I have run the game on both PC and Mac. My mac was a G5 Powermac with 2GB of ram and a decent AGP card. Granted the PC version runs a little better, but I've heard some great things about how it runs on Intel Mac's, specifically the 24" iMac with the upgraded video card. Having a nice wide screen is sexy also

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I have a:
Macbook Pro core duo - 1.83
1gig memory.

In general WoW runs flawlessly. (the bright screen if fantastic).

I do on occasion lockup but you will notice in patch notes that Blizzard continually updates Mac support. Also the locking up is rare enough not to be bothersome.

PLEASE NOTE... it does make the Macbook Pro run HOT... so don't have it on your lap. :)

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Well ... the Mac Mini doesn't have a video card so you can run the game, but that's about it. You pretty much have to have all of the settings turned down. The same goes for Macbooks (no videocard). They can run the game just fine, but they don't do it especially well.

Macbook Pros (the silver ones) DO have videocards, and generally run the game very well, especially if you load them up on RAM. The mid- to high-end iMacs run the game pretty darn well also.

Of course all of these new macs can also run Windows and if you play in Windows you'll probably get a 10-15% higher FPS rate (although this difference goes down with each patch as the mac version gets closer to the PC version).

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I play WoW on my Macbook (not the Pro) which might be relevant to your as it has the same graphics chip as the mini (and since that chip uses shared memory, it's good to have a lot of RAM - I have 1Gb).

Running natively on Mac, I get fairly low framerates, even with things turned down to minimum (usually between 10-20fps, depending a bit where you are).

Then I installed XP through Bootcamp and when I play WoW on XP (same settings), my framerates are around 40-50fps, which is ok.

If you're investing to a new Mac, go for the Macbook Pro in that case - the Mini and the normal Macbook will run the game, but don't really pack the punch to make is gorgeous.

Hope this helps

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I am currently playing on a Intel Mac, the Macbook Pro. Runs smoothly with all the pretty features and 3/4 terrain distance. The G5 (PowerPC) iMac with the same stats as my Macbook has a lot of the video features turned down to run smoothly.

A Mac Mini will never run WoW smoothly since it does not have a dedicated video card.

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Mac: Hi...I'm a Mac.
PC: And I'm a PC.
Mac: I can play WoW.
PC: But not as well as I do....punk.

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WoW will run on a Mac Mini, but the integrated graphics will limit you a bit, and won't be the overall best. The iMacs are much better. i have a G5 17" iMac and it runs it very good. i would imagine that the faster chips and better graphics in the newer iMacs make it even better. as always, the more RAM the better.

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I use a two year old 20" iMac G5 (w/ 128 MB NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra video card ) as my main machine and occassionally a 15" Mac Book Pro (w/ ATI Mobility Radeon X1600) . Both run WoW beautifully. The Mini however has on much weaker video and that is the limiting factor. The cheapest iMac has better video than my 20" iMac and should work very well.

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I have a Macbook pro and WoW runs much more smooth then alot of my friends laptops. All of the video options are turned to about 3/4th of the way. I enjoy it.

My specs are as follows:
2 Ghz Intel Core Duo
1.5 GB RAM
ATY,RadeonX1600

And yes Macbook pro runs very hot, if you want to put it into your lap having something between your self and the computer.

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I also am running a Macbook Pro, which I'm very happy with. I really enjoy having the flexibility that the Mac provides. I also have a Windows partition, should the need ever arise to have WoW runnin on there.

the only issue that I have with running on a Mac is the support for applications like Ventrillo. There is a Mac version of the application, but it doesn't support many codecs, which really limits your ability to talk with people.

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Any modern Mac will run WoW just as good as on a PC. I currently play WoW off my powermac pro laptop and can turn on all effects on my 1900x1200 cinema display.

You won't be able to run with everything full blown on a mac mini, but it plays well enough, I'd recommend you have at least a gig of RAM though.

The great part is that all the mods that work for WoW on the PC, work just as well on the mac. I'm running trinity bars, titan, metamap, tiny tips and a whole bunch more without any problems.

There is virtually no difference playing WoW on a Mac. I have a very nice PC gaming rig and I tend to still play WoW on my powermac pro because it's portable and I can get my WoW fix on the move if need be.

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I'm going to agree with almost everything said here. My main system is an older G5 Powermac with 2 gigs of RAM, and WoW runs just fine with most settings at about the midrange, with some cranked up. I also play on a 1.2 G4 iBook w/768 megs of RAM, with all the settings down. The iBook's graphics aren't too shabby, but the slow Hard Drive gives me load lag like a mother. Flying from zone to zone will drop the frame rate to about 1 every 3 seconds as the HD struggles to load things.

A Mac Mini shares much more in common with a notebook than it would a desktop. IMO, that slow drive performance is going to kill you.

And don't forget; A Mac mini isn't a gaming machine. It's not sold as a performance machine, so you can't be surprised by it's lack of speed. If you want things to be zippy, I agree with the above posters that an iMac is really want you want to be looking at.

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just get an apple tv :)

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I started my WoW career on a 17" iMac G5 w/ 1 GB RAM and 64 MB Graphics card. I had to turn down all the graphics settings, and it ran at 2-10 FPS in Raids, and maxed out at about 25 FPS staring at walls.

Now I have a stock 24" iMac C2D, with the 128 MB card ad 1.5 GB RAM. I run with everything maxed except Mulitisampling and Full Screen Glow, and I get 25-100+ FPS.

Regarding other systems:

MacBook, Macmini: Yes, but you are limited to the integrated graphics. Should get much better performance than my old G5 iMac though.

MacBook Pro: Should be able to run with full speed/prettiness.

--------------------------

Ones I have tested myself (in the Mac store, all stock, running off a 40GB ipod HD)

20" iMac Stock, 128MB card, 20-40 FPS in AV

24" iMac stock, 128 MB card - this is the system I bought - 25-100+ FPS

Mac Pro w/ 30" Cinema display (not sure about specs) - 80-100+ FPS - had 4 employees surround me and ooh and ahh over it :)

--------------------------

I did not test any Macs with the BTO Graphics cards upgrades, as there were none on display.

In Conclusion, you will be able to run WoW on all current Macs. It looks gorgeous, and all add-ons work fine, except Vent/TS overlay.

Security-wise, I have had no issues.

Official Support: The Official Mac Support Forums are wonderful.

Playing on different Macs: copy WoW to your Ipod, and play on any other Mac, all addons, etc, remain intact.

Hope this Helps!

-Gritz

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Basically what I have come to understand from talking with PC users is that while my mac (24" g5 iMac) runs WoW beautifully, the PC has a higher framerate. in the end it comes down to how much money you are willing to spend to get the game you want. I have the consumer level and the game runs fine. Does it look better and run more smoothly on my roommate's PC that was specifically made for gaming? Definitely.

In the end, go with your gut. But if you're going Mac, make sure you're willing to pay for it. It pays off exponentially at higher levels, but baseline (mac mini) probably isn't worth it for the price.

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I made the switch at the end of last year and I don't regret it one bit. I got a 20" iMac w/2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory and the ATI Radeon X1600/256MB VRAM. WoW runs really well. I can't max everything out, but I'm planning on dropping in 2 more gigs of memory soon and I know that will help a lot. I get lag very occasionally in Shat, but that's the only problem I have. That small annoyance is far out weighed by the huge beautiful monitor In fact the monitor is so big I can run WoW windowed and bring up Wowhead and Allakhazam instantly whenever I need them. Oh yeah I love the fact I'm running OSX and not Windows. It really does make using your computer enjoyable.

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Yet another MacBook Pro user here. One key element is that on the Mac, Apple has multithreaded much of OpenGL. WoW takes advantage of this, so in CPU-bound areas (indoors, mainly, some instance areas) your frame rates can as much as double. Outdoors (which is GPU-limited) it doesn't affect it as much.

On my MacBook Pro, I run at max settings full screen (1440x900) and get about 20-30 fps in most non-Outland areas, but get severely punished in Outland, where it drops to 5-15 fps. I've taken the settings down a notch (no full-screen glow, lower multisampling), and things still look great but run at a more comfortable 20-30 fps in Outland.

One thing that *may* drive you nuts is playing without a mouse, or with a laptop keyboard. I know many people don't understand how I manage to play, but it doesn't affect me at all. Your mileage may vary.

Also, Intel is releasing a new laptop platform in May that, among other things, boasts greatly improved integrated graphics. You may want to hold off and see if that means excellent MacBooks or Mac Mini's.

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I'm running on a G5 imac and it runs fine. I have 2gb of RAM which helps too - but WoW is a video whore so it needs a lot of memory, not like you can multi-task with too much else running. I know the new Intel-based mac's have substantially better processing speeds which should help considerably.

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I switched from my PC to this thing:

http://www.apple.com/macpro/

(base model, 1gb RAM)

Sure, it looks like a giant cheese-grater, but it runs WoW flawlessly. No more lockups!

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It runs fine!

Jeez. I run it on a 3 year old G4 17" powerbook, 1.33 mhz processor, 80gb HDD, 1gb of ram. I turn up all the settings have many mods, and I play in windowed mode.

No problems.

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