A $600 PC with a dedicated graphics card is probably going to have a worse CPU than an M2 or M3 Mini, and probably no Thunderbolt. You would only be cross-shopping a PC like that with a Mac Mini if you were thinking of graphically-demanding productivity work, like video editing or Blender. If it's for gaming then the Mac wouldn't be in the running at all.

[–] LANIK2000@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Except for their low draw and thus unmatched battery life on portable devices, the M chips are honestly not impressive performance wise. Not really the appeal, even tho Apple is trying tooth and nails to pretend that that's a selling point with their unlabeled graphs.

I mean if you really don't want a GPU (which IMO is a must, given proper hardware acceleration which makes up for any CPU short comings, but I digress), that leaves you with a much bigger budget for the CPU, and now it's no longer close enough to the M chips, but an absolute slaughter.