[GoButtonGuy]

The M1 will bench and perform better in compute and graphics tasks than the Intel Mini. The SoC architecture is more efficient with memory and faster accessing it. However if you have large content files that need to reside in memory it might mean the M1 is paging out to memory more often and depending on the task it may not be preferable to using an Intel Mac with a lot of memory. For a smaller musician or recordist/mixer you may be fine. For lots of VI, plugs that aren't offloaded and high track counts all bets could be off. You'd have to try it and see.

At this point I wouldn't deploy Apple Silicon as a primary production machine. I'd test with one given the chance but to use as a primary money maker with no known fallback could be dicey right now until Avid at least certifies Big Sur. If you kept your Mini alongside the M1 that could be good insurance.

I think it's going to be a bit more before those that need higher memory footprints can use Apple Silicon. Rumor mill has 32 GB memory 12 cores (8 hi perf/4 general duty) iMacs and 14"/16" Macbook Pros coming within the next few months. Regardless of power the big variable is how Pro Tools will perform on Rosetta.