YouTuber, Created Labs tested M1 Mac mini compatibility for 4K gaming and he was impressed with the results. He played Fortnite, Tomb Raider and Dying Light on a 4K Dell monitor on 16:9 resolution to test the fps (frames per seconds) supported by the new Apple Silicon Mac mini to check whether the games were playable or not. However, the viewers were reminded that the played games were not optimized for M1 and were running on Rosetta 2 which resulted in a drop in fps.
Rosetta 2 is Apple's new translator on the Apple Silicon Macs, exclusively for the interim, developers transition their apps from Intel Core to M1 processor. Currently, all of Apple's native and few third-party apps are optimized for the M1 chip.
Since the launch of M1 Mac models, reviews and tests have proven that first-generation Apple Silicon is not only powerful but also extremely power efficient. Therefore, Create Labs believes that once these high-graphics games are optimized for the M1 chip, they will deliver an impressive gaming experience. Here are the 4K gaming experience via Rosetta 2 on M1 Mac mini.
4K Gaming on M1 Mac mini: Fortnite, Tomb Raider, and Dying light
Set on full 4K resolution, the M1 Mac mini supported 35 to 40 fps for Fortnite. However, there was a little distortion or glitching when breaking down objects which was probably because the game was running on Rosetta. Having said that, there were no issues in other actions like running around, shooting, and building. YouTuber's conclusion was that Fortnite is very playable on Apple Silicon Mac. Bringing down the resolution to 2K, the computer-supported 60 to 70 fps without any issues at all.
Want to get Free vbucks in Fortnite? Don't miss this opportunity. I will give you 100% Woking Fortnite free v bucks generator 2021. Minimum system requirements for Fortnite on Mac. Video card: Intel HD 4000 on PC or Intel Iris Pro 5200 or equivalent AMD GPU on Mac. Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz. Memory: 4GB RAM. OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6. Can you play Fortnite on the new M1, silicon Macbooks? It's not clear why Fortnite couldn't be updated on macOS because it's not distributed through the Mac App Store, but it seems that Epic Games is going to withhold updates on all Apple platforms. Playing Fortnite Save The World on GeForce Now. Installing Windows is by far your best option if you want to continue playing Fortnite: Save The World on a Mac. However, you can also use NVIDIA'S GeForce Now For Mac to play it too. GeForce Now hosts the game in the Cloud and streams it to your Mac.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, one of the most intense games, did not perform as well as Fortnite in full 4K resolution. Approximately 13 to 15 fps were supported which made the game unplayable. However, when the resolution was set to 1440p (2K), the machine gave 27 to 30 fps which made the game playable. Having said that, Create Labs was impressed even with 15fps in 4K for such a high-intensity game.
Dying Light on 4K gave 20 fps which was not playable but on 2K the YouTuber recorded 38 to 40 fps which is playable without any drop in frames. Acknowledging that the games are running on Rosetta, YouTuber says that 'once these games are optimized for M1 we might see these 100% playable with 40 to 50 fps on 4K.'
He also did a thermal test to check the heat distribution. After an hour of gaming, the M1 Mac mini was 'barely' warm around 30 degrees Celcius, so the user will not get much thermal throttling because it has a bigger fan.
Verdict:
For light casual gaming like Fortnite, Dying Light, Sims, the M1 Mac mini is perfectly fine. It will be a great little machine for optimized games like CS Go and Fortnite because they will be playable at decent fps at 4K and even at 1080p players will get very good frame rate.
The 4K performance was great on Fortnite, but not so much on the others. I believe this is due to the Rosetta 2 software taking around 20-30% of the performance.
The M1 Mac mini is available with up to 16GB unified memory and up to 2TB SSD storage. Starting at $700 the Apple Silicon Mac mini can be bought from Apple Stores or online.
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While gameplay plays a vital role in whether a game title becomes successful, it isn't the only variable in the equation. Availability allows games to reach wider audiences, and Fortnite simply struck gold from the beginning.
The game's system requirements were easily matched by lower-tier PCs, quickly transforming it into a sensation. Epic Games was also quick when it came to introducing the game to other platforms like consoles and mobile devices, making it accessible to pretty much everyone.
Mac devices are mostly known as productivity machines, but all gamers will naturally question whether their Mac can handle some degree of gaming. Macs have no troubles running indie titles, but Fortnite can look like a stretch since you'll essentially be playing with 99 other players, effectively increasing the graphics that you'll need to render.
Fortnite was optimized well for MacOS, though, meaning you'll have a decent gaming experience. It'd be unfair to expect a gaming PC tier performance, but you'll still be able to get some smooth frame rates.
Here's how you can play Fortnite on your Mac.
Download via the Epic Games Launcher
Unlike other hit games like Among Us, Fortnite is fully optimized to work on macOS. Epic also bundled everything inside a simple installer, so if you've downloaded Fortnite on PC before, the process should be familiar and easy.
- Head over to Fortnite's webpage and click on the yellow 'Download' icon toward the right top corner of your screen.
- Upon clicking the 'Download' button, you'll be asked which platform you'd like to play on. Select 'PC/Mac' to continue.
- Click on 'Sign In,' and you'll then be asked to log in with your details. If you don't have an Epic account, you can create one by clicking on the 'Sign Up' option that works the best for you.
- After you enter your details, you'll be navigated to a download page, and the '.dmg' file for the Epic Games launcher should start downloading automatically.
- If it doesn't download automatically, you can choose the Mac icon on the list and initiate the downloading process yourself.
- Run the Epic installer '.dmg' file and drag the Epic Games Launcher icon to the Applications folder to complete the installation process.
- Open the Epic Games launcher and let it finish its updating process.
- Epic Games launcher should start on its own after the updating process, and you'll need to navigate to 'Library' to download Fortnite.
- If this is your first time installing Fortnite on your Epic account, you'll need to open 'Store' and search for 'Fortnite' to add it to your library.
- Click on the 'Install' button below Fortnite and start downloading the game.
- You'll be able to launch Fortnite without any issues when the Epic Games launcher prompts you with a pop-up saying the game is ready to play.
- Though Fortnite does its best to adjust your settings according to your hardware, we still recommend taking a look at your graphical settings. Setting them to lower values will drastically increase your frames per second, and even some of the most competitive players prefer keeping everything at low since it helps them distinguish enemies faster.
Ensure that your hardware is powerful enough to run Fortnite since you won't have an enjoyable gaming experience with a Mac that doesn't satisfy the minimum system requirements.
Minimum system requirements for Fortnite on Mac
Video card: Intel HD 4000 on PC or Intel Iris Pro 5200 or equivalent AMD GPU on Mac
Processor: Core i3-3225 3.3 GHz
Memory: 4GB RAM
OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit or Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6
Can you play Fortnite on the new M1, silicon Macbooks?
While most developers still need time to make their games compatible with Apple's newest chip, it didn't take long for Epic to make Fortnite available on M1/silicon Mac devices. You can follow the same procedure above to install Epic Games launcher and install Fortnite on your silicon Mac afterward.
The performance is on par with previous generations and even better in some cases. The gaming performance of silicon Mac devices is expected to increase within the next generations, and more games should roll out for the chipset in the upcoming months.
Due to the recent feud between Epic and Apple, Fortnite players on Apple devices will need to resort to playing an older version of the game. This means that anyone playing Fortnite on their Mac won't have access to the cross-platform feature of the game and will only be able to squad up with other players that are also playing on Apple devices.