Apple’s various lines of Mac-related products have always been loved for their productivity-first approach, allowing content creators, video and photo editors, and general consumers to enjoy without the hassle of Windows PCs. However, that also means that they’ve been behind in gaming for years, with very few triple-A titles launching on Mac products. However, the Mac Mini could hopefully change that.
Thanks to the powerful M4 chipset, the new (and very tiny Mac Mini) looks to be offering a game-changing desktop for users to enjoy at an affordable price point. New and upcoming games still need to support Apple’s set of devices but suffice to say, it could be a changing point for the Cupertino company.
Mac Mini delivers hardware-accelerated ray tracing, at a great price
While the M4 Pro found within the more expensive Mac Mini variant is reportedly twice as powerful as the standard M4, both are capable of delivering hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Considering that the basic Mac Mini arrives at $599.99, that’s largely cheaper than some of the best gaming PCs the market has to offer. Of course, it won’t be as powerful as a 4090 PC, especially missing sweet features like DLSS 3, but it will certainly be an impressive piece of tech – potentially one of the best gaming PCs under $1,000.
With 16GB of unified memory, double the amount found in the M2 Mac Mini and the base M2 and M3 MacBook Pros, Apple’s latest device could put the company at the forefront of cheap gaming. A few games are arriving (or have already been released) on Macs, including entries in the Resident Evil series and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows, making the Mac Mini a powerhouse in both gaming and productivity.
However, we’re excited to see the release of Cyberpunk 2077. While the game is sorely missing from the PS5 Pro-enhanced list, Cyberpunk’s upcoming launch on Mac will likely take advantage of the M4’s power and could be used as marketing for the performance behind Apple’s chipset. The most important thing is accessibility, which the Mac Mini is offering, thanks to the $599.99 price.
That’s cheaper than some of the best graphics cards on the market and even puts it into direct competition with some of the best cheap graphics cards available right now. Considering that you’ll just need the peripherals with the Mac Mini, unlike the GPU being just one component of a desktop PC, that’s an impressive feat.
Of course, we’ll have to see how the Mac Mini performs in gaming tests before we can truly believe in Apple’s latest device. But, in any case, we’re pretty excited by the hope of Apple’s future in video games, even if it’ll take years before it can reach the level of Windows PCs.
