Essay2026-09-26

Gaming on the M6 Mac Mini

Comparing gaming performance across presets for many Mac native titles including World of Warcraft Forever.

mac-minim6gamingbenchmarksnyaabench

The gaming section of my M6 Mac Mini review concentrated only on Cyberpunk 2077 and how the machine compared with other systems like the base M4 Mac Mini. That left a fair bit unanswered, and I've since been asked to test various other games.

I've spent some more time with games on the 24GB M6 Mac Mini with its 12-core GPU.

A note on 'nyaaBench'

For these tests I'm using my currently unreleased nyaaBench utility, which along with a suite of cross-platform system tests, allows capture of game framerates with system telemetry so that I can present them here. There remains some bugs that I need to iron out before I feel comfortable releasing this in the wild, but it can give you a lens into the clocks and power draw of the M6 GPU along with framerates.

Games tested

Each game has its own page, click the page that interests you, and please do leave a comment if you found this interesting or would like more games tested.

Control Ultimate EditionNative rendering, ray tracing and MetalFX in Central Executive.
Cyberpunk 2077Native presets, ray tracing and the compromises of upscaling and frame generation.
ValheimLow, Medium and High at 1080p, 1440p and 4K.
No Man's SkyThe preset ladder and MetalFX Temporal Quality at 1080p.
World of Warcraft Classic AnniversaryStormwind, including 4K with and without MSAA.
World of Warcraft: Midnight clientStormwind and Dragon Isles testing, including the demanding Amirdrassil view.
World of Warcraft Forever betaStationary Westfall benchmarks and the separate problem of movement stutter.
Crimson DesertMinimum through Cinematic, Native versus MetalFX Quality, and scaling up to 4K.
Baldur's Gate 3Native and FSR Quality across presets and resolutions, plus Medium versus Ultra image quality.