User profile for user: James Mol
James Mol Author
User level: Level 3
743 points

Mac Pro 2012 w/ Radeon RX 580 8 GB graphics card Vs Mac Mini M4 10 GPU

When looking at GPU performance in the Mac Mini, can a direct comparison of geekbench numbers be made when comparing it to Radeon RX 580? Am I really gaining any speed with the Mini GPU?

Do I still need 32 GB of memory, or would 16 GB of Mini memory be sufficient?


I currently have a 2012 Mac pro running Mojave and find the need to upgrade since Safari is no longer supporting the new standard of images which some sight use. (Yes I can use firefox, but I enjoy safari.) Add to that mail will not let me sign into some email accounts... its time to upgrade.

Since the basic Mini CPU is shown to be 4 times faster than the old Mac, the Mini should do fine. However, for the few time in the future I will be doing video work, I had hoped for a faster GPU.

In looking up the geekbench score for my Radeon RX 580 it showed 40858 OpenCL Score. The 10 core Mini show 37725 OpenCL GPU Score.

Also, in looking at memory, the 32 GB I currently have tends to get used up why Safari and Firefox opened up ( not taking into account page swapping). I know Safari has a memory leak. Has memory technology advanced enough to reduce the amount needed in comparison to the 2012 Mac Pro?

Hence the questions starting off the post.


Power tasks would be occasional video editing in iMovie or FCP and photo picture editing in Pixelmator/Graphic converter.

Thanks in advance.


Mac Pro, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 7, 2025 7:57 AM

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User profile for user: padams35
padams35
User level: Level 4
3,613 points

Posted on Nov 7, 2025 12:38 PM

Apple has depreciated support for OpenGL, leaving Macs stuck on OpenGL4.1 since, I think, Mojave.


The intended replacement is Metal, and the Geekbench Metal benchmarks show the M4 running approximately 6% faster than an RX 580 (55,000 vs 52,000]. That is technically faster, but you should probably be looking for at least an M4 Pro Mini (60% faster graphics than an M4), if not a Studio.


I think web browsers try to cache page information for revisits, so the more memory installed the more memory gets used on long browsing sessions between restarts. Otherwise I would expect the same web content to take up about the same amount of memory on a 2012 as a 2024.


For example I have 16GB RAM on an M1 Pro and run a mix of Safari/Firefox/iWork with the occasional small iMovie project easily enough on Sequoia even if Activity Monitor claims all memory is in use today on Day 30+ since the last system restart.


You will likely need more RAM than I for FCP/Pixelmator, but I can't say how much more. Just do remember to round your estimates up since Apple silicon unified memory is not upgradable.

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User profile for user: padams35
padams35
User level: Level 4
3,613 points

Nov 7, 2025 12:38 PM in response to James Mol

Apple has depreciated support for OpenGL, leaving Macs stuck on OpenGL4.1 since, I think, Mojave.


The intended replacement is Metal, and the Geekbench Metal benchmarks show the M4 running approximately 6% faster than an RX 580 (55,000 vs 52,000]. That is technically faster, but you should probably be looking for at least an M4 Pro Mini (60% faster graphics than an M4), if not a Studio.


I think web browsers try to cache page information for revisits, so the more memory installed the more memory gets used on long browsing sessions between restarts. Otherwise I would expect the same web content to take up about the same amount of memory on a 2012 as a 2024.


For example I have 16GB RAM on an M1 Pro and run a mix of Safari/Firefox/iWork with the occasional small iMovie project easily enough on Sequoia even if Activity Monitor claims all memory is in use today on Day 30+ since the last system restart.


You will likely need more RAM than I for FCP/Pixelmator, but I can't say how much more. Just do remember to round your estimates up since Apple silicon unified memory is not upgradable.

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User profile for user: Servant of Cats
Servant of Cats
User level: Level 7
33,113 points

Nov 7, 2025 3:07 PM in response to James Mol

Plain M-series chips have entry-level GPUs. As you go up the line to Pro and Max chips, you get more GPU cores. Those chips are designed to provide high bandwidth between the RAM and the computing units on the SoC, so an "integrated" GPU in a Max chip might run at speeds that would take a discrete GPU in an Intel/AMD notebook, and be more efficient (in electrical consumption / waste heat) terms while doing it.


Note that Apple has a Support document indicating which Macs support which versions of Metal:

Support for Metal on Apple devices - Apple Support

Unfortunately, I don't see anything about performance tests here, so for those you will have to look elsewhere.

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Mac Pro 2012 w/ Radeon RX 580 8 GB graphics card Vs Mac Mini M4 10 GPU

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