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Apple Silicon Mac mini Q&A
Update Published February 6, 2023
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How do you connect an external display to the Apple Silicon Mac mini? What is the maximum supported resolution? Are adapters required?
Officially, all Apple Silicon Mac mini models support two or more displays.
The original Apple Silicon Mac mini -- the Mac mini "M1" 8-Core 3.2 (2020) -- supports two displays -- one display "up to" 6K resolution (6016x3384) at 60 Hz via Thunderbolt 3 and one display "up to" 4K (4096x2160) at 60 Hz via HDMI 2.0.
The Mac mini "M2" 8 CPU/10 GPU 2023 supports two displays -- one display "up to" 6016x3384 (6K) resolution at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with "up to" 5120x2880 (5K) resolution at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt or 3840x2160 (4K) resolution at 60 Hz over HDMI 2.0.
The Mac mini "M2 Pro" 10 CPU/16 GPU 2023 and "M2 Pro" 12 CPU/19 GPU 2023 supports as many as three displays:
- Two displays up to 6016x3384 (6K) at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 3840x2160 (4K) resolution at 60 Hz over HDMI 2.1.
- One display with up to 6016x3384 (6K) resolution at 60 Hz over Thunderbolt and one external display with up to 3840x2160 (4K) resolution at 144 Hz over HDMI 2.1.
- One external display up to 7680x4320 (8K) at 60 Hz or 3840x2160 (4K) resolution at 240 Hz over HDMI 2.1.
Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. (Apple Mac mini & 32" Apple Pro Display XDR)
However, if you really want to push things to the max, a Russian YouTuber was able to connect as many as six external displays of varying resolution using DisplayPort adapters and DisplayLink software even with the original Apple Silicon Mac mini, so it very well may be possible to connect more displays than are officially supported on all of these models with varying degrees of performance.
Smaller Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) equipped displays also will work as will smaller displays with an HDMI port. It is possible to connect vintage VGA displays with the Apple USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter (MJ1L2AM/A), too.
What type of video processor is provided by the Apple Silicon Mac mini? Does it have "integrated" or "dedicated" video memory? Is it upgradable?
The Apple Silicon Mac mini models all have a video processor (GPU) that is fully integrated with the SoC. Traditionally, video processors that have "integrated" memory, meaning that memory is shared with the system, tend to be lower performance than those with "dedicated" memory reserved for the video processor, but benchmarks show that this is not really the case for the Apple Silicon Mac mini compared to hardware at an equivalent price point.
It is not possible to upgrade the video processor in the Apple Silicon Mac mini at the time of purchase or afterwards.
Does the Apple Silicon Mac mini support an eGPU?
An eGPU -- or external Graphics Processing Unit -- essentially is a graphics card in a box connected to a computer.
For any Intel-based Mac that has Thunderbolt 3 ports there are a variety of compatible eGPU models. However, these eGPUs explicitly are not compatible with Apple Silicon-powered Macs like the Apple Silicon Mac mini series at all.
Perhaps in the future Apple will release its own compatible eGPU for Apple Silicon Macs, or allow third-parties to do so, but for now, the answer is simply no.
How do you connect the Apple Silicon Mac mini to a television?
Quite easily. All Apple Silicon Mac mini models have an HDMI port and can be connected to a 720p, 1080p, or 4K (4096x2160) television via a traditional 19-pin "type A" HDMI cable. The Mac mini "M2 Pro" 10 CPU/16 GPU 2023 and "M2 Pro" 12 CPU/19 GPU 2023 even can support a 7680x4320 (8K) television, if desired.
To adjust the size of the image on an HDTV, the Apple Silicon Mac mini models have a modified Displays control panel with an "Underscan" slider option, as well.
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