Apple's Mac Mini Turns 20 Today

[Naraxus]

@eltoslightfoot So your gaming on Mac OS tho right? Or it’s easier to add windows or whatever else to do competitive gaming? If easier to run windows is this allowed by Apple or just not an overly complex work around? peace

You certainly can run Windows on a Mac - either via software such as Parallels or natively via BootCamp

As for gaming I just use OSX (yes I still call it OSX) and with the M4 chip it is simply amazing

EDIT: I'm actually not 100% sure with the advent of Apple Silicon but I believe you still can use Windows natively as well as Parallels

 

[Powerbooky]

Got the same generations of minis

still have the old ones

Same here. All mini's are still here. When I have some time left, I'll reinstall the 2009 again to serve as a quick standby for the ProxMox setup.

Old Mac minis make great servers. I have a base 2012 upgraded to 8 GB RAM running a few web apps in Docker containers. It replaced an old 2009 Core 2 Duo Mac mini fairly recently.

Indeed... very reliable hardware. I found my 2014 model on a used-Mac website. It was in perfect condition and compared to all the others the only Intel model that had one of the lowest power consumption statistics. I only had to replace the hard drive with an SSD and added two ethernet adapters.

 

[neomorpheus]

"Horrible" is a funny way to say "gorgeous". I love the old skeuomorphic icons with the gloss and texture. They made iOS 6 feel more premium compared to iOS 7, at least after the novelty of the big change wore off. Waiting patiently for when they make a comeback.

Funny, came here just to write this.

I miss the 3d colorful crystallized icons and menus.

So sick and tired of the flat everything.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

@eltoslightfoot So your gaming on Mac OS tho right? Or it’s easier to add windows or whatever else to do competitive gaming? If easier to run windows is this allowed by Apple or just not an overly complex work around? peace

Gawds no. Gaming on a Mac is not great. I have a gaming laptop already. I use that for remoting into work and for gaming. Mac mini is everything else.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I like the mini and would consider getting one again if Apple allowed an iPad Pro to be used to set up the mini (without the need of getting a keyboard and trackpad or monitor).

 

[Naraxus]

Gawds no. Gaming on a Mac is not great. I have a gaming laptop already. I use that for remoting into work and for gaming. Mac mini is everything else.

I STRONGLY disagree with this assessment. A couple years ago, yes, but now with the advent of AS gaming is great on the Mac finally. It's not on parity with a Windows machine but it's pretty damn close

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I STRONGLY disagree with this assessment. A couple years ago, yes, but now with the advent of AS gaming is great on the Mac finally. It's not on parity with a Windows machine but it's pretty damn close

Okay? Try playing Apex Legends, COD, or a ton of other games vs. the RTX 4060 I already own. Granted I could play BG3 or (now) CP2077, but again, why bother when I have an RTX 4060 laptop?

Yeah I still maintain it’s not great LOL. No framegen stuff either.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

Okay? Try playing Apex Legends, COD, or a ton of other games vs. the RTX 4060 I already own. Granted I could play BG3 or (now) CP2077, but again, why bother when I have an RTX 4060 laptop?

Yeah I still maintain it’s not great LOL. No framegen stuff either.

Because not all of us have spare Windows gaming laptops just sitting around gathering dust?

Mac gaming is not quite there yet, but it's getting a lot closer! My MacBook Pro works just fine for most of what I play. CrossOver works for what I've tried that doesn't.

I'm not going to go spend a couple of thousand bucks I don't have on a PC gaming laptop!

 

[Naraxus]

Okay? Try playing Apex Legends, COD, or a ton of other games vs. the RTX 4060 I already own. Granted I could play BG3 or (now) CP2077, but again, why bother when I have an RTX 4060 laptop?

Yeah I still maintain it’s not great LOL. No framegen stuff either.

Hmmm. It's almost as if you intentionally left out & disregarded my "It's not on parity..." assessment...

Anyhow I don't care for CoD and don't play AL so yeah

 

[Andy_2341]

I STRONGLY disagree with this assessment. A couple years ago, yes, but now with the advent of AS gaming is great on the Mac finally. It's not on parity with a Windows machine but it's pretty damn close

I think that might be Apple's plan to make gaming on Mac better. If they can get integrated AS GPUs up to performance specs of high end discreet Nvidia cards, then they could actually be competitive.

 

[Realityck]

I think that might be Apple's plan to make gaming on Mac better. If they can get integrated AS GPUs up to performance specs of high end discreet Nvidia cards, then they could actually be competitive.

Driving graphics to reasonable frame rates without cooling issues or throttling is really the benchmark for competitive M4 pro Mac Mini, that and enough metal imagery support to be on par with windows based gaming IMHO.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Because not all of us have spare Windows gaming laptops just sitting around gathering dust?

Mac gaming is not quite there yet, but it's getting a lot closer! My MacBook Pro works just fine for most of what I play. CrossOver works for what I've tried that doesn't.

I'm not going to go spend a couple of thousand bucks I don't have on a PC gaming laptop!

No, I agree, if I didn’t need one for work, it would be making my Mac work as a gaming machine as well…

Hmmm. It's almost as if you intentionally left out & disregarded my "It's not on parity..." assessment...

Anyhow I don't care for CoD and don't play AL so yeah

It’s almost as you did the same with my comment.

I think that might be Apple's plan to make gaming on Mac better. If they can get integrated AS GPUs up to performance specs of high end discreet Nvidia cards, then they could actually be competitive.

Let’s hope. I would love that.