Mac Mini Gaming Opinions

[epmatsw]

So, I'm getting a mac mini in october, and I was wondering whether some games will be playable on it. I'll probably get the 1.83 ghz with 2gb of ram. So, here are the games.

1. Halo (PC)
2. Unreal Anthology (PC) Maybe just the older ones, but 2K4 if I can manage it
3. Homeworld 2 (PC)
4. WoW (Mac)
5. Starcraft BattleChest (Mac)

How will these games run? Only minimum graphics settings, or medium? I'm interesting in hearing opinions on the mini's potential.

 

[epmatsw]

Well, after looking at the system requirements, I guess what I'm really asking is if the mac mini can play games that require 32 mb video cards?

 

[samh004]

The GMA 950 was not designed to play games on, thus don't expect amazing performance on the Mac mini regardless of how much RAM you put in or what speed the processor is.

I booted Vista off my Mac mini a short while ago, it scored 3.3 out of 10. I was running Ultimate. I attribute some of the short comings to the GMA 950 but it worked reasonably well.

Don't be surprised if the games you want to play, run poorly.

 

[jones14]

WoW and Halo will run fine, based on my experience with my MacBook which has lower specs than your mini but the same graphics. I could get a respectable 10-15 fps in Halo and from 40 in open places to 5 in crowded cities in WoW.

More info: My MacBook had 512mb of RAM in my game playing stages, and has a Core Duo processor which is higher in clock speed but likely less than your lower clocked Core 2 Duo in terms of processing power.

 

[torchwood04]

Unreal Tournament 2004 runs great at 1024by768, BUT you must set everything to low. I am on the Core 1 mini, so you will get better performance on the Core 2.

Unreal Tournament 2003 runs okay at 640by480 in Rosetta

Unreal Tournament 99 (using preview beta OSX version) runs fine.

Unreal 1 can be made to run on OSX, I did create a guide to..

 

[Irishman]

Oooh, how do you make Unreal 1 run on OS X?

 

[Carrot007]

WoW and Halo will run fine, based on my experience with my MacBook which has lower specs than your mini but the same graphics. I could get a respectable 10-15 fps in Halo and from 40 in open places to 5 in crowded cities in WoW.

More info: My MacBook had 512mb of RAM in my game playing stages, and has a Core Duo processor which is higher in clock speed but likely less than your lower clocked Core 2 Duo in terms of processing power.

The mini technically has better gfx than the macbook.

Sort of.

The GMA 950 in the macbook runs slower so it doesn't make as much heat.

 

[torchwood04]

The mini technically has better gfx than the macbook.

Sort of.

The GMA 950 in the macbook runs slower so it doesn't make as much heat.

Oh I never knew that, wow, one learns something new everyday!

Oooh, how do you make Unreal 1 run on OS X?

I created a guide here http://mac.lowetechlabs.com/?p=28
I do need testers, and also, mods may remove the link, but this does not contain any of the data files on the cd of Unreal, you have to acquire that through your legal cd you bought.

 

[Aegelward]

i've played 2k4 under os x acceptably, even on low it looks pretty good (macbook)

 

[aussie_geek]

1 no

2 no

3 no

4 +5 - yes but crap.

They may run but what frame rates are you expecting. If you are happy with under 15 fps yo may be lucky. games are unplayable at these frame rates.

bottom line - get an imac or a cheap gaming pc. or an xbox 360

aussie_geek

 

[contoursvt]

No offence but those are terrible framerates so I wouldnt give the guy hope that the mini will really do well.

I think games like unreal tournament and quake3 will run great. One generation newer games will be acceptable but anything out in the last 2 years is going to really be difficult to run unless detail is turned down quite a bit

WoW and Halo will run fine, based on my experience with my MacBook which has lower specs than your mini but the same graphics. I could get a respectable 10-15 fps in Halo and from 40 in open places to 5 in crowded cities in WoW.

More info: My MacBook had 512mb of RAM in my game playing stages, and has a Core Duo processor which is higher in clock speed but likely less than your lower clocked Core 2 Duo in terms of processing power.

 

[torchwood04]

Unreal Tournament 2004 runs very well on my Mac, at 1024x768, but with everything low, it still looks good. Halo (the UB) played rather well too.

aussie geek, you don't even have a Mac mini (signature), so can you speak from experience? I believe no..

 

[Rocksaurus]

4 +5 - yes but crap.

I can't speak for WoW, but Starcraft ran really smoothly on 300 MHz G3's, so don't worry about Starcraft at all, OP. It will run great.

 

[aussie_geek]

Unreal Tournament 2004 runs very well on my Mac, at 1024x768, but with everything low, it still looks good. Halo (the UB) played rather well too.

aussie geek, you don't even have a Mac mini (signature), so can you speak from experience? I believe no..

no but i had a dual 2.5ghz g5 a year ago with a x800xt radeon and i was finding that halo and utk4 performance was shocking even on that machine. you had to turn the graphics settings down to become competitive in the games. you need at least 50 - 60 frames per second in first person shooters even see the opponents comming out from cover to shoot you. anything lower than that would be a joke. nothing is worse than your computer having graphics lag...

there is no way that an intel mac mini with an integrated gfx chip could out perform a g5 with a x800xt. when you are playing these games - especially online you need a fast computer.

as for wow, i have had it set up on my macbook pro - x1600xt 256mb. with all graphics settings set to low, I can manage about 30 fps. if you are at shattrath city with maxxed out settings it pretty much locks up...

the mini is not a gaming machine. but it all depends on what you consider being acceptable for framerates and image quality. i have seen wow @ 15fps. it is not nice when you are in a pvp arena or in kharazan doing the prince....


aussie_geek

 

[torchwood04]

no but i had a dual 2.5ghz g5 a year ago with a x800xt radeon and i was finding that halo and utk4 performance was shocking even on that machine. you had to turn the graphics settings down to become competitive in the games. you need at least 50 - 60 frames per second in first person shooters even see the opponents comming out from cover to shoot you. anything lower than that would be a joke. nothing is worse than your computer having graphics lag...

there is no way that an intel mac mini with an integrated gfx chip could out perform a g5 with a x800xt. when you are playing these games - especially online you need a fast computer.

as for wow, i have had it set up on my macbook pro - x1600xt 256mb. with all graphics settings set to low, I can manage about 30 fps. if you are at shattrath city with maxxed out settings it pretty much locks up...

the mini is not a gaming machine. but it all depends on what you consider being acceptable for framerates and image quality. i have seen wow @ 15fps. it is not nice when you are in a pvp arena or in kharazan doing the prince....


aussie_geek

I spoke too soon, Unreal 2k4 felt fast, but in actuality, I guess not, I managed to get about 20-30FPS in 1024x768 in close combat, while around 40-50 normally, at 640x480, I get about 20-40 in close combat, and maybe 50-60 normally.. I should have tested Halo, but anyway..