The first Apple Silicon generation that isn't a better deal

The M6 Mac mini is faster than the M4, but it is not a better launch value on general processor performance. Divide price by benchmark score and the M6 costs about $41.80 per 1,000 claimed Geekbench multi-core points. The M4 cost $39 per 1,000 points at its 2024 launch, half what the M1 charged in 2020.

That makes this the first Apple Silicon generation to launch with worse claimed price-performance than its predecessor had at launch. The new machines are faster. The prices grew faster.

Mac mini price-performance by generation

Chip	Year	Launch price	GB7 multi-core	$ per 1,000 pts
M1	2020	$699	8,645	$80.90
M2	2023	$599	9,808	$61.10
M4	2024	$599	15,349	$39.00
M4, Aug. 25 list	—	$799	15,349	$52.10
M6, claimed	2026	$899	~21,500	~$41.80

The M6 row rests on the one clean processor claim in Apple’s announcement: “40 percent faster CPU performance” than the M4. Take Apple at its word and the math still lands above the M4’s launch number. Against the M4’s Aug. 25 list price, after the June 25 repricing, the M6 is the better deal — but that is a comparison against a raised price, not against the trend.

Apple made no comparable processor claim for the $1,699 M5 Pro mini. Its announced numbers are workload multipliers: 4x faster LLM prompt processing than the M4 Pro, 1.4x faster Blender rendering. We are not deriving a benchmark estimate from those.

If you're buying a Mac mini this month

Start with the computer you already own, then find your situation below and go to the Hard Bargains page that prices it.

Your situation	Where to decide	Figure on that page
The computer you have may still do the job	Start with what is already paid for	Nothing to buy if it runs your work acceptably; a used M1 mini had a $449 median ask across 115 mixed-configuration listings, Sept. 2
You want to spend less than the $899 M6 and 256GB is enough	Where a used M4 ask falls	Used M4 16GB/256GB: $749 median across 134 asks, $150 under the $899 M6, and a $625 floor from one listing, Sept. 2
You need 16GB/512GB for about $1,000	Used M2 Pro, used M4 or new M6, by job	Median asks of $949.99 for an M2 Pro (n=21) and $958.87 for an M4 (n=48), Sept. 2; M6 16GB/512GB at $1,099 Apple list
You don’t need macOS	Mac mini or Windows mini PC	Mini PCs with 16GB and about 512GB from $385 at maker stores, Sept. 15, before tax, shipping and codes
You’re buying the M6 and need more storage	Pay Apple or add an external SSD	Apple charges $200-$1,000 more for larger M6 drives, per August 2026 configurator prices; a drive you already own adds $0
You’re buying the M6 and need to connect screens and devices	Ports and display limits by model	—

Used figures are asking prices, not completed sales.

Mac Studio price-performance by generation

Chip	Year	Launch price	GB7 multi-core	$ per 1,000 pts
M1 Ultra	2022	$3,999	23,344	$171.30
M2 Ultra	2023	$3,999	28,246	$141.60
M3 Ultra	2025	$3,999	35,270	$113.40
M3 Ultra, Aug. 25 list	—	$5,299	35,270	$150.30
M5 Ultra, claimed	2026	$5,499	~45,900	~$119.90

Same pattern, bigger dollars. The M5 Ultra estimate uses the 1.3x multithreaded improvement over M3 Ultra that Apple provided to press. At $5,499, that works out to roughly $120 per 1,000 points, against the $113 the M3 Ultra charged at its 2025 launch — before Apple raised it to $5,299 in June, the single worst price-performance list price in the Studio’s history at $150.

The M5 Max follows the M5 Pro’s pattern: AI multipliers only, 3.9x LLM prompt processing over the M4 Max, no general processor claim. Its $2,499 starting price matches the M4 Max’s raised June price exactly.

What Apple is selling has changed

The claims themselves say where the money went. The M6 announcement leads with 13.5x faster LLM prompt processing than the M1 generation and a dual Neural Engine; the 40% CPU figure sits well below it. The M5 Ultra’s headline is “4.3x the peak AI compute performance” over M3 Ultra.

These chips are priced on AI throughput, and the same force sets the cost side: the memory that AI datacenters bid away is the memory in these machines. Buyers whose workloads look like the marketing — local models, image generation — may find the new generation a bargain on the metric Apple is now selling. Buyers who wanted the old bargain, more computer for less money, are looking at the first generation in the Apple Silicon era that doesn’t offer it.

Geekbench charts will fill with measured M6 and M5 numbers within weeks, and we will rerun both tables with claims replaced by measurements.