The Mac Pro has eight ports of various types, including USB Type-C, Thunderbolt, and more – a benefit of being a full-size computer. It also has some limitations with only two Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI out, headphone out, and Ethernet. Going over the basics, the Mac mini is a tiny machine. The M1 chip is well known at this point as an 8-core CPU with 8-core GPU. Built by world-leading editors, used by 5.5 million creatives world-wide. The Mac Pro is a lot more expensive as it comes in at $14,000 and is spec’d up to the 16-core CPU, 96GB RAM, and the Radeon Pro Vega II with 32GB HBM2 memory. The original, free professional craft video editing software. This specific test is using a $900 version of the M1 Mac mini, which is just the base model with a memory bump to 16GB RAM. Connected to the Mac or PC laptop via Thunderbolt port, the additional GPU power instantly upgrades an integrated laptops GPU. Thunderbolt eGPU box is an expansion chassis designed to house an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card.
It’s not fully optimized for Apple Silicon just yet, you’d need the latest beta for that, but it should be a real-world test for video editing performance using the tools people are already using. For all other cases like FullHD video editing, gaming, VR eGPU will be a good option. In this case, we are seeing Parker Walbeck from Full Time Filmmaker working in Premiere Pro CC v15.2 – the latest full release version.
Software is evolving, more people are weighing in with new testing methodologies, and it is still fun to see. How about we do the Mac Pro vs M1 Mac mini comparison one more time? Honestly, it seems no amount of testing will get us a definitive answer.
