Experience with new Mini after 2 days

This new mini that just released, is my first ever Mac. I have been a life long Windows user, but I figured I'd give some perspective on the new Mini for those who still aren't sure about pulling the trigger.

When I bought it I wasn't expecting great performance, knowing Apple's hardware choices verse custom built machines. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 320m gpu can run WoW, on Ultra (1920x1080 wide screen resolution), in crowded areas just fine. The only caveat being Dalaran so far, but that is expected. I was anticipating only being able to run the game in low/medium settings. I've even been able to use the built in recording feature for the Mac WoW client on ultra with no lag what so ever.

As for performance of load times and video editing, the stock HD is the weak link for sure. If you are going to buy a new one, I'd greatly recommend getting another HD to exchange out. The stock one is bearable for everyday tasks but if you consider yourself any type of "power user", get a Momentus XT or SSD. Although I'd have to question a true power user buying a Mini in the first place.

While this is a little off topic of the Mini itself, I must say I love the UI and implementation of time machine compared to any other backup programs I've used.

I know there isn't a huge point to this post, but I do plan on testing out Steam games this week/weekend and trying to get some average fps listings for TF2, HL2, Portals, and WoW as I have seen numerous posts asking for this information. If anyone without a Mini wants to test something more specific, let me know and I'll do what I can.

Here are some FPS listings for WoW, steam is a work in progress as I just installed the client.

This is with playing WoW on OS X (10.6.3), Ultra settings, at 1920x1080 wide screen resolution. This is also on the US Blackrock server, which is one of the oldest/highest populated servers. I doubt you'll find a server with more average characters online.

Orgrimmar: 16-22 FPS (Middle of Orgrimmar, near AH/BANK, the rest of Orgrimmar is 30+ FPS)
Dalaran: 12-22 FPS (Depends if you are near a bank or not, The Underbelly is 23-30 FPS)
Isle of Conquest: 15-30 FPS (15 was only in starting area, 20-30 during the match)

Most of these numbers seem low, but anything above 13-14 FPS felt completely lag free for me. Unfortunatly, I am using a LCDTV for a monitor, and it caps itself out at 30 FPS, so for less intensive zones I cannot provide a accurate max FPS.

In Isle of Conquest I felt no lag during fights at all, and tried to stay near big battles as much as possible. This was on a Moonkin so you know there were always plenty of spell effects going off during combat.

I don't raid so I cannot provide numbers for that, but all of the 5 mans I've ran on my Mage that I am leveling have felt perfectly smooth, even with mass AOE going on (living bomb and seed of corruption spam).

You could definitely turn down a setting or two and seem far greater FPS numbers, as I know some people are FPS whores. Personally if it is above 15 FPS and feels smooth I'm fine, but that is all personal preference. I did however notice that by using a Nostromo GamePad (n52te) over USB, I am losing 6-8 FPS. Unfortunately it isn't a option to not use it for me, so these numbers I posted are with me losing FPS from the game pad. If you are someone who isn't dependent on USB devices for gaming (Nostromo, headset, etc) you will get even better FPS.

BlindSoul said:

Can you try using Can You Run It and run a few popular games and let us know if your Mac Mini could run them? Thanks

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Unfortunately Can You Run It is Windows only as far as I can tell. I haven't installed Windows 7 yet, but will mostly likely do that this weekend sometime. If and when I do I'll get back to you with the results.

Here is a video I made to try and show the performance in different WoW areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG8uoza4VAY&hd=1

bry223 said:

Wow my post didnt get posted , anywho, I'm suprised to see how well WoW runs on the new mac mini, I'm sure you'll get a huge performance boost just lowering the shadow quality, its a FPS killer in that game

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For sure, you can knock some things down slightly and be good to go in any zone.

Installed TF2, so far everything on Medium settings seems perfectly fine at 1920x1080 widescreen resolution. I don't have any FPS numbers right now but I'll try and get some real information this weekend.

To be honest I hate TF2 so it is painful to play but I'm sure I'll get around to trying it out more.