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I built a gaming PC last year, spent ~$1,300 and nearly 40 hours researching/assembling. But I'm actually happy just gaming on my M1 Mac mini ($699). Obviously

I built a gaming PC last year, spent ~$1,300 and nearly 40 hours researching/assembling. But I'm actually happy just gaming on my M1 Mac mini ($699). Obviously the M1 isn't great for AAA games but for most games it's great.

neogodless 6y ago
What are the games you typically play on the M1? I'd consider an Apple laptop if I knew any game I wanted to play would work, and I never play the latest AAA games. But so far I checked and StarCraft 2 does not seem to play well, despite being a 12 year old game. (That may change with software updates?)
- danaris 6y ago
  There's a user-submitted list here: https://applesilicongames.com https://applesilicongames.com Looks like at least some people have had good luck with StarCraft II.
- EricE 6y ago
  Check out this guy's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-hl32h5CokBhlGu95C1Xg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-hl32h5CokBhlGu95C1Xg I was all set to replace my 2015 MBA with an M1 MBA, but in watching his (and others) Cities:Skylines performance I'm now thinking I may switch to gaming on Mac full time. Only problem is 16GB of RAM is NOT going to cut it with C:S - so I now am waiting for the next batch. 32GB should be plenty and I would be shocked if the next group of machines didn't have at least one laptop that could go to 32GB. Hopefully still HBM too.
- JoshTko 6y ago
  Sampling of how different games run on M1. Note Macbook Air has a slightly weaker GPU and no fan. https://youtu.be/qkmSNtzQm-o https://youtu.be/qkmSNtzQm-o
naravara 6y ago
I'm currently strongly conflicted on whether I should bother building a PC. I had been wanting to do one for years, but now that I have the space and the money I find I don't actually have time to justify the expense for how little I play. I'm hoping a cloud gaming service takes off that works more like a dedicated remote desktop rather than an a la carte storefront the way they all seem to be.

neogodless 6y ago

What are the games you typically play on the M1? I'd consider an Apple laptop if I knew any game I wanted to play would work, and I never play the latest AAA games. But so far I checked and StarCraft 2 does not seem to play well, despite being a 12 year old game. (That may change with software updates?)

danaris 6y ago
There's a user-submitted list here: https://applesilicongames.com https://applesilicongames.com Looks like at least some people have had good luck with StarCraft II.
EricE 6y ago
Check out this guy's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-hl32h5CokBhlGu95C1Xg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-hl32h5CokBhlGu95C1Xg I was all set to replace my 2015 MBA with an M1 MBA, but in watching his (and others) Cities:Skylines performance I'm now thinking I may switch to gaming on Mac full time. Only problem is 16GB of RAM is NOT going to cut it with C:S - so I now am waiting for the next batch. 32GB should be plenty and I would be shocked if the next group of machines didn't have at least one laptop that could go to 32GB. Hopefully still HBM too.
JoshTko 6y ago
Sampling of how different games run on M1. Note Macbook Air has a slightly weaker GPU and no fan. https://youtu.be/qkmSNtzQm-o https://youtu.be/qkmSNtzQm-o

naravara 6y ago

I'm currently strongly conflicted on whether I should bother building a PC. I had been wanting to do one for years, but now that I have the space and the money I find I don't actually have time to justify the expense for how little I play. I'm hoping a cloud gaming service takes off that works more like a dedicated remote desktop rather than an a la carte storefront the way they all seem to be.