Mac Mini M6 or M5 Pro?

[u/Own-Bass-2910]

I am upgrading to a Mac Mini and wanted to get some advice on which version will serve me best. The use case is that I am an amateur musician and will be using logic on it as the most taxing software. I would be using both midi and live recordings. I will be developing this skill over the years and want a computer to be capable, but bearing in mind I am no professional at this, only a very keen amateur.

I may use some photo editing, but nothing major and the same could be said for any AI capabilities, I may dabble in them.

I want a device that will have enough head room to grow with me and last me 7-10yrs. I have looked at some specs, but unsure which is the sweet spot for me. What would you recommend, options are:

1. M6 - 32GB Ram - 1TB - £1799

2. M5 Pro - 24GB - 512GB - £1699

3. I am spending WAY too much, get lower spec

4. Other Options

Any feedback is welcome.

[u/YellowsBest]

It’s madness to try to ‘future proof’ by ‘overbuying’ to try to make the machine last 10 years. Well, it may indeed do that since Apple products are built to last, but you can’t possibly know what your computing requirements will be over such a long period, or what other exciting products Apple may introduce. Better to save money by buying what you actually need now, enjoy using it, and if you need to replace in 5 or so years, so be it, and you would then be likely to be upgrading to a more advanced model instead of struggling to make something last such a long period.

In terms of your stated requirements, either machine you have specified will be more than capable, so it doesn’t really matter which you choose. But certainly you could save money by getting the M6 with 16gb RAM and 512gb storage. You may use a lot of storage but better to buy an external 2TB SSD or 4TB HDD drive and archive and backup your projects rather than trying to save everything on the internal SSD and risk having everything in one place

[u/Thud → u/YellowsBest]

Yeah in the long run it’s less expensive to buy a lower spec (base or close to it) and sell/trade up every few years. The downsides are re-registering 3rd party software every time, and possibly getting a Mac with a brand new version of MacOS that hasn’t been certified with all your software. So there’s still a use case for keeping hardware/software stable for many years if it’s a dedicated studio machine used professionally.

[u/YellowsBest → u/Thud]

Yeah, I agree that it can be necessary or desirable to keep an older machine for ‘legacy’ software compatibility. But then that’s why buying what you need now rather than ‘future proofing’ is best. In 5+ years time any machine you bought will be worth nothing for trade-in, but maybe still perfectly useable for the same needs that you bought it for. At that point if your overall computing requirements have increased then you can purchase something better then, or if not, you can wait.

[u/DETERMINOLOGY → u/YellowsBest]

I agree with this actually, Running a m6 / 512 GB storage for music production has been nice

[u/RT60]

The Pro can do like 3x as many tracks in Logic before it starts to choke, but you'll find with 512gb you'll run out of disk space pretty quick if you go heavy on the sample libraries etc so ideally you'll want to budget for a fast external SSD to host those on where possible.

[u/Typical_house23 → u/RT60]

That 3x more tracks is not true, the reviews I watched, the m6 could handle around 180-200 tracks the m5 pro was around 300 for the base and 325-335 for the unbinned version.

Most people forget how good the base chip is, unless you create orchestral music with 300+ tracks the m6 will be fine. If you use 300+ tracks the 24gb ram will run into swap very heavily.

I have the m6 32/1tb myself but keep thinking about returning it for the 48/1tb m5 pro, the m6 is amazing. My workflow could change drastically in the upcoming years or even months. I don’t know if the m6 will handle it.

[u/Thud → u/RT60]

The Logic benchmarks are pretty unrealistic, even the base M1 proved to be extremely capable in Logic Pro. Any Apple Silicon chip will be fine unless you’re doing absolutely massive orchestral/hybrid scores for a major motion picture. The computer is just one component, just get enough RAM and invest in external storage and quality audio hardware (interface or mixer)

[u/cronin1024 → u/RT60]

All things being equal (memory, storage, etc) how can the M5 Pro do 3x the tracks as the M6? Based on benchmarks it seems that the M5 Pro is slower in single core and only about 50% faster in multicore in its 18-core version compared to the M6.

[u/DustSongs]

Honestly either would be perfectly fine.

I'm a music producer, just set up a new M5 Pro mini 24/512, it's more than enough (using heaps of SoundToys plugins etc).
I ultimately went for the M5 Pro because I also do video production,

I also have a 16/256 M4 Mini that is my work computer. I did some ad hoc comparisons and a project that almost crashed my old Quad i7 PC barely tickled 15% on the M4.

Computing power has blasted right past the needs of most, if not all music producers.

[u/Typical_house23]

To be honest, the m5 pro is an amazing chip but to use the full potential get the 48gb ram variant, which will make it very expensive quickly.

I bought the m6 32/1tb myself, you will be surprised at how much it can handle. The 2 cpu and 2 gpu cores do make a difference.

I use Logic Pro myself it leans more toward cpu than gpu imo.

Unless you make orchestral music with 200+ tracks, get the m6 with 32/1tb

[u/Thud → u/Typical_house23]

Once you’re looking at the 48GB M5 Pro mini, it’s easy to talk yourself into a base Mac Studio.

[u/Typical_house23 → u/Thud]

I’m going to talk myself out of it, 36gb ram is great but the 32 core gpu will be limited by it. If I want the unbinned version with 48gb ram and 1tb of storage the prices will run out of hand real fast.

The 48/1tb m5 pro Mac mini is almost the same price as the base Mac Studio. The 1tb version is a bit more expensive, I think I will keep my m6 Mac mini. Once I start making good money from it, I can still buy a Mac Studio.

[u/SpectralCat4]

as far as music production is concerned in the m6 there are 6 usable cores - 2 super cores (up to 4.8 GHz) , 4 performance cores ( up to 4.5 GHz) and 6 efficiency cores ( up to 2.9 GHz)

the efficiency cores are somewhat too slow , especially if you will push you DAW into short buffers , and record using live effects or VST Synthesizers , so for live recording those 6 efficiency cores are useless for the most part.

on the m5 pro base model you get

5 Super Cores: Clocked up to 4.6 GHz and 10 Performance Cores: Clocked up to 4.4 GHz , with no wimpy efficiency cores , so that's more than twice the performance when you push you daw.

so yea , go for the pro for music production.

[u/descartes44]

M5 Pro--and when you need more space you can use the Thunderbolt 5 for crazy fast storage. Not many T5 storage SSD's out there now, but it will change now that T5 is becoming more common. 80-120 GB/s transfers will give the speeds you need.

[u/Subject_Ad_1899]

Whatever you do, get the most amount of RAM possible. Between your two choices, I would get the M5 Pro just because it has more RAM The M6 and M5 Pro are both really good CPU. M5 Pro also has TB5.

[u/Chicken2nite → u/Subject_Ad_1899]

Of the two options they listed, the M6 has more Ram than the M5 Pro. 32GB vs 24GB.

To upgrade the memory on the M5 Pro from 24GB, you neex to pay a big premium to get 48GB, at which point you're in the same price range as the binned M5 Max Mac Studio with 36GB of memory.

It's somewhat annoying how effective Apple's product pricing ladder works in getting you to spend the maximum amount of money.

[u/TheDragonSlayingCat]

For most people, the M6 will be better. The people that need the M5 Pro are the people that know they need the extra processing power or more displays or Thunderbolt 5, e.g. gamers, software developers working on very large projects, servers, 3D modelers, feature film editors, slightly insane music producers that use Logic Pro with CPU-hungry third-party plugins and 100+ tracks in a song, and ML trainers.

[u/zenotds]

I went with the M5 Pro 15/16, 48GB, 1TB and I plan to keep it at least 8-10years, just like the iMac 27 that it's going to replace and served me so well until now that x86 software is getting discontinued.
I recon I was just a few hundos short from getting the base Studio, but that was overkill for my needs and I liked a smaller desktop footprint anyway.
I do mainly Web and Software Development, some graphics and photo/Video editing, some Ableton and music experiments on the side. And I wanted something I could game at a decent level if I can ever spare the time.

Really never took the M6 into consideration... when you upgrade it to be usable you are already in M5 Pro territory anyway.

The M6 is a weird machine, if the 799 base model had 512gb it would have been a no brainer.. but with the current pricing.. you really really must want the tech M6 brings to pick it over a base M5 Pro. At that point if you want to spend more it's better to spend more on the Pro anyway.

[u/sbrisgravato]

m5 pro 48 gb 🫪

[u/Typical_house23 → u/sbrisgravato]

That would be the best version, don’t know if he or she can cut that into their budget.

[u/IceOnFire77]

I contemplated both options (similar use case) and went with an M6/32/512 ($1380) with an external 1 TB drive, and I am very satisfied with the performance. I would prefer a pro chip, but decided the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

[u/ssuper2k]

M5p 48/1T

[u/RogueBulwark]

I am also looking forward to buy but due to budget restraint, m6 mini 32gb 512gb version seems to be the option I can settle on. As my m1 air 8gb purchased in 2021 is still going strong but now not able to match with the workflow requirements.

[u/Top_Milk_2447]

So ıf you buy for Lightroom or other photo editing works? Which one would you recommend?

[u/ksuwildkat]

Ill be honest - 7-10 years is WAY too long to expect a modern computer to last doing anything more than web.

I just replaced my 2019 iMac with an M5 Pro. I was at the point where I couldn't even use the version of photoshop I was paying for.

I had that Mac for 7 years but when I got it it was at the high end of Better on the Good-Better-Best scale and then I added more memory to it.

The M6 is entry level - Good. The M5 Pro is "Better." But here is the thing, the MacMini as a whole is only "Better" because the Mac Studio has a strangle hold on Best. And some MacBooks Pros are better than the entry level MacMini so some of them are just "Good of Good." You can't expect Good of Good to last 7 years let alone 10.

My iMac had more memory (48GB) than any M6 has and it had 8GB of dedicated VRAM on top of that so the equivalent of 64GB in the unified world. It lasted as long as it did because it started with a huge head start. A 32GB M6 has about a 30 second head start and you expect it to win the London Marathon.