Mac Studio for Heavy Browser Loads

[JanSuerth]

Hello there,

 

I currently using a "Razer Blade Pro 17 (2020) (Intel® Core™ i7-10875H - 16GB - 1TB SSD - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 2080 Super Max-Q)" as my main and only PC.

I tend to be a very heavy browser user. (with 5+ GB of Memory only for my Chromium Based browser) and averagely using 75% of RAM without even having a game open. 

 

I was looking to move to a desktop based platform with my main focus being on more RAM. 

As I wish to use a smaller formfactor I was looking at the Mac Studio with 64 GB Ram but also looked for Windows based machines. 

 

I am currently struggling to find experience from people that tend to have the same use case as I so I was hopping to find some people here that could tell me if a Mac Studio with 64GB of Ram runs well under heavy browser load.

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Jan Sürth

[jaslion]

Do you just wanna browse the web or also game?

 

How small does it have to be? A mac studio is still pretty big.

 

Also you can just add ram to your razer too or use a more efficient browser.

 

Spending 4k on a mac just for webbrowsing is silly.

[MicrowaveGaming]

Would this new computer be a replacement or a companion to your laptop?

[ToboRobot]

My Macbook Air (M1, base RAM) seems totally happy with heavy browser loads, that pretty much all I use it for other than Terminal, and it just chugs along. 

If you are gaming on a console or PC, having a Mac as a "It just works" system is a great option.

[JanSuerth]

4 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Do you just wanna browse the web or also game?

 

How small does it have to be? A mac studio is still pretty big.

 

Also you can just add ram to your razer too or use a more efficient browser.

Well in resent times I found myself not really playing many games besides in the browser (missionchief for example) but for when I want to game I would still need my currant laptop or see if the games run well enough on MAC. If I play I mostly play Emergency 2020, ETS2/ATS and other simulators mostly based on the unreal engine.

 

It doesn't need to fit in the palm of my hand but it shouldn't be a full size tower the NZXT H1 would be a great size for example.

 

I would consider adding RAM to the system but I feel like that it doesn't have much of an upgrade pass after that. I bought it when I assumed I would take it to work and travel a lot but I would myself to not do so, this is why I would like to move to a desktop system in general.

[MicrowaveGaming]

8 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

If you are gaming on a console or PC, having a Mac as a "It just works" system is a great option.

Completely agree.  I think there are many benefits go separating a gaming system from a productivity system, psychologically speaking. This has been my preference for many years. 

[ToboRobot]

1 minute ago, MicrowaveGaming said:

Completely agree.  I think there are many benefits go separating a gaming system from a productivity system, psychologically speaking. This has been my preference for many years. 
 

 

Yes, absolutely.  I have a Mac laptop, then a Linux server/workstation, and a Windows box for gaming.  They all have their time and place!

 

[MicrowaveGaming]

6 minutes ago, JanSuerth said:

Well in resent times I found myself not really playing many games besides in the browser (missionchief for example) but for when I want to game I would still need my currant laptop or see if the games run well enough on MAC. If I play I mostly play Emergency 2020, ETS2/ATS and other simulators mostly based on the unreal engine.

 

It doesn't need to fit in the palm of my hand but it shouldn't be a full size tower the NZXT H1 would be a great size for example.

 

I would consider adding RAM to the system but I feel like that it doesn't have much of an upgrade pass after that. I bought it when I assumed I would take it to work and travel a lot but I would myself to not do so, this is why I would like to move to a desktop system in general.

So you're definitely in the mood for a desktop setup. Gotcha.

 

But now it's the question of Mac or Windows + associated performance with your games. Before you go and spend 4k on a Mac Studio to try and run games on it... for me personally, I kinda hate gaming on my Mac for reasons specified above: I like separating work and play, and I've done a lot of college work on my Apple stuff (MacBook and iPad) while relegating merriment to my Windows machine.

 

I played Minecraft Java almost daily on an iMac 2012 for probably 4-5 years as a server admin, and performance was alright. I don't know if I'd want to play any other games on Mac, though... Especially after having watched Linus Tech Tips and becoming more computer-literate.

 

You have options... there are some classics ported to Mac App Store (BioShock) + some steam compatibility (BUT NOT WITH M1/Past MacOS Catalina, which axed 32-bit apps), and you ALSO have BootCamp for installing a windows boot partition on the thing... but god damn, none of these things are especially impressive. I could rant about BootCamp for eons, but there are two stinky things about it:

• My Bluetooth receiver didn't have ANY drivers for it. (2017 MBP) It's not configured at all. And when I looked on Apple support forums, people had that issue up to 5 years ago and it's still unresolved! And you go "I don't need Bluetooth," but need I remind you that all the proprietary Mac peripherals are wireless.
• There is basically *zero* fan curve. The fans are either at 0 or 100, it's completely awful. It was extra jarring on a laptop, and I'm sure it'd be equally not-fun on a desktop Mac. 
   

Oh, wait... Apple Silicon doesn't even have BootCamp! I think this is your biggest problem. Without an x86 CPU I don't know if you'd be able to get any games to run on your Mac.

 

TLDR If you care about gaming to any capacity I think you should have a Windows machine handy. 

[JanSuerth]

So it might make more sense to got for a Windows based ITX system for gaming and when it comes to productivity I could go for something like a MacBook.

That way I could sell my currant Laptop. 

 

I still find it kind of sad that Mac is so far behind when it comes to gaming. 

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, JanSuerth said:

I would consider adding RAM to the system but I feel like that it doesn't have much of an upgrade pass after that.

I mean the mac is unupgradeable fully so not really a difference is there? Just a huge money saver.

 

 

[JanSuerth]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:32 PM, jaslion said:

I mean the mac is unupgradeable fully so not really a difference is there? Just a huge money saver.

I actually decided to do the RAM upgrade as you suggested. 

Honestly that helped a lot with the annoyances I had with this machine. So from 16 to 64 GB of RAM. 

 

So I might get some more time out of my laptop before upgrading, but then I will definitely go for a desktop!