Apple just gave Mac mini a huge performance boost with M6, and a fat price hike

Apple has upgraded its Mac mini with the powerful M6 chip and increased its price. The new Mac mini offers either the M6 chip or the M5 Pro chip, both providing significant improvements in AI performance compared to their predecessors. The M6 chip features a 12-core CPU and GPU with Neural Accelerators, resulting in up to 4x faster AI performance and 2x quicker graphics and storage.

It also comes with 16GB to 32GB of unified memory. The M5 Pro chip is geared towards heavy workloads like video editing, 3D rendering, and running large AI models, boasting up to 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU, and 64GB of unified memory. Both models support Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5Gb Ethernet, with Thunderbolt ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack included.

The M6 model starts at $899, a $300 price increase from the previous $599 M4 Mac mini, while the M5 Pro model starts at $1,699, a $300 price hike from the $1,399 M4 Pro Mac mini. Pre-orders are available now, with shipments beginning on September 22. Apple has also refreshed its Mac Studio with new M5 Max and M5 Ultra chip options starting at $2,499, both built around a notable leap in on-device AI performance.