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Assassin's Creed Shadows Launches for Mac

News flash: fanless 8 GPU core devices are not ideal AAA gaming platforms.

Woe betide any who expect different.

Yes, M series is great for what it is. No it isn't magical silicon that totally defies the laws of physics and will give you RTX4060+ gaming performance in 15 watts with no fan.

That's just not realistic, and anyone expecting such is just not living in reality.


If you're looking to the Mac as a viable gaming platform you want at least an M-Pro, M-Max or ideally M-Ultra to get the GPU core count required for reasonable or better performance on modern high end games, even if they're a good port.

The PS5 has way more graphical horsepower than the base M parts - and that's fine, it runs in a few hundred watts with a fan, not 15 watts and no fan like a MacBook Air or iPad!
 
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Daydog said:
Anyone tried this on Mac Studio M4 Max 40 gpu cores.
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30 fps on "high" with low 1% of 15! fps without upscaling 40 fps with upscaling and a lot of visual bugs totally not worth it "native" release if you want to buy something good wait for cyberpunk it should come in few months max. (I already requested refund the performance is unacceptable for game looking mediocre like that on best chip)
 
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xaanaax said:
I doubt this will help them much with the sales
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I cannot believe this but I bought it.
After seeing some gameplay I did what I said I will never do… pay for a game made by Ubisoft.

It’s not bad.
Graphics are stunning.
Gameplay is OK-ish for a casual dad gamer :)
I am running it on my PC around 50-60 fps on a G9 57, 4080 super, DLSS performance(7680 × 2160)
 
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ThaRuler said:
Why can’t I play this on my M4 Ipad Pro?
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[cough], [cough], Do you want your OLED paper to be Grill?

FSMBP said:
Ditto that...I hear it requires an M4 to hit over 40 fps. Clearly not optimized.
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Should we blame Apple or Ubi**** for this?

MacsRgr8 said:
Priced at € 70 AND in-App Purchases....View attachment 2494260View attachment 2494261
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Thats the Starter pack, they are optional

Simmias said:
It’s coming to iPad.
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Unit you iPad turns into a grill
 
I guess they decided it was important to stick to the original plan of simultaneous release. I think that was a mistake. Yes it sucks when only the Mac port is delayed, but a botched release sucks more.

IF they follow through and fix some of the problems, I will buy it later this year, even if it's only on the App Store. Heaven knows I paid next to nothing for most of the other AC games (on Xbox). If the game is as good as I've been hearing, I'll splurge for once.
 
kirkmc said:
[…]

I gave up, asked for a refund, and bought it on Xbox. While it looks cartoonish compared to the better images on my iMac, it plays smoothly, and you don't have an options menu with a dozen choices for levels of video effects. I'd rather play the game on the Xbox than worry about all the settings on the Mac. I spent about two hours trying to find settings to make it play smoothly, to no avail.

[…]
Click to expand...

You shouldn’t have to play around for 2 hours to get the settings right. They’d definitely be better off if they had “optimal” Mac settings programmed from launch. As a general rule of thumb, less is more when it comes to graphic settings.
 
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Exactly. And I started out by using the defaults that showed in the settings when I launched the game. It was a disaster. The game should recommend settings based on the device it’s being played on.
 
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kirkmc said:
Exactly. And I started out by using the defaults that showed in the settings when I launched the game. It was a disaster. The gen should recommend settings based on the device it’s being played on.
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Likely too many hardware combinations for them to do the effectively. Mac users would end up with Series S type setting options (more or less none) with no scaling for more powerful hardware just so they can get the game running on the largest swath of hardware (Mx Airs). That would make folks with higher end hardware upset that they cannot take advantage of it.
 
diamond.g said:
Likely too many hardware combinations for them to do the effectively. Mac users would end up with Series S type setting options (more or less none) with no scaling for more powerful hardware just so they can get the game running on the largest swath of hardware (Mx Airs). That would make folks with higher end hardware upset that they cannot take advantage of it.
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It could set defaults based on the chip at least. Then users can tweak settings. But the fact that there are so many settings to tweak is problematic. In any case, I got a refund, and am playing on my Xbox. The visuals aren't as good as what the game is capable of on powerful PCs, but at least I don't have to hassle with settings.
 
kirkmc said:
It could set defaults based on the chip at least. Then users can tweak settings. But the fact that there are so many settings to tweak is problematic. In any case, I got a refund, and am playing on my Xbox. The visuals aren't as good as what the game is capable of on powerful PCs, but at least I don't have to hassle with settings.
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It does do that, or at least it seems like it should. There's a file at /Applications/Assassin's Creed Shadows.app/Contents/Resources/mac_hardware_requirements.json enumerating every Apple silicon Mac that's been released. For each one, it defines the default preset, as well as whether hardware requirements are "met" (probably to control whether to show a warning at the start).

Here's a snippet to show what I mean:

JSON: 
{
  "Apple M1": {

    "Macmini9,1": {
      "Name": "Mac mini (2020)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    },

    "MacBookAir10,1": {
      "Name": "MacBook Air (13-inch, 2020)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    },

    "MacBookPro17,1": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    },

    "iMac21,1": {
      "Name": "iMac (24-inch, 2021, Four ports)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    },

    "iMac21,2": {
      "Name": "iMac (24-inch, 2021, Two ports)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    }

  },

  "Apple M1 Pro": {

    "MacBookPro18,1": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : false,
      "DefaultPreset": "Low"
    },

[…]

  "Apple M4 Pro": {

    "Mac16,7": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : true,
      "DefaultPreset": "Medium"
    },

    "Mac16,8": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2024)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : true,
      "DefaultPreset": "Medium"
    },

    "Mac16,11": {
      "Name": "Mac mini (2024)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : true,
      "DefaultPreset": "Medium"
    }

  },

  "Apple M4 Max": {

    "Mac16,5": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : true,
      "DefaultPreset": "High"
    },

    "Mac16,6": {
      "Name": "MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2024)",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements": true,
      "DefaultPreset": "High"
    },

    "Mac16,9": {
      "Name": "Mac Studio",
      "MeetsHardwareRequirements" : true,
      "DefaultPreset": "High"
    }

  }
}
 
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komuh said:
30 fps on "high" with low 1% of 15! fps without upscaling 40 fps with upscaling and a lot of visual bugs totally not worth it "native" release if you want to buy something good wait for cyberpunk it should come in few months max.
Click to expand...

… or you can play Cyberpunk today on GeForce NOW with ray tracing and maxed out graphics settings at 1440p 120fps (or 4K 60fps), on any spec Mac with no fan noise or excess battery drain!

(Assassin's Creed Shadows is on there too, of course, but I can’t vouch for it’s performance…)
 
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Andrew Tsai , YouTuber with channel dedicated to Mac gaming, tested this on various Macs from M1 air to M3 ultra. Confusion: don't buy it (yet)

Catch 22 for Mac gamers. Buy it - encourage more crappy ports. Don't buy it - encourage no more ports
 
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