I am looking forward to seeing what kind of GPU performance is going to come with the Skylake processor onboard graphics. I am giving serious thought to making a Mac mini my next Mac rather than blowing three grand for a top of the line 27" iMac. I'd spend the savings on a good gaming monitor that supports HDMI television input along with DVI input, etc. and hook up a PS4 to it on my desktop for a lot of my gaming.
By the time I would be shopping for a mini, my current system will be 2 to 3 years old depending on how soon I go to do this. Sooner is tempting as my late-2013 27" iMac will be worth more presumably the sooner I sell it which I can then put towards the mini, etc. Naturally, I have to wait and see when there is a refresh and what that refresh offers.
I am still on the fence about this change and it is early but some of the things that really appeal to me about it are how flexible such a setup would be going forward. It's worthy of note that a great number of games I own are classics and other games that are not especially demanding on the MAS, Steam, GOG, Origin, Blizzard, etc. and a lot of my present holdings would probably run decently enough to suit me on a next gen mini. Don't get me wrong there. I don't delude myself thinking I am going to get desktop gaming PC performance by any stretch. I am okay with that. But most of my games are older titles that don't need that class of machine to run.
The nice thing about this is I get my cake and I get to eat it too in terms of having a nice Mac for all the regular computing things I do and it could play quite a lot of games I own just fine. The GPU would be driving a 24 inch screen at 1080p but I could turn it down as needed for some stuff. Again though, so many legacy games that are still good games don't need much in the way of hardware compared to new AAA releases and that is what the PS4 would be for.
Going forward, I could potentially if desired build a Windows gaming box and put it under my desktop. It is easy enough to use a KVM switch for the systems to share peripherals and sound.
The initial outlay for a top of the line mini BTO, the screen, a PS4 and an upgrade from my Bose Companion 20s to a Bose Companion 5 sound system would be considerably less than a new iMac. Granted, I am trading off a fancy IPS panel but honestly, it isn't that big of a deal to me. I do not do anything professionally with graphics images, etc. where color accuracy is highly important. My old eyes wouldn't know the difference unless the two screens were next to each other and that won't be happening so whatever. It'll be more than good enough for me.
While I have no affection for Microsoft adding an Xbox for Halo and Gears of War games would be tempting also. Even adding that it still comes in under 3 grand total with Applecare on the mini.
A plus with doing this is that I won't feel any pressure to upgrade the mini on the same sort of schedule I would an iMac due to an aging GPU that cannot be upgraded. In the mini with consoles and possibly a PC later on it does not matter as I would not buy anything new that it could not run decently. I'd just get whatever it was for a system where it could such as the PS4.
So because I am thinking like this for a year or so down the road, maybe a little more, I am very interested in what comes out next from Intel for onboard GPUs and how well they do manage to perform. It will be nice if a good deal of what I currently own runs well with one which should be true as I always tend to buy games that have aged and gone to deep discounts, in other words I have very little that is current and demanding to begin with.