What Mac mini specs to do 2d animations in photoshop?

Comparing option 1 to the rest is a matter of how long you want to wait. Also, even option 1 will seem like light speed performance compared with your 2012.

I would strongly recommend not getting the base 256G storage option and for doing video work and using Photoshop I would recommend a 1TB internal storage. Depending on the length of your videos you may get away with 512GB but Photoshop for one will store a lot of hidden cache and editing data that accumulates each time you open an image, new or old. For completed projects, you can always remove them from the internal and put them on an external drive.

If your budget will stretch that far, I'd recommend the third option: M4 Pro 12 core 16 core 64GB memory. You might not need that much capability to get along in Photoshop (though it will probably take advantage of it), but you may need it down the road, particularly with a LLM, and since neither the CPU nor the memory can be upgraded after purchase, it makes sense to me to buy a configuration that gives you room to grow into.

Just my 2 cents (but based on years of supporting graphics artists). Others may have different opinions.

Regards.

Agreeing with the suggestions made by @woodmeister50

I use Photoshop, iMovie & Final Cut. (Also CaptureOne Pro & Davinci Resolve but not at the same time as the other apps). I'd go with one of the M4Pro machines with at least 48GB RAM and 1TB SSD. You will want the RAM for performance, the 1TB SSD for adequate internal storage and both for future-proofing.

Some will argue that you can 'get away' with the 24GB unified RAM, and that may be true today for basic editing, but imho over the life of the machine it will gradually underperform as system requirements (and probably your use) grow over time.

Pamela Glintenkamp wrote:

Look forward to opinions from others as well.

Go to > Mac - Which Mac is best for me? - Apple to see what Apple recommends.