The Mac Mini has often been considered for roles beyond a standard desktop, and one persistent question is its viability as a Plex server. Following our review of the M4 Mac Mini, many users inquired about its capabilities in this area. To provide a definitive answer, we rigorously tested the latest Mac Mini, pitting it against a budget-friendly alternative, the GMKTec G3 mini PC, to see how they stack up as Plex servers.
Our tests were designed to simulate typical media server workloads. We evaluated both systems using a range of video formats, including a standard Blu-ray rip, a high-resolution 4K Blu-ray file requiring HDR-to-SDR tone mapping, and a modern AV1 encoded video. In each scenario, the servers were tasked with transcoding the video down to 720p resolution at a 4 Mbps bitrate, a common setting for streaming to various devices and conserving bandwidth.
The M4 Mac Mini, leveraging the power of Apple Silicon, demonstrated consistent and robust performance throughout our tests. It effectively utilized Apple’s native hardware transcoding APIs. The inclusion of dedicated hardware encoders and decoders in the M4 chip, now with AV1 support, allowed it to achieve similar CPU utilization levels as the Intel N100-powered GMKTec G3, which relies on Quicksync for hardware transcoding.
For basic 1080p to 720p transcoding, both the Mac Mini and the GMKTec G3 performed admirably. Both systems maintained stable operation with only minor and brief spikes in resource usage. Notably, both were also capable of hardware-accelerated AV1 transcoding, a feature enabled by the AV1 decoding capabilities integrated into the M4 chip and the N100’s architecture. Furthermore, both handled the demanding task of hardware tone mapping with the 4K Blu-ray MKV file, successfully converting HDR media to SDR while simultaneously downscaling the 2160p resolution to 720p.
However, when we examined resource consumption, particularly RAM usage, a significant difference emerged. The Mac Mini, during two concurrent 4K tone mapping transcodes, consumed approximately 1.3 GB of RAM. In contrast, the Linux-based GMKTec G3 operated much more efficiently, utilizing a mere 320 MB of RAM for the same workload. This stark contrast in memory usage highlights the Linux system’s superior scalability for serving multiple users concurrently. It’s also worth noting that the Mac Mini, even in a relatively idle state, had a substantial portion of its 16GB of RAM already in use by macOS background processes.
While the M4 Mac Mini proves to be a capable Plex server for light transcoding needs or when Plex server functionality is secondary to its desktop use, it’s less ideal for demanding, multi-user scenarios. For situations where scalability and efficiency are paramount, the Linux-based Mini PC, like the GMKTec G3, emerges as the more compelling choice, especially considering its significantly lower cost. The Linux system’s efficient memory management and compatibility with Docker for streamlined server deployments further solidify its position as a robust and cost-effective solution for dedicated Plex server setups.
