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See the full story · 9 sourcesGo to the 9to5Mac home page Switch site 9to5Toys 9to5Google Logo 9to5Google Electrek Drone DJ Logo DroneDJ Space Explored About Privacy Toggle social menu Toggle dark mode Search for: Submit Toggle search form Forums Store Podcasts Apple@Work Happy Hour 9to5Mac Daily Overtime iPhone iPhone Mac Mac MacBook Pro MacBook Air iMac Mac mini Mac Studio Mac Pro iPad iPad Pro iPad Air iPad mini iPad iPadOS Watch Apple Watch Apple Watch Ultra Apple Health Apple Watch SE Vision Vision Pro visionOS Music and TV Apple Music AirPods HomePod Apple TV Guides Reviews How Tos AAPL Apple Store Apple Arcade Apple Card Apple Silicon Apple One Apple Fitness+ CarPlay Siri HomeKit Toggle dark mode Mac Mac mini Apple announces updated Mac mini, here's everything new Chance Miller | Aug 25 2026 - 6:00 am PT 1 Comment Apple today announced the first Mac mini update in nearly two years. The new Mac mini keeps the same compact design, but delivers a major performance boost with the new M6 and M5 Pro configurations.
The new Mac mini lineup is available to pre-order today . Head below for all the details.
The previous generation Mac mini was powered by the M4 and M4 Pro chips. Apple has taken a different strategy this time, opting to use the all-new M6 chip for the base configuration. The next tier, meanwhile, is powered by the M5 Pro, which first debuted in the MacBook Pro earlier this year.
The M6 chip in Mac mini is Apple’s first 2nm processor. It features a 12-core CPU, which is two more cores than M4 and M5. Apple touts that it offers “the world’s fastest single-threaded performance.”
M6 is Apple's first chip to use all three of its CPU core types: 2 super cores, 4 performance cores, and 6 efficiency cores. Super cores prioritize maximum single-threaded performance, performance cores are optimized for multithreaded workloads, and efficiency cores handle lighter and background tasks
Apple says that combination delivers up to 40% faster multithreaded performance than M4.
You get a 12-core GPU, which is also two more cores than before. Apple is also bringing its Neural Accelerators to the base Mac mini for the first time, resulting in up to 4x faster AI performance and 2x faster graphics than M4.
M6 also has the new dual 16-core Neural Engine, which Apple says is up to 2x faster than the previous generation.
The M6 Mac mini starts with 16GB of unified memory and is configurable up to 32GB. It also offers faster memory bandwidth at 170GB/s, up from 153GB/s on the M5 chip and 120GB/s on the M4.
Here are some performance statistics for Mac mini with M6 shared by Apple:
Meanwhile, the higher-specification Mac mini offers the M5 Pro chip. You can get up to an 18-core CPU paired with up to a 20-core GPU. The GPU has Neural Accelerators in every core, an enhanced shader core, and third-generation ray tracing.
The Mac mini with M5 Pro supports up to 64GB unified memory with 307GB/s bandwidth.
Here are Apple's benchmarks for Mac mini powered by M5 Pro:
The new Mac mini is available for pre-order today and will start arriving for customers on September 22. Pricing starts at $899 for the base configuration with the M6 chip, 256GB of storage, and 16GB of unified memory. Mac mini with M5 Pro starts at $1,699.
Notably, that's a $100 price increase for the base configurations compared to the previous-generation Mac mini with M4 and M4 Pro.
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