Mac mini and Minecraft?

Zackmd1 · Nov 19, 2012

I'm sorry if this is the wrong section to place this in but I was wondering what kind of performance a mac mini has with the HD 4000. Minecraft is pretty much the only game I play on my computer so I'm wondering what kind of performance I can expect from the baseline mac mini thats been upgraded with an ssd and 16gb ram. Anyone out there run minecraft on their 2012 mac mini with 16gb ram yet? What FPS do you get on average? And this might be out of the question but has anyone tried the unbelievable shaders mod on the mini?

blanka · Nov 20, 2012

Isn't that the game that looks crappier than the original Doom?
Guess it runs 20394fps on a Mini with HD4000
If you know someone with a Radeon 6630 mini with MC, ask him. It will perform roughly the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w93aLW50GOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM18EFqndIc
Youtube is the new answer-finder often better than Google itself

kjid · Nov 20, 2012

Ive got the 2011 mini with radeon 6630 and it runs just fine. It also runs battlefield 3 just fine.

I don't think you need to worry.

Malte. · Nov 20, 2012

kjid said:
It also runs battlefield 3 just fine. .

Sorry but that cant be possible?, or maybe if you run it in 1024*768 with graphics at low.

Zackmd1 · Nov 20, 2012

blanka said:
Isn't that the game that looks crappier than the original Doom?
Guess it runs 20394fps on a Mini with HD4000
If you know someone with a Radeon 6630 mini with MC, ask him. It will perform roughly the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w93aLW50GOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM18EFqndIc
Youtube is the new answer-finder often better than Google itself

Believe it or not my 2010 MacBook Air with the 320m struggles to get 35 FPS on lowest settings... I think most of the reason for the performance loss is the 2gb ram currently in my machine.

APlotdevice · Nov 20, 2012

blanka said:
Isn't that the game that looks crappier than the original Doom?

You must have your brain wrapped up in nostalgia if you think Doom ever looked that good, heh. No, graphically it's in the range of an N64 to Dreamcast title (albeit outputting at a higher resolution). Though having to render all those blocks means that it needs a lot more power than you would expect.

blanka · Nov 20, 2012

APlotdevice said:
Though having to render all those blocks means that it needs a lot more power than you would expect.

Oh, they don't simplify the geometry by combining faces of blocks into larger planes?

dasx · Nov 20, 2012

Source: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Hardware_performance

Minimum requirements:
CPU : Intel P4/NetBurst architecture or its AMD equivalent (AMD K7) (Any CPU with MMX/SSE Instructions)
RAM : 256MB
GPU : GeForce 256 or ATI Rage XL and up. (Any GPU with OpenGL 3D Support)
HDD : At least 10MB for game data
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5 or up is required to be able to run the game.

Recommended requirements:
CPU : Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 (K8)
RAM : 1GB
GPU : GeForce 6xxx or ATI Radeon 9xxx and up with OpenGL 2.0 support (excluding integrated chipsets)
HDD : 100MB for Game Saves + Sounds

Optimal requirements:
CPU : Intel Core Duo or AMD Athlon x2 (K10)
RAM : 2GB
GPU : GeForce 8600 GT or ATI Radeon HD 3650 and up (excluding integrated chipsets and APUs)
HDD : 200MB
An SSD can significantly improve world loading speed.

A Mini outperforms by far the Optimal requirements.
(Well, not sure about the graphics cards. I'm not into gaming so don't even know what models those are)

Zackmd1 · Nov 20, 2012

dasx said:
Source: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Hardware_performance

A Mini outperforms by far the Optimal requirements.
(Well, not sure about the graphics cards. I'm not into gaming so don't even know what models those are)

Well that's what I'm curious about. The core i5 and 16 gb ram will be more then enough. According to benchmark tests I should expect x2 the FPS going to the hd 4000 but I was hoping to get some real world usage experience from someone who's played it on their mini. It's obviously just a video game so it's not that big of a deal but it still would be nice to know.

DitteVilladsen · Nov 20, 2012

I downloaded Trine 2 from the App Store, specifically to test the graphics on my 2.6 i7 16 MB Fusion Mac mini with 2560x1440. The cursor was a little jerky, at least until I turned off antialiasing.

There's a graphics benchmark that uses a 3D real time rendered game as its test, 26 scenes. It's called Cinebench OS X. Download that and give it a try. I only got 8 fps or so.

The graphics card is the weak point of the mini. It's fine for most uses, but games push it to the wall a bit.

Zackmd1 · Nov 20, 2012

DitteVilladsen said:
I downloaded Trine 2 from the App Store, specifically to test the graphics on my 2.6 i7 16 MB Fusion Mac mini with 2560x1440. The cursor was a little jerky, at least until I turned off antialiasing.

There's a graphics benchmark that uses a 3D real time rendered game as its test, 26 scenes. It's called Cinebench OS X. Download that and give it a try. I only got 8 fps or so.

The graphics card is the weak point of the mini. It's fine for most uses, but games push it to the wall a bit.

Really? I used cinebench on my air and got upwards of 11 FPS. I have seen benchmarks on YouTube of the new mini getting 21-22 FPS so there might be something wrong on your end. The lowest I have seen the 4000 clock in at with cinebench was 16 FPS on the MBA 2012 on YouTube video reviews.

dasx · Nov 20, 2012

DitteVilladsen said:
I downloaded Trine 2 from the App Store, specifically to test the graphics on my 2.6 i7 16 MB Fusion Mac mini with 2560x1440. The cursor was a little jerky, at least until I turned off antialiasing.

There's a graphics benchmark that uses a 3D real time rendered game as its test, 26 scenes. It's called Cinebench OS X. Download that and give it a try. I only got 8 fps or so.

The graphics card is the weak point of the mini. It's fine for most uses, but games push it to the wall a bit.

Zackmd1 said:
Really? I used cinebench on my air and got upwards of 11 FPS. I have seen benchmarks on YouTube of the new mini getting 21-22 FPS so there might be something wrong on your end. The lowest I have seen the 4000 clock in at with cinebench was 16 FPS on the MBA 2012 on YouTube video reviews.

I did run the test. 22FPS.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1482443/

Pecans · Nov 20, 2012

On my 2011 base mini with 16gb RAM I get around 40-60 fps with:
A 64x64 Texture pack
Normal Render distance
Graphics fast
particles decreased
and everything else off.
Also this is while running a Minecraft server off the same computer.

So the 2012 mini will be more than adequate for Minecraft.

DitteVilladsen · Nov 24, 2012

Note that CineBench tests your actual system, at full screen setting, so that affects the outcome. I have a 2560 x 1440 monitor, so there are 3,686,400 for CineBench to push around. If you are using, say, a 1920 x 1440 monitor, you'll have 2,764,800 pixels, which is 75 percent the pixels of the larger monitor. Thus, you can expect a frame rate of x/0.75 where x is the frame rate of the larger monitor. And so on for each successively smaller monitor size.

This doesn't take into account some other factors about graphics display, but it should account for most of the differences mentioned here.

wickedking94 · Nov 25, 2012

On my mid 2012 MBP with 8GB ram and a geforce 320M 256MB I get 60 FPS with regular settings.

An important trick for Minecraft on Mac is to make it run in 64-bit mode, which it doesn't do on its own.

This guide:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/57538-mac-guide-106-how-to-make-minecraftapp-use-64bit-java/

gives you step by step instructions to make minecraft use 64-bit java. I did this, it took about 3 minutes and it easily doubled the performance.

And according to some benchmarks by another macrumors member the HD 4000 is 2 to 3 times the power of the 320M so combine that with the 64-bit patch and it should be good.

theRAMman · Nov 25, 2012

It has been discussed before and I believe the concencuss was about 50fps on best settings. The 16gb of ram wont really help any more than the stock 4gb as well.

lonesdav000 · Dec 11, 2012

I'm also curious. Has anyone actually followed up on this? ...and not just benchmark tests and best guesses, but an actual experience? I'd like to really know for sure about what to expect before I buy.

Has the original poster done this yet?

sdo1982 · Dec 12, 2012

As of the 19th my mini will arrive, first job is to install MC.
Also I hear using 64bit java makes a difference.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/57538-mac-guide-106-how-to-make-minecraftapp-use-64bit-java/

lonesdav000 · Dec 15, 2012

sdo1982 said:
As of the 19th my mini will arrive, first job is to install MC.

Thanks. Hope to hear back from you.

astral125 · Dec 16, 2012

I bought a new base model mini last week. I bought a 30 GB SSD that I planned to only put the OS on, but when it came I ended up creating my own fusion drive with it. I don't know how well it works with a drive that small, but I am experimenting.

I also bought an 8GB stick of ram. I put it in with one of the 2GB sticks that was already in there not knowing if that would work either. It does show 10GB in the OS, so I am assuming it is using it?

Anyway, that is what I have, and I just installed minecraft to try it out for this thread. I don't know how to view FPS, but at full screen I can fly around and the world rapidly generates without any lag.

lonesdav000 · Dec 16, 2012

astral125 said:
I just installed minecraft to try it out for this thread. I don't know how to view FPS, but at full screen I can fly around and the world rapidly generates without any lag.

Any mods installed? (That's half of Minecraft for me.)

astral125 · Dec 16, 2012

lonesdav000 said:
Any mods installed? (That's half of Minecraft for me.)

Sorry I don't play so no, I didn't install any.

Zackmd1 · Dec 18, 2012

astral125 said:
I bought a new base model mini last week. I bought a 30 GB SSD that I planned to only put the OS on, but when it came I ended up creating my own fusion drive with it. I don't know how well it works with a drive that small, but I am experimenting.

I also bought an 8GB stick of ram. I put it in with one of the 2GB sticks that was already in there not knowing if that would work either. It does show 10GB in the OS, so I am assuming it is using it?

Anyway, that is what I have, and I just installed minecraft to try it out for this thread. I don't know how to view FPS, but at full screen I can fly around and the world rapidly generates without any lag.

You can view FPS by pressing f3 while in game. When you say full screen what resolution is your monitor? 1080p? 1440p?

theRAMman · Dec 19, 2012

Also try at full settings (fancy graphics, full particles, far render distance) Ive been hoping for a conclusive reply for this topic for ages!

astral125 · Dec 20, 2012

Zackmd1 said:
You can view FPS by pressing f3 while in game. When you say full screen what resolution is your monitor? 1080p? 1440p?

theRAMman said:
Also try at full settings (fancy graphics, full particles, far render distance) Ive been hoping for a conclusive reply for this topic for ages!

Ok, I know this probably isn't stored on the SSD because this is only the second time I have ran this application. That being said with everything maxed out with advanced open GL turned on, I was averaging 30-33 fps. Without advanced open gl, I averaged 50fps.

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