Mac Mini For Gaming

[degucom17]

So I was wondering, would the mid level mac mini with a discrete GPU be able to run some middle of the line gaming? I was thinking of getting it for gaming, while installing windows 7 for bootcamp. I was wondering if it would be able to handle Crysis 2 at medium, Left 4 Dead 2 on high, and most average games on Medium. I want to keep the overall form factor and reliability of macs, but do not want an imac due to the fact that I am writing this on the 2009 imac. I already have a keyboard and mouse and monitor, I just want some advice.

 

[DustinT]

Ya, you should be fine as long as you have reasonable expectations on what you can do on it. I game all the time on my 2011 MBP 15" with the AMD 6490 graphics and it works ok at lower resolutions and settings.

 

[HazyCloud]

I have the entry level 2011 Mini and I'm surprised at how well it runs games. Granted, the only games I've tried are Call of Duty 2 and Prey but they both ran pretty well. This is also on Lion, no Windows 7.

I haven't maxed out either but I had both running at about 80% and I didn't see a single issue. As a previous Xbox 360 only gamer, my Mini just might make me play more computer games.

 

[degucom17]

DO you know if the upgrade from i5 to i7 is worth it? Also how well can this run new games

 

[RKilbane20]

I can play the orange box on graphics all the way up, except like anti-allising and MPAA but the texture and everything else all the way up. Also Left 4 Dead 2 runs pretty much on full graphics. Star Craft 2 plays on High. I'm not running on windows either but you would get even better performance.

 

[gregorsamsa]

So I was wondering, would the mid level mac mini with a discrete GPU be able to run some middle of the line gaming? I was thinking of getting it for gaming, while installing windows 7 for bootcamp. I was wondering if it would be able to handle Crysis 2 at medium, Left 4 Dead 2 on high, and most average games on Medium. I want to keep the overall form factor and reliability of macs, but do not want an imac due to the fact that I am writing this on the 2009 imac. I already have a keyboard and mouse and monitor, I just want some advice.

Some HD 6630M benchmarks, inc. for Crysis 2 & other games, though with inferior DDR3 VRAM compared to Mini's GDDR5:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6630M

Crysis 2 running on Mac Mini with HD 3000 integrated graphics & only 2GB RAM, so you'd probably get very decent FPS at medium settings on Mini with discrete HD 6630M:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrWNXlMvac>