This post is not overly technical, nor is it anything but my own experiences of pushing the low-end of the Apple Silicon range to its limits. The M1 SoC truly has potential in spades, and the future of Macs does in fact seem bright from a power perspective.
I am currently using a M1 13 inch MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM, so the experiences are based on this machine though the rest of the derivatives of this chip should not stray too far out. My experience with running Windows 10 (ARM) on Parallels from Technical Preview to today has been frustrating at first to amazed so far. I do not play games nearly as much as I used to, however, that being said - I do enjoy being able to play now and then. I am fully aware that a PC or a gaming console would better serve this end, but just to humour myself, I tried playing a few games on Parallels. So just to clarify, macOS is virtualizing Windows 10 (ARM) through Parallels which is running an x86-x64 game, on a low-end version of the Apple Silicon line. Now, there is compatibility issues with ARM in general at this point, but I am hoping as the industry hopefully shifts more towards ARM or at least recognizes the potential benefits of ARM, we can see a more equitable treatment for software and games for both ARM and x86-x64. The games that DID work though, they worked well given the circumstances. I was able to load up Mortal Kombat X which is fairly graphic intensive in my view (even though it was released in 2015), and it ran fairly well on "medium-high" settings, with occasional stuttering depending on what was happening (particle effects, etc.). This, while macOS is running at the same time where I can swipe back and forth between operating systems (virtual and real) without stutter.
Again, this is with the 8-core GPU, low-end Apple Silicon SoCs. I am eager to see where the 16 inch MacBook Pro and whatever Apple Silicon SoC ends up in it goes and performs. And if a 64 core or even 128 core GPU is on the horizon for the Mac Pro, the graphical capability of this will be very exciting. Not even just for games, but for native software coded for macOS that is utilizing Metal, this will be fantastic to see where this goes.
I am currently using a M1 13 inch MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM, so the experiences are based on this machine though the rest of the derivatives of this chip should not stray too far out. My experience with running Windows 10 (ARM) on Parallels from Technical Preview to today has been frustrating at first to amazed so far. I do not play games nearly as much as I used to, however, that being said - I do enjoy being able to play now and then. I am fully aware that a PC or a gaming console would better serve this end, but just to humour myself, I tried playing a few games on Parallels. So just to clarify, macOS is virtualizing Windows 10 (ARM) through Parallels which is running an x86-x64 game, on a low-end version of the Apple Silicon line. Now, there is compatibility issues with ARM in general at this point, but I am hoping as the industry hopefully shifts more towards ARM or at least recognizes the potential benefits of ARM, we can see a more equitable treatment for software and games for both ARM and x86-x64. The games that DID work though, they worked well given the circumstances. I was able to load up Mortal Kombat X which is fairly graphic intensive in my view (even though it was released in 2015), and it ran fairly well on "medium-high" settings, with occasional stuttering depending on what was happening (particle effects, etc.). This, while macOS is running at the same time where I can swipe back and forth between operating systems (virtual and real) without stutter.
Again, this is with the 8-core GPU, low-end Apple Silicon SoCs. I am eager to see where the 16 inch MacBook Pro and whatever Apple Silicon SoC ends up in it goes and performs. And if a 64 core or even 128 core GPU is on the horizon for the Mac Pro, the graphical capability of this will be very exciting. Not even just for games, but for native software coded for macOS that is utilizing Metal, this will be fantastic to see where this goes.
