M4 Mac mini Is A Capable Machine For Running Older AAA Games Like Death Stranding; Base Configuration Pushes The 60+FPS At Very High Quality Settings

Apple might be late to dive into the gaming market, but its M4 is definitely a capable SoC that can push respectable framerates in somewhat older AAA titles such as Death Stranding. When running the game on the new Mac mini at the ‘Very High’ settings, the robust cooling solution of the compact machine likely comes in handy, making it an enjoyable experience. It remains to be seen how relatively modern games would perform on the latest Mac mini, but first, let us take a look at Death Stranding.

Death Stranding performance test on the M4 Mac mini was performed at the 1080p resolution, with Apple’s upscaling set to ‘Quality’

The 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU of the M4 need to have Apple’s MetalFX upscaler set to Quality to push those frames, but then again, which title does not require some form of upscaling to work fluidly? On this occasion, the YouTube channel MrMacRightPlus demonstrates that the Mac mini’s outside surface temperature does not exceed 38.1 degrees Celsius, showing that the machine can easily tame the chipset’s thermals.

As for the performance, at the 1080p resolution, the test starts with a 90FPS jump but slowly stabilizes between the 60FPS and 75FPS range. As the player moves closer and around the foliage, the performance witnesses a minor dip below the 60FPS mark, but it is not even close to catastrophic. Despite the M4 Mac mini featuring 16GB of unified RAM, the game allocates just 8GB for the game, indicating that developers may not need more than a specific amount.

With Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition arriving next year for macOS, complete with pay tracing and Frame Generation support, it will be interesting to witness how much VRAM developers allocate for this game, and make no mistake; this title will likely consume a ton of framebuffer. For now, we are impressed with how the M4, which was initially launched for the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models, can deliver decent performance in Death Stranding, meaning that at the very least, you can enjoy play games that are around four to five years old, which still look visually impressive.

We want to assume that the capable thermal solution of the Mac mini made it possible for the M4 to avoid thermal throttling and continue pushing a solid framerate, as in a previous Premiere Pro 4K Export test, the Mac mini is shown to be slightly faster than the MacBook Pro featuring the same Apple Silicon. Best of all, if you want to experience both work and play sessions on the Mac mini, the base model with 16GB RAM and 256GB is currently available for $579 on Amazon thanks to a $20 discount, with the 512GB version getting slashed by $50 and can be yours for $749.

News Source: MrMacRightPlus