Mac mini M2 Pro first benchmark scores are in — this is big

Update: We've got more benchmarks, this time for the M2 Max-powered MacBook Pro.

The Mac mini M2 just got its first set of results in the popular CPU benchmarking tool Geekbench 5, revealing how Apple's new Pro chip stacks up to the M1 equivalents.

Apple's refreshed Mac mini, which was announced alongside the MacBook Pro 2023 models earlier this week, has been tested on Geekbench with both an M2 Pro config as well as the basic M2 version. The results show the new chips outperform not only the M1 Pro chip from the 2021 MacBook Pros in single-core performance, but also the more powerful M1 Max chip from those same laptops and the Mac Studio.

The Mac Studio still delivers a much higher multi-core score, We put together the possible Mac mini M2 and M2 Pro results into the table below, along with some other recent Macs.

Mac mini M2 and M2 Pro leaked benchmarks 

The alleged Mac mini M2 beats the Mac mini M1 with ease on both the single-core and multi-core parts of the Geekbench test. It also scores similarly in the single-core test to the more expensive M2 Pro model. However, the non-Pro chip is far behind on multi-core scores, since the Apple M2 chip only has a total of 8 CPU cores rather than 12 cores (or 10 on some models) like the M2 Pro.

Compared to previous high-scoring Macs, the Mac mini with M2 Pro edges out the MacBook Pro with M1 Pro, MacBook Pro with M1 Max and Mac Studio with M1 Ultra on single-core tests. It also beats both the M1 and M1 Max Macs on the multi-core test too, but still loses out to the almighty M1 Ultra chip in the Mac Studio.

Apple promoted the new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips with talk of their more densely-packed transistors, higher memory bandwidth and extra cores for the CPU and GPU. Clearly it's worked in at least the case of the M2 Pro, although we'll have to wait for more benchmarks to appear — as well as crucial real-life testing — to see just how much of a benefit the new chips offer.

The results give a strong outlook for the new MacBook Pro models, which also use the M2 Pro (or M2 Max) chip, but with the option for even more RAM (up to 96GB vs. 32GB in the best Mac mini) for improved multitasking, plus all the benefits of the MacBook Pro's design and display.

If you're interested in one of Apple's new laptops, we have guides on how to preorder MacBook Pro 2023 before they go on sale on January 23. If you're not quite sure yet about the refreshed MacBook Pros or Mac mini, then keep it locked to Tom's Guide as we'll have reviews up of the new machines as soon as possible.