By Brady Betzel

The Mac Mini with M2 Pro continues Apple’s tradition of ultrasharp design, top-end components and nearly silent cooling for a cost of $2,299. If you’re looking for a powerful computer for multimedia content creation, then the Mac Mini with M2 Pro is worthy of consideration.

The Mac Mini with M2 Pro computer I received for review contains the highest level components available for the Mac Mini line of systems, except for the internal 1TB SSD drive. You can upgrade the internal SSD up to 8TB for an extra $2,200.

Here are the rest of the Mac Mini components for this system:

The Mac Mini measures just 7.75 inches by 7.75 inches by 1.41 inches and weighs just 2.8lbs. The Mac Mini truly lives up to its name with its compact form factor, making it a truly mobile desktop solution. The Mac Mini will not be replacing any Mac Pros or Mac Studios at the moment, but it is a great compromise of cost versus utility.

The Mac Mini with M2 Pro works great in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects thanks to the added Media Engine processing. Whether you want to work with interframe video codecs like H.264 or intraframe codecs like ProRes or DNxHR, the Mac Mini seems to be able to work fluidly between either type. In the past, I would always tell video editors to transcode to an intraframe codec like DNxHR because of how much less power these codec types require when compared to interframe codecs. The new M2-based Mac systems are starting to lessen the need for intraframe files, which saves time in transcoding, which translates to money savings.

Similar to the MacBook Pro testing, I used DaVinci Resolve 18.1.4 and Premiere Pro 23.2 to measure the Mac Mini’s real-world performance. I used a one-minute-long UHD (3840×2160) sequence in multiple versions — one with just color correction, one with color correction and any built-in noise reduction plugins, and one using the third-party Neat Video noise reduction plugin to really push the GPU’s power. For comparison to a Window-based PC, I have done the same tests on workstations, new GPUs and more, like the Lenovo P360 Ultra.

The clips include:

• ARRI RAW: 3840×2160 24fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
• ARRI RAW: 4448×1856 24fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
• BMD RAW: 6144×3456 24fps – 15 seconds
• Red RAW: 6144×3072 23.976fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
• Red RAW: 6144×3160 23.976fps – 7 seconds, 12 frames
• Sony a7siii: 3840×2160 23.976fps – 15 seconds

In comparison to the MacBook Pro with M2 Max, the Mac Mini with M2 Pro churns out the same exports at almost double the time. The price of the MacBook Pro is about double the Mac Mini, so double the time to export makes sense. The times in the Resolve tests reflect exports from camera-native media, like R3D and ARRI RAW. I then did a similar test in Premiere Pro:

Premiere Pro runs decently on the Mac Mini with M2 Pro. It’s not a powerhouse, but it also didn’t take a dive when I loaded it with noise reduction and sharpening. This is also why you will want at least 32GB of unified memory if you can afford it. Oddly enough, some of the Adobe Premiere Pro exports that ran one export at a time (as opposed to four exports simultaneously) exported at similar speeds as the MacBook Pro with M2 Ultra, while some did not. I also ran the Mac Mini with M2 Pro through various benchmarks:

Benchmarks
PugetBench Premiere Pro 0.95.7, Premiere Pro 23.2.0

• Extended Overall Score: 768
• Standard Overall Score: 876
• Extended Export Score: 74.6
• Extended Live Playback Score: 79.2
• Standard Export Score: 93
• Standard Live Playback Score: 93,3
• Effects Score: 76.5
• GPU Score: 39.7

PugetBench After Effects 0.95.7, After Effects 23.3×53

• Overall Score: 1147
• Multi-Core Score: 115.3
• GPU Score: 65.2
• RAM Preview Score: 108.6
• Render Score: 107.3
• Tracking Score: 141.8

Blackmagic Design Disk Speed Test: Write – 4350.7MB/s, Read – 5039.5MB/s

Blackmagic Design RAW Speed Test: 8K CPU 43fps, 8K METAL 167fps

Blender:

• Gooseberry Benchmark: 13:01.44
• Blender Benchmark CPU:
  • Monster: 125.169231
  • Junkshop: 75.574606
  • Classroom: 54.487366
• Blender Benchmark GPU:
  • Monster: 488.154435
  • Junkshop: 257.997748
  • Classroom: 236.379018

Cinebench R23: CPU (Multicore) – 14591 pts, CPU (Single-Core) – 1649 pts, MP Ratio 8.85x

Corona 1.3: Render Time – 0:01:56, Rays/sec – 4,176,920

Neat Video Neat Bench:

• HD (1920×1080) Best Combination: GPU only – 35.6 frames/sec
• UHD (3840×2160) Best Combination: CPU (12 cores) and GPU – 8.86 frames/sec

V-Ray 5.0.2 Benchmark:

• V-RAY: 9632 vsamples
• V-RAY GPU CUDA: 286 vpaths

For the last test, I ran media through the Blackmagic Proxy Generator:

Sony a7iii UHD (3840×2160) .mp4 Master Files

• Proxies: H.265/10-bit 1080p – 46 files
  • 182fps

Red RAW – various resolutions

• Proxies: H.265/10-bit 1080p – two files
  • 12fps

Summing Up
At $2,299, the Mac Mini with M2 Pro is a great middle of-the-road multimedia creation station. You can still work smoothly with camera-native video codecs in major nonlinear editing apps like Resolve and Premiere. And if you are concerned about good product design and sharp, modern aesthetics, the Mac Mini is a great piece to leave on your desk.

Additionally, Apple continues to deliver the most silent computer systems on the market without losing power and without sacrificing connections. Check out the new Mac Mini at www.apple.com.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on shows like Life Below Zero and Uninterrupted: The Shop . He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.