I’m almost in a market for a new PC, and I would like to break away from Windows but WoW keeps me here. Mac users, please tell me how you feel about the game on Mac, would you go back to Windows next purchase? Have you ever thought of using Lutris and Linux? I really wish I could lose windows…lol
1 Like
I sold my old pc like 2 years ago, to this day daily gaming on my MacBook PRO M1 16inch and have Asus ROG SWIFT 34PQ Ultrawide something along with Razer keyboard and Naga mice.
Works like a charm tbh. I only do work related stuff and the only game I play is wow.
I do not raid anymore, but it could handle even nomal raid nights perfectly.
I mostly play M+ at relatively decent RIO and play pvp/bgs. Ocasional legacy raid etc.
Anyway if you only play WOW and planing on only playing wow I’d highly suggest it.
However
I really dislike the Battle net on my mac, for some reason it’s updating every time i close it, I dont recall having same issue on my PC, but I find it really anoying. Tho the update is over in couple of seconds and It’s not a big deal, but it’s still there and sometimes its anoying.
If you have any more questions let me know.
EDIT: Not at home right now, but settings I run are mostly Good/High.
I initially played wow in vanilla because it was one of the only games to play on a Mac at the time. My background is in design and photography, and I was using them since I was very young, so I have always been a die-hard Mac user. Only once did I consider a PC 20 years ago, but always going for the Mac instead.
I’ve had a decent experience playing on a Mac for the most part, but the biggest problem I’ve had is you never know what you are going to get when a patch arrives. Devs will suddenly decide that something that was working perfectly fine for months needs to be rendered differently and it will suddenly make me lag out for the rest of the existence of my time in the zone - anima threads in SL, braziers in DF, braziers and lights all over mereldar in Hallowfall, etc. It will work for several months, then patch .5 it will be completely changed.
It can make dungeons unplayable due to the lag since these elements carry over into their dungeon counterparts. If you upgrade every couple years, it might not affect you as much, but I like to keep mine going for much longer.
My 2019 iMac was also a bit of a lemon and was the first Mac I had persistent and major crashes and issues on in several games a few years into the computer’s life, despite basically replacing all internal hardware multiple times. It seemed to be related to an OS update around Zereth Mortis release, and I had to stop using a second monitor altogether to keep the graphic resets and freezes from occurring. I worked with support for months and months gathering data and investigating the issue, but I lost some faith in the company dealing with the agents in this process. I also feel their user design is getting less intuitive (one of the major reasons I love them) and the company has gone a bit downhill over the years. Maybe I just had bad luck with this machine but it did make me question my hardcore allegiance.
Two weeks ago my iMac was fried, and I debated what to buy. I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini M4 Pro for several months prior, but I ultimately decided to invest in my first gaming PC and I am much happier with it. I can max out everything with a 4k monitor and am in awe at what I’ve seen in the game graphically. I also have way more storage and ram than the alternative for much less.
If you are a casual player it won’t be a big deal either way, but I hated being a hindrance in mythic plus and raid due to the random lag from graphic issues I’d have related to mac, even with my settings all the way down and the monitor basically making my eyes crossed because of the resolution I’d have to set it to during laggy dungeons (and yes I used the render upscaling frequently touted here, but it still didn’t fix the issues I was having). Most things are fine, but there were specific hiccups like slime puddles (Undermine was bad as a result), lightning puddles, some fire and fog effects etc.
Given that I have not played on a new Mac in a very long time, I’m sure those with newer computers (I was on Intel) will have a much better experience and my perspective may be skewed, but knowing that in the next mini patch they might break a zone for me again on a mac, I went with PC.
I will still probably continue to invest in a Mac laptop or potentially a Mac Mini down the road. I understand similar issues can occur on a PC as it ages, but since you can upgrade parts individually it can be less of an issue, and I’m sure more testing is done on PC from wow devs, so there is a bit more insurance there.
I still love Mac and would definitely still play wow on it. Your mileage may vary with all these individual things.
I’ve been playing WOW exclusively on a Mac for the last 3 years since getting my first Studio, and I have no desire to switch to anything else. There are a couple minor issues with WOW on the Mac - the launcher trying to update WOW every time it runs, and the scroll wheel issue - but neither of those bugs me much.
Prior to the Studios I played on a Windows PC from 2015 up to spring of '22; prior to 2015 I played exclusively on Mac starting shortly after WOW’s launch - first on a series of iMacs then on a 2008 Mac Pro.
4 Likes
Does it ever happen to you that character just stuck while walking? Like Sometimes I press A and the character wont stop moving left until i press it again. Idk if addon related, mac related…
I don’t recall ever having a problem like that.
From my perspective, especially if you go the laptop route, the silicon chips run this game so smooth and the laptop display is top tier.
I actually play on my M3 PRO mac instead of my 3080 PC because my mac runs this game better.
Hello there =)
I played WoW on a 2008 MacBook Pro from Late BC and all of Wrath until maybe WoD?? I can’t remember exactly but it was a LONG time. I never had one issue. The only reasons I went back to PC were price and if I needed to upgrade something, I could just do it. (MacBooks at that time were welded so there was no ability to upgrade, not sure if you can now.)
If you want to get away from Windows, I get it. Mac for me worked the entire time I was away. Good luck with your choice!
2 Likes
Hello, I already replied, in another thread, I’ll duplicate my post:
This is such a great topic to discuss, especially because there are still silly stereotypes that Macs aren’t good for gaming.
I actually switched from Windows, and honestly, I have zero desire to go back. Constantly reinstalling Windows, updating drivers and BIOS, replacing thermal paste… plus my old PC with an RTX 3080 ran so hot and loud, it felt like a real furnace. It was awful.
Right now I’m using a Mac Studio with an M2 Max chip.
In WoW (outside of raids and epic battlegrounds), I’m getting a steady 120 FPS.
Someone also asked about monitors — I can highly recommend the LG OLED 42’’. Technically, it’s a TV, but it works beautifully as a monitor. The picture is so bright and stunning. After switching to OLED, I never want to go back to IPS. No blurring, no visible pixels — just crystal clear visuals.
I’m also planning to upgrade soon to the M4 Max.
My gaming setup — here’s the link if you’d like to check it out:
https://imgur.com/a/VFx4Uks (there’s a couple of pictures, you have to scroll down)
and my setting in WoW:
https://imgur.com/a/O14k810
At home, I play on a Studio M4 Max. Absolutely love it. At work, I have a decent Dell with a nice graphics card, 3070 I think. I spend enough time on both computers that I can say there isn’t a noticeable different in performance. I do prefer MacOS over Windows. Always have, since about 1986.
You won’t be disappointed.
This is another nice thing about Macs, at least the desktops (I don’t use a laptop). They are so quiet. My Mac Studio sits right on my desk and I never hear the fans.
2 Likes
If WoW is all you play, sure.
If you’re also going to be doing a lot of video editing, definitely.
Play on an Mac mini M2 Pro.
Raid and M+ performance is good because I adjust my fan curve with TG. Pro. If you’re planning on a MacBook Air, prepare for some throttling eventually.
I’ve always been primarily a Mac user (use Windows still of course) because of my profession. I’d advise you look at what you plan to use your Mac for, which should not be solely for gaming.
1 Like
playing classic WoW on an M2 Max mac studio and have no complaints. very smooth gameplay on 4k resolution and max graphics.
the worst part was that there used to be some bug that made installing WoW on a mac annoying, but once you get past that it’s smooth sailing. i think it’s fixed now anyway but someone correct me if I’m wrong 
I can’t really recommend a Mac for playing WoW. I had a 2017 MacBook Pro (intel). During shadowlands performance got to be so bad I had to stop raiding. It would lag out on every fight even with WoW graphics settings set to 1.
I bought a Mac Studio with an M1 Max at the start of DF. This allowed me to run WoW on graphics setting 6 with 4k resolution. With each patch of DF performance got worse. By the end of DF I had my raid graphics settings set to 1, though still at 4k resolution.
With TWW performance got much worse, and I had to turn the resolution down to 2k, though this allowed me to turn the graphics settings up to 4. With 11.0.5 though performance got worse yet again, and I had to turn the graphics settings down to 1 again, and not just for raid, but dungeons too. My graphics look so bad it really takes a lot of enjoyment out of the game.
At this point I expect that either for 11.2 or at latest 12.0 that I’ll need to upgrade my less than three year old Mac Studio to be able to play at all.
1 Like
No offence but sounds like you didn’t have your graphics tweaked properly. I had an M1 Mac Mini and had no issues once I got it properly set up.
The biggest thing is using a resolution of 2560x1440 at 50% render scale. Then set graphics to 4 or 5. Lower ground clutter and lower view distance. I had a steady 60 fps in most environments.
Now I have Mac Studio M4 Max and love it. I think the resolution is 3k with 66% render scale. Graphics are set at 9 with ground clutter around 4 and view distance around 5-6.
2 Likes
I ran a M1 Max with some similar adjusted setting (but a bit higher) and managed to get an average 90 fps in Cities.
Now have an m4 Max with the upgraded graphics and get the same 90ish, but have have it at 10 across the board at a 4k 75% render scale. Though I think I could not need to scale it .
For raids I have it scaled down a bit.
Don’t use the graphics sliders.
There are specific settings every PC and Mac user should be adjusting for their system config.
Is there a guide for Macs? I followed one for PCs, and it made the lag spikes so much worse.
I left PCs a few years ago. I permanently put away my Asus ROG w/ 3070 2 years ago and have been playing on a Mac ever since. MacBook Air M2 (Base Model), then a MacBook Pro M3 Pro (18GB Model), now a MacBook Air M4 (10/10/24GB Model). Haven’t had an issue on any of them.
WoW works great and Macs are so nice that my wife too switched to a MacBook Pro M3, daughter to a MacBook Air M2, and other daughter to an iMac. They’re our daily drivers and my wife and I work from home on ours as well.
Other games like No Man’s Sky and Valheim run natively and work great. For games not available on Mac, like CSGO2, Rocket League, etc, I use Geforce Now. Other than games I use it for design and artistic work.
There’s some great tips right here and from DBM’s developer on YouTube who uses a MacBook.
One size doesn’t fit all as some bugs and settings work opposite on different Macs.