Can I play WoW classic on max settings with the M2 Pro chip

I want 60 FPS with max graphic settings, can the M2 pro chip do this or no :expressionless: I keep seeing mixed reports on this. Some people say yes some people say they still need low graphic settings for some reason.

Max settings, depends on what max settings is. a big factor is resolution. max settings at 1080p, probably. max settings on an apple 4 or 5k display, definitely not without using FSR and reduced render scale.

I’d still go Max over pro if gaming is one of things you want. it’ll give you a lot more leeway.

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I have the M2 Pro Mac mini.
You can play on max but certain areas like Storm Peaks and Ice Crown bring the game down to 20fps. Heavy stuff in raids will drop fps to 30s and 40s.

I play everything on highest except I use Render Scale at 50% with the Fidelity scaler; and Shadows on ā€œGoodā€. FPS capped to 60. Only drops frames in large zones. Raids are perfect.

And I can voice in Discord and stream without taking a hit to game performance. I have TG Pro to change fan curve.

I decided to go with the macbook pro M2 MAX with 30 GPUs and 32GB of RAM. I’ll just hook it up to a monitor if I feel like 16 inches isn’t big enough. We’ll see how it goes.

I use an M1 Max and it’s beast. I still suggest using the 50 render scale and fidelity super resolution 1.0 upscaler so you can squeeze max settings. Even on retail you should get 60fps most of time.

on Sonoma it’s even better in raids cause it helps squeeze more cpu from other apps. i drop to like 53fps on max settings in raids on sonoma when on ventura it was like 43fps and that has to do mostly with game mode ensuring apple isn’t utilizing cpu for background tasks and dedicating it entirely to game, where it’s most needed in raids.

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I should mention too I only play vanilla classic versions, so I don’t have to worry about the demands of wrath/retail.

I used an M2 Pro for just under a month & was able to make things work with just slight changes to shadows & compute if you really are sensitive to framerate

I did have a problem with studdering when using mouselook - was more pronounced on a wireless mouse but I have the same issue on my PC unless I am using my wired gaming mouse (stil happened on the M@ Pro with wired mouse) Drove me crazy seeing everything so silky smooth until I tried to look around with the mouse

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update: currently playing on the mac studio m2 max with resolution set to 1920x1080 and graphics on 10. very smooth so far, no problems at all. so far I’m happy.

If that struggled I’d be sorely disappointed and shocked.

another update. i didn’t really like the monitor I was using so I switched to a new mac studio display. now I’m playing at 100% render scale 5120x2880 resolution on max settings. still going very smooth. I guess the 30 GPUs of the mac studio m2 max really does the trick.

You’d be surprised. Dragonflight looks better and runs smoother than Wrath Classic.

That depends really. One thing that’s a huge issue with apple silicon currently is water reflections hit hard. very hard. even if there is no water on screen. Someone on engine team explained that it’s just kind of way wow does it that’s not friendly to tile based rendering techniques (what metal uses with apple silicon). to stay at 60fps in dragonflight I basically have to turn water quality down.

I recently switched to 75% resolution scale on my 5k apple studio display, plus FSR. Doing this I’m able to have max 10 settings for everything including soft shadows. very occasionally it’ll seem like the terrain around my character is not 60 fps, like it moves kind of unsmoothly. But if I just focus on my character everything appears to be smooth. So I don’t know, I’m probably just thinking too hard about it. The game runs great on max settings all in all. Being around 100 people in stormwind vs. by myself questing in STV doesn’t seem to make a difference either.

yeah the difference between M2 and M1 helps quite a bit, especially on cpu end here. I will upgrade when M3 Max or Ultra comes out, hands down.

I bought the MacBook Pro M2 and it doesn’t like WoW at all. Also there’s a huge secondary click bug. I returned it and went with a refurbished M1, since they’re no longer sold at Apple.

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not sure about the macbook but my mac studio m2 max with studio display really is peak WoW. it’s a 5k resolution scaled down to 75% with FSR, running super smooth 60 FPS at max graphic settings including soft shadows. I really don’t think it gets any better than this; the only thing I guess I’m missing out on is going for more than 60 FPS, but from what I read it doesn’t matter much for a game like WoW.

once above 60, it only feels good at 120 or with variable refresh rate. but since you have a 60hz studio display, it’d be utterly pointless. you will not notice it.

personally i avoided that display because apple didn’t have 120hz or pro motion on it. those are essential to me now since once you have it you can’t go back.

This I know too well. I went for the Samsung M8 (32") since most of my work is Photoshop / Lightroom and only use Premiere once a week.

Had I the budget, I would have looked for a 120Hz. Though, with high/ultra settings on the Mac mini M2 Pro, my fps wouldn’t go above 90fps under extreme load - and I don’t wanna sacrifice the graphics quality. I SET maxfps 63 and it works for me.