>In two years, you’ll upgrade your M1 to an M4+: there’s the power upgrade.
>If CrossOver is struggling to run that particular game you so badly want to play, it’ll be buttery smooth in a few years. You’re going to do the laptop upgrade anyway regardless of the Steam Machine.
The only times I've heard the fan come on on my M4 were with games like Kerbal Space Program and Cities Skylines. Having tried both of them on a variety of MBPs over the years (both Intel and Apple Silicon) I'm not convinced they'll ever run well - in fact they both play worse on my M4. Newer games like CP2077 and No Man's Sky do put in a good showing but they've been optimized for Metal.
>If CrossOver is struggling to run that particular game you so badly want to play, it’ll be buttery smooth in a few years. You’re going to do the laptop upgrade anyway regardless of the Steam Machine.
The only times I've heard the fan come on on my M4 were with games like Kerbal Space Program and Cities Skylines. Having tried both of them on a variety of MBPs over the years (both Intel and Apple Silicon) I'm not convinced they'll ever run well - in fact they both play worse on my M4. Newer games like CP2077 and No Man's Sky do put in a good showing but they've been optimized for Metal.