129 replies to this topic

[Glades7]

Dammmn take a look.  While its not that powerful, that machine is tiny.  What do you think?

http://www.apple.com

[a2daj]

http://www.apple.com/macmini/


Radeon 9200 w/ 32 MB VRAM.

They tout running Halo on the Mac Mini... Uh oh.

[Whaleman]

Yeah, I noticed the Halo part and almost started to laugh. They should have given it 512MB RAM from start though... OS X isn't that fun with 256MN.

[skyhawk]

let the market share now rise!!

3 of my friends (2 PC) are trying to order now as we speak

[Endymion]

Whaleman, on January 11th 2005, 02:32 PM, said:

Yeah, I noticed the Halo part and almost started to laugh. They should have given it 512MB RAM from start though... OS X isn't that fun with 256MN.

Well, here's the quote from their page.

Apple said:

Lock the Target

Or one 3D game. Go ahead, just try to play Halo on a budget PC. Most say they’re good for 2D games only. That’s because an “integrated Intel graphics” chip steals power from the CPU and siphons off memory from system-level RAM. You’d have to buy an extra card to get the graphics performance of Mac mini, and some cheaper PCs don’t even have an open slot to let you add one.

Halo won't run optimally on a 32MB 9200. But it will run. I'm typing this on a crappy 499 emachine. It has "integrated Intel graphics." It can't run Halo. Not at all.

They aren't being too sensational about it, and they are framing it in the proper comparison I think.

[a2daj]

Except the picture doesn't exactly represent the graphics capability of the 9200 w/ Halo.  

I wonder if they could have fit 64 MB of VRAM.  Not necessarily for Halo but for other things.  Some people complain about the OS X GUI being a little more choppy with 32 MBs vs 64 MB with bigger displays.  Plus a Mac Mini as a little WoW station

[innuenstu]

Hi. I have a question. i am using a 1ghz emac ati 7500 with 768 mb ram. The games i play are everquest and w.o.w, occasional,halo,battlefield,unreal tournament,would like to try Kotor.But,, I mainly play rpg's and mmorpg's, will this be a good upgrade for the price? like I said I am not worried about doom3 and most of the up coming games much, for im fine with my current mac on those<heh, except the doom3 part>, but will it be a decent improvement for my rpg's?

Thanks for any suggestions in advance

[The iMac Man]

Most...pointless...Mac...EVER.

Seriously, who is the target audience of this Mac?

...please don't tell PC users to buy this Mac... they will only be disappointed and would probably never buy a Mac again.

[Endymion]

a2daj, on January 11th 2005, 03:23 PM, said:

Except the picture doesn't exactly represent the graphics capability of the 9200 w/ Halo.

It's a stock photo, the same one they've pretty much had everywhere that Halo is ever mentioned. It's probably straight from MacSoft for that matter. If that's a nitpick you might as well point out that, at that print size, you really can't see the graphics capability of the game on any card, including the one it was likely captured from.

A 5200 would probably have been a better choice of hardware pairing, yet the 5200 gets loads of scorn, whereas the 9200 does not. It's probably a more expensive card being in the DirectX 9 set, because I do believe it is in the same power/heat range as a 9200.

[opmdude]

... i rather want to buy thad mac , it's cheap and i only have a emac700mhz, geforce mx2 and 1 gig ram , so thad computer is mutch better for me i think , what do you people think?

[a2daj]

The iMac Man, on January 11th 2005, 12:29 PM, said:

Most...pointless...Mac...EVER.

Seriously, who is the target audience of this Mac?

...please don't tell PC users to buy this Mac... they will only be disappointed and would probably never buy a Mac again.

That'd be one of the targets.  It's obviously not targeted toward whatever audience you would fall under   It's for the masses that would like to try a Mac but don't want an all in one and are scared away from the PowerMac's pricing.  There are a lot of PC users that wouldn't mind a relatively small investment in a Mac Mini to get OS X.  They don't really worry about performance because the target audience isn't going to be hardcore gamers or Maya using professionals.  The people that want to use OS X and iLife but not worried about uber performance are the target audience.  You don't need a G5 to use iPhoto or iMovie.

My mom's been hounding me about a new Mac to replace their PowerMac 7500 w/ G3 upgrade and this would be perfect.  They don't need an eMac and the iMac is still a bit pricey, but the Mac mini... that's going to make a great birthday gift for her.  She doesn't need a G5.  

It would be interesting to see if you can use this next to your TV as a mini media center of sorts...

[a2daj]

Endymion, on January 11th 2005, 12:36 PM, said:

a2daj, on January 11th 2005, 03:23 PM, said:

Except the picture doesn't exactly represent the graphics capability of the 9200 w/ Halo.

It's a stock photo, the same one they've pretty much had everywhere that Halo is ever mentioned. It's probably straight from MacSoft for that matter. If that's a nitpick you might as well point out that, at that print size, you really can't see the graphics capability of the game on any card, including the one it was likely captured from.

Well, duh, Captain Obvious (wait, isn't that someone else?).  But with a Radeon 9200, there's no shiny Master Chief, which they show in the picture.  I think they could have used a different game.  At least they didn't mention Doom 3 this time

[innuenstu]

I'm only asking why no results on my question so soon cuz 5 people posted in the last 10 minutes or so, but only to complain,not answer a consumers question. People yell at me or will ignore me if i put a post in wrong category, i'de say rants don't belong in hardware section

[Endymion]

a2daj, on January 11th 2005, 03:47 PM, said:

But with a Radeon 9200, there's no shiny Master Chief, which they show in the picture.

Well duh yourself on that one, and your first comment for that matter. Are you saying that they are misleading customers intentionally with the advertisement? They aren't even benchmarking anything, nor for that matter is there a statement that "this game looks this godly on this hardware." Do they need a disclaimer?

Quote

I think they could have used a different game.

What game would "shine" on this computer that were not already an old game, one that they perhaps do not even stock in the Apple Store any longer? I'm sure it'll do RTCW great, but it doesn't sell so hot anymore and it isn't a buzz with even casual gamers. UT2004? Or Nanosaur 2?  

[a2daj]

I'm not saying anything of the sort.  You tend to miss the point on a few things, including my original intent of my first post and steer the conversation into a completely different direction.  I don't have the time to sit here and explain it to you.

There are a number of newer games that shipped this year they could have used.  Call of Duty would have been a good choice.  At least you could recreate the screenshot, albeit at the risk of slideshow city.

[The iMac Man]

innuenstu, on January 11th 2005, 02:59 PM, said:

I'm only asking why no results on my question so soon cuz 5 people posted in the last 10 minutes or so, but only to complain,not answer a consumers question. People yell at me or will ignore me if i put a post in wrong category, i'de say rants don't belong in hardware section

Being that you have an eMac, you would have to buy a monitor too, and the Mini Mac will probably offer very little difference in game performance.

[converted2truth]

innuenstu, on January 11th 2005, 01:28 PM, said:

Hi. I have a question. i am using a 1ghz emac ati 7500 with 768 mb ram. The games i play are everquest and w.o.w, occasional,halo,battlefield,unreal tournament,would like to try Kotor.But,, I mainly play rpg's and mmorpg's, will this be a good upgrade for the price? like I said I am not worried about doom3 and most of the up coming games much, for im fine with my current mac on those<heh, except the doom3 part>, but will it be a decent improvement for my rpg's?

Well.. i'd say if you were going to upgrade, you should upgrade at least to the next gen CPU.  If you had a G3 imac or something, this would be one hell of an upgrade.  But chances are, this won't blow your skirt up very high compared to what you already have.  The 9200 isn't a powerhouse, and you'll prolly only get slightly better frame rates in WoW and stuff.  it's dang cool though...  plus... it's cheaper than some G4 CPU upgrades for towers and cubes! lol

it's your call.  And it's really not a ton of money.  Remember you'll need a ram upgrade too in order to play WoW.  Do you already have a monitor? ...cause that'll cost you another $150-1500.  Weigh you options... perhaps the 1.6 G5 is a better choice for your needs, and it includes 64mb RAM.  it's really not that much more if you plan on buying a LCD for gaming and some ram etc...

[ladyjaye]

The price is nice if you're on an older machine (say G3 iMac or older), especially if you already have a monitor. Otherwise, you're better off paying more money and moving on to the iMac G5.

Either way, remember to add RAM. It does make a whole lotta difference with games (we went from 128 MB to 640 MB of RAM for our G3 iBook and we can see the difference in games like Neverwinter Nights and Simcity 4 -- even though our iBook is still underpowered for Neverwinter Nights - NWN requires a G4 or G5 processor -, it now runs without too much lagging).

[Quicksilver]

This might not be a bad choice as a second or third Mac for remote surfing or MP3 serving . . .

[innuenstu]

Thanks for your help. As for monitor not a problem, i would want more ram as expected. I just figured faster bus etc. would be nice, for me. Now on my 1ghz emac 7500 768 ram.<here is another question> If you please. Will maxing up to 1ghz of memory from my 768 help for   games<wow/EQ> or any app etc.? I have been told frames per second are not as important on rpg's as with games like halo etc. but if it helps in anyway that'd be nice and i can hold out on a new mac. or is it not worth the $100 for memory? i know the ati 7500 is killing me, but nothing i can do