In 3 years, 50% of all computers capable of playing AAA games will be Macs

[maflynn]

but never for gaming not as the landscape is and will be for the foreseeable future.

One option to possibly consider is Geforce Now, I've been using that a bit, and it offers fairly good performance and you can play any of your steam games. I cannot play Starfield on my Mac using Crossover, but it can run on Geforce Now

This has allowed me to play games that either my GPU is incapable of handling, or runs poorly under crossover.

 

[salamanderjuice]

One option to possibly consider is Geforce Now, I've been using that a bit, and it offers fairly good performance and you can play any of your steam games. I cannot play Starfield on my Mac using Crossover, but it can run on Geforce Now

This has allowed me to play games that either my GPU is incapable of handling, or runs poorly under crossover.

Geforce Now doesn't support all Steam games FYI. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a big one for example that's missing.

 

[maflynn]

Geforce Now doesn't support all Steam games FYI. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a big one for example that's missing.

Perhaps but its been working for me

 

[Plutonius]

Perhaps but its been working for me

Does it also run under Crossover ?

 

[dmccloud]

I can't imagine anyone using a laptop to play AAA games. It's hard to understand. Gamers usually build their own computers, and laptops are just a lower-end option.

None of this is an across-the-board fact. A lot of gamers use laptops to play AAA games because they want to take their rigs with them, and there are numerous laptops out there that are more than capable of playing those games. While the PC building segment of the market is sizeable from a revenue standpoint, custom-built systems actually are a small percentage of the overall gaming market. Even those gamers who buy prebuilt systems such as those from Alienware, Cyberpower, etc. often will upgrade components at a later time to extend the life of their systems or replace components that have failed.

 

[diamond.g]

None of this is an across-the-board fact. A lot of gamers use laptops to play AAA games because they want to take their rigs with them, and there are numerous laptops out there that are more than capable of playing those games. While the PC building segment of the market is sizeable from a revenue standpoint, custom-built systems actually are a small percentage of the overall gaming market. Even those gamers who buy prebuilt systems such as those from Alienware, Cyberpower, etc. often will upgrade components at a later time to extend the life of their systems or replace components that have failed.

It is fair to say most folk game on laptops. What makes that interesting is when folks start referencing performance with the 5090 (clearly referencing desktop) because the laptop 5090 is slower than the desktop 5080.

I originally took issue with the thread title because at the time every laptop could play AAA games with varying levels of performance. The term play becomes subjective instead of objective. It is also why I don't like to compare framegen and upscalers* because image quality starts to be an issue, and that also is subjective.


*I say this knowing I use them on my 5080 because the IQ doesn't take a hit with high enough input framerates and forced transformer model. It all looked like crap on my 6900XT, I hear the 9070XT w/FSR4 look pretty good these days.

 

[salamanderjuice]

It is fair to say most folk game on laptops. What makes that interesting is when folks start referencing performance with the 5090 (clearly referencing desktop) because the laptop 5090 is slower than the desktop 5080.

I originally took issue with the thread title because at the time every laptop could play AAA games with varying levels of performance. The term play becomes subjective instead of objective. It is also why I don't like to compare framegen and upscalers* because image quality starts to be an issue, and that also is subjective.


*I say this knowing I use them on my 5080 because the IQ doesn't take a hit with high enough input framerates and forced transformer model. It all looked like crap on my 6900XT, I hear the 9070XT w/FSR4 look pretty good these days.

I don't think that has ever been true even in 2020. Plenty of laptops just couldn't run some AAA titles with anything close to playable*.

* I don't count launching and running at 10 FPS "playable". I think most people would agree. And I'm pretty generous and will consider things that regularly run in the mid-20s playable unlike a lot of people these days.

Like look how abysmal the 2020 Intel MBA was at gaming! FIFA 20 didn't launch! 8 FPS in BFV!

Apple MacBook Air 2020 Core i5 Review – The best MacBook you can get? – No

Notebookcheck reviews the new Apple MacBook Air with the quad-core i5 CPU. The keyboard has been improved, but the performance is still the Achilles heel of the laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

 

[diamond.g]

I don't think that has ever been true even in 2020. Plenty of laptops just couldn't run some AAA titles with anything close to playable*.

* I don't count launching and running at 10 FPS "playable". I think most people would agree. And I'm pretty generous and will consider things that regularly run in the mid-20s playable unlike a lot of people these days.

Like look how abysmal the 2020 Intel MBA was at gaming! FIFA 20 didn't launch! 8 FPS in BFV!

Apple MacBook Air 2020 Core i5 Review – The best MacBook you can get? – No

Notebookcheck reviews the new Apple MacBook Air with the quad-core i5 CPU. The keyboard has been improved, but the performance is still the Achilles heel of the laptop.

www.notebookcheck.net

Folks put up with Z:BOTW dropping that low teens on the Switch... It is why I said subjective. Now there are game that literally won't run (which is different than conversations about playable). Those games are usually due to hardware features not being supported, like HWRT, or Mesh Shaders.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Folks put up with Z:BOTW dropping that low teens on the Switch... It is why I said subjective. Now there are game that literally won't run (which is different than conversations about playable). Those games are usually due to hardware features not being supported, like HWRT, or Mesh Shaders.

If you think BOTW occasionally dipping into the low teens in demanding scenes is unplayable, don't touch a 360 or a PS3 or a PS1 or N64. BOTW is smooth as silk compared to how some laptops run some games.

The fact that some games don't run kinda proves my point though? Doesn't it? Not every AAA game is/was playable on every laptop.

 

[dmccloud]

If you think BOTW occasionally dipping into the low teens in demanding scenes is unplayable, don't touch a 360 or a PS3 or a PS1 or N64. BOTW is smooth as silk compared to how some laptops run some games.

The fact that some games don't run kinda proves my point though? Doesn't it? Not every AAA game is/was playable on every laptop.

Not all desktops can play all AAA games either, so your entire argument is a red herring. Attempting to deal in absolutes renders your entire argument weak at best.

What is important to note is that people buying laptops for gaming are looking at a specific subset of models available on the market. They aren't buying the cheap entry level models sold at Best Buy, Walmart, etc. because they are looking at specific features such as GPU, RAM, display refresh rate, etc.

 

[salamanderjuice]

Not all desktops can play all AAA games either, so your entire argument is a red herring. Attempting to deal in absolutes renders your entire argument weak at best.

What is important to note is that people buying laptops for gaming are looking at a specific subset of models available on the market. They aren't buying the cheap entry level models sold at Best Buy, Walmart, etc. because they are looking at specific features such as GPU, RAM, display refresh rate, etc.

I was responding to diamond.g's absolute claim that "at the time every laptop could play AAA games with varying levels of performance". Which I showed not to be true, since some laptops couldn't launch some AAA games at all.

I never once stated or implied that all desktops could play all AAA games either, nor does that have anything to do with what I wrote. I don't think they could either for the record.

 

[diamond.g]

I was responding to diamond.g's absolute claim that "at the time every laptop could play AAA games with varying levels of performance". Which I showed not to be true, since some laptops couldn't launch some AAA games at all.

I never once stated or implied that all desktops could play all AAA games either, nor does that have anything to do with what I wrote. I don't think they could either for the record.

To be fair at the time this thread started there were not any games that used DX features that Intel Integrated graphics didn’t support (if my memory serves me well). Games that didn’t run at that time usually looked at what vendor you had and if not AMD or Nvidia it failed to run. Now games that don’t run are because of missing features more so than looking for a specific vendor.

Games like Borderlands 4 will complain even for older drivers (which is annoying).

 

[salamanderjuice]

To be fair at the time this thread started there were not any games that used DX features that Intel Integrated graphics didn’t support (if my memory serves me well). Games that didn’t run at that time usually looked at what vendor you had and if not AMD or Nvidia it failed to run. Now games that don’t run are because of missing features more so than looking for a specific vendor.

Games like Borderlands 4 will complain even for older drivers (which is annoying).

I don't even think it's just missing GPU features. Remember at the lowend there were still plenty of awful 4GB Celerons floating around when most AAA games were demanding 8GB+ of RAM. I doubt everything launches on those.

 

[diamond.g]

I don't even think it's just missing GPU features. Remember at the lowend there were still plenty of awful 4GB Celerons floating around when most AAA games were demanding 8GB+ of RAM. I doubt everything launches on those.

Here I thought shortages of RAM was a Mac problem 😂.

Have the IDC numbers borne out this predicted 50% shift?

 

[salamanderjuice]

Here I thought shortages of RAM was a Mac problem 😂.

Have the IDC numbers borne out this predicted 50% shift?

To be fair, those 4GB Celerons were $200-300. They were a horrible value. But they were cheap.

The IDC numbers have absolutely not borne this out even if we assume every Mac sold is now AAA capable.

IDC forecasted about 43ish million "gaming desktop/notebooks" (RTX 4050+ grade) in 2024. Apple sold about 23 million Macs in 2024. So at best, again assuming every Mac sold was AAA capable, it's 35%, not 50%. And a bunch of those were probably base models with 8GB of RAM that might struggle with games that want 16 GB+ even if there is a native Mac Port.

 

[tomas19]

None of this is an across-the-board fact. A lot of gamers use laptops to play AAA games because they want to take their rigs with them, and there are numerous laptops out there that are more than capable of playing those games. While the PC building segment of the market is sizeable from a revenue standpoint, custom-built systems actually are a small percentage of the overall gaming market. Even those gamers who buy prebuilt systems such as those from Alienware, Cyberpower, etc. often will upgrade components at a later time to extend the life of their systems or replace components that have failed.

Yes, your point is correct. In fact, I am waiting for GTA6 and I don’t know if my computer can play it normally.

 

[diamond.g]

Yes, your point is correct. In fact, I am waiting for GTA6 and I don’t know if my computer can play it normally.

If R* follows their usual scheme, we won't see GTA6 on PC until 2027 at the earliest. 😭

 

[maflynn]

And a bunch of those were probably base models with 8GB of RAM that might struggle with games that want 16 GB+ even if there is a native Mac Port.

Also factor in, how many of those were the low end MBAs, I suspect that will drive the percentages down even further. The MBA represents a fantastic deal for many, but game playing is not a usage where it will excel.