Apple Launches M6 and M5 Pro Mac Mini Starting at $899 with Major AI Performance Gains

Apple on Tuesday unveiled a refreshed Mac mini lineup powered by new M6 and M5 Pro chips, with preorders open immediately and availability set for September 22. The M6 model starts at $899, features a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, delivers up to 40% faster CPU performance versus the M4, and offers up to 4x faster AI performance with support for up to 32GB of unified memory. The M5 Pro model starts at $1,699, scales to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, supports up to 64GB of unified memory at 307GB/s memory bandwidth, and Apple claims up to 8.5x faster LLM prompt processing compared to the M2 Pro.

Across the lineup, M6 delivers up to 13.5x faster LLM prompt processing versus M1 and 4.8x versus M4, while M5 Pro reaches up to 4x the LLM performance of M4 Pro. Both models add Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, and the M5 Pro gains Thunderbolt 5, which Apple says can be used to cluster multiple Mac mini units together to run larger AI models entirely on-device. Evercore ISI reiterated an Outperform rating with a $365 price target following the announcement, viewing Apple's in-house silicon and local AI capabilities as tools to support premium pricing and expand Mac adoption across enterprise, creator, and AI workloads.