$10,000 Trash Can Mac Pro vs $1299 M2 Pro Mac mini

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Today we're going to compare the new base model M2 Pro Mac mini to the previous generation Mac Pro, specifically a maxed out trash can with 12 core CPU, dual D700 graphics cards, 128gb of Ram and 2tb ssd! How does a ten thousand dollar computer of yesterday compare to a one thousand dollar computer of today? Let's see!

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Time stamps
0:00 Intro
2:33 Final Cut Pro comparison
3:28 Cinebench R23
5:23 Tomb Raider
5:45 SSD speed differences
6:10 Mac Pro Upgrades
7:43 GFXBench and Blender
9:24 Thermal comparison
11:41 Is the trash can Mac Pro good?!?

[PolluxChung]

I sold my trash can when the resell price was still decent. I do miss the look of that I ended up getting an empty shell off eBay and have it as decor.

[SharifDurhams]

I bought a Pro with D300s, 16GB and 500GB storage a couple of months ago for $320. I will put Ventura on it via Opencore once that gets more stable. I also bought an M2 mini. My typical workflows don’t need the power of either, and the Pro is kind of just fun to have.

[rustyfenders]

Put the Mac mini inside of the Mac Pro!!! Make it so you can still use the ports with a hub. that would be crazy!!!

[ProxyOne]

bought a 4 core D500 trash can like 6 months ago for around $300 swapped in the 12 core cpu and 64gb of ram for another $60 ish, and for $360 I think its a pretty solid machine. I will probably upgrade to a Apple silicon mini in the next year or two when they get in the refurbished store.

[bradleycochran]

It is nice to see a comparison of old and new technology and how the old technology can still be used. Great Work!!

[anshubhatia]

I'm keeping my trashcan as long as it works, got it for so cheap in 2019. It's still a champ for logic pro x, and I can't imagine the annoyance of transferring my plugin/virtual instrument licenses to a new computer.

[georgn]

Great comparison, as always! Just thought about the same, gettin an old trash can pro just for the looks. How about modding one and trying to put in M2 mini internals in it? Should be cool I guess

[HenrikoMagnifico]

For music production the Mac Pro is just a dream. With many many tracks running dosens of different VSTs, those 128GB of ram would be incredible

[paolozago]

Well the comparison would be fair if you were at least evaluating some use cases where you actually need some of the specs of the trashcan Pro: if you need ram to do, say, mechanical or thermal simulation, then the 128 GB of the trashcan would be the difference between being able to complete a simulation and not completing it at all. Same for the graphics card, Blender tests are fine, but moving a large assembly in a CAD package with wireframe and dimmed hidden lines would be one scenario where the trashcan will probably win hands down: I've not seen CAD specific benchmarks for Apple Silicon GPUs so I'm not sure how they perform in wireframe, which is the field where most general purpose GPUs fail and where the trashcan GPUs should shine.

[bitcrafter]

Revisiting this video because I just bought a new 2018 mfg. pristine Mac Pro, with 24" PC monitor, with mouse, with keyboard, 32GB, 256GB, D700 cards for $300. I have to point out, the configuration you were using was NOT the best one. It was the most expensive, but the RAM upgrade to 128GB actually SLOWED this Mac down. The sweet spot was 64GB running at 1866MHz. When you upgrade to 128GB, the memory actually clocks down. It COULD go that capacity, but for performance, it' shouldn't. I know, this is my second one, I literally bought it for the D700 cards for $300 and got everything else for free. It's a great second machine backup to my original 2013 owner machine. All this said, your conclusions are still the same so it doesn't impact your video, but it's nice to point out the error in your configuration. Keep up the great work Luke. Thanks!

[stelan]

I bought a base one, but with 64gb of ram and 8 core CPU for 400€. I upgrade to a 12 core CPU and 1 terra storage and I'm pretty happy. I can edit 4k video very easily. Not bad at all!

[otter-pro]

That visual effect at 6:29 is really nice (subtle but makes it look so pro)

[Piketom]

What's far more impressive than the performance gains to me are the efficiency gains over the years. The M2 Pro Mac Mini is impressively fast but you can get the same SOC in a 14" laptop that hardly gets hot under load and gets more than 11 hours of usable battery life to boot. The hardware in the Mac Pro would never have functioned as a laptop.

[FalconProductionsus]

Enjoyed this video. I bought a "trash can" Mac Pro over the Christmas holiday, and it was probably not the right choice, but I had fun with the upgrades. It is the six core and I upgraded the RAM to 64GB and the SSD to 2TB. I have yet up upgrade the CPU. What drew me to it was the ability to make some upgrades. I enjoy working with the hardware. In these days of "sealed boxes" it is becoming rare to be able to work with the hardware under normal circumstances. The big adventure with mine was that the original SSD had been upgraded without upgrading the firmware, so I actually had to buy an original Apple SSD and go "backward" to upgrade the firmware so that I could get the system to Monterey. This has been addressed in other videos, but something to watch out for if you go this route!

[kenw]

One thing you didn’t mention are the old-school DisplayPort-shaped TB2 ports. But I like that old Mac Pro cylinder design too. It’s surprisingly compact when I saw it in-person at Apple Store. I almost bought one used after the 2019 Intel Mac Pro model came out but before Apple announced the transition away from Intel. Probably a good thing that it was still too expensive for me at that time considering it quickly went from being the latest Mac Pro to no longer supported with current MacOS.

[transitengineer]

Thank you, Luke for another excellent vintage to modern Apple desktop comparison video. In the Spring of 2022, my original goal was to buy an M1 Pro "mac mini" but, Apple, Inc. surprised everyone buy leaving the M1 "mac mini" as it was and then, they introduced a new desktop model the "Mac Studio" along with the new "Studio Display". However, when trying to order a custom version, I ran into some problems on the "Mac Studio" there was a five (5)- month back-log and on the "Studio Display" it had various issues of its own. At the same time, I noticed the prices of the space gray "trash can" size Mac Pro models had started to drop like a "Rock". So, for about $1, 000 picked-up a used 8-core/ D-700/ 64GB/ 1TB SSD model and paired it with my already owned 2010, Apple 27-inch Cinema (none thunderbolt) display and added an Apple DVD super-drive to my set-up. This system makes a great replacement for my 2010, "mac mini" (the last model with a built-in DVD super-drive) and to-date everything has been working great (smile...smile).

[myendlessdefiance]

I just bought a Mac Pro (2013) for $500. 12-core intel Xeon 64gb purely for music production and web surfing… this thing is amazing. My buddy has a silicon Mac Studio and still gets buffering issue messages, I don’t. For me the Mac Pro is a major win.

[bake]

Their price dropped so much that it makes a great entry level Mac for hobbyists and enthusiasts .
Although todays entry level Mac are way more optimised in terms of performance and power consumption they lack any form of upgradeability…
It’s a shame spending over 1k on an entry level machine and being stuck forever with 256gb disk (I can at least accept ram memory not being upgradable since it is integrated within the cpu soc)

[johnmcandrew]

I’m still rocking my 10-year-old trashcan and loving it! I look at it this way, any other machine purchase in 2013 would have been replaced years ago. I’m still happily running a supported OS 10 years in.

The design is cool. When the time comes, I would love to gut it and shoehorn in an M2.

[henrywit]

Great video! Good pro/con analysis. The trashcan looks awesome with its case off. Almost like a Borg-cube, but cylindrical.