iMac replacement

[RoySmith]

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The Mac Mini 2024 M4 Pro and  4TB OWC Envoy Ultra have arrived.

I haven't fully transferred everything from my 2018 Mac Book Pro but I was anxious to see the speed of Thunderbolt 5 on these new devices.

I downloaded Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app on the 2 computers and got these results:

2018 Mac Book Pro  to internal SSD  Write: 2527.3 MB/s   Read 2375.1 MB/s

2018 Mac Book Pro  to external HDD  TB3 Write: 171.9 MB/s   Read 150.9 MB/s

2024 Mac Mini  M4 Pro  to internal SSD  Write: 3149.7 MB/s   Read 2847.8 MB/s

2024 Mac Mini M4 Pro  to external OWC Envoy Ultra TB5  Write: 2957.2 MB/s   Read 3011.2 MB/s

Thunderbolt 4 is 40 Gbps = 5000 MB/s

Thunderbolt 5 is 80 Gbps = 10,000 MB/s

So I'm not getting TB5 speeds but the new external drive is much faster than my old external 3.5" hard drive and is as fast as my new Mac Mini's internal SSD and so should work well for me.

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[RoySmith]

I was surprised that the Read and Write speeds I posted were not faster - so I investigated the new Mac Mini M4 I received.

It turns out I received the regular M4 Mac Mini - not the M4 Pro that I ordered !

Apple Support was very good - I am shipping this one back and they are shipping out the correct Mac Mini M4 Pro.

They are also crediting me $150. I'll redo these speed tests when I get the correct Mac Mini M4 Pro

[RoySmith]

My replacement Mac Mini M4 Pro has finally arrived. It has the Thunderbolt 5 ports and the M4 Pro SOC that I had originally ordered. I ran the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app again.

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The M4 Pro with ThunderBolt 5 - compared to the base M4 - had twice the read write speed on the internal SDD and nearly that on the external ThunderBolt 5 SSD. It appears that the internal bus of the M4 Pro model is much faster.

I conclude that the M4 Pro with Thunderbolt 5 is a significant performance upgrade, over the regular M4 with Thunderbolt 4, and that the external Thunderbolt 5 SSD read speed is as fast as the internal SSD. The write speed is faster on the internal, but the external write speed is still stellar and much faster than what I've had in the past.

It is worth considering ThunderBolt 5 if you're in the market for a new computer.  This video is informative.

Also, saving money by getting a smaller built in SSD , and then getting a larger ThunderBolt 5 external SSD saves money, and offers the same performance.

[stephan54]

I watched many (probably too many) reviews on Youtube. A majority of the reviewers concluded that a base M4 with some upgrades (ram - drive)was the better deal as it is already very powerful and more than enough for Adobe photo apps.

Nano texture screen is another feature to consider.

It all depends on one's use cases.

[RoySmith]

Stephan54, you’re right that most of the things most regular people do don’t need the fastest most powerful personal computer. Serious photographers, especially with newer AI based photo processing do benefit from it, and with larger file sizes the faster transport speeds also help. Of course gamers want even more speed. The speed is beneficial on the production side of the system - CPU - Unified memory - and fast SSD access,  the back-up disks and  Time Machine are fine  with slower disks and cables. Right now Thunderbolt 3 & 4 docks & enclosures are all being sold at discounted prices because the newer faster devices are coming, but are still very useful. I’m still using a Thunderbolt 3 dock and external HDD for the backups.