OS X Could the next generation Mac Mini with Haswell Graphics be a Steambox solution?

[GrayApple]

With Valve's Steambox and several third party Steamboxes on the horizon and Haswell coming out soon, do you think it is possible that the Mac Mini could be an adequate Steambox?

 

[Cougarcat]

That depends entirely on what games you want to run. It should be OK for today's games, but don't expect any integrated card to run PS4/next-gen Xbox-level games well.

 

[schopaia]

That depends entirely on what games you want to run. It should be OK for today's games, but don't expect any integrated card to run PS4/next-gen Xbox-level games well.

I kind of doubt that. I've tried a pretty wide assortment of "this gen" games on my 2012 macbook air and they universally run like garbage. The last one I tried was Burnout Paradise. That's a 5 year old game, and it runs quite poorly at 800x600 (and at that setting looks pretty terrible too).

Even if Haswell manages to double that performance, I think the OP would not be happy running anything from the 360 generation. The only "newer" games that perform OK are Valve games like Portal 2.

 

[Cougarcat]

Even if Haswell manages to double that performance, I think the OP would not be happy running anything from the 360 generation. The only "newer" games that perform OK are Valve games like Portal 2.

Haswell graphics is supposed to be the equivalent of a GT 650M, so it should be fine with most current things on medium settings, especially with laptop resolutions. That is, if intel is telling the truth.

That said, I would avoid anything integrated if you're going to be doing a decent amount of gaming, especially in the future.

 

[Miharu]

It won't be fun playing on it when after a while the fans will go nuts.

 

[iMacFarlane]

Wanted to vote for both of the "no" choices. The Steambox is going to be adequate hardware serving a specialized Linux build from Valve. Shoehorning that into the current Mac Mini design makes NO SENSE in the OS, the GPU, or the price point.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I kind of doubt that. I've tried a pretty wide assortment of "this gen" games on my 2012 macbook air and they universally run like garbage. The last one I tried was Burnout Paradise. That's a 5 year old game, and it runs quite poorly at 800x600 (and at that setting looks pretty terrible too).

Even if Haswell manages to double that performance, I think the OP would not be happy running anything from the 360 generation. The only "newer" games that perform OK are Valve games like Portal 2.

Well the macbook air has some pretty severe thermal restrictions, and you start throttling pretty quickly. Heck, the MBP has the same issue. I wouldn't judge a desktop component by a laptop component.

To the OP, the same thing. The mac mini, while a great machine, just doesn't have the horsepower in OS X, and if you put linux on it, yeah it's nice, but it's not the best bang for your buck. It might work for you, but Steam isn't going to be releasing any rebranded Mac Mini's anytime soon.