Just got my M4 Mac Mini yesterday. I use it for recording music, I upgraded from the 2014 Mac mini. The M4 Mac mini is the truth, no lagging when I use a lot of EFX/Plugins.
I just bought my first base model with a 512 GB HD Mac Mini at my local Apple Store. This was my first major purchase at an Apple Store. I am brand new to the Mac mini and I have to say that I learned a huge amount from you! Thank you for the great video. It is packed with useful information for me. I also own an M3 Pro MacBook Pro base model and I absolutely love it. I got an awesome deal on the MacBook from my local Best Buy via their trade-in program. Thank you again.
I had to pause the video just to let you know that I subscribed because you are literally talking about what interests me with this computer I just got the Mac mini pro and the most important thing to me using da Vinci resolve studio is the codex
I had an old hard sided attache case so I placed a 17" monitor in the Lid. the M4 Mac Mini in the middle tword the Back Front facing left & upside down. Easy access to power button and cools better. Wireless KB & Mouse in the front and the 2TB Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure to the right of the Mac Mini. Open the lid Pull out the KB & mouse plug in the Computer & turn it on. OH for got have a 3 port USB A w/ SD card reader to the left of the M4 mac Mini. Oh I also carry a 15' Hdmi cable to connect to any Big Screen UHDTV. Also if it has a 5.1 or Atmos Sound Bar That works too.
If you have concerns about pixel density for finer text, I would suggest BENQ RD280UA (3840x2560), especially when the desk's depth is less than 60 cm. If you have no concerns about pixel density, I would go RD320UA (4K) especially when the desk's depth reach more than 70 cm. BenQ RD series provides the best Nano Matte Coating to reduce the reflection, and best IPS contrast. You would love the BENQ Ergo Arm, too. However, if you are a content creator, PD series could be considered. If you have lower budget, >=2K, >=60Hz, >=27" IPS monitors should be fine.
@@yenjun0204 yeah i had used it for my gaming laptop before but doesn't matter is what i'm trying to say if he wants something budget sure get 60 hz whatever
The ram won’t help you stuff like that needs more gpu cores. Can you do it on the base model? Yeah for sure, but it will be slower than the m4 pro for stuff like that
@ReachFilms thank you. Coming from an Intel Mac do you think m4 pro mini would be the better choice? The problem is we don’t have any return policy, I want to make sure I’m getting the right one.
Hi Geoff, great informative video thanks. Due to my iMac deciding to give up I need a new pc. For the same price as the base M4 I saw a used M2 with 32gb ram and 1tb ssd. Which would be better for my freelance business doing product and portrait photography and videos? Thanks
I would try and at least get the m4, I can understand the more ram may be enticing but the m4 cpu and gpu is considerably more powerful than the normal m2 chip. If it was an M2 pro or max I think that would be a harder choice
I don’t do much in adobe on the basic apple silicon computers. Reason being is the creative cloud alone uses too much ram. The m4 will perform much better than M1 but how much in the photo department? It probably depends on what you are trying to do and how many photos you are trying to edit at once
Ok which model do you recommend M4 mac mini with 32 GB RAM or m4 pro mac mini with 24 GB RAM For editing 4K footage and after effects( or fusion on davinci )
@@AbdullahTharwat-jt7fv The performance difference between even 16GB & 32GB is minimal in MAC because of better paging mechanisms(I guess) unlike windows where a 16GB system crashes if you run RAM intensive tasks. Make sure to have enough free space for paging in SSD , at least 50GB while editing
I bought my wife a base model mini m4 and compared to her old 5yr old pc, it is much faster. I also do video editing on a built pc and for the fun of it did some comparisons to the mini. My pc is faster with a ryzen 5900x 12 core cpu and nvidia 3060 12g graphics card. Funny thing is my pc is faster but the base mini m4 pretty much keeps up with my pc. For the price, I think the mini m4 is much better than my pc. I may ditch my pc and go with a pro mini m4
What about RAM and sotrage? ;) You know that 128GB RAM goes for 230 bucks, while upgrading mini to 32GB will cost you $400? Or mini with 2TB is additional $800, while Crucials 4TB goes for 230 dollars? Are you shure you want to ditch a pc, that you can always repair and upgrade yourself? Plus there's OpenCore which allows you to build your custom EFI bootloader to install Mac OS on any PC. ;)
@@hadeseye2297I’m ditching my 1950x 16c Threadripper PC (80GB RAM, 7900xtx 24GB card) for an MacMini M4 Pro 64GB 2TB. Whilst I have actually enjoyed using the PC, its windows that’s the problem. The PC has been flawless and very fast but the constant random Windows 10 errors, freezes and hassles, are not good for a computer I use all day, every day. I’ve had to buy 2 NAS boxes and a Caldigit dock for the Mini to make up for the loss of internal storage and connections. But my PC was ready to be replaced and a New PC was only about $900 cheaper than what I spent on the Mac, peripherals and accessories. I’ll happily pay more for a machine that will literally run all day every day for years without issue. At least my Son will get a pretty decent gaming PC now😂
They are definitely soldered, but they are soldered into a piece that is (in the Mac mini) removable. But in order to change the SSD in that piece you would have to solder in a different SSD chip that is pretty much made for Apple silicon. It’s why you haven’t seen any company quickly come out with a solution for replaceable media
Mate love this video and love how you’ve replied to so many of the comments. Great stuff! Cheers from Australia! 🍻 Any chance of a comparison video between m4 base and m4 pro?
I recently just did a video on it, the OWC drive is the best and I go over speeds in my most recent video. Haven’t found an SSD with great speeds that have sd card readers built in
I have a 2020 Intel 27" Mac with 1Tb ssd and 40Mb of RAM. Should I upgrade to the Mac mini M4? I mainly use my computer for photo editing as a hobby and daily tasks. Thank you!
I have a late 2020 intel 27 imac too, I have the i7 version and I upgraded to 72gb of ram. If you find that computer to still work for your uses than the base model will work great for you or at least is still ok. If it’s way too slow for you than go for the m4 pro base model
Great video thanks! I'm considering either the mac mini ($800CDN) with my current Dell 2721QS (4k, 60hz, 158ppi) 27" monitor or getting an iMac (mostly to get the 4.5K display, higher PPI and speakers) for $1700 CDN (or $1900 CDN for the mid range iMac that actually matches the processor/core specs of the mini) and I have 2 questions for you: I do really basic video editing in Movavi for a RUclips channel, vids just filmed with an iPhone. I play in a band, and may start taking home recording more seriously in Garageband (maybe Logic Pro one day). The videos aren't action shots or anything, just reviews on music & recording gear etc. Do you think I will notice/benefit from the better monitor & speakers enough to justify the $$$? Or am I better off sticking with my Dell monitor, and getting a MINI (maybe bump up the SSD to 512 and still only be out $1049 CDN) and still saving almost $1000? Would appreciate your thoughts!
Hey! So 1, the iMac monitor is great but not life changing, I find my old 5k iMac screen to be better. Also you of course save a lot of money with the Mac mini. The one thing I would advise is you move to start either using Final Cut or Davinci resolve. Of all the editors out there they are the only two that are completely optimized for Apple silicon. You will get the best editing performance on your machine if you use either of those editors.
Which drive are you using for a Davinci scratch drive? The internal SSD or and external? I thought about partioning the internal SSD, half for apps and half for scratch. Any thoughts?
I use a few I’ll do a video on them probably this weekend that way I can go more in depth because the more expensive one I use is overkill but I got it for fast file transfers on set
Hi, thanks for the nice review, the tests you did with Davinci Resolve, did you do them with proxy media or optimizer media? Or did you use original video files?
Hi , thank you for review , what do you think about using mac mini m4 base for colour grading and editing short music videos 5 min, on budget I now have blackmagic cinema 2.5 and planning to buy bmcc 6k for braw editting I dont need quickest computer
Looking for my first good machine as i’m breaking into the video production industry as an editor. Need a quality setup to edit 4K video in premiere and resolve… looks like this might be what I go with. Any other advice regarding that potential decision? BTW I consume a lot of review content on YT (for basically everything, not just tech) and I gotta say this is one of the best modern ones i’ve seen. Thanks!
@@whysitthat3515 if you are editing in premiere I would go with the base model m4 pro, the cpu gpu and slight ram upgrade will all be needed specifically for premiere more than resolve or Final Cut.
Dehancer seems to run on davinci on the base model but it seems to depend on a few things. First what codec are you using, second what is the resolution of that codec file. Then if it can’t handle it at 4k if you bring the timeline down to 1080 doesn’t seem to be an issue on my 6k red Komodo files
If I wanna edit footage from a GH6 , GH5s, a GoPro and Mavic Air 2 footage on Final Cut and DR as well as record music on Logic Pro will I need more Ram? 64 GB?
per the footage, if you edit in a 1080p timeline like me it won't be a problem, if you need to edit in a timeline 4k or higher (Most people don't need to but some have specific requirements) yeah you will need more ram
I just updated to the M4 16 gigs model. It seems like 16 is not enough. My iMac has 32gigs. While the M4 boots faster and opens apps fairly quickly, I’m having to manage RAM constantly. It could be a problem with Arc. I’m not sure. I tried another web browser which is faster but that’s because it doesn’t have all the pinned tabs that exist in Arc. So yeah, I wish I got at least 24gig M4. It sucks that RAM can’t be added.
I would check the activity monitor app while you are using all the apps you normally use to see where your bottleneck is. Luckily Apple makes it easy to figure out how much ram apps are using, with swap memory you shouldn’t really see a slowdown if only 24gb would make a difference. If you are seeing a slowdown you may have needed much more than that, or you have apps running that you may not even need that use a lot of ram all the time
@ReachFilms, thanks. I’ve been using the Activity Monitoring. It looks like Arc web browser is the only app that significantly slows down. There are a few web apps I simply can’t use in Arc now because they are so slow. The Activity Monitor shows dozens of Arc Helper (Renderer) processes that I have to regularly quit to deal with memory pressure. Today I’ve stopped using a few web apps in Arc, and I changed a few Arc settings which helped with CPU issues. I shouldn’t have to upgrade to 24 gigs just to work in web apps, but I wasn’t having these problems 32 gig iMac.
Geoff Fagin, very informative thanks. What would be the best MAC for my situation: I shoot the Blackmagic 6k Pro. Settings are Film | BRAW | 6K DCI | 5:1 and occasionally 3:1. There can be as many as 5 or 6 takes of a scene. There is some greenscreen and after-effects. Edit and grade on Davinci Resolve which, as know, moves most of the work into the CPU. Can the M4 Mac Mini handle all this without delays? or some other MAC ?
@@richardweddle3408 the second you add after effects to the equation I would look at the m4 pro chip. The Mac mini m4 pro would have handle all of that no problem at all. Depending on the greenscreen and after effects work. The base model may be a bit slow, could it do it? Yeah, but if you are doing that kind of work, better to be safe than sorry and at least get the M4 pro so you know you are good.
In my full review you got it! I can only do cameras I own though and unfortunately don’t own that camera. My fx30 will be the closest but it also shoots 10 bit which the a7sii does not
Hi, great video, I have a question about getting sound out to your speakers, I don’t see a headphone jack in the back, do I have to connect the cable in the front headphones jack???
Good to see apple finally bumping up to 16GB for the base model. No computer should be coming new with 8GB considering chrome with like 4 tabs open will use 4GB by itself. I'm sitting here with notes open, listening to music and browser open with 7 tabs open. I'm using 6.2GB right now. Apples price for RAM and storage is ridiculous..
@@ReachFilms As a DR master trainer and editor, I'm looking for a machine that can do effects. I generally wouldn't buy a PC machine with super big case as powerplant :) and honestly I don't know much about the capabilities of the new M processors so I can't judge. I mostly do some music videos with effects and commercials.
@@vasanthnagkv5654 unfortunately I don’t have any 360 cameras to test, as much as I would like to say yes I unfortunately can’t answer that at the moment… sorry :(
Hi! Thank you for the video, informative and right to the point ! I'd like to ask you for an advice, I don’t know if to get the m4 or the m4 pro, my use case is a little stranger because I don't do a lot of videos but when I do and, as I'm a musician and an educator, I film full concerts/events that are usually 1 hour 30 minutes + long, I could have some multicam going on, titles for every piece and noise reduction...So quite heavy tasks, but not on regular basis… I know that my super old mbp 2015 has stopped me long time ago from doing more videos, probably with a new machine I’ll also be more motivated to do more of them (even short ones for my yt channel), so from a certain pov making the investment for the m4 pro could be a smart move (even for the ram and 512 gb ssd), but from the other perspective lot of RUclipsrs say to buy what you are sure you’ll use and upgrade later, if you really need to… And it’s true that the base m4 seems really really good, and maybe the pro could be overkilled for me… What’s you take on my situation? TY very much, cheers!
@@gabrielelissia hey! So it would go two ways, if you go for the m4 pro you will have no issues. If you go for the base model, yes it could do everything you need, however it would export the videos slower and when it comes to noise reduction it may cause slow or not smooth playback when playing clips with the noise reduction in the timeline. But if you only do it every once in a while you would have the make the decision if you are willing to wait a bit longer when editing stuff since you do it every once in a while or you want it to be super snappy
Thanks!! It’s a Shure mic I don’t remember the model but it’s solid, main thing is it needs 48v so you need a camera or system that can provide that power
hey, can i ask. for my situation. I'm videographer , and until now i'm editing on a pc, but my gpu it is very old, and i'm thinking about a mac.only for editing. i'm shooting with sony a7 iv 4k 10 bit 4.2.2 .I editing in davinci studio, my work flow has masks , color grading etc. Wich mac is better? mac mini m4 pro with how much ram? or mac studio m2 max....?
If you are going up all the way to 32gb of ram I think you are better off money wise just getting a base model m4 pro, 32gb of ram is a lot if you are just doing reels, why so much ram?
@ The difference of 400$ is worth the m4 pro? It would be to decide between m4 with 32 of ram or m4 pro with 28 of ram, I know that now I make reels of maximum 1 minute because it is what client asks me but in thinking in a future I think to make color projector for videoclips or advertising, which of the two options is better for me?
Thanks! To me the demo just adds more to the length to the video because it would just show smooth playback when not using effects and then show the lagging when using effects, unfortunately (or fortunately) depending on how you look at it. You know what your projects look like on a normal basis so from the info in this video you can decide whether or not this computer will work for you. For anyone that doesn’t know, this computer is most likely perfect for them as they most likely aren’t using things as I mentioned like effects or fusion or noise reduction
Dude. You need more browser tabs? A mere Ryzen 3700X with 32GB of RAM can handle 400+ tabs opened. Tested. And it wil cost you much less. Well, today you can pay 210 dollars for 128GB of RAM, when SHMUCKpple will take 200 bucks for upgrading 16GB to 24GB. I won't even delve into prices of storage as they are preposterous. Crucial's P3 Plus 4TB, 5000MB/s goes for $230. Upgrading basic mini to only 2TB will cost you $800. That's ludicrous. For these money you can buy almost 4 Crucials and use them in your own build NAS.
I thought you will speak about the Red Footage handling in M4 mac minis. I wanted to know are M4s to handle Red Footage as they don’t use the dedicated encoders decoders chips.
It depends on how old the I9 chip is and what the overall spec of the computer is. Price for price the Mac Mini wins but if price isn’t part of the equation then it depends on the overall spec
Great video. I have just one point: no external SSD Drive via Thunderbolt 4 can match the speed of the internal SSD Drive. The Glyph drive gets about 2100 mb/s, and other external SSDs get about 750 to 800 mb/s. The internal achieves an average of 5000 mb/s.
Stay tuned for my hard drive test, unfortunately that is very incorrect. TLDR OWC makes a thunderbolt drive that blows away the internal hard drive speeds
@@ReachFilms The TLDR OWC Hub is advertised at (5000 mb/s on Thunderbolt 4). One of the fastest SSD drives running over Thunderbolt 4 is the OWC Express 1M2 (read speeds are up to 3,757 MB/s, which is good but still slower than Apple's Internal SSD Drive). OWC Thunderbolt 5 drives are 6000 mb/s. Definitely interested in seeing your Hard Drive Test.
@@ReachFilms WOW! I have a couple of Mac Studios (M1 Max and M1 Ultra), and both Internal SSD drive speeds are above 5000 mb/s. I assumed the Mac Mini M4 internal SSD would be the same. You just saved me some money. :) I was going to order a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 1TB, but the better option would be (2TB OWC Envoy Ultra SSD Thunderbolt 5 for only $399). Great Video; thanks again.
@ no problem!! Also just to clarify I’m talking about the base model m4 Mac mini. I’ve seen the teardowns of the m4 pro models and they use different style SSD chips than the non pro models so they may be faster but I don’t have one to test
What would have been nice, would have been seeing it a little bit in action. Doesn't have to be benchmark, but timeline scrubbing speed with the different codec you have from the h265 to red R3D, putting some noise reduction to see how it affect playback. Some of the fusion titles, 1080 to 4 k timeline, multiple 2 or 4 stream playback performance and rendering time. Unfortunately, without hopefully sounding rude it was just blablabla. Did not need to be a 10 hour test bench, but here it doesn't help anyone.
Totally get it! The one thing I’ll agree with is it would add more to the video for viewers like yourself so will consider it for future ones. But I will disagree because clearly the majority of viewers are getting value from this video, so to say anyone is a bit of a stretch.
@@ReachFilms You established your credibility and the scope of your review in the first 2 minutes of the video. Other content creators can do other type of reviews and stress tests… or you can if you get around to it. Clearly many of us benefited greatly from hearing how you’ve used it and your perspective on its limitations and appropriate use cases. Keep up the excellent work. It’s greatly appreciated!
Regarding your assertion that SSDs will wear out in three years, from heavy swap use: how many such computers have you actually encountered? None? Yes, the SSDs will theoretically wear out, but that may take many more years than you are projecting.
If you edit in a 4k timeline in davinci it uses almost 40gb of ram alone. If you are pushing those old machines to the limit editing in 4k all the time. YES YOU WILL KILL YOUR HARD DRIVE IN 3 YEARS OR LESS. Everyone is always in a rush to prove RUclipsrs wrong and I get it. But look at the context I said that and understand why I said that. Some people just want to be cheap and buy the cheapest computer. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong but I know quite a few videographers that are hard for cash and buying the cheapest stuff and pushing it to the limit, 3 of them had hard drives fail. It’s absolutely fair to warn people who are using their computers in that way that this could happen. If they know this would happen they would have been editing in a 1080 timeline and just exporting in 4k after this whole time
Great review. Why does Apple place the ports so close to each other!?? Insane! The design engineers must be vegetarians driving e-cars, whose parents graduated from U.C. Berkley in the mid sixties?
I thought I would give it a shot before I saw the price, but It turns out to be €719 here in the Netherlands, so not cheap at all, and I would need to buy also a crazy expensive Apple mouse and keyboard, and probably some kind of USB dongle, as thsose aren't included. So realistically you're looking at a very limited in terms of RAM and storage €1000 PC replacement. Thanks, but no thanks
Ummmmm…you have thousands of dollars of camera equipment….you should have spent $1,400 on the Mac mini with the M4 pro…duh…the $599 model is for consumer use…
I have much better computers than the base model m4 as you can imagine. I bought this as an experiment to see how well it works for the money and am pleasantly surprised. Don’t jump to conclusions!
Bought a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 64GB unified memory, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI port, two USB‑C ports, headphone jack staying with the 512GB SSD storage trading in a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 32GB unified memory, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, four Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, HDMI port, headphone jack staying with the 512GB SSD storage. I custom-ordered this configuration to future-proof myself and have yet to try it since I have not yet received the computer I should receive some time in early December. I will post my experience once it is received.
Hey Thanks for the video. Quick question if I'm using Davinci resolve Studio and editing on a 4K timeline with 15 renders from the fusion page and color grading a timeline that has 10 different grades, would the base model be able to handle it should I upgrade to the 24 GB RAM? and also why would someone need the 10Gigabit Ethernet add on?
Just got my M4 Mac Mini yesterday. I use it for recording music, I upgraded from the 2014 Mac mini. The M4 Mac mini is the truth, no lagging when I use a lot of EFX/Plugins.
I just bought my first base model with a 512 GB HD Mac Mini at my local Apple Store. This was my first major purchase at an Apple Store. I am brand new to the Mac mini and I have to say that I learned a huge amount from you! Thank you for the great video. It is packed with useful information for me. I also own an M3 Pro MacBook Pro base model and I absolutely love it. I got an awesome deal on the MacBook from my local Best Buy via their trade-in program. Thank you again.
I had to pause the video just to let you know that I subscribed because you are literally talking about what interests me with this computer I just got the Mac mini pro and the most important thing to me using da Vinci resolve studio is the codex
Thank you for tuning in!!
FYI, the word is "codec" (it means "coder/decoder").
Thanks!
Thank you!!
I had an old hard sided attache case so I placed a 17" monitor in the Lid. the M4 Mac Mini in the middle tword the Back Front facing left & upside down. Easy access to power button and cools better. Wireless KB & Mouse in the front and the 2TB Thunderbolt 4 Enclosure to the right of the Mac Mini. Open the lid Pull out the KB & mouse plug in the Computer & turn it on. OH for got have a 3 port USB A w/ SD card reader to the left of the M4 mac Mini. Oh I also carry a 15' Hdmi cable to connect to any Big Screen UHDTV. Also if it has a 5.1 or Atmos Sound Bar That works too.
Can you suggest some budget monitors other than apple's, is it necessary to buy 4k monitor?!
no
get any ips monitor with good srgb ive got 2k 240hz gaming monitor
@@feiht5487 240Hz make no sense for Macs, especially for non-gamers.
If you have concerns about pixel density for finer text, I would suggest BENQ RD280UA (3840x2560), especially when the desk's depth is less than 60 cm. If you have no concerns about pixel density, I would go RD320UA (4K) especially when the desk's depth reach more than 70 cm. BenQ RD series provides the best Nano Matte Coating to reduce the reflection, and best IPS contrast. You would love the BENQ Ergo Arm, too. However, if you are a content creator, PD series could be considered.
If you have lower budget, >=2K, >=60Hz, >=27" IPS monitors should be fine.
@@yenjun0204 yeah i had used it for my gaming laptop before but doesn't matter is what i'm trying to say if he wants something budget sure get 60 hz whatever
Great info & no clickbait...subscribed. Thank you!
Thanks for the sub!
😮 your sound edit is a chef's kiss
thank you!
How about fusion transitions? Does base Mac mini handle those? Or upgrading ram to 24GB will be better option?
The ram won’t help you stuff like that needs more gpu cores. Can you do it on the base model? Yeah for sure, but it will be slower than the m4 pro for stuff like that
@ReachFilms thank you. Coming from an Intel Mac do you think m4 pro mini would be the better choice? The problem is we don’t have any return policy, I want to make sure I’m getting the right one.
It’s going to be a tad slower in the base model, like 50% slower.
Very informative. Thank you.
Hi Geoff, great informative video thanks. Due to my iMac deciding to give up I need a new pc. For the same price as the base M4 I saw a used M2 with 32gb ram and 1tb ssd. Which would be better for my freelance business doing product and portrait photography and videos? Thanks
I would try and at least get the m4, I can understand the more ram may be enticing but the m4 cpu and gpu is considerably more powerful than the normal m2 chip. If it was an M2 pro or max I think that would be a harder choice
That’s great thanks and thank you for quick response. Have a good weekend
Do you think the basic is enough when running lightroom and photoshop together, coming from an M1 desktop?
im interested to know too
I don’t do much in adobe on the basic apple silicon computers. Reason being is the creative cloud alone uses too much ram. The m4 will perform much better than M1 but how much in the photo department? It probably depends on what you are trying to do and how many photos you are trying to edit at once
Great option it seems. Temps me to switch from PC for video, audio editing and photo editing. I use Cyberlink software. Thoughts?
Ok which model do you recommend
M4 mac mini with 32 GB RAM or m4 pro mac mini with 24 GB RAM
For editing 4K footage and after effects( or fusion on davinci )
The pro for sure, if you are in 4k you want the power!
@ don’t you think the RAM difference worth it ?
@@AbdullahTharwat-jt7fv The performance difference between even 16GB & 32GB is minimal in MAC because of better paging mechanisms(I guess) unlike windows where a 16GB system crashes if you run RAM intensive tasks. Make sure to have enough free space for paging in SSD , at least 50GB while editing
I bought my wife a base model mini m4 and compared to her old 5yr old pc, it is much faster. I also do video editing on a built pc and for the fun of it did some comparisons to the mini. My pc is faster with a ryzen 5900x 12 core cpu and nvidia 3060 12g graphics card. Funny thing is my pc is faster but the base mini m4 pretty much keeps up with my pc. For the price, I think the mini m4 is much better than my pc. I may ditch my pc and go with a pro mini m4
Yep it’s all about value for the price, are there better computers? Heck yeah! But for the price for video editing this is a solid deal
What about RAM and sotrage? ;) You know that 128GB RAM goes for 230 bucks, while upgrading mini to 32GB will cost you $400? Or mini with 2TB is additional $800, while Crucials 4TB goes for 230 dollars? Are you shure you want to ditch a pc, that you can always repair and upgrade yourself? Plus there's OpenCore which allows you to build your custom EFI bootloader to install Mac OS on any PC. ;)
@@hadeseye2297 Yeah I'm keeping my PC. Matter of fact I just received my nvidia 4070ti and new power supply and will install later today.
@@hadeseye2297I’m ditching my 1950x 16c Threadripper PC (80GB RAM, 7900xtx 24GB card) for an MacMini M4 Pro 64GB 2TB. Whilst I have actually enjoyed using the PC, its windows that’s the problem. The PC has been flawless and very fast but the constant random Windows 10 errors, freezes and hassles, are not good for a computer I use all day, every day. I’ve had to buy 2 NAS boxes and a Caldigit dock for the Mini to make up for the loss of internal storage and connections. But my PC was ready to be replaced and a New PC was only about $900 cheaper than what I spent on the Mac, peripherals and accessories. I’ll happily pay more for a machine that will literally run all day every day for years without issue. At least my Son will get a pretty decent gaming PC now😂
I was expecting demonstration of actually working on DaVinci Resolve😔
I don't think the SSD's are soldered in, I think they are fairly easy to swap out :)
They are definitely soldered, but they are soldered into a piece that is (in the Mac mini) removable. But in order to change the SSD in that piece you would have to solder in a different SSD chip that is pretty much made for Apple silicon. It’s why you haven’t seen any company quickly come out with a solution for replaceable media
Mate love this video and love how you’ve replied to so many of the comments. Great stuff! Cheers from Australia! 🍻
Any chance of a comparison video between m4 base and m4 pro?
Thank you!!! As of right now I don’t have plans to buy one but you never know :)
Is the mini pro or mini with 24/32 of ram needed for photo editing? I don’t do video editing but stills are large files some 60mb
I don’t do much photo editing, if you are concerned about that I would look into the base model m4 pro
Great content!
What external SSD is best and is there an all in one SDD and UHS II card reader
I recently just did a video on it, the OWC drive is the best and I go over speeds in my most recent video. Haven’t found an SSD with great speeds that have sd card readers built in
I have a 2020 Intel 27" Mac with 1Tb ssd and 40Mb of RAM. Should I upgrade to the Mac mini M4? I mainly use my computer for photo editing as a hobby and daily tasks. Thank you!
I have a late 2020 intel 27 imac too, I have the i7 version and I upgraded to 72gb of ram. If you find that computer to still work for your uses than the base model will work great for you or at least is still ok. If it’s way too slow for you than go for the m4 pro base model
Great video thanks! I'm considering either the mac mini ($800CDN) with my current Dell 2721QS (4k, 60hz, 158ppi) 27" monitor or getting an iMac (mostly to get the 4.5K display, higher PPI and speakers) for $1700 CDN (or $1900 CDN for the mid range iMac that actually matches the processor/core specs of the mini) and I have 2 questions for you:
I do really basic video editing in Movavi for a RUclips channel, vids just filmed with an iPhone. I play in a band, and may start taking home recording more seriously in Garageband (maybe Logic Pro one day). The videos aren't action shots or anything, just reviews on music & recording gear etc. Do you think I will notice/benefit from the better monitor & speakers enough to justify the $$$? Or am I better off sticking with my Dell monitor, and getting a MINI (maybe bump up the SSD to 512 and still only be out $1049 CDN) and still saving almost $1000?
Would appreciate your thoughts!
Hey! So 1, the iMac monitor is great but not life changing, I find my old 5k iMac screen to be better. Also you of course save a lot of money with the Mac mini. The one thing I would advise is you move to start either using Final Cut or Davinci resolve. Of all the editors out there they are the only two that are completely optimized for Apple silicon. You will get the best editing performance on your machine if you use either of those editors.
What thunderbolt hub do you use? Does it slow things down?
@@jasp2003 I use one from OWC, it’s affordable, doesn’t seem to slow anything down but it works with Thunderbolt 4 max
Which drive are you using for a Davinci scratch drive? The internal SSD or and external? I thought about partioning the internal SSD, half for apps and half for scratch. Any thoughts?
I use a few I’ll do a video on them probably this weekend that way I can go more in depth because the more expensive one I use is overkill but I got it for fast file transfers on set
Hi, thanks for the nice review, the tests you did with Davinci Resolve, did you do them with proxy media or optimizer media? Or did you use original video files?
I just used original video files
@ thanks 😜
Hi , thank you for review , what do you think about using mac mini m4 base for colour grading and editing short music videos 5 min, on budget I now have blackmagic cinema 2.5 and planning to buy bmcc 6k for braw editting I dont need quickest computer
@@peterpetrus5484 hey! Color grading works great the main thing is effects, noise reduction and 4k timelines
Looking for my first good machine as i’m breaking into the video production industry as an editor. Need a quality setup to edit 4K video in premiere and resolve… looks like this might be what I go with. Any other advice regarding that potential decision?
BTW I consume a lot of review content on YT (for basically everything, not just tech) and I gotta say this is one of the best modern ones i’ve seen. Thanks!
@@whysitthat3515 if you are editing in premiere I would go with the base model m4 pro, the cpu gpu and slight ram upgrade will all be needed specifically for premiere more than resolve or Final Cut.
Great video. Do you think Dehancer on DaVinci or Pr would run smoothly on the base version or should I go for 24GB version ? Thanks
Dehancer seems to run on davinci on the base model but it seems to depend on a few things. First what codec are you using, second what is the resolution of that codec file. Then if it can’t handle it at 4k if you bring the timeline down to 1080 doesn’t seem to be an issue on my 6k red Komodo files
If I wanna edit footage from a GH6 , GH5s, a GoPro and Mavic Air 2 footage on Final Cut and DR as well as record music on Logic Pro will I need more Ram? 64 GB?
per the footage, if you edit in a 1080p timeline like me it won't be a problem, if you need to edit in a timeline 4k or higher (Most people don't need to but some have specific requirements) yeah you will need more ram
I just updated to the M4 16 gigs model. It seems like 16 is not enough. My iMac has 32gigs. While the M4 boots faster and opens apps fairly quickly, I’m having to manage RAM constantly. It could be a problem with Arc. I’m not sure. I tried another web browser which is faster but that’s because it doesn’t have all the pinned tabs that exist in Arc. So yeah, I wish I got at least 24gig M4. It sucks that RAM can’t be added.
I would check the activity monitor app while you are using all the apps you normally use to see where your bottleneck is. Luckily Apple makes it easy to figure out how much ram apps are using, with swap memory you shouldn’t really see a slowdown if only 24gb would make a difference. If you are seeing a slowdown you may have needed much more than that, or you have apps running that you may not even need that use a lot of ram all the time
@ReachFilms, thanks. I’ve been using the Activity Monitoring. It looks like Arc web browser is the only app that significantly slows down. There are a few web apps I simply can’t use in Arc now because they are so slow. The Activity Monitor shows dozens of Arc Helper (Renderer) processes that I have to regularly quit to deal with memory pressure. Today I’ve stopped using a few web apps in Arc, and I changed a few Arc settings which helped with CPU issues. I shouldn’t have to upgrade to 24 gigs just to work in web apps, but I wasn’t having these problems 32 gig iMac.
Thanks for taking time to create and share this extremely practical review!
Just subscribed.
Thanks for watching Kevin!!
Geoff Fagin, very informative thanks. What would be the best MAC for my situation: I shoot the Blackmagic 6k Pro. Settings are Film | BRAW | 6K DCI | 5:1 and occasionally 3:1. There can be as many as 5 or 6 takes of a scene. There is some greenscreen and after-effects. Edit and grade on Davinci Resolve which, as know, moves most of the work into the CPU. Can the M4 Mac Mini handle all this without delays? or some other MAC ?
@@richardweddle3408 the second you add after effects to the equation I would look at the m4 pro chip. The Mac mini m4 pro would have handle all of that no problem at all. Depending on the greenscreen and after effects work. The base model may be a bit slow, could it do it? Yeah, but if you are doing that kind of work, better to be safe than sorry and at least get the M4 pro so you know you are good.
@@ReachFilms okay thanks. The idea is to finish a 90 minute narrative film.
@@richardweddle3408 no problem! Definitely the M4 pro minimum at that point.
Or you can use Apple Motion for effects and green screen and work on the base M4, just try it.
I hope you can show some timeline examples with footage from these different cameras. And preferably also an older camera like I have, the Sony A7sii.
In my full review you got it! I can only do cameras I own though and unfortunately don’t own that camera. My fx30 will be the closest but it also shoots 10 bit which the a7sii does not
Great video, mate. Thanks for making it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great advise
Always hit 10 of 10
Thanks a lot
Thank you!!
Hi, great video, I have a question about getting sound out to your speakers, I don’t see a headphone jack in the back, do I have to connect the cable in the front headphones jack???
Yes you have. Or... use Bluetooth speakers.
Good to see apple finally bumping up to 16GB for the base model. No computer should be coming new with 8GB considering chrome with like 4 tabs open will use 4GB by itself. I'm sitting here with notes open, listening to music and browser open with 7 tabs open. I'm using 6.2GB right now. Apples price for RAM and storage is ridiculous..
Will the M4 Pro handle 6k editing with After Effects work like roto scoping?
The m4 pro will absolutely, the base model m4 could do it but will be considerably slower
Is it enough for comfortable work in DR with M4 Pro with 64 GB RAM?I have an Intel machine with 32GB and it's not quite enough for Fusion
It all comes down to what your workflow is, however 32gb of ram is crazy good on the apple silicon computers compared to intel
@@ReachFilms As a DR master trainer and editor, I'm looking for a machine that can do effects. I generally wouldn't buy a PC machine with super big case as powerplant :) and honestly I don't know much about the capabilities of the new M processors so I can't judge. I mostly do some music videos with effects and commercials.
when you say it handles video from action camera well, does it also include handling insta360 360 videos? ( I am real beginner in video editing)
@@vasanthnagkv5654 unfortunately I don’t have any 360 cameras to test, as much as I would like to say yes I unfortunately can’t answer that at the moment… sorry :(
Hi! Thank you for the video, informative and right to the point !
I'd like to ask you for an advice, I don’t know if to get the m4 or the m4 pro, my use case is a little stranger because I don't do a lot of videos but when I do and, as I'm a musician and an educator, I film full concerts/events that are usually 1 hour 30 minutes + long, I could have some multicam going on, titles for every piece and noise reduction...So quite heavy tasks, but not on regular basis…
I know that my super old mbp 2015 has stopped me long time ago from doing more videos, probably with a new machine I’ll also be more motivated to do more of them (even short ones for my yt channel), so from a certain pov making the investment for the m4 pro could be a smart move (even for the ram and 512 gb ssd), but from the other perspective lot of RUclipsrs say to buy what you are sure you’ll use and upgrade later, if you really need to… And it’s true that the base m4 seems really really good, and maybe the pro could be overkilled for me…
What’s you take on my situation?
TY very much, cheers!
@@gabrielelissia hey! So it would go two ways, if you go for the m4 pro you will have no issues. If you go for the base model, yes it could do everything you need, however it would export the videos slower and when it comes to noise reduction it may cause slow or not smooth playback when playing clips with the noise reduction in the timeline. But if you only do it every once in a while you would have the make the decision if you are willing to wait a bit longer when editing stuff since you do it every once in a while or you want it to be super snappy
Cool video, what mic are you running on your desk?
Thanks!! It’s a Shure mic I don’t remember the model but it’s solid, main thing is it needs 48v so you need a camera or system that can provide that power
Can I use Resolve on it? The 16gb version?
Yep that’s what I am using full time
@ bet. Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear. I’m going to get this version and use projects I do to fund the pro in the future
hey, can i ask. for my situation. I'm videographer , and until now i'm editing on a pc, but my gpu it is very old, and i'm thinking about a mac.only for editing. i'm shooting with sony a7 iv 4k 10 bit 4.2.2 .I editing in davinci studio, my work flow has masks , color grading etc. Wich mac is better? mac mini m4 pro with how much ram? or mac studio m2 max....?
Since you do masks I would look into the m4 pro and not the $599 version. But the m4 pro should work great for you with that!!
@ thanks for your fast reply. Cause I don’t know about mac.
M4 pro it’s ok for my needs? And it doesn’t need to go for m2 max?
@ the m4 pro is close to the M2 Max and is more future proof I would go m4
@@ReachFilms thanks for tour time mate.
I usually edit reels of 1 minute maximum, color correction and basic animation of titles or logos, the mac mini m4 with 32 ram is for me?
If you are going up all the way to 32gb of ram I think you are better off money wise just getting a base model m4 pro, 32gb of ram is a lot if you are just doing reels, why so much ram?
@ The difference of 400$ is worth the m4 pro?
It would be to decide between m4 with 32 of ram or m4 pro with 28 of ram, I know that now I make reels of maximum 1 minute because it is what client asks me but in thinking in a future I think to make color projector for videoclips or advertising, which of the two options is better for me?
That was a very informative video. well presented. Many thanks.
Thank you much appreciated!!
What if you are working on photoshop with 10k pixels canvas will this slow down or lag?
Unfortunately I don’t have too much experience with that sorry :(
Great explanation, I was hoping you were going to demo it in action.
Thanks! To me the demo just adds more to the length to the video because it would just show smooth playback when not using effects and then show the lagging when using effects, unfortunately (or fortunately) depending on how you look at it. You know what your projects look like on a normal basis so from the info in this video you can decide whether or not this computer will work for you. For anyone that doesn’t know, this computer is most likely perfect for them as they most likely aren’t using things as I mentioned like effects or fusion or noise reduction
Best review of many! I woul love your advice on my channel hardware. Any chance to Zoom?
How about editing 60FPS footage in a 60FPS timeline?
1080 60 no problem, 4k 60 in real time I think there would start to be issues
Great video! Thank you! Keep them coming!
Much appreciated!!!
hey hii can i do heavy web browsing llike 20 to 30 tab or Spotify same time can base model lagging or not I'm little bit confused ?
If it’s on chrome and you plan on doing that you will need as much ram as you can add
Dude. You need more browser tabs? A mere Ryzen 3700X with 32GB of RAM can handle 400+ tabs opened. Tested. And it wil cost you much less. Well, today you can pay 210 dollars for 128GB of RAM, when SHMUCKpple will take 200 bucks for upgrading 16GB to 24GB. I won't even delve into prices of storage as they are preposterous. Crucial's P3 Plus 4TB, 5000MB/s goes for $230. Upgrading basic mini to only 2TB will cost you $800. That's ludicrous. For these money you can buy almost 4 Crucials and use them in your own build NAS.
bro i literally run a vm with 30+ tabs, davinci, lightroom, spotify in the background on 16gb M2 mac mini! so probably lightwork for M4
@@hadeseye2297 loool who's paying for apple's storage, dude just get an external ssd
@@rhemtro does your mac mini m2 lag ?while uh use lots of tabs. in Crome
real knowledge gained here
Thank you!!
I thought you will speak about the Red Footage handling in M4 mac minis. I wanted to know are M4s to handle Red Footage as they don’t use the dedicated encoders decoders chips.
@ all the Broll is the video was taken with Komodo 6k40 I had full speed playback but on a 1080p timeline
Hard to tell without visual
he ain't that heavy. It's his workload :-)
Excellent !!!
Which is better? Mac mini M4 24 gb Ram vs PC with 32 gb ram , I9 cpu
When it comes to video editing
It depends on how old the I9 chip is and what the overall spec of the computer is. Price for price the Mac Mini wins but if price isn’t part of the equation then it depends on the overall spec
10 tabs? These are rookie numbers
They shouldn’t be! Why you have so many tabs open you aren’t using
I know I'll need the M4 PRO for actual horror film. I know I'll be using certain effects.
Yep if you think you may need the m4 pro, you most likely will
@ReachFilms Thank you for your content. I really enjoy them. I know I'll have some questions for you due to you are a film maker. 🎥
Great video. I have just one point: no external SSD Drive via Thunderbolt 4 can match the speed of the internal SSD Drive. The Glyph drive gets about 2100 mb/s, and other external SSDs get about 750 to 800 mb/s. The internal achieves an average of 5000 mb/s.
Stay tuned for my hard drive test, unfortunately that is very incorrect. TLDR OWC makes a thunderbolt drive that blows away the internal hard drive speeds
@@ReachFilms The TLDR OWC Hub is advertised at (5000 mb/s on Thunderbolt 4). One of the fastest SSD drives running over Thunderbolt 4 is the OWC Express 1M2 (read speeds are up to 3,757 MB/s, which is good but still slower than Apple's Internal SSD Drive). OWC Thunderbolt 5 drives are 6000 mb/s. Definitely interested in seeing your Hard Drive Test.
@ the internal SSD on the Mac mini is not 5000 it’s much slower on the base model less than half that
@@ReachFilms WOW! I have a couple of Mac Studios (M1 Max and M1 Ultra), and both Internal SSD drive speeds are above 5000 mb/s. I assumed the Mac Mini M4 internal SSD would be the same. You just saved me some money. :) I was going to order a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 1TB, but the better option would be (2TB OWC Envoy Ultra SSD Thunderbolt 5 for only $399). Great Video; thanks again.
@ no problem!! Also just to clarify I’m talking about the base model m4 Mac mini. I’ve seen the teardowns of the m4 pro models and they use different style SSD chips than the non pro models so they may be faster but I don’t have one to test
How hot do the CPU/GPU run in Something Like these Bench Marks? ruclips.net/video/7aKttjfY-Og/видео.html
I edit on Premiere, and usually have 50+ tabs open on chrome. Will 32gigs be enough?😅
If that’s the case go for as much ram as you can lol
What would have been nice, would have been seeing it a little bit in action. Doesn't have to be benchmark, but timeline scrubbing speed with the different codec you have from the h265 to red R3D, putting some noise reduction to see how it affect playback. Some of the fusion titles, 1080 to 4 k timeline, multiple 2 or 4 stream playback performance and rendering time. Unfortunately, without hopefully sounding rude it was just blablabla. Did not need to be a 10 hour test bench, but here it doesn't help anyone.
Totally get it! The one thing I’ll agree with is it would add more to the video for viewers like yourself so will consider it for future ones. But I will disagree because clearly the majority of viewers are getting value from this video, so to say anyone is a bit of a stretch.
@@ReachFilms You established your credibility and the scope of your review in the first 2 minutes of the video. Other content creators can do other type of reviews and stress tests… or you can if you get around to it.
Clearly many of us benefited greatly from hearing how you’ve used it and your perspective on its limitations and appropriate use cases. Keep up the excellent work. It’s greatly appreciated!
Regarding your assertion that SSDs will wear out in three years, from heavy swap use: how many such computers have you actually encountered? None? Yes, the SSDs will theoretically wear out, but that may take many more years than you are projecting.
If you edit in a 4k timeline in davinci it uses almost 40gb of ram alone. If you are pushing those old machines to the limit editing in 4k all the time. YES YOU WILL KILL YOUR HARD DRIVE IN 3 YEARS OR LESS. Everyone is always in a rush to prove RUclipsrs wrong and I get it. But look at the context I said that and understand why I said that. Some people just want to be cheap and buy the cheapest computer. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong but I know quite a few videographers that are hard for cash and buying the cheapest stuff and pushing it to the limit, 3 of them had hard drives fail. It’s absolutely fair to warn people who are using their computers in that way that this could happen. If they know this would happen they would have been editing in a 1080 timeline and just exporting in 4k after this whole time
Great review. Why does Apple place the ports so close to each other!?? Insane! The design engineers must be vegetarians driving e-cars, whose parents graduated from U.C. Berkley in the mid sixties?
That is hilarious, I was thinking this earlier when unplugging some stuff to make todays video haha
I thought I would give it a shot before I saw the price, but It turns out to be €719 here in the Netherlands, so not cheap at all, and I would need to buy also a crazy expensive Apple mouse and keyboard, and probably some kind of USB dongle, as thsose aren't included. So realistically you're looking at a very limited in terms of RAM and storage €1000 PC replacement. Thanks, but no thanks
@@barmalini yeah I mean I have the dollar sign on my post so I try to make it pretty clear this video is for people based in the USA
Ummmmm…you have thousands of dollars of camera equipment….you should have spent $1,400 on the Mac mini with the M4 pro…duh…the $599 model is for consumer use…
I have much better computers than the base model m4 as you can imagine. I bought this as an experiment to see how well it works for the money and am pleasantly surprised. Don’t jump to conclusions!
Maybe try understanding what is going on instead of just jumping on the creator to put them down.
@@ReachFilmsA very gracious response to a presumptuous comment.
Bought a Mac Mini M4 Pro with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 64GB unified memory, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI port, two USB‑C ports, headphone jack staying with the 512GB SSD storage trading in a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 32GB unified memory, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, four Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, HDMI port, headphone jack staying with the 512GB SSD storage. I custom-ordered this configuration to future-proof myself and have yet to try it since I have not yet received the computer I should receive some time in early December. I will post my experience once it is received.
Hey Thanks for the video. Quick question if I'm using Davinci resolve Studio and editing on a 4K timeline with 15 renders from the fusion page and color grading a timeline that has 10 different grades, would the base model be able to handle it should I upgrade to the 24 GB RAM? and also why would someone need the 10Gigabit Ethernet add on?
If you plan on doing that kind of stuff, ram isn’t going to be the weak point, I would go for the m4 pro mac mini