M1 vs M4 Mac Mini | Final Cut Pro Editing Showdown

[@pedrorafaneves]

Great real life video. Best kind of review. I bought a Mac Mini M2 just before the M4 launch and I actually felt happy I bought the bigger case, specially for cooling.

[@Serge1913]

It’s a great computer. It’ll last you a long time

[@JagStar]

I use an M1 Mac Mini with the same specs as yours for editing videos and had been wondering if I should upgrade to an M4. Thanks to you I can save my pennies for something else. Great real world breakdown, thanks!

[@Serge1913]

I would wait for the Mac Studio

[@Tim_in_Australia]

Highlights how strong the M1 was back 4 years ago. Great video - thanks!!

[@Martinbeef]

Thanks Serge. I have a Mac Studio M1 Max with 32 gb memory. I was feeling bad because of the new processors and felt I should sell my Studio and get a Mac mini. M4. I always appreciate your honest opinions and great straightforward videos, without shouting ( as most people on KZbin do!😅). Well done!!

[@meandmestill]

Again, a great and realistic test without useless benchmarks thrown in. I am curious to know if the export times would have been better on the M4, if the screen recording was not on at all. Because it was a drastic improvement for the final test.

[@Serge1913]

no. I tried exports without screen recording, and they were very similar

[@kjltube]

I picked up a used mini m2 pro with 1tb and 32Gb ram for $900 all in. I prefer its ports and form factor.

[@MonkeyClub]

Can you systemically lower the Mac speed like in the m4 mini?

[@TimCortesi]

This isn't a testament to how bad the M4 is (it's not -- it's an amazing processor). Rather it just goes to show how fantastic the M1 was (and still is). Going from Intel to the M1 was a monumental leap in terms of performance and power efficiency. We're not going to see that same leap between generations of effectively the same architecture.

[@graxxor]

This. the fact he said "waay back" kinda threw me.

[@Serge1913]

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

[@leafbelly]

This is a pretty niche scenario for what you do. For most tasks, the M4 is nearly twice as fast as the M1. Passmark's benchmark for the M4 is 24400, compared with 14152 for the M1, a difference of 42% overall. That's actually pretty massive.

[@Serge1913]

Yes. This video is aimed directly at people who use their Mac Minis to edit video in FCP

[@MonkeyClub]

test apps are worthless.

[@PatrickMastersProductions]

I picked up the M4 Mini out of curiosity but its the M4 Mac Studio I am saving my money for.

[@Serge1913]

that will be a beast

[@jimcabezola3051]

Now THIS the the kind of report I need! I've got two M1 Mac Minis. Both of 'em are 8GB RAM/256GB storage models, and one of them second hand. They do want I want, and above all, they even run Asahi Linux. They are decent Linux machines, too! Great value. Subbed!

[@Serge1913]

Happy to have you as a sub!

[@mikekaylor1226]

I have a Macstudio M1 Max, and I just purchased the base M4 Mini. The Mini kicks the Studio's butt on more than half the tasks that I"ve tried, including some FCP things. I think there must be a disconnect in yyour M4 Mini and the screen recording software.

[@Serge1913]

very well could be. but my m4 pro did just fine with it

[@markrussell.]

OK, you answered my burning quite nicely as I own both a M1 Mac Mini and Macbook Air 16/512 on both. Great Video.

[@Serge1913]

Happy to help!

[@thatjpwing]

Thank you for this comparison video. I'm doing my video editing on a Mac mini M2 pro and it's working quite well for me, so I'm probably not going to upgrade. Once in a great while I need to edit video in the field, and my traveling computer is on an M2 MacBook Air. I know it's not designed for video editing, but it's decent if I don't get too crazy with lots of layers.

[@BCE-111]

Thought about buying a new M4 Mac Mini to replace my 2TB M1 Mac Mini. But my M1 on the Blackmagic Disk Test measures 3850 write and 2800 read. And my M1 Pro MacBook Pro gets 7000 write and 5050 read speeds. So why would I need to "upgrade" as it woudn't be an upgrade?

[@NetworkNinja84]

Since when disk drives meant it’s not an upgarde when it comes to processor? lol.

[@Serge1913]

If you upgrade the storage, it might be quite a bit faster

[@Goodness-Life]

This is what I wanted to know. Excellent video and thank you for your sharing You are the best!

[@Serge1913]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@oddbirds8315]

if screenrecording slows down the M4 but not the M1, I would think there might be some bug or optimisation of screen recording software?

[@Serge1913]

its only an issue on the M4. Works fine on the M4 Pro

[@alexsmedile]

Is anyone else reporting this bug?

[@MonkeyClub]

What monitor(s) do you use for your mini mac M4?

[@Csnumber1]

The 2020 MM, Base was 699, the M4MM, is 599, for the extra 200 bucks, the upgrade to the 512 storage option would be a better test, as the extra drive space would improve performance. But as most editors do not edit from the internal drive, what was your setup here?? I edit off of 2 docked internal SSD’s on the same machine save for the 512 storage option, and its creamy!!!

[@Serge1913]

I normally edit off an SSD too

[@Csnumber1]

@ Your videos on this subject matter are excellent Serge!! Very concise with very little bias.. top 3!!!! Happy Holidays my man!

[@7even1cinema50]

Yea but I can’t use magnetic mask on the m1 😞

[@randyfournier8299]

What is your monitor refresh rate?

[@cevisuals]

After using Windows since version 3.11 Windows for Workgroups all the way to Win 10 Pro, I switched to a nicely spec'd M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 1TB internal storage during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. I had already gotten my first iPhone and after trying to unlearn decades of Windows shortcut keys muscle memory, I realized just how powerful my new desktop machine was compared to my huge tower - especially for video editing. I added an external 2TB SSD for my documents folder and added a pair of 2TB external NVME's (1 for photo editing, the other for editing video content). Other than the proverbial issues of MACOS upgrades wreaking havoc that took sometimes a week to resolve, I'm still impressed with this "ancient" machine. I had begun to wonder about missing out on not having the newer M4 spec'd version of my M1 but after watching this, I'll just get myself a proper thunderbolt hub and continue using this til it gives up it's ghost or is no longer supported with OS upgrades. I eventually got a same spec'd Macbook AIR and iPad Pro. Needless to say, Apple is miles ahead of anything Windows or Android based.

[@Serge1913]

The M1 is still a powerhouse!

[@cevisuals]

@@Serge1913 I agree... Apple Silicon M1 continues to blow me away after being a Wintel user up until early 2020. I've debated the MAC Studio but haven't found a reason yet to upgrade

[@nikolaki]

Similar journey to you, though I've been using Windows since v1.0 on an HP 150 touchscreen computer 🙈 I was tempted to get a M4 mac Mini but I will keep my m1 mac mini from 2020 going for another few years!

[@Richard_Broom_Photography]

Very interesting comparisons Serge. Many thanks for this.

[@Serge1913]

My pleasure!

[@snappycattimesten]

Interesting. I will continue with my m1 pro for more years yet 😊

[@Serge1913]

M1 chips are awesome!

[@adrianhernandez7197]

After a life lasting loyalty towards Lenovo Thinkpads (15+ years), migrated to Mac Os a week ago after Lenovo failed and plain played dumb on my beefy Thinkpad CPU PL+ProcHot throttling issues; after a week, I'd say I'm EXTREMELY happy with emergency bought mac mini m4; I'll be buying an Ipad pro next. F windows, srsly.

[@Serge1913]

Welcome to the Mac cult!

[@MonkeyClub]

Mac Mini M1 does not have hardware acceleration for H.264, HEVC, ProRes and ProRes RAW; Video decoding engine; Video encoding engine; ProRes format encoding and decoding engine

[@MajmunskaPosla]

didnt expect that, thx.

[@Serge1913]

Me neither

[@alexsmedile]

You should compare for same initial price, so the best comparison is M4 24gb ram

[@alexsmedile]

and 512gb

[@Serge1913]

16 vs 16 is a fair comparison. M1 is still an amazing machine

[@ronmac1832]

Finally - a real test without dozens of synthetic benchmarks that the average FCP user can use. I always want and can afford the latest and greatest Apple offerings, but the M1s are so darn good that it is hard to justify. I'm writing this on my 2019 6 core i5 iMac while my M2 pro MacBook Pro and M1 MacBook Air rest. Yes, those computers can scream through FCP, but my iMac is no slouch and the display is fantastic. Thanks for another great video.

[@mex5341]

thanks for this! rly helpfull

[@Serge1913]

Glad it helped!

[@minorvideofilms683]

Thanks Serge

[@HugoBertrand63672]

Great video Serge, thx! Interesting what you have to say. I will upgrade my Mac but later as now I my videos are super simple. But I'll take the MacBook Pro M4 or even M5 later depending on the type of videos I'll make) But why do you prefer Mac mini? Don't you own a MacBook? And both machines are the same if you take the same specifications, right? Its just that the MacBook has a screen and a keyboard in addition.

[@Serge1913]

I have an M1 Pro MacBook. Just my M1 Mac mini has been so good. I love using both. MacBook on the go, Mac mini in the studio

[@HugoBertrand63672]

@@Serge1913 Thanks for your reply Serge! I discovered your videos about 15 days ago and they're really cool. Keep up the good work!

[@TeeEmmCee]

Thank you for this comparison. I am not happy with the fact that my M4 Mac Mini is not considerably better than my M1. I should have paid the extra for the Pro. The lesson for me - don't be so quick to jump to the latest especially when all you have to go on is the hype. //Tom

[@Serge1913]

It's still a great machine. And maybe when using other apps, its quite a bit better

[@ReasonRaisin]

Did you do all this internally, or did you have external drive for media and cache?

[@Serge1913]

External drive. Probably should of mentioned that in the video

[@Mangozoom]

Very helpful, thank you very much. One question , where can I find the "Vlog V Gamut to Rec709"-LUT that you are using ?

[@Serge1913]

Panasonics website. Also, Eric Lenz has some amazing Rec 709 conversion LUTs. They’re free

[@1234luf]

If you didn't upgrade the ram, this would have been a completely different story. Most people didn't upgrade the ram as that was a BTO option and not the base model sold in stores. 8GB simply isn't enough quite a few tasks, despite what Apple claimed at the time.

[@Serge1913]

You’re not wrong

[@tezz7523]

hay! im a stock trader , and doing hevy web browsing tab soo base modle sufficiant for me ??

[@Serge1913]

Should be. If anything, upgrade to 24GB RAM

[@digitaldevigner4080]

This isn’t really all that surprising to me. The M4 seems to be about as fast as my M1 Pro. It’s better but only slightly and only for certain types of processing. The main reason for this is video editing has hit a certain peak in terms of performance. The M1 series was already very impressive for 4k video editing. Video editing is no longer the hog it used to be. The extra power there is for the few tasks that really need it. Even the. It’s still the consumer grade base M4 chip. It still only has one hardware media encoder and has a limited number of cores to utilize at the same time. A true upgrade is to the Pro or Max series. Even then if you are not doing the complex processes that need the horsepower it will not be needed. Think of it like a business having four delivery trucks to only do one delivery to one customer a day. The other three just sit there. If the business suddenly gets flooded with orders however the businesses with four trucks will manage. Another business with only one truck will not. Video editing rarely needs that many trucks anymore. Those pros that want to handle those complex loads will invest in a faster machine but they may not always use it either. It’s not just about getting good enough. It’s also about can you handle it if you need it in the future.

[@Serge1913]

Very true

[@motionfxes]

You forgot to edit the video title.

[@Serge1913]

too close to my last one?

[@aerialphotoindia]

Buyers should consider the M4 mini's base model with 512GB instead of 256 GB.

[@Serge1913]

That would be one of my first upgrades too

[@thiagoennes]

The m1 256gb ssd was faster than the present ones. And the task you focused on is very dependant on storage speed. A base model m4 with 512gb ssd wil leave the m1 eating dust.

[@Serge1913]

agreed. the m4 pro with a 512gb ssd did so much better

[@SimonHollandfilms]

I've just upgraded to an m4 Mac mini base unit......Hmmmmm. not that impressed. I am getting the beach ball of FUN...a lot more than my M1 Mac mini. probably an external drive issue...that was not present on the M1.

[@jbponzi1]

For me, the trade-in value on the M1 was too good not to get the M4.

[@Serge1913]

The M4 is better, just not as much as I expected

[@edwardlin2941]

🙂

[@mikepxg6406]

its Silicon not Silikaarn

[@Serge1913]

It’s actually pronounced “silikaarn”

[@Mozi2380]

If i would have bought my m1 with enough RAM i would not upgrade. CPU is still good enough

[@Serge1913]

8GB just isn’t enough, is it?

[@Mozi2380]

@ 8 is way to less

[@phcarretta]

Adesso parli Italiano 😂

[@Serge1913]

lol. And French, and German, even Spanish and Portuguese

[@A10Jedi]

People still use Final Cut?

[@Serge1913]

Yes

[@graxxor]

It came out way back in.... 2020.. PMSL. yeah, that's whaaay back.

[@Serge1913]

lol. I’m computer years, that is “way back”

[@sotonin]

Sorry but you're wrong. You should upgrade simply for the form factor, period. Bottomline: Base models kind of suck.

[@Serge1913]

I liked the bigger form factor better