Not a real issue. However the Studio may be slightly slower in benchmarks but will coast through heavy workloads without any of the problems the Mini might have. The extra memory makes a massive difference and also helps enable working from external SSD as it allows more to be held in RAM and alleviates many of the bottlenecks. Both are superb machines. I suppose it’s like having a nice family car or a more expensive executive one. Most of the time for the daily run both are just as useful but on those few occasions having that little bit of extra grunt and comfort can be nice.

[JamesHinesPhoto]

New to the Mac crew! I went for the mac studio, really I bought it for my own sanity because I have had a few computers that take a lifetime to edit and always always, as soon as I add transitions into my Premier pro project the windows computer always started screaming and it really effected my work flow. I literally bought the mac studio this week and I was worried that it was a bit overkill but tbh it's such a joy. Unreal amount of tabs and things open and it breezes through everything I do. The first pc I've owned that hasn't slowed me down, crashed, or become very glitchy and unworkable as soon as I ask it to do the good stuff in premier pro 😆

[kentowne]

Thanks for another down-to-earth video! I was going to go with the M2 Pro, but found the base model M1 Mac Studio Max on sale for $1699 and couldn't pass up that value. Should be getting delivery tomorrow! Thanks again for your insightful commentary!

[shaunpugh]

I had this exact dilemma. I ended up just getting a studio from the refurb store. A base spec studio, is around £400 cheaper than the 12 core Mini with 32GB RAM and don't forget to factor in the £100 for 10GigE. I found one with 2TB SSD, and the price was good. And it was available next day, which you can't always say about new machines when you start changing the spec.

[ZoranvonderHeide]

Xcode programming: Mac mini M2 Pro (12C CPU) > Mac Studio (10C CPU), photo editing with Lightroom / Photoshop: Mac mini M2 Pro (12C CPU) > Mac Studio (10C CPU), video editing FCP: Mac Studio (10C CPU / 24C GPU) > Mac mini M2 Pro (12C CPU / 19C GPU), 3D rendering with Blender: Mac mini M2 Pro (12C CPU) > Mac Studio (10C CPU), music production with Logic Pro: Mac Studio (10C CPU) > Mac mini M2 Pro (12C CPU),
both models with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and 10 GbE (comparison by Max Tech)

[MarbsMusic]

I agree. I have a base Studio and I love it but it's somewhat overkill, at least for what I'm doing now. If this had been the same choice last year, I would have gotten the base Mini M2 Pro mini but at this point I suspect I'll be very happy with my Studio for years to come! Looking forward to more reviews!

[yatanphoto]

Great insights from you Mark! I'm a M1 16/512 Mac Mini user, eagerly waiting for your comparison of the new M2 16/512 vs your current M1. What drives me to consider upgrade to the M2 Pro Mac Mini is the number of T4 / USB-C ports at the back of the machine and the ability to spec it up to 32GB of RAM. Cheers from Malaysia!

[Wedgetail]

Another major difference not referenced here is the cooling capacity of the two systems and the effect that has on performance. A large portion of the size of the Mac Studio is due to the cooling apparatus. This is obviously less capable in the mini.

[therealprofessorp]

Great video but with only one correction. The Mac Studio does indeed support high-impedance headphones. Search for "Use high-impedance headphones with your Mac" support article that says Compatible Mac computers
These Mac computers support high-impedance headphones with the built-in headphone jack:

MacBook Air introduced in 2022
MacBook Pro introduced in 2021 or later
Mac mini introduced in 2023
Mac Studio introduced in 2022
Published Date: January 24, 2023

[DCuerpoJr]

I’m waiting for when the Mac Studio is updated with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra SOCs. The benchmarks for the M2 Max on the MacBook Pro 16” lead me to believe that the SOC will perform better on the Mac Studio because of the larger thermal management. The addition of HDMI 2.1 and WiFi 6E are all worthwhile upgrades instead of buying the current Studio with the M1Max/Ultra SOCs.

[vewilli]

I’ve already been going for the top specs Mac Mini Pro 1TB SSD and 32 GB RAM and use it mainly for music production with Logic. Thanx for comparing!

[The_Temple]

I’ve been using a 16 GB, 1 TB drive M1 Mac Mini since 2020 for relatively modest video editing & running virtual machines — it suits my needs fairly well, but do run up against the RAM limits sometimes and depending on use, could even tax the CPU

So, started thinking of upgrade - either a M2 Pro Mini or M1 Max Studio would be excellent for me, especially with 32 GB RAM & the extra CPU cores …. Which brings the price quite comparable

Have made my choice - selling the Mini & buying the Studio & it should fit my use case spectacularly well

[riparianstudios]

Honestly--with the pace of improvement happening in computing I'm not sure I see the point in investing in the highest end machines when they're going to be totally out of date in a couple years anyway. My strategy of has been to buy a medium grade machine, resell it before the AppleCare runs out at a not terrible amount of depreciation, and turn around and upgrade to a machine that often outspecs something I would've spent three to five times as much on 2 years previous.

[sharonb.]

Great video. The “future proof” philosophy is pretty useless in the real world. The 3G was TOP of the line, highly sought after. One year later the 3GS turned into the budget phone. Same with my iPad Air. When released we were told it was more powerful than the 11” iPad Pro, the Air was THE tablet to buy. 6 months later it’s at the bottom of the pile with even the base model having newer features. I find if I buy what I need right now, if I don’t spec it out for potential years of use, I don’t feel bad if 2-3 years later I dump a perfectly serviceable device for the inevitably more powerful, faster, feature rich, newer device.

[jimsonica]

I'm just about to buy one of these and have decided on the Mac studio. I will be using it for music production mostly. The reason for my decision is that I'm interested in 32GB RAM to make it future-proof. Plus the studio, apart from the extra ports, has better cooling, faster RAM, and from what I've read faster SSD R/W speed (512GB SSD)). I'd be interested in reading replies in case my reasoning is wrong. Thanks for your review!

[HasanNiz]

I ordered the base M2 Pro Mac Mini with 1TB SSD, seems like the best value for money for me right now, and planning to get an M3 or even M4 Mac Studio when it comes out.

[theshortlist]

The Mac Studio headphone jack is also a pro audio jack. This means it supports high impedance headphones as the mac mini M2 !

[owenwint]

Mac studio to replace my old Mac Pro 2013 desktop

[i_am_jafo]

If i am going to make a purchase, it would have to be the Mac Studio. I have to 4k a displays and a monitor. I want the extra display support and Ram for working on large images.