Buying guides
Mac Studio or Mac mini Pro: which desktop?
Both are small, quiet and fast. The deciding factors are GPU power, ports and how much noise you tolerate.
Mac
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Mac Studio (M4 Max)
For people who outgrow the Mac mini: more GPU power, more ports on the front and back, and cooling that stays quiet.
Our score8.9 / 10
Released2025
Launch price$1,999
Our take
For people who outgrow the Mac mini: more GPU power, more ports on the front and back, and cooling that stays quiet.
Every Mac we review becomes someone’s main computer for at least a month. We pay most attention to sustained performance, fan noise, battery life on real workdays and how far the base memory goes.
Pros
- Very quiet under load
- Front SD card slot
- Plenty of ports
Cons
- Overkill for most people
- Expensive memory tiers
Specifications
| Chip | M4 Max, 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU |
|---|---|
| Memory | From 36GB unified memory |
| Ports | Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, 10Gb Ethernet, SDXC |
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