With the surge in electricity bills and people becoming energy efficient, all eyes are on Mac users. Since the device is known for its high performance and elite functioning, there’s a general assumption that it consumes more energy.
However, is there any reality to it? How many watts does a mac mini use exactly? We are about to find it in this article, so stay tuned because you will be loaded with helpful information.
Nobody can deny a Mac mini’s sleek ensign and sheer beauty when talking about it. It’s a versatile device with three times the fast CPU performance and six times the fast graphic performance. Mac mini comes at an affordable price. Its small and compact shape makes it ideal for carrying around for work or with children.
How many watts does a mac mini use?
While a PC uses 6-8 kWh, a Mac Mini only uses an average of 1-1.5 kWh, and if the computer is idle, it’s most likely to consume less than 150 Watts.
Don’t worry about your electricity bills using a 2020 mini mac M1; on average, it only uses 39W under high loads. And the beefed-up Mac Mini of 2018 pulls 122W. A 2020 Mac Mini sucks 7W at the extreme, whereas the predecessor devours 20W.
The power consumption depends on the consumption of all components, including memory, storage, connectivity controllers, a bunch of chips, including Apple’s WiFi and Bluetooth, and the voltage regulation overhead.
Just so you know, the 2018 Mini Mac consumes the highest power, but undoubtedly, it’s a powerful machine. Here’s a list of all iMac version and their power requirement:
| MAC mini Version | Power Usage |
|---|---|
| Mac mini (Late 2014) (1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4GB 1600MHz LPDDR3, 500GB 5400-rpm HDD, Intel HD Graphics 5000 ) Â | This Mac consumes 6W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Late 2014) (2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3, 1TB 5400-rpm HDD, Intel Iris Graphics) | This Mac consumes 6W when idle and 85W at max power consumption |
| Mac mini (Late 2012) (2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 (2x2GB), 500GB 5400-rpm HDD, Intel HD Graphics 4000) | This Mac consumes 11W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini with OS X Server (Late 2012) 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 (2x2GB), two 1TB 5400-rpm HDDs, Intel HD Graphics 4000 | This Mac consumes 13W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Mid 2011) 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 (2x1GB), 500GB 5400-rpm HDD, Intel HD Graphics 3000 | This Mac consumes 11W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Mid 2011) 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 or 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 (2x2GB), 500GB 5400-rpm HDD, AMD Radeon HD 6630M with 256MB of GDDR5 memory | This Mac consumes 14W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Mid 2010) 2.4GHz or 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB 1066MHz DDR3 (2x4GB), 320GB 5400-rpm HDD, built-in GeForce 320M, SuperDrive | This Mac consumes 10W when idle and 85W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Late 2009) 2.26GHz or 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2x2GB), 320GB 5400-rpm HDD, built-in GeForce 9400M, SuperDrive | This Mac consumes 14W when idle and 110W at max duty. |
| Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server (Late 2009) 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2x2GB), two 500GB 5400-rpm HDDs, built-in GeForce 9400M | This Mac consumes 15W when idle and 110W at max duty. |
| Mac mini (Mid 2007) 1.83 GHz or 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 512MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2×256), 80GB 5400-rpm HDD, built-in GMA 950 (shared 64MB), Combo drive | This Mac consumes 23W when idle and 110W at max duty. |
Read: Why Mac Mini HDMI to VGA not Functioning?
Power Saving Tips for Mac Mini
You can save power on Mac Mini by scheduling sleep, wake, start-up, and shutdown events.
- Click the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
- Click Battery (portable) or the other option, Energy Saver (desktop.)
Mac’s screen consumes a lot of power so whenever you’re not using it, switch it off or slightly dim the screen light if you’ve to use it after some time. You can right settings to automatically switch off the device at the end of the day and turn it on when you’ve to start working.
Not everyone knows about this simple trick:
Disable the power nap when the Mac isn’t performing certain task while sleeping otherwise it drains the battery.
- Click the System Preferences > Battery (portable) or Energy Saver (desktop).
- Then you’ve to click on untick Enable Power Nap
Put the hard disc on sleep whenever its possible to save power
Here are some other useful tips to save power on Mac Mini:
- Close all non-functoning apps
- Remove extra devices external hard drives and USBs.
- No need to stream HD content most of the time
- Avoid overheating and use the device in a cool atmosphere
- Dim the display whenever possible
- Switch off Bluetooth and WiFi when not in use
Which kind of Activity take more power?
Do you know that you can always the energy activity on the Mac by using the Activity Monitor app? Click the Energy icon to check the energy consumption of the Mac. You’ll see all information at the bottom of the Window screen.
Usually, the graphics card takes more power, and if multiple graphics cards are installed with high performance, they’ll consume extra energy.
Read: Best Audio Interface for Mac Mini M1
Final Thoughts
Ideally, a Mini Mac doesn’t consume much energy, but the number might vary from model to model. Some people might find it too much, but you can always put the Mac on saver settings.
You can always put your Mac to sleep because, in the meantime, it would run the maintenance, which doesn’t happen if you shut it down completely. A power nap helps your Mac to receive new messages, receive calendar updates, store documents in iCloud, and much more.
