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Intel Mac mini Q&A - Revised November 4, 2009
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The "system requirements" for many current games specify not only an amount of VRAM but also an ATI or NVIDIA graphics card. Up until now, the vast majority of Apple computers have had these cards, but the Intel Mac mini models do not. Will games that say an ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce graphics card is required run on the Intel Mac mini systems?
Please note that this Q&A was written to refer to Mac mini systems that are powered by Intel GMA 950 graphics (those released prior to the "Early 2009" model on March 3, 2009). The "Early 2009" and "Late 2009" Mac mini models have NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics.
As is noted elsewhere in the Mac mini "Core" Q&A, the Mac mini never has been intended to be a "hardcore" gaming system, although Apple has marketed the Intel-based models as supporting the "latest 3D games".
As also quoted in the answer to "Is World of Warcraft (Wow) playable on the Intel Mac mini?" a MacWorld editorial takes Apple to task for their marketing:
Frankly, that's an assertion I dispute. . . We can play semantic arguments until we're blue in the face about what "latest 3D games" means. But it seems like a lot of our readers, judging from the forum posts made this week, have higher expectations than what our initial tests are showing as possible for this machine.
I'll be the first to tell people that if they want a gaming Mac, they're much better off looking at an Intel iMac.
Prior to the release of the "Early 2009" Mac mini, Apple's "Gaming Hardware" website listed the Intel Mac mini under a heading titled "Casual Gamers" and more conservatively stated that the system "offers a low-cost solution to those looking to add or include games in their digital lifestyle." It provided a list of suggested titles with modest hardware requirements like Lego Star Wars and Zoo Tycoon 2 along with eight others.
It essentially is difficult to provide a "yes or no" answer because whether or not games will be playable will vary depending on the game and the level of performance that one finds acceptable.
The promoted Lego Star Wars game was listed as requiring an "ATI Radeon 9000 or NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 video card or later with 32MB VRAM." As the Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64 MB of DDR2 SDRAM is roughly comparable to the ATI Radeon 9000, one could expect acceptable performance with this game.
Sometimes games will list "ATI or NVIDIA required", but in the case of World of Warcraft (WoW), the company specifies "ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more" in the minimum system requirements, and then provides a longer list of supported video hardware, including the Intel GMA900. As Intel shows that the GMA950 is at least modestly faster than the GMA900, it isn't surprising that gamers have found the performance of WoW on the Intel Mac mini to be acceptable if one has modest expectations.
Other games, like Quake 4, specify that an an "ATI Radeon 9600 or better [or] NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better" is required, and then alternately provides the "NVIDIA GeForce 6600, 6800, [and] 7800; ATI Radeon 9600, 9650, 9700, 9800, X600, X800, X850, [and] X1600" as supported video cards.
One blogger (no longer online) played the Universal (Intel native) version of Doom 3 on a Mac mini "Core Duo" 1.66 and reported that "High Quality on 640x480" was the best he felt "comfortable" playing. As Quake 4 is based on the Doom 3 engine and the GMA950 falls below the minimum requirements, the game might "run", but the results probably would be well below the expectations of most.
Another blogger reported that playing the Windows version of Half-Life 2 using Boot Camp on an unspecified Intel Mac mini also was limited to the 640x480 resolution.
For the "Mid-2007" Mac mini "Core 2 Duo" models -- the Mac mini "Core 2 Duo" 1.83 and the "Core 2 Duo" 2.0 -- the always reliable MacWorld, unsurprisingly, found that as these systems have the same "integrated" graphics system as the models they replaced, the gaming performance remained lackluster despite the faster processors:
The new systems were faster than the older models across the board, even managing to get about 13-percent more frames per second in our Unreal Tournament 2004 test against the old high end model and 19-percent more frames per second than the low-end 1.66 GHz model. And while it is nice to see some improvement in game scores, the Mac mini remains at the bottom of the Mac barrel for gaming.
Ultimately, if there is a particular game that you would like to play, you would be wise to verify compatibility with your Mac mini before purchase.
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