Mac Mini vs. Mac Studio Buyer's Guide: 20+ Differences Compared

In 2025, Apple updated the Mac Studio with the M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips. Apple last year refreshed the Mac mini with the M4 and M4 Pro chips, meaning that the ‌Mac Studio‌ faces a formidable competitor that offers "Pro" capabilities at a substantially lower price point.

Mac mini vs Studio Feature
There are now two desktop Macs and four Apple silicon chip options for users who do not need the expandability of the Mac Pro. The ‌Mac Studio‌ starts at $1,999, overshadowing the $599 starting price of the M4 Mac mini and even the $1,399 starting price of the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌, so do you need the performance of the ‌Mac Studio‌, or is the humble ‌Mac mini‌ sufficient for your needs? Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two desktop Macs is best for you.

The ‌Mac mini‌ and the ‌Mac Studio‌ share some fundamental features, including a familiar, boxy silver aluminum design, two front-facing USB-C ports along with HDMI and ethernet on the rear, and Apple silicon chipsets. That being said, the two machines have much more in contrast than they do in common, including different chip options, memory capacities, ports, and external display support capabilities.

‌Mac mini‌ (M4, 2024) ‌Mac mini‌ (M4 Pro, 2024) ‌Mac Studio‌ (M4 Max, 2025) ‌Mac Studio‌ (M3 Ultra, 2025)
M4 chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 3nm (N3E) process) M4 Pro chip (made with TSMC's enhanced ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process) M4 Max chip (made with TSMC's ‌3nm‌ (N3E) process) M3 Ultra chip (made with TSMC's enhanced 5nm (N3B) process)
4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed 4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed 4.30 GHz maximum CPU clock speed 4.05 GHz maximum CPU clock speed
10-core CPU (4 perform­ance cores + 6 efficiency cores) 12- or 14-core CPU (8 or 10 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores) 14- or 16-core CPU (10 or 12 perform­ance cores + 4 efficiency cores) 28- or 32-core CPU (20 or 24 perform­ance cores + 8 efficiency cores)
10-core GPU 16- or 20‑core GPU 32- or 40-core GPU 60- or 80-core GPU
Improved ray-tracing engine Improved ray-tracing engine Improved ray-tracing engine Ray-tracing engine
120GB/s memory bandwidth 273GB/s memory bandwidth 546GB/s memory bandwidth 819.2GB/s memory bandwidth
16GB, 24GB, or 32GB unified memory 24GB, 48GB, or 64GB unified memory 36GB, 48GB, 64GB, or 128GB unified memory 96GB, 256GB, or 512GB unified memory
LPDDR5X memory LPDDR5X memory LPDDR5X memory LPDDR5 memory
256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB storage 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB storage 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, or 16TB storage
16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second 16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second 16-core Neural Engine, 38 trillion operations per second 32-core Neural Engine, 72 trillion operations per second
Video decode engine Video decode engine Video decode engine Two video decode engines
Video encode engine Video encode engine Two video encode engines Two video encode engines
ProRes encode and decode engine ProRes encode and decode engine Two ProRes encode and decode engines Four ProRes encode and decode engines
Dedicated display engine Dedicated display engine Dedicated display engine
Support for up to three external displays Support for up to three external displays Support for up to five external displays Support for up to eight external displays
Three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports Three rear Thunderbolt 5 ports Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports Four rear Thunderbolt 5 ports
Two front USB-C ports Two front USB-C ports Two front USB-C ports Two front Thunderbolt 5 ports
Two rear USB-A ports Two rear USB-A ports
Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port Gigabit Ethernet or 10Gb Ethernet port 10Gb Ethernet port 10Gb Ethernet port
SDXC card slot (UHS-II) SDXC card slot (UHS-II)
Bottom power button Bottom power button Rear power button Rear power button
Starts at $599 Starts at $1,399 Starts at $1,999 Starts at $3,999

Following the ‌Mac mini‌'s redesign last year, the dimensions of the two devices are now radically different, with the ‌Mac Studio‌ dwarfing the ‌Mac mini‌ in every way.

‌Mac mini‌ ‌Mac Studio‌
Height 2.0 inches (5.0 cm) 3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
Width 5.0 inches (12.7 cm) 7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Depth 5.0 inches (12.7 cm) 7.7 inches (19.7 cm)
Weight M4: 1.5 pounds (0.67 kg)
M4 Pro: 1.6 pounds (0.73 kg)
M4 Max: 5.9 pounds (2.7 kg)
M3 Ultra: 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg)

Most customers should choose the M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ over the M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌, saving $700 when looking at the base models. There will likely still be substantial savings when it comes to custom configurations.

You should only consider the ‌Mac Studio‌ if you have an professional workflow that can leverage the extreme power of the M4 Max or M3 Ultra, as well as its additional ports and memory options. If you need the ‌Mac Studio‌, you will likely know that you are looking for a highly powerful machine that is capable of supporting specific intense workflows.

If considering the M4 Max or M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌, it's worth bearing in mind that the cheaper machine uses newer chip technology with faster memory, improved ray-tracing, and better single-core performance. For multi-core, graphics, and video processing tasks, the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ will still be considerably more capable at tackling intense workloads.

To some extent, purchasing decisions should be driven by budget, but it is worth bearing in mind that any savings on the desktop computer itself can be put toward a good external display such as Apple's Studio Display, which starts from $1,599. For example, an M4 Pro ‌Mac mini‌ paired with a Studio Display comes to $2,898, which is just $899 more than a lone base model ‌Mac Studio‌ and $1,101 less than the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ with no display.

Related Roundups: Mac Studio, Mac mini
Related Forums: Mac Studio, Mac mini

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Top Rated Comments

temende Avatar
40 months ago
If you need to read a buyer's guide to decide if you need the power of the Mac Studio, you probably don't need the power of the Mac Studio.
Score: 80 Votes (Like | Disagree)
steve217 Avatar
40 months ago
I like the option of being able to devote more to the monitor than the CPU. The monitor to me is a much longer term acquisition. Swapping out a lower model CPU (Mini or low-end Studio) and upgrading that more frequently makes a better fiscal strategy.
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HazardousT Avatar
40 months ago

I'd argue Mac Studio is the middle ground choice.

Mac mini is the lower ground (I hate calling it "low end" because it can handle serious workloads in certain areas) and Mac Pro is the "no limits" high ground.
Mac Studio + Display is $3500 with the minimum configuration. To me that's not a middle ground
Score: 40 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ixxx69 Avatar
40 months ago

Mac mini is capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
Mac Studio is a mid-ranged system that is capable of handling demanding workloads.
Mac Pro is a "no limits" system, capable of handling the most demanding workloads.
Yeah, really. It's not that complicated. Folks just want to be confused so they have something to complain about.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CWallace Avatar
40 months ago

I need to say that I am confused now. Nothing negative, just not very clear. We now have Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro. How to really understand it?
Mac mini is capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
Mac Studio is a mid-ranged system that is capable of handling demanding workloads.
Mac Pro is a "no limits" system, capable of handling the most demanding workloads.


Update: Over a year has passed since this post and the 2023 Mac Pro ended up not having an "Extreme" class SoC and 256GB+ of RAM. So looking at the desktop lineup today:

The iMac and Mac mini are capable of handling less-demanding workloads.
The Mac mini Pro and Mac Studio Max are mid-ranged systems that are capable of handling demanding workloads.
The Mac Studio Ultra and Mac Pro are "no limits" (within the Apple Silicon architecture) systems, capable of handling the most demanding Apple Silicon workloads.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jasnw Avatar
40 months ago
My own metric is that I've been able to purchase the computer I need for $2,000 +/- $500, including monitor and everything else, for the past several decades. Now Apple is breaking this curve, and not in a good way.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)