I recently purchased the mac mini 2.3 i7 w/ 16gb RAM. It is very fast and so far everything I needed. However I would like to use it to play Civilization 5. Not a PC gamer but a console gamer. However I really liked Civ Rev on xbox and always wanted to play the full experience. Has anyone tried this game on there Mac Mini and if so what are the results?
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Civ 5 on Mac Mini?
- Thread starter isaiah41v10
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You should be OK to play relatively small maps at low graphics settings. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell with Civ 5. Once you get to the end-game, with a large map area revealed and loads of Civs interacting, it can easily bring powerful machines to their knees.
Makes a lot of sense that later in the game it becomes more demanding on the system. I'm wondering though unless you have a top of the line rig would this be the case with an iMac? Let's say the 27inch i5 with the Nvidia GTX 660M discrete GPU? I would upgrade (and unfortunately spend a lot more money) if it would make a difference.
Certainly, the GTX 660M iMac would be a better option. The mini's HD4000 will mean that you're always going to be limited regarding graphics and any modern discrete graphics will be an improvement. The Gods and Kings expansion, as well as the fall 2012 patch, helped a lot but Civ 5 seems to be hungry for VRAM to store its textures.
I play on a 3.33 Hex Mac Pro with a 5870 and have no problems with any size of map, so I'm probably not the best to give advice. Hopefully someone with a similar setup can offer more relevant advice.
*update* I've also got a Macbook Pro 13", i5 2.3 GHz with 8 GB RAM and an HD3000. I've just loaded a late-game, standard map and it's surprisingly playable at low graphics settings.
I play on a 3.33 Hex Mac Pro with a 5870 and have no problems with any size of map, so I'm probably not the best to give advice. Hopefully someone with a similar setup can offer more relevant advice.
*update* I've also got a Macbook Pro 13", i5 2.3 GHz with 8 GB RAM and an HD3000. I've just loaded a late-game, standard map and it's surprisingly playable at low graphics settings.
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Have you tried this game out on your mini yet? I have the 2.6i7 and I'm looking at getting it on sale today.
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I have played this on my MBA i5 HD3000 and 4Gb RAM. It plays very well indeed.
I will start this by saying I AM NOT A BIG GAMER.... hardly at all in fact. However, I have played Civ IV & V and Portal 1 & 2 on my MBA. I actually played these all on my Gen 1 MBA and it worked fine.
I am always a little confused by the 'need' to have very high end computers to play these games but I guess it depends what your experience is and what you expect. For me, as long as the game isn't jerky, pixelated and slow, it works fine.
I just checked my settings on Civ V and the graphics are medium settings for everything. No lags, slowness, pixels, stuttering or anything else. It looks great.
Just my experience. Hope it helps
I will start this by saying I AM NOT A BIG GAMER.... hardly at all in fact. However, I have played Civ IV & V and Portal 1 & 2 on my MBA. I actually played these all on my Gen 1 MBA and it worked fine.
I am always a little confused by the 'need' to have very high end computers to play these games but I guess it depends what your experience is and what you expect. For me, as long as the game isn't jerky, pixelated and slow, it works fine.
I just checked my settings on Civ V and the graphics are medium settings for everything. No lags, slowness, pixels, stuttering or anything else. It looks great.
Just my experience. Hope it helps
That helps me, thanks for sharing. By the way if anyone jumped in here steam has a 75% off Civ5 sale right now today only (about 6h 20m left)
I run it on my mini and it seems fine on medium settings and 1920x1080. I haven't got to a big endgame yet though, so can't give a full review. I'd say go for it.
Gaming with the mini seems to be very much down to how the software interacts with the mini's hardware which seems to be hard to predict. For example, DOTA2, which I would have thought was fairly undemanding graphically requires minimum settings and even then the fans are up to 100% within a few minutes. Call of Duty Black Ops (which apparently doesn't even support the HD4000) runs fine and smoothly on medium settings with minimal fan noise.
Gaming with the mini seems to be very much down to how the software interacts with the mini's hardware which seems to be hard to predict. For example, DOTA2, which I would have thought was fairly undemanding graphically requires minimum settings and even then the fans are up to 100% within a few minutes. Call of Duty Black Ops (which apparently doesn't even support the HD4000) runs fine and smoothly on medium settings with minimal fan noise.