Mac Mini 2024: surprising performance in games and emulation

YouTuber ETA Prime tested the performance of Apple’s Mac mini with M4 processor in several games and revealed impressive results. Apple’s recently launched Mac mini with an M4 processor has caught the attention of the gaming public after tests demonstrated its great potential for games and emulations.

In the video, ETA PRIME tested some games with native support and others through CrossOver or with emulation.

• Hades II: With native support on the device, the game reached 1080p resolution on “High” graphics setting and running at 120 FPS.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (macOS): At 1080p resolution and “Medium” graphics setting, it ran at 49 FPS, 6 FPS more than on processors equipped with a Radeon 780M iGPU.
• Metro Exodus: Ran at 1080p resolution, “Medium” graphics setting and 68 FPS.

Using CrossOver, which allows you to run Windows software on your Mac, the Mac mini also demonstrated good performance in popular games:

• Marvel Spider-Man Remastered: Reached 88 FPS at 1080p resolution and graphics on “Medium” setting.
• Elden Ring: Achieved 50 FPS at 900p resolution and “Medium” setting.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Presented 73 FPS at 1080p resolution, “Low” setting and using the AMD FSR 3 upscaling technique.

Emulations

The YouTuber also tested the Mac mini in emulations, running PS3 games:

• Skate 3: Reached 60 FPS at 720p resolution on Vulkan.
• God of War 3: Recorded 50 FPS at the same 720p setting.

And, with Apple and developers working to bring more games with native support to the Mac, the expectation is that the Mac mini M4 will be able to run even more games at high performance in the future.

Source: ETA PRIME.