Faster external graphics on M1 Mac mini vs M2 MacBook Air?

[Kotten]

Hi,

I have a Mac mini M1 connected to a Studio Display.
I also own a MacBook Air M2. According to the specs the MBA should have faster graphics.

Does those faster graphics only apply to the MBAs own screen?
When I have the MBA plugged into the Studio Display the refresh rate feels slower than from the Mac mini.
(less fps when playing games etc.)

So question is, the MBA can't perform at full capacity for an external display?
Can you disable the internal display (close the lid etc.) to have all graphic power to external?

 

[1BadManVan]

Hi,

I have a Mac mini M1 connected to a Studio Display.
I also own a MacBook Air M2. According to the specs the MBA should have faster graphics.

Does those faster graphics only apply to the MBAs own screen?
When I have the MBA plugged into the Studio Display the refresh rate feels slower than from the Mac mini.
(less fps when playing games etc.)

So question is, the MBA can't perform at full capacity for an external display?
Can you disable the internal display (close the lid etc.) to have all graphic power to external?

Should have full power when connected to the external; display, but being fanless means it will throttle a lot quicker

 

[JustAnExpat]

Running an external display stresses the graphics a little bit. MacBook Airs don't have a fan, so they will start throttling down a lot quicker than a Mac mini.

 

[Bigwaff]

Make sure you are comparing (no pun intended) apples-to-apples by using the same display resolution when playing the game on both Macs.

 

[Kotten]

I'm running same graphical settings and resolution on both Mac mini and MBA.
Btw, isn't the Mac mini also fanless?

The internal screen on the MBA at same res does give me much better numbers using the same game settings.
So there most be a huge graphic disadvantage to use external vs built in display.

 

[Chancha]

The mini does have a fan, most of the time it is not needed but during a game it most def is running, hard.

As for the MBA; make sure you are running the internal display mirroring the Studio Display, so you are not extending 2 different desktops, because it consumers a lot more GPU resources.

Under this circumstance I guess the MBA should have a slight edge in gaming FPS but not until your machine throttles, this depends wildly what your game is and what settings you use, you need to experiment and maybe use a few monitoring software to judge.