Does Starcraft 2 run decent on a 2022 Intel Mac Mini?

[voodoochild16]

Hi all,
Just wondering if Starcraft 2 runs good on a Intel Mac Mini from 2018 to the current model now?. I want to record gameplay and need to know if purchasing an Intel Mac Mini is a good idea or not. Thanks in advance.

 

[Boyd01]

I don't understand your question, sorry. The 2018 Mini is the newest Intel Mini, there have been no changes since it was introduced. The 2020 Mini uses Apple's own M1 chips. There is no such thing as a 2021 or 2022 Mini.

 

[voodoochild16]

I don't understand your question, sorry. The 2018 Mini is the newest Intel Mini, there have been no changes since it was introduced. The 2020 Mini uses Apple's own M1 chips. There is no such thing as a 2021 or 2022 Mini.

Sorry about that, what I mean is, will Starcraft 2 run on any Mac Mini from 2018 or later that is the Core i5 or Core i7 models, excluding the Core i3 models. Thanks.

 

[Boyd01]

will Starcraft 2 run on any Mac Mini from 2018 or later

Sorry, I don't play games and know nothing about Starcraft. But again, the 2018 Mini is the last model with an Intel processor, there is nothing "later" than 2018. All of the Mini's are listed here, and as you can see, it goes from the 2018 Intel Mini to the 2020 M1 Mini and that's all there is.

All Apple Mac mini Specs (2005-Current): EveryMac.com

Tech specs for all Apple Mac mini from the original to the latest (2005-Current). Dates sold, processor type, memory info, storage details, configuration options and more.

everymac.com

 

[Marsikus]

I think you may ask in Apple showroom to install StarCraft 2 demo version to try playing there. If they have this model on display.

 

[tomekwsrod]

It will, but the experience is subpar in comparison to launching the game on Win10. Make a Bootcamp with win10 and you will be Ok. Macs are bad for gaming if you compare how the same games run on Win10.

 

[Marsikus]

It will, but the experience is subpar in comparison to launching the game on Win10. Make a Bootcamp with win10 and you will be Ok. Macs are bad for gaming if you compare how the same games run on Win10.

On the same hardware?

 

[mcnallym]

On the same hardware?

Yep. Mac OS games tend to be ported with min effort. more effort put into Windows as MS provide more support via DirectX then Apple does in Mac Os and it’s API/Frameworks.

Apple never been interested in gaming as such and whilst yes there have been games then there is a reason you don’t see AAA games on Mac OS.

habing moved over to Mac for all my personal use then when wanted to get back into games I bought a seperate windows machine for gaming. Main game I play is World of Warships and Mac got dropped as a platform so just as well I did.

 

[StealthRider]

Starcraft II was released in 2010...it should run fine under both Boot Camp and native in macOS, depending on which version you have.

 

[voodoochild16]

Okay, thats great guys, thanks for your input. I am sure Blizzard will release a patch for Apple silicon so it might be worth investing in one of those instead. I still remain undecided on what I am going to get though. I got a free Intel Mac Pro from my dad recently so I might just use that instead of getting a Mac Mini.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I was a HEAVY Starcraft II player for many years. Starcraft plays horrifically on Mac vs Windows. It plays even worse on the M1 chips vs Intel Macs - I have an M1 Max 16' MBP. It stutters horribly on medium and will often lock up and stop responding for no reason and often crash in such a way that requires a hard reboot to the Mac.

On an Intel Mac - an eGPU is a must for Starcraft II.

I actually gave up playing Starcraft earlier this year because of how badly it runs on Mac. And I have almost 300 points on the mutations. I recently installed it just to give it another try cuz I was missing it after all these months and ... I went to change the graphics quality from Medium to Low so it wouldn't stutter and it caused the app to completely crash, right in the middle of a mutation. Uninstalled it instantly.

Warcraft plays a LOT better on Mac than Starcraft does. WOTLK Classic runs VERY well on Mac.

 

[voodoochild16]

I was a HEAVY Starcraft II player for many years. Starcraft plays horrifically on Mac vs Windows. It plays even worse on the M1 chips vs Intel Macs - I have an M1 Max 16' MBP. It stutters horribly on medium and will often lock up and stop responding for no reason and often crash in such a way that requires a hard reboot to the Mac.

On an Intel Mac - an eGPU is a must for Starcraft II.

I actually gave up playing Starcraft earlier this year because of how badly it runs on Mac. And I have almost 300 points on the mutations. I recently installed it just to give it another try cuz I was missing it after all these months and ... I went to change the graphics quality from Medium to Low so it wouldn't stutter and it caused the app to completely crash, right in the middle of a mutation. Uninstalled it instantly.

Warcraft plays a LOT better on Mac than Starcraft does. WOTLK Classic runs VERY well on Mac.

Great to know. Thats the answer I was looking for and thanks, also a big thanks to everyone else for their input. Do you think Blizzard will release a patch for Starcraft 2 in the future to make it run better on Apple silicon?, or does anyone else know?. I know during the transition from PowerPC to Intel, Blizzard did release a patch for that and SC: BW ran pretty well after that, but I guess the question remains IF a patch will be released.

 

[tomekwsrod]

Great to know. Thats the answer I was looking for and thanks, also a big thanks to everyone else for their input. Do you think Blizzard will release a patch for Starcraft 2 in the future to make it run better on Apple silicon?, or does anyone else know?. I know during the transition from PowerPC to Intel, Blizzard did release a patch for that and SC: BW ran pretty well after that, but I guess the question remains IF a patch will be released.

Maybe, but I would not count on it. You have to deal with the fact that if you want to play AAA games on a Mac, you have to go for an Intel based hardware and a Bootcamp. Or, as someone already said, buy a separate gaming rig. Generally, for AAA gaming Macs perform poorly in comparison to the same games run on Windows.

 

[voodoochild16]

Maybe, but I would not count on it. You have to deal with the fact that if you want to play AAA games on a Mac, you have to go for an Intel based hardware and a Bootcamp. Or, as someone already said, buy a separate gaming rig. Generally, for AAA gaming Macs perform poorly in comparison to the same games run on Windows.

Okay, thanks.

 

[Bl0ckHe1d]

Great to know. Thats the answer I was looking for and thanks, also a big thanks to everyone else for their input. Do you think Blizzard will release a patch for Starcraft 2 in the future to make it run better on Apple silicon?, or does anyone else know?. I know during the transition from PowerPC to Intel, Blizzard did release a patch for that and SC: BW ran pretty well after that, but I guess the question remains IF a patch will be released.

There appear to be a dedicated Blizzard Mac Technical Support forum (https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/sc2/c/mac-technical-support/16) which may have the answer(s) you seek!

Good luck

 

[voodoochild16]

There appear to be a dedicated Blizzard Mac Technical Support forum (https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/sc2/c/mac-technical-support/16) which may have the answer(s) you seek!

Good luck

Cool, thanks alot for that link, I'll ask on there. Cheers. Anyone else looking for the latest news on this potential patch go here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/sc2/t/apple-m1-cpugpu-performance-patch/23461/8
Or the link in the quote above.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Great to know. Thats the answer I was looking for and thanks, also a big thanks to everyone else for their input. Do you think Blizzard will release a patch for Starcraft 2 in the future to make it run better on Apple silicon?, or does anyone else know?. I know during the transition from PowerPC to Intel, Blizzard did release a patch for that and SC: BW ran pretty well after that, but I guess the question remains IF a patch will be released.

@tomekwsrod is absolutely correct.

Blizzard forums are full of Mac users complaining how poorly Starcraft runs on Mac. I don't think Blizzard cares - Starcraft got nickel and dimed by them with the free to play- I don't think they're going to put much more effort into it. Now that Microsoft owns them, who knows, but I wouldn't expect much.

Like the link you posted right above this post - I love Starcraft II. The campaigns are amazing and I love the mutations - quick games that don't require me to invest large mounts of time. Starcraft II is probably the #1 game I've played over the last handful or so of years.


The M1 does really well at old games in my experience but Starcraft II is just poor. I can do Age of Empires II with Crossover and it plays extremely smooth, even large 500 pop / 6 player games on extra large maps. I can even do old dos / windows 3.11 games on Crossover/Parallels in Windows on the Mac and it plays like native (where it didn't on the Intel Macs). Got Star Trek Armada to run but couldn't get Homeworld to work. 🙂

But yeah unless you're ok with playing Starcraft II on low graphics settings, it's a poor experience and even then, expect crashes often - don't change settings while playing mutations, lol, it will crash. It is doable on low settings (1080p).

Warcraft Classic (WOTLK) and I think retail is Apple Silicon native and plays beautifully. Been having a lot of fun on BC/WOTLK with some old BC/WOTLK friends recently. 🙂

 

[voodoochild16]

@tomekwsrod is absolutely correct.

Blizzard forums are full of Mac users complaining how poorly Starcraft runs on Mac. I don't think Blizzard cares - Starcraft got nickel and dimed by them with the free to play- I don't think they're going to put much more effort into it. Now that Microsoft owns them, who knows, but I wouldn't expect much.

Like the link you posted right above this post - I love Starcraft II. The campaigns are amazing and I love the mutations - quick games that don't require me to invest large mounts of time. Starcraft II is probably the #1 game I've played over the last handful or so of years.


The M1 does really well at old games in my experience but Starcraft II is just poor. I can do Age of Empires II with Crossover and it plays extremely smooth, even large 500 pop / 6 player games on extra large maps. I can even do old dos / windows 3.11 games on Crossover/Parallels in Windows on the Mac and it plays like native (where it didn't on the Intel Macs). Got Star Trek Armada to run but couldn't get Homeworld to work. 🙂

But yeah unless you're ok with playing Starcraft II on low graphics settings, it's a poor experience and even then, expect crashes often - don't change settings while playing mutations, lol, it will crash. It is doable on low settings (1080p).

Warcraft Classic (WOTLK) and I think retail is Apple Silicon native and plays beautifully. Been having a lot of fun on BC/WOTLK with some old BC/WOTLK friends recently. 🙂

Glad to know you love SC2, I was thinking of getting the Studio but now I think I'm gonna wait. My dad has one but I can't borrow it to test it. But your knowledge is all I need!. I will keep my current PC and save my money for the day a patch comes out for the Mac silicon, if it ever does, maybe it won't... who knows.