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Every time Apple begins a brand new era of chips, the Mac mini is all the time the primary desktop Mac to get it. With the M3, coming quickly, meaning a brand new Mac mini is probably going across the nook.

That additionally means rumors and experiences a few new M3 Mac mini will floor. To assemble that data in a single spot–in addition to to offer perception as to what’s possible and what’s not–now we have this text that will help you determine what’s occurring with the M3 Mac mini. Should you’re all in favour of investing in a single, you may plan accordingly. We’ll replace this text every time new data turns into out there.

Apple launched the M2 Mac mini in January 2023. Earlier than that, the M1 Mac mini was launched in November 2020. That’s 14 months between the M1 and M2 Mac mini, however keep in mind, that was additionally in the midst of the Covid pandemic that affected manufacturing. So, whereas the M2 Mac mini has not been out for a 12 months, it has been out lengthy sufficient for Apple to improve it.

In early August 2023, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple was performing preliminary assessments on a M3 Mac mini. Gurman additionally famous that the Mac mini was being examined with macOS Sonoma 14.1, the primary main level replace since Sonoma was launched in September. Sonoma 14.1 is within the later stage of its beta cycle and a launch candidate is out, which suggests the official launch is pending. Apple might time the M3 Mac mini to coincide with Sonoma 14.1’s official launch, or not lengthy after it. So, we’re taking a look at late October or early November for the M3 Mac mini. In truth, Gurman has even instructed October 30 or 31 for a Mac launch, although it’s not anticipated that there will probably be an Apple October Occasion this 12 months, a press launch announcement is extra probably

Apple additionally provides an M2 Professional Mac mini. When Apple releases a brand new M-series chip, it doesn’t introduce the Professional, Max, and Extremely variations similtaneously the bottom chip. When Apple releases the M3 Mac mini, the M2 Professional will keep within the lineup. Based on Gurman, the Professional, Max, and Extremely chips will probably be launched all through 2024, so the M2 Professional Mac mini will probably be upgraded to the M3 Professional subsequent 12 months.

Jason Cross / Foundry

Rumors concerning the M3 Mac mini haven’t addressed costs. We will check out Apple’s pricing historical past, present costs, and different product releases to get an concept of whether or not Apple will elevate costs or not.

Apple’s iPhone 15 Professional makes use of a 3nm A17 Professional chip, which is the first 3nm chip in an Apple product. The M3 is probably going going to even be a 3nm chip and would be the first 3nm chip for the Mac. So, the idea may very well be made that Apple would elevate costs to recoup the price of analysis and manufacturing for these new chips.

However when Apple unveiled its iPhone 15 lineup, it didn’t elevate the costs of the Professional fashions. That’s a superb signal for the M3 Mac mini–it might observe the identical commonplace configuration costs of $599/£649 and $799/£849 when it’s lastly launched.

Really, trying again traditionally, Apple lowered the usual configuration costs when it launched the M2 Mac mini. In 2020, the M1 Mac mini had costs of $699/£699 and $899/£899; the M2 Mac mini is at the moment at $599/£649 and $799/£849. That opens the door for Apple to extend the value of the M3 Mac mini.

A number of experiences by totally different sources have said that the M3 will probably be manufactured utilizing a brand new 3nm course of. This permits extra transistors to suit on a chip, which might probably present a efficiency increase that exceeds the standard 15 to twenty % seen between chip generations. The M3 might additionally supply higher energy effectivity, so the temperature issues required for the M1 or M2 Mac mini aren’t the identical because the M3, which might run sooner as a result of it doesn’t get as scorching.

As for the quantity of unified reminiscence, Apple at the moment provides the usual configuration M2 Mac mini with 8GB. The M3’s doable reminiscence configuration has been coated solely vaguely; Gurman has reported that the M3 Macs which have been examined have elevated reminiscence. If Apple does increase the reminiscence, we might see the bottom M3 Mac mini include 16GB, configurable to 32GB or 48GB.

No experiences have been made concerning the options of the M3, such because the core clock speeds, Neural Engine cores (prone to keep at 16 cores), or media engines.

When Apple launched the M1 Mac mini in 2020, the corporate reconfigured the ports in order that it had two Thunderbolt/USB-C ports as a substitute of the 4 that have been on the Intel-based Mac mini. Apple. Apple will probably keep on with this port configuration with the M3 Mac mini, which additionally contains two USB-A ports, a gigabit ethernet port, HDMI, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The M2 Mac mini already has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, however Apple might go for Wi-FI 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Apple

Rumors of the M3 Mac mini give attention to the M3 chip and lack details about the design. Apple will hold the 7.75-by-7.75-by-1.41 inch (19.7-by-19.7-by-3.6 centimeter) exterior design. Due to the brand new 3nm M3, it’s doable Apple will change how the internals are laid out, however customers gained’t should be involved with that.