The time has come, Apple finally released the new M2 Mac Mini, I am hell bent on buying one. My question is about RAM. I know minimum 16, or should I get more. The only game I play is Warcraft. In case people wonder, I prefer the mini to the studio because of my work travel. Go forth and enlighten me.
I assume the normal Mini, so not the M2 Pro? 16GB will be enough for sure, but 32 GB is way more future proof as the GPU shares it’s memory with the CPU. But yeah maybe that extra memory money is better spend on a M2 Pro.
Short answer is yes.
ram is used by both graphics and vram.
if you want enough memory for OS, programs, including wow, plus sizable vram casching to reducce stutter, 32 is a must.
Omegal, based on the new specs for the M2 Pro, do you have any recommendations for a 27" monitor that would pair well with the new Mac Mini.
What are the pros and cons of Thunderbolt vs HDMI
Simultaneously supports up to three displays:
Up to three displays: Two displays with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI
Up to two displays: One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 4K resolution at 144Hz over HDMI
One display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz over HDMIThunderbolt 4 digital video output
Support for native DisplayPort output over USB‑C
HDMI display video output
Support for one display with up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K resolution at 240Hz
Any thoughts on M2 with 24GB RAM vs. M2 Pro with 32GB RAM? It seems like both carry enough RAM for WoW for at least a while, but I’m wondering more about the size of the CPUs and whether or not the M2 Pro CPU would run hotter than the M2. It’s hard to find much in the way of data yet, online.
Also would love to see any monitor recommendations. 
if you plan to play wow, m2 pro all the way, it’d be decent for middling settings, not gonna push max or 4k at native, but gonna run well, the base M2 will run wow, but with many concessions.
Funny thing is a fully decked out Mini costs as much as a baseline M1 Ultra Studio and even not fully decked out costs more than the baseline M1 Max Studio. I’m glad Apple has more BTO options for the Mini now, but man is the value hard to see vs. some of its other offerings once you actually get a setup that has a more robust configuration so the machine isn’t obsolete upon arrival.
Really not diggin’ the continual disparity between the laptops/mini and the Studio with regard to being on M1 vs. M2. What I wouldn’t give for a real Mac Pro again…
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Hi there, I just wanted to get clarification: you are talking about whether or not the Mac Mini with the M2 Pro CPU is really worth it in terms of value compared to the M1 Max Mac Studio?
As for me personally, my biggest concerns are 1) how loud (or not) the new Mac Mini will be (I’ve read, for example, the the Studio is rather loud even when not running something that is resource intensive), and 2) how hot the new Mac Mini will get when running a game like WoW.
I would say the M2 Pro edges out the M1 Max primarily because of its better GPU cores. It’s just that the difference doesn’t feel all that great when you factor in getting more RAM and storage for the Mini, which bumps the cost up into the baseline Studio range currently. But the M2 Pro is hardly a slouch, so if you’re on a really tight budget, focus on the best CPU you can get for the Mini and as much RAM as you can afford to put in. RAM more than anything else is going to determine how quickly the machine becomes obsolete with how Apple’s unified memory scheme works.
I would expect it to be loud. It’s a SFF type enclosure, so not exactly much room for a large fan nor is there a lot of room in there period. Once you factor in having to use Macs Fan Control for a better fan curve, noise could become an issue. Such is the price to pay to keep these little buggers cool enough to avoid thermal throttling.
That’ll depend on both your MFC fan curve setup and the settings you use in WoW. Follow Omegal’s advice and you should be able to eke the most out of your Mini with least amount of drawbacks.
It does need to be said that as with all of Apple’s M-Series offerings, get as much as you can into your machine when you order it because everything is soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded later. Be aware that unless you have a really huge budget for scads of built in SSD storage, you’ll need to add a TB3/4 external SSD/NVMe drive at some point in the future. The default amount of SSD storage is pitiful by virtually any standard.
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Thank you very much!
Thank you guys, your responses have given me much to think about. I may just hold off until I see some reviews on you tube. I am such a sucker for new Apple stuff. I would love to have the studio ultra, but my wife threatened me with violence.
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