Good morning. Since Apple isn’t supporting my iMac Pro 2017 any longer I feel it’s time to buy something new. I have been waiting for a new 27" iMac but it might never happen. Soooo - the choice is between a powerful Mac Mini or a Mac Studio.
I basically use Sketchup to the fullest plus Enscape for rendering. All other software is basic stuff. Usually a million open windows…
I also have an M1 Max MacBook Pro and and that’s why I am an unsure of what to do. I really dislike the Studios big footprint and love that the Mini has a few cool accessories like matching third-party SSD enclosures and stuff like that. So I’d like to get the Mini. But Mini doesn’t have a Max Chip. I think it doesn’t matter vor Sketchup since it is single core. Any experience with this? Is the Mini with a Pro chip “enough” for heavy skechupping (it’s a verb - look it up!).
Personally, my main machine is the M1 Max MacBook Pro with an external monitor – that’s my desktop machine as well so to speak. The last time I bought a desktop machine was a PowerMac 8100 in 1995. I don’t know for sure, but I think the difference to SketchUp isn’t all that much especially comparing, say, an M4 Pro and and M1 Max assuming IIRC from tests I read a while ago.
My own Mac is an M3 Max, with 64 GB. My work Mac is M4 Pro with 24 GB. Trying a frames per second test the M4 is twice as fast as the M3. I think that the generation of M chip makes a big difference, and although an M4 Max may be even faster, current Macs are a lot faster than the previous generation. Hopefully the mini that is M4 Pro will be as fast as my MacBook Pro is.
Hi @colin → that’s actually a very good answer. My idea was as well that single-core is where to look, so the latests chip will be the best. The advantage of the Many-Multi-core Design of the max chips doesn’t make much of a difference for Sketchup. It may make a difference if I have many apps open, but that’s another story.
So I think I will wait for the M5 Pro Mac Mini and go for that.
