New Mac Mini M2 pro and WOW

[lloose]

I have a Macbook Air M1 and also a gaming desktop so I thought I'd chime in with some first hand experiences.

I bought the Macbook Air M1 because its a phenomenal laptop. It does a very good job at the most important parts of what a laptop is supposed to do. I get 9 hours of real usage battery life, its thin, its light, it has a great display, it runs all of the software that I want to run on a laptop, and it handles all of the personal computing things I like (picture management, personal files, email, research, media entertainment, etc) very well.

Occasionally I wouldn't mind firing up some games but this laptop wasn't purchased with that in mind at all. With that said, it handles wow very well for what it is. It's not anywhere near the experience I have on my gaming desktop, but I can set it on medium settings and play when I travel or am not at home. I can take it with me to my friend's house and play some wow with him. I can fire it up on my lunch break at work on lunch and play a little. I've always had laptops with intel graphics or very low end discrete graphics and I've always tried to play wow on them. It's never been a good experience using those laptops, even casually. My M1 Macbook Air is the first non gaming laptop I've had where it wasn't a compromise to play wow on it.

The M2 is more powerful than the M1, and when you start looking at the M2 pro performance only gets better. If you need a family desktop, just want a Mac, but wouldn't mind if that comptuer could play Wow reasonably well, I say why not? I mean you can't beat the price either... $699? That's enough for me to even look at them to replace our now-aging family computer.

[ghays]

pc peasants rising against arm revolution, so sweet <3

save a little and you can escape the shit ecosystem of microsoft, intel and nvidia

or don't and normalise 400 watt cpus and 900 watt gpus

I bet Greta hates x86, so much energy wasted

HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist)

[LongJourney]

doesn’t really answer the OP question but I just got my mini m2 8GB (yeah, I know 16GB would have been better) but it runs in 1080 with 10/10 all ultra/high except shadows and liquid good/fair with 60fps in packed Valdrakken. open world and dungeons 80-100+. have not checked battleground/raid, but 6-7/10 should be fine.

[Sanjaru]

doesn’t really answer the OP question but I just got my mini m2 8GB (yeah, I know 16GB would have been better) but it runs in 1080 with 10/10 all ultra/high except shadows and liquid good/fair with 60fps in packed Valdrakken. open world and dungeons 80-100+. have not checked battleground/raid, but 6-7/10 should be fine.

Thank you for the feedback ! Which SSD do you have base 256 or a faster one ?

[dizy]

I have the 32 core gpu mac studio i play on a studio display 5k I get 100+ steady and drops to 60 in heavy zones but on my 1080p monitor i'm getting 200+ fps easily though i don't recommend playing at 4 or 5k... just for reference

[LongJourney]

Thank you for the feedback ! Which SSD do you have base 256 or a faster one ?

256GB - just the standard model with the lowest price 599$/699€

[Ravensea]

Just an update for anybody interested. I bought a Mac Mini M2 Pro 12 core CPU, 19 core GPU with 16 GB RAM.

It is playing WoW at 4k at 80fps at default settings in most taxing situations. I am sure I could lower some settings to get higher fps but right now I am amazed and delighted at it’s performance.

WoW looks and plays beautiful at 4k on this mac mini. Thanks for all the replies.

[MatthewOU2015]

Mac mini m2 ( NON PRO) 8gb/256 ssd. I got a solid 30-35 fps at 4k using setting "5" in raids. For $500 thats a really good experience.

[BrokenRavens]

M2 Max but I think it's still relevant to the thread.

He talks about wow specifically at about 14:26.

- - - Updated - - -

Just an update for anybody interested. I bought a Mac Mini M2 Pro 12 core CPU, 19 core GPU with 16 GB RAM.

It is playing WoW at 4k at 80fps at default settings in most taxing situations. I am sure I could lower some settings to get higher fps but right now I am amazed and delighted at it’s performance.

WoW looks and plays beautiful at 4k on this mac mini. Thanks for all the replies.

Awesome! Have a great time!

[anon5123]

You don't buy a Mac for gaming. They're just heinously overpriced compared to how much power you get; you're mostly paying for the operating system and programs and brand name and having every component produced by 1 company. They're not bad computers, they're just not fit for graphically-intensive games.

Literally just buy or build a PC. You'll save a ton of money and can customize it however you want.

[Syri79]

You don't buy a Mac for gaming. They're just heinously overpriced compared to how much power you get; you're mostly paying for the operating system and programs and brand name and having every component produced by 1 company. They're not bad computers, they're just not fit for graphically-intensive games.

Literally just buy or build a PC. You'll save a ton of money and can customize it however you want.

Maybe you wouldn't buy a mac for gaming, but they are still capable of it, especially the apple silicon models, they just don't have that many titles released at the moment. It's still relevant to ask about gaming on a mac though as there are games that are available, including of course WoW. Most people looking for a gaming machine will be better with a PC but only IF that is all they are after. If they want or need a mac for other purposes as well, then it's perfectly valid to ask how they will do at gaming.

[Kagthul]

they just don't have that many titles released at the moment.

As a guy who has been using Macs as his daily driver (and is typing this on an M1 Mini) since the original beige toaster box...

that will never change.

Ever.

Apple does not care about mainstream gaming and has no reason to do so. They never have.

There have been Macs that were capable gaming machines before, for almost an entire decade. The situation never improved. Because Apple themselves offers just shy of zero support to game developers beyond casual iOS experiences (from which they make all the gaming money they care to make), and they never have.

[NineSpine]

You don't buy a Mac for gaming. They're just heinously overpriced compared to how much power you get; you're mostly paying for the operating system and programs and brand name and having every component produced by 1 company. They're not bad computers, they're just not fit for graphically-intensive games.

Literally just buy or build a PC. You'll save a ton of money and can customize it however you want.

It always annoys me when people frame it this way. The question is "If I already want a nice Mac, will it play games well enough that I don't need to worry about getting a separate gaming PC" and the answer in a lot of cases is "Yes".

[Kagthul]

and the answer in a lot of cases is "Yes".

The answer is almost categorically “no”.

Not if youre taking about anything other than iOS ports and *some* indies. If you care even the tiniest bit about A-class indies, AA/AAA gaming, the answer is and always has been “no”.

You will need a console or gaming PC.

[NineSpine]

The answer is almost categorically “no”.

Not if youre taking about anything other than iOS ports and *some* indies. If you care even the tiniest bit about A-class indies, AA/AAA gaming, the answer is and always has been “no”.

You will need a console or gaming PC.

Let's take a quick glance at my Steam library, to see all of my "iOS ports". Surely we won't see a lot of A-class indie games...

Disco Elysium
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Path of Exile
Dead Cells
Faster Than Light
Into The Breach
Loop Hero
Cuphead
Slay The Spire
Dont Starve
EVE Online
Hades
Hollow Knight
Inside
Stardew Valley
Undertale
Braid
The Witness
Hyperlight Drifter
Rust
Vampire Survivors
Ark: Survival Evolved

Maybe you just don't know what you are talking about?

[Thes]

Mac mini m2 ( NON PRO) 8gb/256 ssd. I got a solid 30-35 fps at 4k using setting "5" in raids. For $500 thats a really good experience.

I guess someone will tell you you're on acid because Mac can't render 4k.

- - - Updated - - -

The answer is almost categorically “no”.

Not if youre taking about anything other than iOS ports and *some* indies. If you care even the tiniest bit about A-class indies, AA/AAA gaming, the answer is and always has been “no”.

You will need a console or gaming PC.

I quite literally play only 2 games. WoW and CS:GO. WoW already has a native port, I wish CSGO had too, or at least a decent translation layer. Right now it's not that great.

If CSGO was fixed, I'd probably get Mac as my next machine.

[Linkedblade]

pc peasants rising against arm revolution, so sweet <3

save a little and you can escape the shit ecosystem of microsoft, intel and nvidia

or don't and normalise 400 watt cpus and 900 watt gpus

I bet Greta hates x86, so much energy wasted

And switch to...what? Apple? That's not really a better alternative. And how do you forget AMD?

No one is normalizing "400W cpu's and 900W gpu's." CPU's at worst are around 125W, anything more is high-end/enthusiast. GPU's at worst are 450W, and that's the behemoth of the 4090. So complete nonsense about tdp. All of which is non-sequitur because we're talking about an SoC versus discrete components.

If you want an equivalent x86, you would need an soc styled unit. Something like the Ryzen 7735HS (8C/16T cpu, 12 CU gpu, 54W TDP) or intel's 13980HK (8C/16T cpu, 32 EU gpu, 45W TDP). Forgive the x86 penalty for ancient instructions.

[NineSpine]

And switch to...what? Apple? That's not really a better alternative. And how do you forget AMD?

No one is normalizing "400W cpu's and 900W gpu's." CPU's at worst are around 125W, anything more is high-end/enthusiast. GPU's at worst are 450W, and that's the behemoth of the 4090. So complete nonsense about tdp. All of which is non-sequitur because we're talking about an SoC versus discrete components.

If you want an equivalent x86, you would need an soc styled unit. Something like the Ryzen 7735HS (8C/16T cpu, 12 CU gpu, 54W TDP) or intel's 13980HK (8C/16T cpu, 32 EU gpu, 45W TDP). Forgive the x86 penalty for ancient instructions.

The reality is that x86 is to CPU architecture as the internal combustion engine is to cars. It's a technology that should have been phased out a long time ago but we have hung onto it because of an extremely destructive steak of path dependency. The amount of energy wasted every year using these absurdly dated and inefficient technologies is incalculable.

[Linkedblade]

The reality is that x86 is to CPU architecture as the internal combustion engine is to cars. It's a technology that should have been phased out a long time ago but we have hung onto it because of an extremely destructive steak of path dependency. The amount of energy wasted every year using these absurdly dated and inefficient technologies is incalculable.

That's a really good analogy, because it's exactly right. x86 is the platform that almost all large scale data centers run off. Just like how electric cars are okay for the individual travel, but useless in aviation, naval, and industrial applications.

Legacy instructions are still widely used, that's why x86 is widely used in embedded applications.

The largest problem with x64 is that your only options are extremely few server class cpu's or apple products. Neither are good options for consumers.

We need more arm64 manufacturers to make desktop scale soc's. Until then arm for desktop is dead.

[NineSpine]

That's a really good analogy, because it's exactly right. x86 is the platform that almost all large scale data centers run off. Just like how electric cars are okay for the individual travel, but useless in aviation, naval, and industrial applications.

Legacy instructions are still widely used, that's why x86 is widely used in embedded applications.

The largest problem with x64 is that your only options are extremely few server class cpu's or apple products. Neither are good options for consumers.

We need more arm64 manufacturers to make desktop scale soc's. Until then arm for desktop is dead.

That's why path dependency is so destructive. It holds back progress by relegating potential advancements to niche corners. To go back to cars, if a serious effort was made in the 70s to get away from the internal combustion engine, we could have made the advancements, especially in infrastructure, that would have gotten us to a world where electric vehicles could fulfill industrial needs. We see this pattern over and over again with technology.