Apple Explains How Game Mode Works in macOS Sonoma

[Feek]

Just tested this with Eve Online on my MBA
Mid 90s frame rate with it running in a window.
110 full screen.

That's quite an increase.

 

[MayaUser]

Any benchmarks yet? If it helps less than 5%, meh.
I‘d rather see Apple throwing money at studios to optimize for AS, too.
Looking at you, Colossal Order and Cities Skylines 2…
The selection of games running on AS Mac at all is small compared to what could be possible.

in BG3 with mode ON i get 59fps and at the same settings with mode Off i get 46 fps
Hope this helps a bit

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Should be good for Genshin Impact.

Oh, wait.

 

[hovscorpion12]

Any benchmarks yet? If it helps less than 5%, meh.
I‘d rather see Apple throwing money at studios to optimize for AS, too.
Looking at you, Colossal Order and Cities Skylines 2…
The selection of games running on AS Mac at all is small compared to what could be possible.

I imagine those with beefy M-series will see the bulk of the benefits. M1/M2 Max, M1/M2 Ultra.

That doesn't mean standard base M1, M2, M1 Pro and M2 pro won't see any benefit. I just feel that those with ultra-powerful chips will see a bit more FPS performance.

Given that the
- M1 Max give 10-Core CPU & 32 GPU cores.
- M2 Max gives 12-Core CPU & 38 GPU cores.
- M1 Ultra gives 20-Core CPU & 64 GPU cores.
- M2 Ultra gives 24-Core CPU & 76 GPU cores.

I look forward to testing Lies of P, Resident Evil Village, Baldurs Gate III, Layers of Fear, Death Stranding, Assassin's Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4 Remake all at 4K.

 

[hovscorpion12]

in BG3 with mode ON i get 59fps and at the same settings with mode Off i get 46 fps
Hope this helps a bit

That's very impressive. What resolution/game settings did you have yours set to?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

It doesn't say specifically, but I'd assume it also makes the performance cores preferred? Over in Windows land, sometimes the wrong cores get selected while gaming when the CPU has performance and efficiency cores. Anyone with an M-series care to monitor CPU usage with Game Mode on and off?

 

[diamond.g]

in BG3 with mode ON i get 59fps and at the same settings with mode Off i get 46 fps
Hope this helps a bit

That is a 28% increase in performance. Wonder what background tasks are messing with things for that big of an increase (are you using the Steam version).

 

[Xavier]

It makes me happy that you used Myst as one of the images. Love the new version as well!

 

[MadDawg2020]

The article states it required an M1/M2.

 

[CarAnalogy]

That is a 28% increase in performance. Wonder what background tasks are messing with things for that big of an increase (are you using the Steam version).

That’s a very good point. The more performance gained from Game Mode, the more of an indictment it is that the operating system is running too high at what should be idle. It’s not like it makes the computer any faster.

 

[MayaUser]

That's very impressive. What resolution/game settings did you have yours set to?

 

[BasedReborn]

I like it, can now run No Mans sky on max settings before it would stutter and close

 

[phgreer]

What game is that in the images?

Looks like the 2021 version of Myst which is full 3-D, updated graphics, randomizer to change game solutions and set up to be used in VR.

 

[cocky jeremy]

I'll stick to custom built Windows PCs for gaming. lol. I love my Macs, but just no.

 

[BlairMALL]

It makes me happy that you used Myst as one of the images. Love the new version as well!

New version of Myst?!?!?! Is Riven far behind? Loved both though I am woefully far behind on keeping up with things in that world.

 

[DeadeyeM]

How is the mouse input lag? Does it improve is it similar to Windows?

 

[diamond.g]

How is the mouse input lag? Does it improve is it similar to Windows?

Isn't the mouse acceleration a separate feature?

 

[Manzanito]

Which processor are you running this on?

 

[ttyRazor]

What about games that start in full screen by default? I would hope you don’t need to switch to windowed mode only to set it to fullscreen again just to enable this. And once it’s fullscreen, how are you supposed to check the menubar, especially for games that capture the mouse input?

 

[InuNacho]

honestly gaming feels MUCH better with game mode (opening control center or notif center is super laggy though but that's the expected tradeoff) . gotta monitor battery consumption

I remember playing Unreal Tournament 2004, changing the volume and watching my framerate tank for 3 seconds while the volume overlay appeared and faded away from the screen.
Glad to see Apple has kept this design philosophy.

 

[BrownyQ]

This is a feature I'd like to test out with FF XIV, but I'm hesitant to upgrade to Sonoma currently on my M2P Mac mini. I might try it on the M1P MBP and see how the game runs before making the jump, since the Mac mini is a dedicated box for XIV.

 

[phgreer]

New version of Myst?!?!?! Is Riven far behind? Loved both though I am woefully far behind on keeping up with things in that world.

Yes they are remaking it. In full 3-D and adding new elements.

Update on new Riven

they don't have a release date but they are dedicating all their resources to it

 

[Rychiar]

But some games work better in windowed mode than full screen

i can’t imagine any game worth using it on does…..

 

[appleforever11]

I think game mode on my M2 MBA base model is helping a lot with it running Baldurs Gate 3 from Steam!

 

[star-affinity]

What if it's a game that won't make the menu bar appear when the arrow pointer moves to the top of the screen?

I think most games should behave that way, since it can be irritating having the menu bar come up like that (depending on the game of course).