Looking for Opinions - M1 Pro or M1 Max for Gaming?

[madisonm]

Hi everyone!

I’m looking to purchase the new MBP 16”, but one of my main uses is gaming (along with light work like Photoshop and Lightroom). I spend a lot of time in the hospital, so while I have a dedicated PC for gaming at home, I need something portable.

I know Macs are not optimal for gaming, but for what I play (WoW, Sims, League etc.) it has been doable. I had a Razer Blade for a few months after selling my 2013 MBP and I ended up really missing Apple and sold the Blade.

So my question is: Do you think the M1 Pro is enough or should I go for the M1 Max for gaming?

 

[jefhai]

Get the 14” 1TB 32GB Max (maxed out).. You’d be very happy with the performance. Would cost a penny. But for those games at the 14” resolution you’d want the M1 Max with 32 core GPU. If speculation is true the 32 core M1 is close or near close to a Nvidia 3080. Since you are buying this computer for the maybe next 5 years, it would be worth it.

I would wait for people to get their hands on it and do reviews playing the games you like. Certainly WoW and Sims users will do reviews on performance on YouTube.

If you can afford a 16” w/ M1 Max (maxed) sure.. but that’s probably too expensive for me to recommend for gaming.

 

[dtm84]

The boilerplate answer would be to get a cheaper macbook that can do your work and then buy a pc for gaming but these days getting video cards is an expensive nightmare so I think putting some extra money in to your mac is justifiable.

Your options are:

8/14 cores
10/16 cores
10/32 cores

and 16/32/64Gb unified memory

From the point of view of gaming the first barrier is likely going to be memory. If I was money limited then I would choose 8/14 32Gb. Then 10/16 32Gb. Then 10/32 32Gb. Then 10/32 64Gb.

 

[skaertus]

Get the 14” 1TB 32GB Max (maxed out).. You’d be very happy with the performance. Would cost a penny. But for those games at the 14” resolution you’d want the M1 Max with 32 core GPU. If speculation is true the 32 core M1 is close or near close to a Nvidia 3080. Since you are buying this computer for the maybe next 5 years, it would be worth it.

I would wait for people to get their hands on it and do reviews playing the games you like. Certainly WoW and Sims users will do reviews on performance on YouTube.

If you can afford a 16” w/ M1 Max (maxed) sure.. but that’s probably too expensive for me to recommend for gaming.

The NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile reaches 19 teraflops, while the 32-core GPU in the M1 Max reaches only 10.4. The performance of the RTX 3080 should be almost double, but we should see when the M1 Max is on the wild.

In its presentation, Apple was clever enough to mention high-end video cards in general, and not specific models, as being on par with the 32-core GPU of the M1 Max. Plus, if you look at the chart Apple showed, the high-end PC GPU sits above the 32-core M1 Max.

So, I would expect good performance, but nowhere near the highest-end of PC hardware, which will probably blow the M1 Max away.

Still, if you really want a MacBook, then you have no better option.

 

[Daniel L]

The NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile reaches 19 teraflops, while the 32-core GPU in the M1 Max reaches only 10.4. The performance of the RTX 3080 should be almost double, but we should see when the M1 Max is on the wild.

In its presentation, Apple was clever enough to mention high-end video cards in general, and not specific models, as being on par with the 32-core GPU of the M1 Max. Plus, if you look at the chart Apple showed, the high-end PC GPU sits above the 32-core M1 Max.

So, I would expect good performance, but nowhere near the highest-end of PC hardware, which will probably blow the M1 Max away.

Still, if you really want a MacBook, then you have no better option.

They listed the laptops they were comparing to: The compact model that the Max is faster than is the Razer Blade 15 Advanced with optioned RTX 3080 (95W GPU). The high end laptop that is slightly faster is the MSI GE76 Raider with RTX 3080 (155W GPU).

 

[Daniel L]

The NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile reaches 19 teraflops, while the 32-core GPU in the M1 Max reaches only 10.4. The performance of the RTX 3080 should be almost double, but we should see when the M1 Max is on the wild.

In its presentation, Apple was clever enough to mention high-end video cards in general, and not specific models, as being on par with the 32-core GPU of the M1 Max. Plus, if you look at the chart Apple showed, the high-end PC GPU sits above the 32-core M1 Max.

So, I would expect good performance, but nowhere near the highest-end of PC hardware, which will probably blow the M1 Max away.

Still, if you really want a MacBook, then you have no better option.

See bottom right

 

[Rob198612]

I ended up ordering the M1MAX WITH 24 GPU are you Guys saying i should get the 32 GPU version to have a decent gaming experience?

 

[skaertus]

View attachment 1871779
See bottom right

Oh OK! I had not seen that! Apple then compared the RTX 3080 with its 32-core GPU. The RTX 3080 is faster but consumes far more power. I have not seen which kind of benchmark Apple used here. The RTX 3080 has far more teraflops and should perform much better on paper, but real-world results may vary, and we will only know for sure after the new MacBook Pros are out in the wild.

 

[madisonm]

Thank you all for this great information!! I’m actually considering a 14 inch now, which I’m surprised by!

 

[jefhai]

Thank you all for this great information!! I’m actually considering a 14 inch now, which I’m surprised by!

I think 14” is plenty. 16” is massive and not something you’d want to chill in bed with for example.

If you want a single computer a Mac is great. And for editing photos or videos or content creation the 14” looks like a monster at all options. For gaming you’ll get away with it on all options. But if you want something smooth then definitely upgrade the chip, the most the better. For your games mid Pro probably will run things decent. But maxed Pro would be nice. Maxed Max would be awesome. $$$ your wallet.

For best gaming it’s not on Mac. Build a PC and have a 14” base for editing. Might be hard to get PC parts though. Building is silly. Prebuilts are good choice if you don’t want to mess with building.

A single computer MacBook that plays your games? Perfect 👌

 

[jefhai]

I ended up ordering the M1MAX WITH 24 GPU are you Guys saying i should get the 32 GPU version to have a decent gaming experience?

To take almost full advantage of that 14” screen.. an M1 Max 32 core is essential… otherwise accept below 1440p resolution on high - medium in games.

 

[Rob198612]

To take almost full advantage of that 14” screen.. an M1 Max 32 core is essential… otherwise accept below 1440p resolution on high - medium in games.

oh I ordered a 16 inch MBP

 

[DiscoToast]

I'm curious and hopeful about the topic of gaming as well. Unfortunately Macs have just never been built with high end gaming in mind. A lot of the advances in the M1 Pro/Max chip are to serve niche things like video encoding. I'm sure the gaming performance will be the best ever on a Mac... but even that I suspect might be somewhat disappointing. Its may be a very powerful tool... but its been designed with "work" tasks in mind. Any gaming performance gained will be nice, but its probably just a circumstantial benefit.

Its great to think the performance will be comparable to a 3080, but in practice that seems less likely. they would be making a HUGE performance jump from the previous graphics cards (which were provided by AMD, not Apple designed like these chips). If that was they case they are entering a whole new market, taking on Nvidia at their highest level gaming chips. It seems like a huge reach to be already competing at the top level GPUs with their first attempt.

But imagine how crazy it will be if thats true.

 

[Camzor]

It's worth remembering that Apple is comparing the M1 Pro and M1 Max performance to high-end gaming PC laptops, not desktops. With that in mind, I think Apple's use of the Razor Blade 15 Advanced lines up here. If OP is looking for portability, that's the best comparison. With that in mind, go for the M1 Max, just know that your gaming options will be limited to whatever has decent macOS support (but I assume OP already knows this).

I'd expect a desktop-class variant of the M1 to go toe-to-toe with gaming PC GPUs in the same way the M1 Max-equipped MacBook Pros compare favorably to gaming PC laptop GPUs. We'll have to see. Traditionally, Apple has used mobile Intel CPUs in the iMac and Mac mini, and desktop (workstation, even) CPUs in the iMac Pro and Mac Pro. I am hoping future desktop Macs all use desktop-class SoCs.

 

[leman]

For the games you have listed, you probably don't need anything more than the base M1. If you want to play WoW at high settings and close to native resolution, M1 Pro will do nicely. M1 Max is probably an overkill. These GPUs are top-notch rasterizers.

 

[3Rock]

This link will take you to a site that has a list of native games for the M1 and the other games for Rosetta 2

Home - Gaming on M1 Apple silicon Macs and MacBooks, bugs, fixes, compatiblity and troubleshooting guides - AppleGamingWiki

www.applegamingwiki.com

 

[jefhai]

For the games you have listed, you probably don't need anything more than the base M1. If you want to play WoW at high settings and close to native resolution, M1 Pro will do nicely. M1 Max is probably an overkill. These GPUs are top-notch rasterizers.

To render the 14” screen you’ll definitely need more than the base.. or just be happy with sub-1080p on that wild 14” screen they have.

 

[madisonm]

I’m absolute trash at quoting haha but this conversation and thread is really helpful so thank you so much everyone and all the amazing advice and ideas!