The result is a much smoother and usable experience when working with 8K ProRes. This allows the CPU to handle other functionality, such as rending Finder windows, multitasking, etc. Instead of it doing the heavy lifting, the dedicated ProRes accelerators do the job instead. On the M2 and M2 Pro, I can playback ProRes video, and you’ll notice that the CPU stays relatively quiet. Because the M1 Machines don’t have enough cores to throw at the problem, it causes the whole machine to slow down, which affects productivity. What does this actually mean, though? It means that when I try to playback an 8K ProRes clip on an M1 machine like the iMac, the CPU does all of the heavy lifting, instead of dedicated hardware accelerators. One of the biggest differences that I noticed is with ProRes performance, and this shouldn’t be a surprise given the fact that the M2 series of chips features ProRes acceleration for 8K video. That means that even the baseline M2 gets features that were previously exclusive to the higher-specced M1 chips that weren’t available to configure on the prior Mac mini. The M2 chips – even the standard M2 – builds on this foundation by providing a higher-bandwidth video decode engine that supports 8K H.264 and HEVC, and hardware-acceleration for both ProRes and ProRes RAW up to 8K. The M2 Pro also provides an additional 6 GPU cores over the baseline M2 machine for a total of 16 GPU cores - double the amount of GPU cores found on the M1 Mac mini from 2020.įor video editors, especially those working with ubiquitous H.265 video, the M1 chip with its hardware-acceleration for HEVC, provided a huge performance boost, and made it viable to edit video on the Mac mini. The M2 Pro version gives the Mac mini CPU two additional performance cores, in addition to its four efficiency cores, for a total of 10 cores. The idea of editing video, playing games, or doing any other graphics-intense operation on a standalone Intel Mac mini was a downright laughable concept, but Apple Silicon changed the game.Īpple’s M2 system-on-a-chip provides a modest bump over the original M1 Mac mini, while the M2 Pro provides an even more noticeable performance leap. Subscribe to 9to5mac on YouTube for more videos M2 Pro chip Video walkthrough: Hands-on with the M2 Pro Mac mini Coupled with the monitor arm that I have paired with the Pro Display XDR, the Mac mini enhances my minimalistic desktop working environment. I personally like to mount my Mac mini under my desk using an inexpensive mount that I purchased on Amazon. It’s less than half the size of a Mac Studio, doesn’t feature a built-in display, and can be placed pretty much anywhere – on a desktop, mounted under a desk, on the back of a monitor, on a wall, etc. One of the most appealing aspects of the Mac mini is its flexibility. Watch my hands-on experience with Apple’s diminutive beast, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more hands-on videos. Apple Silicon has totally changed the game in that respect, and that’s further emphasized with the Mac mini featuring M2 Pro. In the past, you could have a small footprint, or you could have high performance, but you couldn’t have both. Back in the Intel days, the Mac mini’s small stature resulted in huge performance tradeoffs.
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