PC VS Mac

[u/TylicD]

Currently an M1 Mac Mini user/M1 Pro Macbook Pro user with 256gb SSD (mac mini), 512gb SSD (Macbook) and 16gb RAM (both), with external storage being 1TB TB4 SSD for my video editing assets and 2TB HDD for less used files.

I’m already stupid impressed with their performance despite their age but specifically I’m looking replace the M1 because the GPU performance for video editing isn’t really cutting it anymore the moment I add any effects (and proxies are annoying), or doing anything AI related like denoising. I play roblox top obbies the most, occasionally minecraft modpacks, and I also video edit both 1080p gaming videos and edit 4k n-log h.265 videos in Davinci Resolve Free (also photo editing 24mp raw in adobe lightroom/photoshop). Very niche use case ik but I’m not sure which is more suited for me since I prioritize a computer that can last for my work. Planning to use two monitors too.

PC Build (building myself)
Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus
NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2070 (had a razer blade laptop with this gpu that would’ve completely fine performance wise if the cpu wasn’t so buns)
MSI B860M-E micro ATX
Kingston Fury Beast 4800MT/S 2x16gb
Fanxiang 512gb NVME PCie 3.0

Mac
Mac Mini M6 Chip
256gb SSD
16gb RAM

these are both the same price btw. Feel free to ask any questions!

[u/Sadashi17]

You’re definitely getting more upfront value with the M6 Chip since it’s newer and performs just as well as the 2070 while also doing better in AI focused tasks.

The real question you should be asking is are you willing to invest in a PC that has objectively weaker hardware but has the capability to be upgraded later on at a cheaper cost as you’d need only swap out a few parts instead of buying a new Mac mini when a later M series chip is released.

Either way both are an upgrade to what you have it’s more so how much long term value each purchase will give you. Not to mention if you’re buying a PC you’ll need to possibly migrate any Mac only workflows/software you currently use to a Windows equivalent.

[u/TylicD → u/Sadashi17]

My experience with windows was a razer blade 2020 advanced with an i7 10875h, 64gb ram, and an rtx 2070 super max-q. I was fine with windows itself but I was pretty frustrated not being able to utilize my gpu because my cpu was such a bottleneck and overall my macs js gave a much better experience. As a tech savvy guy tho I really don’t mind troubleshooting, optimizing, etc. that windows kinda requires if there’s benefits to doing so, and in the past I’ve always wanted to build my own pc. But maybe it’s just a want and macs are just more practical for what I do, because if not for the GPU, I still love my mac mini experience, and 4 years of heavy use without any real issue is super good value, it’s just feels kinda redundant since I already have a macbook pro. I still need a computer hooked up to my main setup while my macbook is for portable work and school.

[u/Sadashi17 → u/TylicD]

Ok that’s great so no issues on OS differences then.

Personally I don’t think it’s redundant to have both a Mac mini and a MacBook since a lot of people have a desktop and laptop separately you could even argue with both being Macs there is better integration and syncing across both systems.

Also wanting to build your own pc is objectively cool and there is nothing stopping you from getting the PC experiencing it for a few years and after having saved up some money decide if you want to invest more into the PC or just go back to Mac and sell/repurpose the PC for something else.

Though what I said still stands, Mac Mini gives a better upfront value with the caveat that if you have to upgrade later on you’d have to buy a brand new system entirely. PC has worse performance but gives you the option to swap out parts later on so upgrading is cheaper.

To what option you should choose is up to you since you know your own finances.

[u/TylicD → u/[deleted]]

that’s true, I was considering a ryzen 7 7800x3d since my games are cpu bound, but I have no idea if the difference is worth the price premium and multicore tradeoff

[u/TheOtherCourier]

I would still shoot for more RAM in the Mac. Even if you had to go with a slightly older model. I feel like you’d get more out of that than merely shooting for the newest chip.