Mac Purchase Decision Help

Support Mac Technical Support
1

I’ve gamed on a Mac years ago so I know the limitations with choice and huge fps performance. I’m in a pinch. My PC no longer works (blew the 3080ti - literally a loud bang last night). My Dell laptop is also broke / on its last legs.

I only play WoW and a few other titles - all supported on Mac. I do video editing.

I have a massive 4k 144Hz ROG XG43UQ 3840x2160 gaming monitor and a ton of SSD drives as I edit 4k video as one of my hobbies.

I got a $3,000 AUD limit budget. Gonna buy one only - a laptop that can power the monitor.

The Apple Macbook Pro M5 2025 announced just yesterday (ie. basic 10/10 cores) and pre-orders possible.

Anyone with a basic Apple Macbook M4 10/10 cores?

Can I play WoW at max view distance with max texture detail but at zero/low shadows, water off, my own spell animations, anything else like that off?

Just an average player who wants the game to look nice as I fly around and do chill stuff. No PvP or Mythic stuff for me. 60 fps quite okay.

Obviously with the M5 it’ll eat the basic M4 and perform comparatively well against the M4 Pro Macbooks too by all projections.

I figure this is the best option.

A comparative Dell Pro at the same price has: less on board RAM, fewer ports, a screen that’s only 400 nits compared to 1,000, and an inferior CPU and Intel graphics according to comparison websites (and comparing against the basic M4 given that this is early days).

I am prepared to build my own - another of my hobbies is building gaming PCs to order for a small extra fee. But you should see the prices of decent GPUs and power supplies. Holy molly! And if you want USB4/Thunderbolt out of the box you’re already at the high end (AND totally compromised if more than one Thunderbolt device due to mobo bifurcation trickery).

2

I hear. I don’t see how much a core is. maybe I miss something

3

Omegal will probably give you the best advice on this, but from personal experience WoW plays wonderfully on my M3 Pro MBP 18/18.
With the settings you suggested using I typically get 72dps open world (I have it locked to 72dps max) and I use my Mac with an ultrawide 144hz Alienware and the MBP lid open for Discord, iMessage, etc.

I imagine an M5 MB would do even better but I lack the technical know how to give more in depth advice.

1 Like
4

Helpful. Thanks @Urzak. I’ve since gone to my favourite build website, parts picker, a second time and done my real best to come up with a decent Windows PC that can match the new Macbook for price/performance/budget.

Can get there if I salvage my expensive power supply from my existing PC, the case, the Noctua CPU cooler, the fans, the SSD C drive and go all AMD.

So now it’s simply a matter of decision time. There’s other factors. Downsizing to just the one computer to rule them all - no more juggling files between desktop/laptop when I must travel - Macbook Pro all the way for everything. Ability to save the old PC not as parts but to give to a family member or use as a emergency backup or indeed as a maybe headless file server. Ability to roam the house with my main computer and indeed sit in my local cafe when I get bored at home. These things nobody can put a dollar value upon.

Or wait until February 2026 for the MB M5 Pro/Max variants and the extremely interesting battle between them and the Snapdragon Elite X2 - both products wiping the floor with Intel/AMD. For now, back to my 1080p potato running off the Intel iGPU.

@Darcysilence I also don’t get you. But check your local Apple website for tech specs of the 2025 MB M5. Performance wise it matches/slightly beats the AMD 9950X3D (ie their best consumer desktop CPU) in non-real world SINGLE core benchmarks. And gets smashed for multi-core.

5

No, don’t get the M5. Get an older M3 PRO max to save money. That one is AMAZING. I’ve had the M1, M2 and latest.

You want the max for the extra GPU cores.

On my latest m pro max. I can run 3 monitors, wow at 200FPS without issues. But I increase the fan speeds to max, so it doesnt thermal throttle and keeps it cool. This isn’t really optional, since Mac’s coding doesn’t scale the fan speeds properly to handle gaming. So you have to raise them proactively. Rather than retroactively, like Mac does. There is software you can install that does this for you. It’s not actually a mistake by Mac, they did it intentionally so it sounds quieter. But the fans are really effective if you turn them up proactively.