After covering up the fact that it was arriving late to the AI party, the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple has refreshed the Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro, by stuffing it with more agentic AI froth than you can poke a stick at.
Job’s Mob claims the new Mac mini delivers up to 4x faster AI performance, up to 2x faster graphics and storage, and 40 per cent faster CPU performance.
The new box comes in M6 and M5 Pro flavours. Apple says it is meant for everything from ordinary productivity to local AI models, creative work and “always-on agentic computing”.
The Mac mini with M6 gets a 12-core CPU, a 12-core GPU and Neural Accelerators in each GPU core. Job’s Mob claims this produces up to 4x faster AI performance and up to 2x faster graphics than the M4 version.
Job’s Mob says the M6 model offers up to 13.5x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio than the M1 Mac mini, and up to 4.8x faster than M4. It claims up to 2.3x faster Microsoft Excel spreadsheet calculations than M1.
The M5 Pro version is aimed at people with more demanding work and less patience. It offers up to an 18-core CPU, up to a 20-core GPU, up to 64GB of unified memory and 307GB/s of memory bandwidth. Job’s Mob says the M5 Pro Mac mini can handle app development, video rendering, scientific simulations, 3D design, VFX, game development and larger local AI models.
The company claims M5 Pro delivers up to 8.5x faster LLM prompt processing in LM Studio than the M2 Pro Mac mini, and up to 4x faster than M4 Pro. It also claims up to 4.5x faster Blender ray-tracing rendering than M2 Pro, and up to 1.4x faster than M4 Pro.
Apple has thrown in Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 2.5Gb Ethernet and an optional 10Gb Ethernet upgrade. The M6 model gets three Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the M5 Pro version gets three Thunderbolt 5 ports, because segmentation must be observed even when the box is barely larger than a sandwich.
The front has two USB-C ports and a headphone jack with high-impedance headphone support. The back carries Thunderbolt, HDMI and Ethernet, so the dongle-industrial complex may have to make do with sulking quietly for once.
Thunderbolt 5 can be used to cluster multiple Mac mini systems to run large AI models on-device. That sounds practical until you picture a desk full of tiny Mac minis pretending to be a data centre while someone explains the beauty of minimalism.
Job’s Mob has added USB-C genlock support for synchronising a display and camera, including the iPhone 17 Pro. That will please video people, and anyone who enjoys hearing marketing departments say “workflow” until the walls start sweating.
The machines run macOS 27 Golden Gate, which includes Siri AI and the next version of Apple Intelligence. Job’s Mob says Siri AI can use personal context across messages, emails and photos, answer questions, work across apps and respond to what is on screen through Visual Intelligence.
That is the official pitch, at least. The less polished version is that Job’s Mob wants users to trust its assistant with more of their personal data while insisting everything is elegant, private and probably good for your soul.
Apple chief hardware officer Johny Srouji said: “Mac mini has always been our most versatile Mac. Whether it’s being used as a home computer, powering a professional studio, or as an always-on agentic device, it’s the little Mac that can do it all. Today, we’re taking this versatility even further. With a more powerful CPU and graphics, Neural Accelerators in the GPU, and higher memory bandwidth, Mac mini with M6 delivers a whole new level of AI performance. And with up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, Mac mini with M5 Pro is an ultracompact powerhouse for complex pro workflows. We can’t wait to see all the incredible ways people will use it next.”
The new Mac mini apparently uses 50 per cent recycled material overall, including 100 per cent recycled aluminium in the enclosure and 100 per cent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. Apple claims all the electricity used to make it comes from renewable energy across the supply chain.
Packaging is 100 per cent fibre-based and recyclable at home, according to Job’s Mob. The company says it has invested in enough renewable energy worldwide to match the electricity customers use to power a Mac mini.
Pre-orders started on 25 August in 30 countries and regions, including the US. The machines begin arriving at customers, Apple Stores, and authorised resellers on 22 September.
