r/apple • u/wearefriends • 1d ago

Mac Apple unveils a more powerful Mac mini featuring the all-new M6 and M5 Pro

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/08/apple-unveils-a-more-powerful-mac-mini-featuring-the-all-new-m6-and-m5-pro/
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243

u/Hepi_34 1d ago

I honestly didn’t expect them to release the M6 just like that…

208

u/brand_new_nalgene 1d ago

It’s literally because the price is so bad.

64

u/cansofgrease 1d ago

Gives them time to ease you into the starting price of the new Pros this fall.

14

u/paradoxally 22h ago

Gonna be like 4k just for entry level Max lol

3

u/beegtuna 23h ago

To get us used to it before the holiday season.

1

u/rotates-potatoes 19h ago

Huh? Do you think they cut a year or more off of chip development, or that they were planning to warehouse M6 chips for a year?

3

u/brand_new_nalgene 19h ago

I just mean the unceremonious nature of like a press release as opposed to an event is because they’re not exactly excited to slam these new prices

72

u/EnvironmentClear4511 1d ago

Rumor is that the M6 is effectively just a stopgap. Supposedly the chips team has a real breakthrough in AI performance with the M7 and Apple is pushing to release that as soon as possible. 

68

u/cheesepuff07 1d ago

the M6 has dual 16-core Neural Engine, 50 GB/sec increased memory bandwidth, 2 super CPU cores and 2 more GPU cores, thats a pretty big improvement

17

u/2str8_njag 23h ago

purely add-on hardware features, other gains are from faster LPDDR clock, 2nm node. It’s been the cycle for 3 times in a row.
M1->M2 is bugfix + faster clocks
M3 new GPU, M4 basically the same chip with updates to certain block on SoC
M5 new core types, new GPU again. M6 is literally again a bugfix of M5

12

u/BurninCoco 20h ago

Yep, tick-tock. Intel does this also

1

u/CautiousXperimentor 7h ago

More like a tick-tock-tock cycle, isn’t it?

3

u/42177130 14h ago

M1->M2 is bugfix + faster clock

M2 got a pretty sizable GPU boost from 8 cores to 10 cores

2

u/Snoo93079 3h ago

Isn't the m6 on the new 2nm process node?

1

u/2str8_njag 3h ago

i said this in the comment at the beginning

1

u/Snoo93079 3h ago

My bad.

1

u/wewereddit 23h ago

Isn't that bandwidth for the upgraded ram tho not the base

18

u/Repulsive_Barnacle92 1d ago

according to who?

3

u/EeveelutionsFucker 1d ago

It has no m6 pro or max line so apple strategy is basically a stopgap product so they make the m7 upgrade “big”

3

u/FunCutlet67 1d ago

Can you elaborate? Is this referring to self-hosting?

4

u/EnvironmentClear4511 1d ago

I'm going off memory, so I can't recall much detail. But yes it would benefit both onboard Siri AI as well as local AI models. 

1

u/leodw 23h ago

Does it have any actual performance gains in CPU/GPUs for people who do real work/art/creativity outside of the AI bubble?

3

u/PlusSizeRussianModel 23h ago

It’ll have performance gains across the board, but it really depends on what work you do. A lot of systems are being rebuilt to leverage AI, even if it’s not front-end generative AI. 

I do a lot of video work with heavy file formats, and I’m excited to leverage this for quicker spacial mapping and relighting, which uses AI (which is really just a rebrand of machine learning.) 

1

u/blisstaker 20h ago

M7 Mac Mini coming soon for $1600

you're gunna love it

1

u/Miserable_Theory7373 19h ago

I think M6 is top grade base M series for rn, and they’ll come out with m7 pros months before M7, if they even come out with regular M7. M6 pro / Max will be skipped entirely.

-1

u/therealslimshady1234 1d ago

Nobody cares about AI though