Is the New One Pricier? Apple Sells M6 and M5 Pro Mac Mini Side by Side, and It's the New Chip That Starts at $899
Apple is now selling two generations of chips in the Mac mini at once: the brand-new M6 at $899, and the M5 Pro—which actually debuted back in March last year—starting at $1,699. The newer chip number doesn't come with the higher price tag.
Apple's latest Mac mini update is a little counterintuitive. The newly launched M6 version starts at $899, while the other Mac mini still on sale runs on the M5 Pro—a chip that was actually announced back in March—and it starts at $1,699. The newer chip number comes with the lower price, which is worth pausing to unpack.
The issue isn't "new vs. old," it's "tier." The M6 belongs to Apple Silicon's standard lineup, built around efficiency and a 2nm process; the M5 Pro sits in the high-performance lineup, positioned for more resource-intensive workloads from the start. The two chips were never meant to be compared on the same track.
Where the Core Count and GPU Diverge
On the CPU side, the M6 tops out at 12 cores, with a configuration of 2 "super" cores, 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores—designed with power savings as the priority. The base M5 Pro already comes with 5 super cores plus 10 performance cores, and the 18-core version bumps that to 6 super cores paired with 10 performance cores. With more cores and a higher ratio of performance cores, multitasking gains are naturally more noticeable.
The GPU gap is just as clear-cut: the M6 Mac mini is fixed at a 12-core GPU, while the M5 Pro version offers a choice of 16-core or 20-core GPU. That gap shows up in real-world tasks like 3D rendering, heavy gaming, or training AI models locally.
Memory and Storage Also Drive the Price Difference
The base M6 Mac mini comes with a 256GB SSD, with options to upgrade to 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB. The M5 Pro version starts at 512GB and can go up to 8TB. Memory tells a similar story: the M6 offers 16GB, 24GB, or 32GB, while the M5 Pro starts at 24GB and tops out at 64GB. With memory costs on the rise, these spec differences translate directly into the price gap.
Which one to pick really comes down to how you'll use it. For everyday browsing, writing documents, light video editing, or learning to code, the $899 M6 is more than capable. But if your work involves running local AI models or engineering software that demands more CPU cores, a stronger GPU, and more memory, the M5 Pro starting at $1,699 is still worth it—its performance clearly outpaces the entry-level model, and the price still hasn't reached the threshold of the new Mac Studio. A newer chip number doesn't mean better across the board, and a higher price doesn't mean you're overpaying. These are simply two product lines built for different kinds of users.
