M4 or M4 Pro? Is 16 gigs of RAM really enough for your needs? Well, it has been two weeks since Apple released the M4 Mac Mini, and I've been extensively testing both the base configuration and the M4 Pro to answer the question we all want to know. Is the extra $800 difference between the M4 base level and the M4 Pro worth it? Let's find out. Now, the purpose of today's video is very simple. It's going to serve as your buyer's guide to a brand new M4 Mac Mini. I'm going to help you decide which model, whether it's entry level or the Pro, is the right fit for you and whether upgrading to options like RAM and storage really even makes sense because they are expensive. Now, let's start with the basics. The M4 Mac Mini measures five inches by five inches by two inches and weighs about one point five pounds, making it a super compact powerhouse that can fit anywhere that you really need it to. Now, here's what you get in terms of ports. On the front, you're going to get two USB-C 3.1 ports. Each port is going to be capable of a 10 gigabit per second throughput. Next to that, you're going to get a combo 3.5 millimeter jack, which could be used either for connecting headphones or connect speakers. And then you get a status light, which should be on the front whenever it's powered on. Then on the back, you're going to get three Thunderbolt 4 ports. Each can be capable of 40 gigabits per second, one HDMI port for display, one gigabit Ethernet port, and the power plug. And just remember, the power port is on the bottom, but it's really discreetly located and it's not a big deal to 99 percent of the people that are out there. Now, the Thunderbolt ports that are on the back of the machine get upgraded to Thunderbolt 5 ports if you end up going with the pro model. And really, the key difference is that you get double the bandwidth. So it's going to be 80 gigabits per second with speed boost up to 120 gigabits per second for video specific applications. Let's briefly review what is different about the various configurations. The entry level Mac Mini is priced at five hundred and ninety nine dollars and it is available in a 10 core configuration with six performance cores and four high efficiency cores. You get a 10 core GPU, a 16 core neural engine, and a two hundred fifty six gig internal SSD. Now that's compared to the Mac Mini with M4 Pro, which is priced at one thousand three hundred and ninety nine dollars. It does have a little bit of a different configuration that you're getting, maybe a little bit more performance for the money. But really, the big question is, do you need to spend the money? Now, in this configuration, you're getting a performance cores. You're getting the same number of efficiency cores, which is for a 16 core GPU, which is six more cores than the entry level configuration and the same 16 core neural engine. Plus, you're getting a bigger internal SSD, 512 gigs compared to 256. Next, let's dive into synthetic benchmarks to see not only how the entry level M4 and the M4 Pro stack up against each other, but also how they compare to other Macs in Apple's lineup. Now, I'm not a big fan of synthetic benchmarks and I don't think you should put a lot of weight in them either. They're really best viewed as a diagnostic tool, just a snapshot of performance at a specific point in time and really taken with a grain of salt. Now, that said, they do provide us a starting point to building a story around what the real world performance is on each of these different devices. So let's take a look. Now, this next section will be a little bit information dense, so feel free to pause the video as needed. Or if you prefer, you can download the PDF linked in the video description, which covers all the same information for easy reference. Let's kick things off with Geekbench CPU scores. Starting with single core performance, we see that the M4 and the M4 Pro deliver very similar results in terms of what they're able to output. And this makes a lot of sense because both models have the same number of efficiency cores, which is four in total, all designed to handle lightweight tasks efficiently. Now, when we compare the single core score for the rest of the results to the M4 and the M4 Pro, we can see that there's a slight lead over the M3 Max, which makes sense, just over a year old. But there's a significant lead over the M2 and even the M1 Ultra. It's just pulling miles ahead. And this really highlights the strengths of Apple's focus on single core performance with the M4 architecture. Now, single core performance is just that. It's focused on maximizing efficiency and speed for tasks that rely on a single thread, which makes these results really quite impressive across the board. However, when we shift our focus to multi-core performance, this is where the M4 Pro really starts to pull ahead significantly. Now, this is going to be due to the higher number of performance cores with eight compared to the M4's six. These additional performance cores give the M4 Pro a clear advantage in handling more demanding workloads and multitasking scenarios. Now, depending on what you're doing, this might be a great benefit to you. Now, let's go on to the next page, which can be integrated results. We talk about this since the 1399 M4 Pro configuration has eight multi-core performance is over 35 percent better coming in at twenty thousand six hundred and twenty eight compared to this is fourteen thousand eight hundred eighty seven on the base M4. Now, these results clearly place the M4 Pro in a class of its own within the Mac Mini family, offering substantial multi-core gains that even rival some of Apple's higher end machines. Now, let's keep this in mind as we start to think about what performance per core looks like. Now, moving on to the compute results, these leverage the GPU, which get a clear picture of how much faster the M4 GPU is compared to any other previous GPU. The 16 cores on the M4 Pro yield a 33 percent increase in GPU related tasks and only about 30 percent slower than the 30 core GPU in the M3 Max, which is just over a year old. So this means that the upcoming refresh of the Mac Studio with an M4 Pro should produce better GPU results than the M1 Ultra, which is just bananas. So if you have heavy GPU related tasks like video editing, 8K video editing, 3D modeling, like multi-track, like hundreds of tracks for audio editing, you might just be better off waiting a few more months for the Mac Studio. Now that we've covered the synthetic benchmarks, let's move on to real world tests. And this is where the M4 and the M4 Pro will see how they perform in everyday tasks like video editing, photo editing and general productivity. This will give us a clear picture of how these two machines will handle workflows that many of you will use on a daily basis. Now, our first test is Lightroom. When exporting 100 high resolution RAW photos I've taken with my A7IV into DNG format, the M4 Pro and the M3 Max deliver significantly faster results compared to the base level M4. Now, this speed boost is thanks to the M4's multi-core performance, which is closely matched by the M3 Max in this type of workload. The M4 Pro's additional performance cores handle heavy processing demands efficiently, while its GPU cores smoothly render during the export process. Now, I can tell you that I didn't get the same results every time I did it. My test results were really ran doing the same task three times and taking an average of these three tasks. Now, on the other hand, the base M4 still performs well, but it takes noticeably longer, making the Pro configuration a better choice for photographers who are handling large batches of images regularly. Now, let's see how the M4 Mac Mini handles video editing. Video editing is one of my primary use cases. I do it day in and day out from my computer. I'm going to use Final Cut Pro since all my editing is done in Final Cut Pro. I apologize. I don't use DaVinci. I don't use Premiere. I don't want to pay for the subscription. I'm just cheap like that. But for this testing, I'm using a recent project that is 10 minutes in length. It's a mix of HEVC and XAVC footage shot from my Sony A7IV and ProRes footage, which have been recorded externally. It's taken at 24 and 120 frames per second, all shot in 4K. Now, to ensure consistent results, the project is unrendered. I've turned off auto rendering inside of Final Cut Pro and all temporary files have been deleted. Now, rendering is a CPU intensive activity and the M3 Max has 12 high performance cores and 30 GPU cores. Now, the M3 Max is able to finish this in a very respectable two minutes and twenty seven seconds. I'm like, hey, I'm feeling good about myself. The M3 Max is doing well. Here comes the M4 and the M4 Pro. The base level Mac Mini with its six performance cores finishes in three minutes and three seconds. While the M4 Pro is the best of the bunch, finished at two minutes and three seconds. Now, wait a minute here. I've got this one thousand three hundred ninety nine dollar box, essentially, which is able to process video rendering 30 seconds faster, just about 30 seconds faster than my MacBook Pro. What's going on? Well, when rendering, we see that the M4 Pro with fewer CPU cores than the M3 Max is actually performing about 18 percent better when we think about the Geekbench results. This is likely thanks to its optimized architecture and higher single core performance, which keeps it just ahead of the base M4 as well. Now we're going to take that same project and we're going to export it into H.265, which is the video format. Final Cut Pro takes full advantage of the both CPU and the GPU, as well as the additional RAM in the M3 Max to significantly cut down export times. The M4 Pro trims about 30 seconds off the export times compared to the base M4, but nowhere near as close to the M3 Max, which bests everyone at two minutes and 38 seconds. While it's definitely not as fast as the MacBook Pro, the M4 Pro makes a fantastic choice for video creators who need to balance cost with performance and you get the benefit of being able to connect multiple monitors and still have several ports left over. Now it's time to make a decision on which Mac Mini is best for you. Across the lineup, you should get exceptional performance with either device that you choose for at least three years easily. The starting point for most people, in my opinion, is going to be the M4 Mac Mini in the base configuration at five hundred and ninety nine dollars. It's performing enough with a six performance course and it's four high efficiency course. Everyday tasks, including email, web browsing, editing photos in the photos app, as well as like office work like Excel, Outlook and the iWork suite of applications. Personally, I would choose to upgrade my RAM from 16 to 24 for an extra two hundred dollars, making it seven hundred ninety nine dollars. If you plan to keep the computer for more than three years, upgrade your storage if you can afford it, though I'd say it's not necessarily a hard requirement because you do have fast storage options that you can connect to the Mac Mini via Thunderbolt or USB-C. Now, if you're a part time creator or a hobbyist, I'd say that the entry level M4 is going to be a great choice for you. Double your RAM with 32 gigs for four hundred dollars. And I think you're going to be pretty solid. Again, upgrade the storage if you can, though it's not necessarily something because of the different options that you have for external storage. Now, if you're a professional or a prosumer, I think this person really kind of like myself, where the first thing they're doing when their power on their computer is really opening up some type of creative application, whether it's Final Cut, whether it's Lightroom, whether it's Photoshop. So this is the type of person that you are. And if you are that person, you obviously know that. I think that you start with the M4 Pro, the 12 core CPU, the 16 core GPU. It's not really necessary to go up to the next tier only in certain situations. You're going to buy more unified memory if you're working with larger project files and you need to multitask with other creative apps such as your editing video in Final Cut. Now you want to export that audio track in the logic so you can edit it and then reimport it back. Next, you'd buy more CPU cores if you want faster render times, which means that you can start working on your project faster. And there is one thing that I would suggest you consider adding, no matter which group that you are in. And that's upgrading to the 10 gigabit Ethernet connection on the back for an extra hundred dollars. Now, before you poo poo it, just hear me out. Even if you don't have a multi-gig Ethernet connection from your service provider like Comcast or AT&T, having this greatly increases the different applications that you can use your Mac minion. Think about you're going to have your computer for three, four, five, six years. You want to be able to maybe even repurpose it when the time comes and you can use it as a home server, maybe even to run your NAS. You can run home automations, be a homebrew or home bridge and similar. But if you want to add this functionality post-purchase, you would need to spend at least two hundred dollars for a Thunderbolt 10 gigabit Ethernet adapter and then eat into one of your Thunderbolt ports on the back of your device for a hundred bucks. It's money well spent. Think of it kind of an insurance. So ultimately, is the extra eight hundred dollar difference between the M4 base level and the M4 Pro worth it? That eight hundred dollar increase is giving you eight gigs more RAM from 16 up to 24. You're getting two additional performance cores from six to eight. You're getting six additional GPU cores from 10 to 16, and you're getting 256 gigs more storage from 256 to 512. In my opinion, for most people out there, the answer is no. The performance gains from upgrading from the M4 to the M4 Pro just do not make a lot of sense. Now, I want to know which Mac mini configuration are you going with? Let me know down the comments below. If you're looking for that perfect monitor for that Mac mini or other accessories for that, hit subscribe because I've got more content coming your way. My name is Mike and I'll talk to you in the next one. Bye. Bye.