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Civ VII performance on a Mac Mini M4 (24GB)

S

stop.the.clocks

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2011
40
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Looking for others that could suggest any tweaks or settings for optimal performance.

Prior to buying, I gave Civ VI a shot and it looked and performed very well, but having just bought the new M4 Mini and Civ VII, I'm a bit bemused by the performance - It is very choppy when zooming in/out or moving around the map.

I'm still in the 30 day window to return the Mac Mini and wondering if its work upgrading to the Mac Mini Pro, which is about $500 more and so I'm not sure on the return on investment or if it will even run better,
 
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Somebody on Steam recommended to limit the frame rate to 60fps to enhance performance, however such an option doesn't exist within the game's graphics settings.

Does anyone know how to achieve this?
 
For gaming, the M4 Pro is definitely worth the extra money. But Civ VII was just released, it will likely get optimizations down the road, considering it is being released for everything but the kitchen sink.
 
Whilst the M4 is impressive, the base M4 is not a gaming powerhouse. Its a low power (in terms of power consumption) mobile processor.

Drop res to 1080p, and details to low or medium.

The M series GPUs scale pretty linearly in terms of GPU core count. So a Pro will be ~2x faster in GPU limited scenarios like games, and a Max ~3.5-4x.

If you're looking to game at all on the thing, I'd exchange for a pro if you can afford it. You'll get almost 2x performance for not a stupid amount more money on the mini.
 
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Very tempted to switch it for the Pro.

So far the game runs well at 2K, and as T'hain Esh Kelch mentioned, they will optimize it further.

I just really want to know how to limit the frame rate to 60fps.
 
diamond.g said:
Turn on vsync and limit screen refresh to 60hz?
Click to expand...

Thanks, the option isn't in the game's graphic settings. Since its obviously new, hopefully they will include this.

In case you're interested, the frame rate issue occurs for Mac Mini M4 users when zooming in and out, causing choppiness and overheating of the system.
 
stop.the.clocks said:
Very tempted to switch it for the Pro.

So far the game runs well at 2K, and as T'hain Esh Kelch mentioned, they will optimize it further.

I just really want to know how to limit the frame rate to 60fps.
Click to expand...

Game requirements are only going to go one way over the lifetime of your ownership of the machine; if it is struggling to do what you want TODAY, it isn't going to really get much better.
 
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stop.the.clocks said:
Thanks, the option isn't in the game's graphic settings. Since its obviously new, hopefully they will include this.

In case you're interested, the frame rate issue occurs for Mac Mini M4 users when zooming in and out, causing choppiness and overheating of the system.
Click to expand...
I mean if your framerate was over your refresh rate you would see screen tearing. So I am assuming that means you want to lower the FPS under the refresh rate (so like 30fps) to see if that stops the stuttering. I am kind of surprised that CIV7 doesn't offer a way to cap the framerate, but I also do not know if it is just missing from the macOS version or if it also missing on the Windows version. Can you post a screenshot of the graphics menu?

The below image is from a person on reddit running on Windows (obviously). There appears to be a vertical sync option, along wih upscaling.
1739281635223.png
 
diamond.g said:
I mean if your framerate was over your refresh rate you would see screen tearing. So I am assuming that means you want to lower the FPS under the refresh rate (so like 30fps) to see if that stops the stuttering. I am kind of surprised that CIV7 doesn't offer a way to cap the framerate, but I also do not know if it is just missing from the macOS version or if it also missing on the Windows version. Can you post a screenshot of the graphics menu?

The below image is from a person on reddit running on Windows (obviously). There appears to be a vertical sync option, along wih upscaling.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for this!

So, today was the official release for the game for all platforms I believe, and with that I noticed the vertical sync checkbox in the graphics settings now! The zooming and scrolling is more stable now but the old girl is working hard!

I'm still considering switching to a M4 Pro (maxed out, as per Homy's post showing the benchmarks) but can't seem to justify the large cost.

Obviously it depends on the user, but besides having some better performance in Civ, what other benefits will I get here for other uses?

Longevity of the machine, surely?

My other uses are recording music in Logic.

Can someone give me a bit of a push to get the latest and greatest (I really need it)? 😉
 
stop.the.clocks said:
Can someone give me a bit of a push to get the latest and greatest (I really need it)? 😉
Click to expand...
  • Work out how long you plan to keep the machine.
  • Work out the cost difference and divide by X months you plan to run the machine
  • Consider that for various GPU workloads you will get approximately 2x performance over that time period
  • Consider if $X/month is worth it - also consider if you'll spend Y months (e.g. either from the outset, or potentially 12 months into ownership) regretting NOT going for the Pro.

Let's say you plan to keep 3-5 years, the cost difference is likely in the order of tens of dollars a month.

This is how I rationalised myself all the way to M4 max MacBook Pro :D - my only regret with my previous M1 Pro was realising after using it for a while that if I had gone for a Max it could replace my desktop for the things I do 99% of the time - it was more potent than I expected it to be, but not quite specced high enough to maximise its utility for me (CPU was fine, RAM was tight, GPU was fast for mobile but not quite fast enough for decent gaming).

So this time, I went high spec.
 
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Anyone play it on a Mac Studio? Max settings? I was thinking about getting a used m2 max 30 core GPU. I dont think i will be able to afford an M4. I was also thinking about M1 32 core GPU. On ebay for $1300.
 
throAU said:
  • Work out how long you plan to keep the machine.
  • Work out the cost difference and divide by X months you plan to run the machine
  • Consider that for various GPU workloads you will get approximately 2x performance over that time period
  • Consider if $X/month is worth it - also consider if you'll spend Y months (e.g. either from the outset, or potentially 12 months into ownership) regretting NOT going for the Pro.

Let's say you plan to keep 3-5 years, the cost difference is likely in the order of tens of dollars a month.

This is how I rationalised myself all the way to M4 max MacBook Pro :D - my only regret with my previous M1 Pro was realising after using it for a while that if I had gone for a Max it could replace my desktop for the things I do 99% of the time - it was more potent than I expected it to be, but not quite specced high enough to maximise its utility for me (CPU was fine, RAM was tight, GPU was fast for mobile but not quite fast enough for decent gaming).

So this time, I went high spec.
Click to expand...

Firstly, apologies for the lateness of my reply and thank you so much for taking the time for sharing this.

In the end, I decided to stick with the M4 Mini 24GB RAM - I've been a fan of these since 2011 and haven't looked back. This one in particular is a beast of a machine and I'm super happy with it!

As far as gaming goes, Civ in particular, I'll stick to Civ 6 which runs like a dream. Maybe further down the line I'll look at a different option for Civ 7.

Congrats on the M4 Max MacBook Pro, what a dream machine you got!
 
n8mac said:
Anyone play it on a Mac Studio? Max settings? I was thinking about getting a used m2 max 30 core GPU. I dont think i will be able to afford an M4. I was also thinking about M1 32 core GPU. On ebay for $1300.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, without having had a look on the Steam forums, or any other for the last two weeks, the best indicator at this early stage would be Homy's post further up on the thread.

Also try posting on the Steam forums.
 
n8mac said:
Anyone play it on a Mac Studio? Max settings? I was thinking about getting a used m2 max 30 core GPU. I dont think i will be able to afford an M4. I was also thinking about M1 32 core GPU. On ebay for $1300.
Click to expand...
Well I have a Studio M2 Max 64GB and max CPU/GPU cores and it is running fine in 4K 60FPS.
It is also running decently on my M3 MacBook Mini 16GB, bit more stuttering but for a game like this fine.
 
n8mac said:
Anyone play it on a Mac Studio? Max settings? I was thinking about getting a used m2 max 30 core GPU. I dont think i will be able to afford an M4. I was also thinking about M1 32 core GPU. On ebay for $1300.
Click to expand...
Here's the benchmark on my M1 Max Mac Studio. It runs fine at 4K with high settings.
M1 Max High.png
 
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