Having recently bought an M4 Pro Mac mini, I immediately proceeded to put it through its paces. While it seemed to handle benchmarks fine, I noticed that when running some Mac games that the mini would crash. Curiously Windows games running under Crossover did not display the same degree of heat generation. It all came together when I noticed that the native Mac games having problems were the ones that launched with "Game Mode." This is a process (first pioneered by Feral Interactive) that raises the game's priority to enhance game performance. Details here:
support.apple.com
And indeed when I disabled Game Mode, I noticed almost no crashing at all. I also found that if I installed some fan control software and increased the fan speed over the Apple defaults, the crashing also stopped. The fans made a good bit of noise when tweaked in this manner, though using headphones took care of that problem.
I was wondering if anyone had noticed this issue, or if it is just some sort of isolated phenomenon on my particular mini and/or config. I did have a regular M4 mini a couple of months ago but returned it because it was a little underpowered for my purposes. The lesser model did not display any issues at all running any kind of game, presumably because the weaker chip did not produce as much heat.
Use Game Mode on Mac - Apple Support
Game Mode automatically prioritizes the performance of your game for smoother, more consistent frame rates and improved in-game responsiveness.
And indeed when I disabled Game Mode, I noticed almost no crashing at all. I also found that if I installed some fan control software and increased the fan speed over the Apple defaults, the crashing also stopped. The fans made a good bit of noise when tweaked in this manner, though using headphones took care of that problem.
I was wondering if anyone had noticed this issue, or if it is just some sort of isolated phenomenon on my particular mini and/or config. I did have a regular M4 mini a couple of months ago but returned it because it was a little underpowered for my purposes. The lesser model did not display any issues at all running any kind of game, presumably because the weaker chip did not produce as much heat.
