Will a new Mac Mini run Second Life

[malandra]

It's a simple question. I need a new desktop computer, and all I do is word processing and photo storage. I'd probably be just fine slapping some externals onto my 2009 MBP.

Thing is, a close family member is a pretty serious Linden. I'd like to be able to go check out what he does, but my hardware can't handle Second Life.

So, will a quad core mini have what it takes? Or should I, out of familial love, spring for a base Mac Pro when I can get one?

Does anyone here hang out in Second Life? What hardware do you use?

 

[iydkmigthtky]

it will run flawlessly even on the base mac mini; second life has awful graphics.

 

[blanka]

it will run flawlessly even on the base mac mini; second life has awful graphics.

What a bull. It still is one of the most demanding programs for a GPU. And it can have very nice graphics! The palmy beaches with shadows, ambient occlusion, water effects, max view distance, max particles, avatar cloth.... Because all content is user-generated, it is not so optimised as say GTA5. Crank up the settings, and it will even hog a GTX Titan. But the nice thing is, you can scale as you like. From blocky crap on a G4 Mini with Radeon 9200 to max settings to nuke a Titan. Do yourself a favour, and run Windows 7 on it for SL. It will double your framerate.

But pure for SL, you probably better get a refurb or second life Mini 2011 with Radeon 6630M. It will be 10-20% faster than the HD4000 quad.

 

[And]

One alternative would be talk to said family member via the RealWorld (TM)

 

[malandra]

One alternative would be talk to said family member via the RealWorld (TM)

It's obvious, right? I will see Uncle Linden in a few days for holiday celebrations, I just couldn't get an answer out of him last week