I’m thinking of getting either a new M2 8 core Mac Mini w/ 16 gb memory or a new 13" M2 8 core macbook pro w/ 16 gb memory. Will either of these be able to run AoE4 well? I’d be planning to hook either up to my 27" monitor to play.
I bought the game when it came out but unfortunately my PC runs it but poorly so I’m still playing aoe3…
Keep in mind there is no mac version of aoe4.
And if you consider gaming on a laptop you probably would like to get one with an actual GPU anyway.
Both macs I described have a 10 core GPU separate from a 8 core CPU.
I believe you can generally run any windows program on a mac with a windows emulator, the question is how well will it run…
M2 has an integrated gpu and by “actual” I mean a discrete graphics card. I would be surprised if it could handle aoe4 with bearable fps.
Anyway, check out this thread AOE IV Support for M1 MacBook Pro's - Does it work? - #13 by ThePokeChim . Seems like it just not gonna work at all.
“Nobody plays games on Apple!” - Alan
You need a CPU with AVX.
Basically every x86 CPU from the last 10 years has it, which includes Intel Macs.
But M1/M2 Macs don’t have AVX in their CPUs, so ist physically impossible to play AoE4 even with emulation.
FWIW I found a Mac gaming focused group that says a program called “Crossover” has it working perfectly… and that is on an M1 Mac… now I see they released the M3 Macbook Pro… just looking to confirm it would work on it as well.
https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/M1_CrossOver_Windows_compatible_games_list