Meanwhile, the iMac’s fans must push the air away from the processor in an ultra-thin profile. The Mac Mini has a single fan in a spacious chassis that gives the processor plenty of breathing room. The Mac Mini and iMac also work slightly differently when it comes to cooling, but they are both more than sufficient for the ultra-efficient processor. In real-world applications, this missing core hardly makes a difference-the 8-core GPU averages about 3 more frames per second in World of Warcraft on medium settings, for instance-but it could affect your workflow if you use your computer for a lot of graphics-heavy applications.

The base 24-inch iMac has one fewer graphics processing core than the Mac Mini linked above (7 cores versus 8 cores). That said, there are some differences in performance. If you need a desktop PC for heavy productivity and light 3D applications, such as Adobe Creative Cloud software, you shouldn’t have a problem with either of the Mac desktops. Both run on Apple’s M1 processor, which handily outperforms most laptops running on midrange Intel or AMD processors.

Both the 24-inch iMac and the Mac Mini run on Apple's M1 processor, an ultra-efficient chip adapted from their MacBook lineup.Īt their core, both the M1 Mac Mini and the M1 iMac have the same computing power.

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