Mac mini video accelerator

[nemesis0]

Hey everyone! I just got a Mac Mini 1.66 GHZ intel core DUO that i use for alot of music stuff (i hav a $6000 recording studio in my bedroom) Anyways, I got a copy of "The lord of the rings Battle for Middle Earth II" and so i was planning on setting 20 gbs of my hard drive aside to use bootcamp and throw windows on it so i can play it. The game itself works fine on my moms laptop which has the intek GMA 900, but the graphics have to all be set to LOW!!!

I know the mac mini has the Intel GMA 950 with 64MB shared memory. Now I know with my PC i can open the BIOS and pump 256 mb into it, but how would i go about doing that on my mac??? I just wanna be able to put some of the settings up and run it nice (i have 1gb ram and the game only requires 256)... Does the 950 support hardware T&L or Shaders??? Im not fimilliar with that GPU.

 

[timswim78]

Hey everyone! I just got a Mac Mini 1.66 GHZ intel core DUO that i use for alot of music stuff (i hav a $6000 recording studio in my bedroom) Anyways, I got a copy of "The lord of the rings Battle for Middle Earth II" and so i was planning on setting 20 gbs of my hard drive aside to use bootcamp and throw windows on it so i can play it. The game itself works fine on my moms laptop which has the intek GMA 900, but the graphics have to all be set to LOW!!!

I know the mac mini has the Intel GMA 950 with 64MB shared memory. Now I know with my PC i can open the BIOS and pump 256 mb into it, but how would i go about doing that on my mac??? I just wanna be able to put some of the settings up and run it nice (i have 1gb ram and the game only requires 256)... Does the 950 support hardware T&L or Shaders??? Im not fimilliar with that GPU.

Windows will automatically allocate up to 224MB of RAM for the integrated video. OS X will not go beyond 64MB.

 

[nemesis0]

So i dont have to do anything?!? it will do it automatically??? will i be able to run games with higher settings? and does the 950 support T&L or shaders (although i dont think so, it might)

 

[nemesis0]

Ok wait... ive figured almost everything out... just... will windows automatically give 224 mb ram to video? or do i have to set something (cuz here i do it in the bios... but elsewhere?

 

[dmw007]

I know the mac mini has the Intel GMA 950 with 64MB shared memory. Now I know with my PC i can open the BIOS and pump 256 mb into it, but how would i go about doing that on my mac???

Sadly, the graphics are as good as they are going to get on your Mac Mini.

 

[Makosuke]

Ok wait... ive figured almost everything out... just... will windows automatically give 224 mb ram to video? or do i have to set something (cuz here i do it in the bios... but elsewhere?

It's automatic as long as you properly install the Bootcamp drivers like the instructions say. You couldn't get to the BIOS even if you wanted to (there IS no BIOS--it's EFI, with a sort of hack to get Windows to boot on it), but thankfully you don't have to. Just install it and go. There are some adjustments you can make from the control panel for it in Windows, but the RAM is handled automatically.

And I THINK the 950 supports programmable shaders and such, but it's still a weak chip for gaming. It'll perform somewhat better than the GMA 900, but don't get your hopes up.

 

[Mord]

gma 950 supports T&L in software which the cpu handles, and shader model 2 in hardware.

 

[nemesis0]

Allright thanx everyone! Im getting a pc for gaming, but as of right now since i have an audio studio up in my room im using my mac. Haha ill just play with what i can until i get my pc. Thanks