The 2023 Mac Mini: Can Apple's New Machine Finally Make Gaming Possible?

Gaming, gaming, gaming! At Apple's event where they announced this, the 2023 Mac Mini, they were very clear on one thing - Apple Macs can game. As someone who has tried to game on Mac a fair few times over the years, I wanted to actually find out if it is possible in 2023 with the newfound power of Apple silicon and an Apple M2 chip.

To see how feasible this entire idea is, I decided to start with the lowest common denominator - a 13-inch 2020 MacBook Air base model. My theory is that if I can game at all on this MacBook, then it is going to be better on a more powerful system like the Mac Mini or the new MacBook Pros or the Mac Studio.

So, I set up my MacBook Air and needed some peripherals. "What do I need?" I asked Kenny. "You're not going to game on a touch pad," he replied. Thank you, I appreciate that. And you're not gonna plug that in because the thing's got two USB-Cs. I think for best results, I should probably get a power adapter.

First up, we have what might be the poster child for Mac gaming. This 13-inch MacBook Air is going to be my test machine to see if Apple's new chip can handle some serious gaming action. Let's find out how it goes!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Gaming, gaming, gaming!At Apple's event wherethey announced this,the 2023 Mac Mini,they were very clear on one thing,Apple Macs can game.Now, as someone who hastried to game on Maca fair few times over the years,I wanna actually find out, here in 2023,with the newfound power of Apple siliconand an Apple M2 chip,can you actually game?To see how feasible thisentire idea is to begin with,I actually wanna start withthe lowest common denominator,a 13-inch 2020 MacBook Air base model.My theory is this.If I can game at all on this MacBook,then it is 100% going to bebetter on a more powerful systemlike the Mac Mini or the new MacBook Prosor the Mac Studio or whatever the case is.If it works here, then itsort of proves the casethat gaming is remotely feasible.So first of all, again, I'vegot my MacBook Air here,but I need some peripherals.Kinsey, what do I need?- Well, you're not gonnagame on a touch pad.- Thank you, I appreciate that.- And you're not gonna plug that inbecause the thing's got two USB-Cs.- I think for best results,I should probably get a power adapter.First up, we have whatmight be the poster childfor Mac gaming, "Resident Evil: Village."Now this is a gamethat Apple specificallycalled out in their keynote,and with one copy purchasedfrom the Mac App Store,important because I thinkthat you have to get theMac App Store versionto have the full Apple goodness.The whole reason I wanted to do this videois cause I saw a Digital Foundry videowhere they looked at playing"Resident Evil: Village"on M1 Macs on ultra, andit was surprisingly good.They were really impressed.I was like, "Huh,maybe it's time I should giveMac gaming a second try."I will say, this does look likea more traditional PC game.So I've got a wide varietyof settings in the game.V-sync on. I'm gonna turnthat off just to see.And MetalFX upscaling.So MetalFX is one ofthe main selling pointsof running a fully native game.Because essentially it'svery similar to somethinglike NVIDIA's DLSSwhere we'll use some of thatneural engine processingto upscale your imageto get surprisinglyclose to native resultsbut with a far better frame ratethan if I was actually runningat say like 1080P or something.So we'll try it.Supposedly, this isgoing to be very helpful.Aw, it's a baby.Whoa.Whoa, did you see that?It literally loaded instantly.The loading screen wasup for like a second.So I'm playing it 1080P.I will say, I can see alittle bit of upscaling,but, honestly, the scene isso dark, it does not look bad.But I will say, to myeyes, this is very smooth.If this is the kind ofperformance that you can expectout of a base model MacBook Air,it is incredibly impressive.All right, goodnight, baby.- Press Fto put asleep (laughs)?(Kinsley laughs)- If only were that easy.Now, next, I actually wanna try somethingthat should work very well."Dolphin" is an incrediblypopular emulatorfor a wide variety of devices,and from what I've heard,it works very well on M1 Macs.So let's launch it. Let's see what we got.I'm gonna leave most ofthese things to default'cause I'm not entirelysure how to set it up,but let's just see what happens.I mean, it's working.I will say though,running this at 3X resolutionlooks really clean.Okay, I don't know how to do anythingbesides walk left andright, but it's fine though.Frame rate, I will saywe're not locked at 60.We're losing a little bit, but, also,I can just not run it at threetimes native resolution too.This is very, very solid.Now there are other larger gamesthat are being optimizedfor Apple Silicon,but that list isincredibly small right now."No Man's Sky" is somethingthat Apple has talked aboutthat is on the way.But one of the actual bestways of playing games,which are 100% certified to work,is actually again throughthe Mac App Store,but playing iPhone and iPad games.Now, unfortunately, the majority of gamesthat are made for iOSand iPad OS do not work,but some do, including "Asphalt 9."Okay, controller connected.So I'm definitely playingit in like windowed mode.So, wait, is really the only thing you dois you just hit nitro and then you drift?There's no other controls of any kind?- It's like"Temple Run," but cars.- "Asphalt 9" technically works.Maybe not like a hardcore game,but we'll put that in the categoryof things you can do on a Mac.(wondrous music)(air whooshing)- Now Austin has clearlyforgotten one crucial thingwhen it comes to Macgaming, that's Apple Arcade,which can work on any Macregardless of whether it's an M1, M2,even works on your phone.(wondrous music)- So now, my friends, wehave moved on to Steam.Oh yeah, so it automatically sorts itby games that are supported.So "War Thunder," "Rust,""Elder Scrolls," "Civ."I mean, there are a fairfew, "City Skylines."There are a fair few gamesthat do have Mac support.Now, I will say that a lot of what we usefor this video was basedon the Apple Gaming Wiki,which we'll have linkedin the description.Let's start out with "Hades."Now this is a game thatis going to be runningthrough Rosetta, correct?- Yes.- If you're not familiar, Rosettais the compatibility layerthat allows non-optimizedgames to run on Mac.Now it's more than just games, right?A wide variety of software uses this.Although at this point,we're over two years intothis sort of M1 transition,most Mac apps are supported.However, most games are not.Oh, dude, this is completely fine.Now I will say withoutmy frame rate counter,I don't think we're at 60 here.Now fair enough,this is not the mostdemanding game in the world.But considering that this is a gamewhich was never designed to run on M1,the fact that we arerunning through Rosettathrough a translationlayer to make this work,two thumbs up.This is totally solid.- It says a lot about Rosetta.- It does.And, again, keep in mindI got eight gigs of RAM,which is shared between my CPU and my GPU,meaning that none of these gameshave all that much headroomto work with, and yet,largely pretty good.Now, my friends, let's go a little spicy.A walk to the dark side, my friends.Using the power of Parallels,we can in fact launch Windows 11,which actually launched very quickly.In the past, if you wantedto run Windows on your Mac,you used Boot Camp, which essentiallywould just create a separatepartition on the drive.So you'd split your SSD in half,and then you would have Mac OS or Windows,and you'd boot into one or theother, and it was all great.However, when Apple made the transitionover to Apple silicon,there was no longer theability to run Boot Camp.And for a little while there,there was just no abilityto really run Windows at all on your Mac.However, Parallels now hassurprisingly good supportfor Mac OS, specifically onApple silicon, and Windows 11.Now, the first thing I wannatry is pulling up Task Manager.What is actually Parallel's pass through?So Parallel sees four of my CPU cores,four my Apple silicon CPU cores,3 gigs of RAM, plus an additional 1.5 gigsthat's locked off for my virtual GPU.This is not going to work well.I will tell you this straight up.Hello, what is this?- This is another SSD,that one that has Windows games on it.- Shout out to not having enough storageon our device either.Look, we're just tryingto make sure this works.You know, I will say beforewe even get into gaming,this Windows install running on Mac,actually, surprisingly like not bad."Skyrim," this seems like a bad idea.- Hey, Bethesda.- Okay!- It's running in windowedmode, which I don't like,but that's fine, that's fine.Is this actually gonna work?- (laughs) Maybe.- Oh my god, it works!Oh, it works!- Why is this surprising?- Why would this work?It's running in Windowsthrough virtualization!Like I'm legitimatelysurprised. I did not think.I thought that we werejust gonna try this,and it was just gonnaimmediately crash out.So to be clear, this was nota plug-and-play experience.- It was not.- Kinsey definitely had to spend some timemaking sure the DirectX functions here.- All of those kinds of DirectX and thingsthat you might just automaticallyhave or expect to haveon your gaming laptop orPC would not be there.And so these games will belike, "Hey, where's this?"And you're like, "Oh!"So that's definitely a consideration.- Yeah.- You're signing up for an adventure.- Yes.- Don't come complainingto us when it doesn't work.(Kinsey laughs)So we know what theMacBook Air is capable of,and while it's not great,it's kind of better than I expected.Let's try gaming on the new M2 Mac Mini.So actually I have twodifferent Mac Minis to test.So the one that's connectedright now is the base model.So this is $600.It's got the M2 processorwith 8 gigs of RAM and256 gigs of storage.Essentially, this shouldbe a moderate step upfrom the MacBook Air.I also have an M2 Pro Mac Mini.Now this is significantlymore expensive. It is $1,300.But for that money,we get not only 16 gigsof RAM and 512 gig SSD,but importantly, it has the M2 Pro chip.So I'm gonna start out byplaying "Resident Evil: Village,"which again, ran fairlywell on the MacBook Air.We also now have anactual heads up display,which is going to give usour frame rate and whatnot,which is gonna be helpfulbecause last time,I was kind of playing inthe dark, quite literally.Let's just leave it onthe exact same settingsit was on the MacBook Air.1080P, medium settingswith MetalFX upscaling.Seems reasonable.Okay, instantly on the Mac Mini,we are pushing 93 frames per second.Wow, that's smooth.Yeah, so looking at the baby,especially when you look atlike the texture and the hair,I mean, that's still pretty good.You know what I'ma do?- Turn it up.- I'm gonna turn it up, exactly.Let's see what we can do here.I'm gonna just turn off the upscaling.Our frame rate has dipped,but still it's 60 to 70 FPS right now.And mind you, I will say, perceptively,I mean, maybe if I lookat the baby's hair,yeah, it's like a little bit more detail.But running that MetalFXupscaling is not bad.I would play more, but I'm scared.I don't, it's too spooky.(spooky music)It's too spooky.Next up, we are going to attemptto play "Euro Truck Simulator 2."This is a game which is not optimized.So this is a Mac game, butit's running via Rosetta.So we'll see what we got.- You're currently on a missionto deliver some concrete stairs. (laughs)- Concrete stairs, okay, wellthe stairs must be delivered.So we are running at 1080Pon high settings here,and we've got 50 frames per second.If I was a little bitmore serious about this,I'd probably turn thegraphic settings downjust a little bit'cause it does seem likethere's a little bit of latency.I also would not be usingW-A-S-D to control my truckon the streets ofEurope?- Luxembourg. (laughs)- Luxembourg, my favoriteof the European cities.So one of the big advantagesof going from the MacBookAir to the Mac Mini,in addition to the factthat the M2 is just anupgrade over the M1,is actually more so in the cooling.So with the MacBook Air,there's no fan whatsoever.So while it had pretty decent performance,you know, we were obviously gamingfor a longer period of time,we were certainly leavinga little bit on the table.But with this Mac Mini with an actual fan,we should be able to play likethis, I mean, in perpetuity.What I really wanna do isfire up the M2 Pro Mac Mini'cause remember, this has notonly a lot more performancewith the M2 Pro chip, butalmost more importantly,it's got 16 gigs of RAM,which means that some ofthose Parallels issueswe are dealing with earliershould be much less noticeable.Alright, we have gotourselves a copy of Windows 11running in Parallels now.Now I'm curious if weopen up Task Manager,before I think we had, what was it?Like three or four gigabytesof RAM for Windows.It was not a lot.This time, Windows now has 6gigabytes of RAM to play with,and the GPU looks like it has, yeah,3 gigs as well, which is shared.That is gonna be a big difference.Another upgrade with the M2 PROis that it's got a HDMI 2.1 port,which means that I'mpushing 4K at 144 hertzon this monitor right now.I'm not gonna game it 4K 144, but I could.I will just take 30 though. (laughs)So we're gonna try to launch "Skyrim"at 1080P, medium settings,with TAA enabled.So let's do it.Before, I would say, we were runningat like 480P or 554P andlike less than 30 FPS.Oh, okay, that's better.Wow!- Wow!- This actually works!You can really run "Skyrim" on anything!Like, okay, yeah, maybewe're dipping a littleto like the low 50s when Ilike start looking around,but like compared towhere the Mac Air was,this is a night and day difference.We can actually play Windowsgames via Parallel on a Mac.(air whooshing)The proof of concept is here.There's really only onemore thing left to try.Yes, my friends,it is time to build ourselvesa PC in Windows on our Mac.(laughs) It's a little dumb.So "PC Build Simulator" isdefaulting to ultra at 1440.Sure, and this is at, look that.We're getting 40, 50 frames per second.Well, okay, a little choppy.And by a little choppy,I mean very choppy.You know what? I'm gonnabe honest with you.I've never played "PCBuild Simulator," ever.I'm gonna use the computer.Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on.Lemme just wrap my headaround this for a second.(Kinsey laughs)Okay.So I am using Windows in a gamerunning on Windows on a Mac.(Austin laughs)Now I'm gonna go back out to my finder.(laughs) Oh, this is great.This is great.Look, am I gonna tell youthat you should go outand buy a Mac to game?No, I am not.But if you would've asked me a year ago,"Could I game on Mac,"especially with Apple silicon,my answer would've generallybeen, "Not really."I would like to see, a yearfrom now or two years from now,how far things go, butthe potential is here.'Cause when you lookat what we've got out of "Resident Evil,"for a game that they actuallyput the time and effortto design specifically for Apple silicon,or at least to do a proper port of,the performance is incredibly impressive.It just comes down, I think,to whether or not developerswant to spend the time,the money and the effort toactually get it up and running.If you're interested inlearning anything elseabout the new Mac Minis,we've actually done a video,which is gonna go live very shortly,over, not only on Denkidiscussing a little bit moreof the review side of things,but also we've done an entire This Ison why this specific M2 modelof 600 bucks is an incredibly good deal.My friends, it's a brave newworld of Mac gaming. (laughs)I'll go back to buildingmy PC on my Mac via Windows'cause it just makes me really happy.