EVE General Discussion

I have a spare Mac Mini and currently run Eve on it on OSX.
Unfortunately it's a bit wonky and slow as one would expect from the Mac port.

I'm wondering if eve would run better on that same Mini if i run it with Windows.

I could just try, but since installing it and such is solely for Eve it would take a few hours. Hours I rather spend doing something else if I'm only going to find out it makes no difference.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

The mini in question is a Mid 2011 model, i5 2.3Ghz, 8GB ram with a Intel HD3000 GPU (So 512mb video ram)

No, I'm not buying a PC. I have this Mini.
Yes, I know Eve generally runs poorly on Mac.
No, I do not need your input/reply if you have nothing useful to say on my specific question.

Please share your experiences so I can make a somewhat educated decision to try or not. Thanks!

Yes, I'm not looking into installing a VM...
I mean run the "real" windows in Bootcamp. Same as making a dualboot.

Switching it to windows won't make much of a difference as the issue seems to be hardware.
Specifically the fact that the mini uses an integrated video card.
Physically upgrading the mini is impossible. (Or so it seems, I haven't attempted it, I have used mac minis before, but never opened one up physically since well they're a bit of an odd shape)

My suggestion would be to lower the graphic settings. Sure it won't look great, but the choice you have is playability vs visuals. To me, on my laptop that I use at my girlfriend's house, I run on medium/low which is better than not running it at all.

Just try lowering the graphic settings.

ESPECIALLY, SHADOWs. Shadows always kill video cards performence even integrated. It is the video cards natural enemy the way that things render to create shadows.

Windows obviously, everybody knows its the superior system.

Bootcamp is not a virtual machine please educate yourself before you go around spouting "facts".

Bootcamp is nothing more than marketing lingo Apple uses to dub its driver set it gives so that your Mac can run Windows natively no different than a Dell would.


Yes running windows has given me more than double the performance. The Mac client sucks. They use something called TransGaming to accomplish the Mac version of EVE. Transgaming is essentially virtualization with the specific purpose of a game. It performs better than say Parallels or VMWare as it is tailored to your specific game but the performance is horrible compared to native performance.

Other things to think about:

Yes it will run faster. But what else do you use the computer for? If everything else you do on that computer is on the Mac side you will find yourself booting back and forth. An exercise in tedium. You may find its better to accept a reduction in graphics and a lower FPS rather than booting over and over.

Now if its a dedicated Eve only computer, this issue goes away.

This is very true.

I find myself playing on the Mac side FAR more than Windows regardless of the performance hit. Usually the only time I am logged into the Windows side is if it's the weekend and I don't actually have to get real work done.

You might find eve runs better on an iMac under OSX than on a mini under Windows.

Yes it will, it's just not worth the hassle to do it without bootcamp, as all you gain is about 10GB of hard drive, while losing the one reason to buy mac in the first place.

Again please go educate yourself. Yes a Mac will run Windows, Linux, Unix, or any other OS designed to run on x86 hardware. Again bootcamp is DRIVERS. So that the pretty keyboard and mouse retain all their functions. Much in the same way a new computer you buy comes with a CD with DRIVERS on it. Bootcamp is the exact same thing. I am not sure why this is so hard for you to wrap your head around.