For the little I've seen in YouTube and forums the consensus seems to be that 16GB is highly recommended – with the unified memory model (no separate graphics memory) most games will struggle with just the 8GB.

By "suffice to play the game" what do you mean? The game won't crash, but you may experience degraded performance.

Do you want 60 FPS on a 4k external monitor with ESO settings on high/ultra? Then no, it won't suffice. No M1 Mac configuration will suffice by that standard.

On an M1 MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM and 8 GPU cores, with the ESO window at 2560x1440 on an external monitor ("1440p" - halfway between 1080p and 4k), with Texture Quality and Subsampling Quality on High, Shadows and Grass OFF, antialiasing on FXAA, I consistently get about 30-50 FPS while running through a town like Greenhill in Reaper's March. Occasionally I hit 60 FPS or higher in low demand scenes, like an empty house. That's with 3.6 million pixels.

The game runs at a 1680x1050 resolution by default on a Macbook retina display, and that's about 1.7 million pixels, so you could reasonably expect 40-60 FPS at that resolution. Note, 1680x1050 is considerably lower res than 1080p.

Know that ESO uses about 4 GB of system memory and 2-2.5 GB of VRAM with texture quality on high. That is pushing near the memory limit of an 8 GB M1 system. If you have significant other programs loaded in memory (even just a web browser or Discord) you could be in a situation where part of ESO or your web browser might get paged out to the SSD, which not only creates excessive write wear on the SSD, but will be a major slowdown compared to running in RAM.

I can't recommend an 8 GB model. I'd sooner recommend 7 GPU cores than the 8 GB model. But if you want the best performance and if you don't want to wear out your SSD, obviously you should pay up for 16 GB RAM and 8 GPU cores.

If you're fine running the game at a low resolution with all graphics settings on Low, you might be able to squeak by with a base model M1. However, the game will use over half of your system storage. If you don't mind that, it should be "fine" for some definition of fine. No, it won't play well, but it will play.

Thanks a lot, guys, I appreciate it.

I don't mind going with 8 GB to play on medium settings or try high settings. Truth be told, I haven't noticed much difference between running ESO on Ultra on my Windows machine and High settings, it felt the same.

ESO is actually the only game that I play installed, the rest is via GeForce NOW, which doesn't require superb hardware, only a good internet connection, hence the 8 GB config. No point in overblowing it over one installed game, and if they ever decide to put it back to GeForce NOW all problems will be solved for Mac gamers.

I wanted to know if I'll be able to run it and how well given the description on Steam that it requires a computer with 8 GB of RAM. Wasn't sure how up to date that description is.

I think your posts answer my question. I'll go with the 8 GB RAM version.

Funny … so the purpose of this thread was you just wanting people to tell you 8GB is enough

NetherClawSr wrote: »

I have played ESO in the M1 with 8GB without any issues. It’s fast even on high graphics. There is however a problem with the ESO native client in general on Mac. Which is why I have moved to Stadia months ago. Plays fantastic on Mac (keyboard and mouse of controller), iPad and TV with controller. Only issue is that I can use no addons, but that’s what it is I guess.

What what what? You’re using Stadia to play ESO on your iPad? More details please!!!!

Well I already own it on the Mac. So would they want me to pay for Stadia AND buy the game again thru them to play on the iPad?

The Stadia monthly subscription is only for 4k and HDR support, and for the catalog of games to play "for free". After you buy the game through Stadia you can play for free in 1080p with no sub. On a MBP the 4k is not supported anyway, playing with a chromecast on a 4k TV it looks great.

Also, you only need to buy the base game for it to launch. After that all the DLC and stuff you purchased through Zenimax should show up. When I bought the game on Stadia it was on sale for $8.99 and Google gave me a $10 coupon towards my first game purchase so I bascially got it for free.

Using a PS4 controller to my iPad (2017 10" base model) the performance is okay. There is some noticeable pixilation's and buffering at times, and the controller inputs are sometimes off. Could be my low end iPad idk. I wouldn't run a dungeon, but for daily rewards and stuff it's fine. The Stadia controller is much better since it's WiFi and goes directly to the cloud.

What is nice is Stadia uses the PC/Mac megaserver, so my character and progress and everything is there on my gaming rig, my M1 MBP, iPad, phone, and Chromecast.

morwynne wrote: »

I am going to have to try it. I have the iPad Air 4th gen which should perform pretty well, and I have a brand new purple iPad Mini that it will probably run brilliantly on!

Update: $10 off first game so got ESO for $9, linked my ESO and Stadia accounts and all my expansion packs are there? Wow, this looks amazing and runs amazing on my new iPad Mini. Just works in Safari in iOS 15. Having to learn the controls with my ps4 controller though, been playing with my trackpad on my MBP since ESO doesn’t use the ps4 controller like FFXIV does. Finally figured out how to mount, wasn’t able to send email. No keyboard comes up with the controller but if I tap in the subject line it pops up the iPad keyboard, lets me type, but then pops up a window to either go back to the game or quit the game. So can’t figure out how I could send emails or txt in chat… ?

Glad it's working for you! I don't really email or chat when on Stadia so I'm not sure. But I did get fairly used to playing with a controller and actually prefer to run dungeons on controller, and general questing and crafting with mouse/keyboard. I feel like I get better DPS and survive longer with a controller, but I'm not a huge fan of the interface.

Coorbin wrote: »

By "suffice to play the game" what do you mean? The game won't crash, but you may experience degraded performance.

Do you want 60 FPS on a 4k external monitor with ESO settings on high/ultra? Then no, it won't suffice. No M1 Mac configuration will suffice by that standard.

On an M1 MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM and 8 GPU cores, with the ESO window at 2560x1440 on an external monitor ("1440p" - halfway between 1080p and 4k), with Texture Quality and Subsampling Quality on High, Shadows and Grass OFF, antialiasing on FXAA, I consistently get about 30-50 FPS while running through a town like Greenhill in Reaper's March. Occasionally I hit 60 FPS or higher in low demand scenes, like an empty house. That's with 3.6 million pixels.

The game runs at a 1680x1050 resolution by default on a Macbook retina display, and that's about 1.7 million pixels, so you could reasonably expect 40-60 FPS at that resolution. Note, 1680x1050 is considerably lower res than 1080p.

Know that ESO uses about 4 GB of system memory and 2-2.5 GB of VRAM with texture quality on high. That is pushing near the memory limit of an 8 GB M1 system. If you have significant other programs loaded in memory (even just a web browser or Discord) you could be in a situation where part of ESO or your web browser might get paged out to the SSD, which not only creates excessive write wear on the SSD, but will be a major slowdown compared to running in RAM.

I can't recommend an 8 GB model. I'd sooner recommend 7 GPU cores than the 8 GB model. But if you want the best performance and if you don't want to wear out your SSD, obviously you should pay up for 16 GB RAM and 8 GPU cores.

If you're fine running the game at a low resolution with all graphics settings on Low, you might be able to squeak by with a base model M1. However, the game will use over half of your system storage. If you don't mind that, it should be "fine" for some definition of fine. No, it won't play well, but it will play.

How did you get your retina display to run at 1680x1050? I just updated my Mac client on my M1 MBP and I'm stuck at 1440x900