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Cyberpunk 2077 coming to Mac
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Andrew Tai tried running it on an base m1 Air with 8GB RAM. With low settings he was getting 30FPS and it was playable (although he didn't recommend it). It also ran much better than his base m1 Air using Crossover to run Cyberpunk 2077.
Ok, so it seems my issues are resolved. Looks like closing other apps or unplugging my external monitor did it?
Anyway at the recommended 'best for your Mac' settings with ray tracing on and set to medium, I get 50 to 60fps solid. Not bad as the settings are high and HDR is on too. Looks pretty good too.
Looking at videos it seems if you lower the resolution down to 1080 you can boost settings to max and get very good frame rates. Pretty impressive for a little 14" laptop.
Anyway at the recommended 'best for your Mac' settings with ray tracing on and set to medium, I get 50 to 60fps solid. Not bad as the settings are high and HDR is on too. Looks pretty good too.
Looking at videos it seems if you lower the resolution down to 1080 you can boost settings to max and get very good frame rates. Pretty impressive for a little 14" laptop.
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Any data on how well Cyberpunk is selling or its activity level on the Mac?
Steam Charts doesn't seem to show any major upticks and I don't see anything on the MAS that indicates how popular it is (not the rating but how many downloads/purchases).
Steam Charts doesn't seem to show any major upticks and I don't see anything on the MAS that indicates how popular it is (not the rating but how many downloads/purchases).
I'd imagine unless someone has a serious preference for one of the other stores/launchers, people are probably grabbing it on GOG for cheaper on sale. It is currently the cheapest place to get it by a wide margin and the best selling thing ATM. How much does that have to do with the release of the Mac port? Not easy to tell.
My GOG copy also includes the Mac version now.
Bear in mind that you can play the mac version of you own the PC one through GOG.
An important barrier to playing on Mac is storage. Most users only have 128-256GB storage and unlikely have 80-100GB storage spare for CP2077. Unlike with a PC, storage on Mac is non upgradable.
I know, but I think only steam offers the metrics to view engagement.
Good point
I was coming from the perspective that steam is the dominant force in gaming, and being a 5 year old game, people, there may be a lot of people who already own the game and now want to play it with their Mac.
I had owned the Win game on Steam so I downloaded the MacOS version for free.
I would be more interested in the number of people playing the MacOS version of the game on Steam.
Same, but it doesn't seem that steam charts breaks it down like that
Can you not install on an external drive? (Still on intel myself and my biggest game is CivVI).
Another reason to opt for 1TB or 2TB or storage.
Of course you can. There is no ”barrier” when you can get 1TB SSD for $60. People still talk like Mac gamers don’t have any options. I have all my games on an external drive.
I use a 4TB external Samsung SSD for my Steam library.
I actually halve a Samsung T7 SSD. I use it as a dirty drive when editing videos. I keep the raw files on it and the cache.
However is it fast enough to use like an internal drive for gaming?
Brilliant. I thought it was fast for transfering files but not for sustained speed during gaming. Either way my drive is plugged in and I am installing the game on my T7 as we speak. I also discovered that Fornite and UE5 were hogging 179GB storage on my Mac drive. I have not used either in almost 2 years! Found them using omni disc sweeper. Deleted now. Wohoo! But i will still install the game on the T7.
Game in stalled on my 2020 13 inch M1 Macbook Pro with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage. For context these are my other cyberpunk 2077 machines:
Xbox Series X
Gaming PC: 4070ti Super 16GB VRAM, 48GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5800x3D
The below is not reflective of the experience of playing the game on newer mac hardware like M3 and M4.
BAD
-If my gaming PC is your favorite gourmet restaurant meal, the M1 experience is like the cheapest ready meal version of that gourmet dish. In other words the experience on my M1 is potato graphics.
-There is alot of artefact caused by Metal Fx but more so by FSR. Therefore I prefer metal effects.
-Alot of pop-in of cars and character.
-Even if you dial up crowd levels to high, the city is life less, not enough cars or people.
-Bad draw distance. Anything that's not immedietly at arms reach is grainy or smudgy.
-Texture detail is so low that you can't appreciate the obssessive level of detail that CDPR have put into the game.
-This is a game to play at the native resolution of your screen. On my M1 it feels like a Switch 2 version blown up on a larger screen and with less power.
GOOD
-The game runs! It's impressive that it's been ported to mac.
-Laptop gets warm but not hot and I can't hear the fans. You can play this game without annoying everyone around you.
-Loading times are fast, just like on my PC. Takes like 10-15sec to load a saved game.
-I own the PC version through GOG, and therefore didn't have to pay for it!
-Hopefully this is a stepping stone towards launching the game on iOS as some iPads/iPhones have 8-16GB RAM![:D]( "Big Grin :D")
Xbox Series X
Gaming PC: 4070ti Super 16GB VRAM, 48GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 5800x3D
The below is not reflective of the experience of playing the game on newer mac hardware like M3 and M4.
BAD
-If my gaming PC is your favorite gourmet restaurant meal, the M1 experience is like the cheapest ready meal version of that gourmet dish. In other words the experience on my M1 is potato graphics.
-There is alot of artefact caused by Metal Fx but more so by FSR. Therefore I prefer metal effects.
-Alot of pop-in of cars and character.
-Even if you dial up crowd levels to high, the city is life less, not enough cars or people.
-Bad draw distance. Anything that's not immedietly at arms reach is grainy or smudgy.
-Texture detail is so low that you can't appreciate the obssessive level of detail that CDPR have put into the game.
-This is a game to play at the native resolution of your screen. On my M1 it feels like a Switch 2 version blown up on a larger screen and with less power.
GOOD
-The game runs! It's impressive that it's been ported to mac.
-Laptop gets warm but not hot and I can't hear the fans. You can play this game without annoying everyone around you.
-Loading times are fast, just like on my PC. Takes like 10-15sec to load a saved game.
-I own the PC version through GOG, and therefore didn't have to pay for it!
-Hopefully this is a stepping stone towards launching the game on iOS as some iPads/iPhones have 8-16GB RAM
I'm surprised that the M1 made the cut tbh, and just looking at CDPR's own specifications, you're not going to get decent frame rates
I think the M3 Pro is probably lowest Mac you'd want to play on it, and that's the rub with AAA gaming and Macs. The number of Macs capable of playing games like this is only a subset of the overall population of macs.
I have even see the game run on 8GB M1. But like you said, the M3 is probably "minimal enjoyable" Mac hardware for the game.
Anything below that, you are better of buying a used Series S for $150/£150 to play the game.
However, what matters here is optimisation and a showcase that AAA titles can run on apple silicone.
True, now the case has to be made that its economically viable for publishers to spend the money to port (develop) AAA titles onto Apple silicon
I think it’s just a matter of time when the Apple TV has a gaming option where you can just play your App Store purchases on it. I mean, it is already there, but not for the Baldurs gate 3 cyberpunk crowd.
The switch 2 optimisation and dlss implementation are engineering marvels. The Switch 2 runs th game competently on 10 watts of power!
My M1 is 65Watts, pc 650 watts.