M1 Mac mini and M1 MacBook Air power gaming setup [Setups]

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An M1 Mac mini and M1 MacBook Air power this Mac gaming setup.

Photo: raka_ny@Reddit.com

Given the dominance of PCs in the gaming world for various reasons, it’s refreshing to see somebody purpose-building a Mac computer setup for gaming. Sweden-based Redditor Raka_ny put one together with an M1 Mac mini, an M1 MacBook Air and assorted peripherals.

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The Mac mini sports 16GB of unified memory while the MBA has 8GB. Both machines offer 256GB of storage, so raka_ny added a 1TB Samsung T5 SSD. They use a Magic Keyboard, a Magic Mouse 2, a Razer DeathAdder Essential Gaming Mouse and a basic USB 3.0 hub.

Landscape- and portrait-mode monitors

With those, raka_ny’s

Mac gaming setup

runs a 28-inch Lenovo L28u-30 IPS Monitor with 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s the primary gaming display.

The second, portrait-oriented display is a BenQ GL-2580T with 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. They use it for browsing, reading and various chat and collaboration apps.

The two displays are mounted on an Andersson MRA 3.2 mounting system.

Games played

Raka_ny said they like to

play many games

. Among them are

RimWorld

DiRT Rally

7 Days to Die

and

BeamNG.drive

For added realism in the driving games, they use a Logitech G920 Driving Force Racing Wheel and shifter bundle.

For the

BeamNG

game, raka_ny uses

CrossOver

, a third-party Windows translation software for Mac that the maker says runs more smoothly than Windows emulator software.

One commenter wanted to know how raka_ny managed to get

BeamNG

to play on a Mac.

Here’s how to run it and how well it works, according to raka_ny somewhat technical explanation:

Wired for sound

When asked where the speakers were hiding, raka_ny said they use their STR-790 Sony surround-sound home-theater receiver and a Harman Kardon HK 5.1 speaker system via Bluetooth for casual audio and movies. They use AirPods for meetings or Sennheiser headhphones “if it’s not super hot.”

Why Mac and not PC?

Inevitabley, someone asked why would raka_ny run games on Macs when the games are optimized for PCs?

One commenter said, “it just blows my mind on a daily basis that people who have enough money to get a gaming pc and are into gaming chose [sic] to get macs and 100 different accessories so they can run 10 year old games at sub 45 fps.”

Below is raka_ny’s reply. As they made clear in their post, they really like Macs. But there’s more to the answer than that.

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Computers:

M1 Mac mini (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD

)