M2 and M2 Pro Minis announced, also M2 Pro and M2 Max MBP

[mikehalloran]

Just saw this interesting video... might be useful info to some:
…
Seems like the base model M2 Mini ships with a rather anemic internal SSD which is rather slow and hurts performance significantly. Best go 512GB minimum to get decent read/write speeds. Still glad I went with the M1 Max Mac Studio.

Between being "shocked" and "nervous" and "disappointed" and "afraid" and bla, bla, bla… he doesn't give much useful information and some of what he does give is wrong.

I did find this elsewhere and it's a lot more informative:

The SSD nand speed issue appears to not only affect the M2 and M2 Pro Mac Mini models, but also both the 14" and 16" MacBook Pro M2 Pro 512GB models as well!

Here are the latest updated SSD speeds for Mac Mini M2, Mac Mini M2 Pro, and 14" MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max:

Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 256GB SSD is about 1,500 MB/s. (1 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 (non Pro) at 1TB is about 3,000 MB/s. (Not sure about nand chips/sizes)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 x 256GB SSD nand chip)
Mac Mini M2 Pro at 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (This needs to be confirmed.)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Pro with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 512GB SSD is about 3,000 MB/s. (2 X 256GB SSD nand chip)
14" MacBook M2 Max with 1TB SSD is about 6,000 MB/s. (4 X 256GB SSD nand chip)

Note: The 16" MacBook Pro models with 512GB also appear to be limited to 3,000 MB/s. The Mac Mini M2 (Non Pro) model appears to be limited on the 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB SSD models to 3,000 MB/s

Still, in report after report, video after video, no one is explaining why. Allow me. RAID 0 doubles capacity and almost doubles speed. Apple explains that they run a modified RAID 0 controlled by the T1, T2 or the NAND Controller built into the ARM chips.

Apple appears to be using less expensive NVMe 3 x4 chips instead of 4 x6 blades as they are in the Studio where the speeds are closer to 4,000 MB/s in those with a single blade and 7,600 MB/s in those Studios with two.

These appear to be slower than the NAND used in the T1/T2 Macs since 2016 (MBP, 2017 iMP, 2018 MINI, 2019 MP 7.1).

Since no one appears to know what to look for, I have no idea if the PCIe bus is 4 Lane in the Mini or 6 Lane as it is in the Studio (and many new high end PCs). If a 6 Lane bus, I expect an update in the near future when the Studio chips become more plentiful unless there's a cooling issue. In any case, there's the storage "mystery".

This also explains why I will be buying a Studio. Do I really think that there's going to be much real world difference between 6,000 MB/s (my iMP now and the 8TB Mini) and 7,600 MB/s in the 8TB Studio? Of course not but still...

This is reminiscent of 2015 when the MB, MBAir, MBP and the iMac went to a PCIe 4 Lane bus. Only the MBP got NVMe 3 x4 blades, however, while the rest were stuck with much slower AHCI chips till the 2017 revision. Knowing this allowed me to give a number of 2015 Macs their Wheaties with a simple SSD swap. Unfortunately, the MacPro 6.1 never got a 4 Lane bus but NVMe 3 x4 blades still gave them a major 3x R/W boost.

In other news, I was in an Apple Store and saw the new 27" 5k Studio Monitor. Oooooh... nice! They were also showing Apple TV on some 42" 4K monitors and that was looking good, too. Decisions…

The reason I was there was to have my Gen2 iPad Pro battery checked (finally hit 80% battery health and is eligible for the $99 battery swap). I do nothing on an iPad that requires me to have the latest and greatest so a Refurb has been ordered
(Apple doesn't replace the battery in yours unless engraved and that can take up to a month).

[James Steele]

Apple appears to be using less expensive NVMe 3 x4 chips instead of 4 x6 blades as they are in the Studio where the speeds are closer to 4,000 MB/s in those with a single blade and 7,600 MB/s in those Studios with two.

Not sure what I have in my Mac Studio but it's 2TB, and I get about 5,400 MB/s IIRC.

Seems the bottom line here, and all I was attempting to share, was that if fast disk speeds are important to someone thinking about a M2 Mac Mini, they probably want to avoid the 256GB base model.