macOS Monterey to Offer Smoother Gameplay With Support for Adaptive-Sync Displays on Newer Macs

[jeh72]

Civilization. C’mon man.

Civ 6 has been broken for more than a year on recent Intel MBP's and iMacs. It might be working better with the macOS 11.4 update for some macs but users are still reporting crashes/bugs. As much as I would like proper gaming to happen on macs, most game developers don't seem to take the platform seriously.
https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/...-Why-is-Civilization-VI-is-freezing-mid-game-
https://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/340412628172881722/

 

[l0stl0rd]

Let me ask this questions:

Are there any M1 native games especially AAA grade games? Dont include mobile games. You see, Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus, Civilization, and more aren't M1 native and you have to use rosetta 2 which won't gonna exist forever.

No I don’t think so only WOW and Disco Elysium are native M1.

That is if you don’t count apple arcade games.

 

[Homy]

There are no AAA games for Mac (Battlefield, Cyberpunk, COD, etc). It's a nice feature.... but, pointless.

What's the point in doing things like adaptive sync, improving CPU and GPU power and expanding platforms when you're limited to some mobile games like World of Tanks?

The state of gaming on Mac OS was beyond pathetic 20 years ago and it's only gotten WORSE. It's a disgrace now. Even decent games that ARE supported have terrible ports, ie; I've got a 5700 XT with a 1440p 165hz monitor.

Nobody is going to care what bells and whistles Apple throws at you; their GPUs are trash, especially now that you can't even spec any MacBook or iMac with anything from AMDs new lineup, the games are missing and the ones that are there are old and dated, and when they are available, they run like ass because the ports SUCK.

How many of those games still work with Catalina / Big Sur? Most of my games in steam are no longer compatible thanks to 32bit support being gone.

The problems with Macs and gaming is endless. It's an embarrassment to Apple.

While you may have some valid points I'm still surprised that you claim to be a Mac user with 5700 XT and still make such strange comments.

You say there are NO AAA games for Mac, not that they are few or old but NO games. You don't know what the point is with Apple's new gaming technologies or which games are compatible with Catalina/Big Sur.

There are many AAA games for Mac, many ported by Feral Interactive but your definition of AAA games seems to only include FPS. Funny that you mention Cyberpunk with all its problems. Is that what you want for your Mac? Unfinished buggy games? You also mention games that are not ported instead of games that are ported.

Of the five games mentioned before three of them actually are 64-bit and work fine on Big Sur. Here are some 64-bit AAA (or popular) games for Mac working on Big Sur (both old and new):

• A Total War Saga: FALL OF THE SAMURAI
• A Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA
• A Total War Saga: TROY
• Alien: Isolation
• Batman: Arkham City
• BioShock Remastered
• BioShock 2 Remastered
• Company of Heroes 2
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• DiRT 4
• DiRT Rally
• F1 2016
• F1 2017
• GRID Autosport
• LEGO DC Super-Villains
• LEGO Disney•Pixar's The Incredibles
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
• The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame
• LEGO The Incredibles
• Life is Strange
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• Life is Strange 2
• Mad Max
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Sid Meier's Railroads!
• Sleeping Dogs
• Thief
• Tomb Raider
• Total War: EMPIRE
• Total War: MEDIEVAL II
• Total War: NAPOLEON
• Total War: SHOGUN 2
• Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
• Total War: WARHAMMER
• Total War: WARHAMMER II
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II / Retribution / Chaos Rising
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
• XCOM 2
• XCOM 2 – War of the Chosen

In addition to those we have these and many more:

- Baldur's gate 3
- Battletech
- Borderlands 2-3
- Civilisation V, VI, Beyond Earth
- CS GO
- Divinity: Original Sin 2
- Dota 2
- Dying Light + DLC
- Eurotruck Simulator 2
- Fortnite
- Metro 2033 Redux, Metro Last Light Redux, Metro Exodus + DLCs
- Rust
- The Sims 4
- World of Tanks (not only mobile as you said)
- War Thunder

The point of releasing new gaming technologies is to show the possibilities. Apple won't quit developing and wait for the developers to catch up. It always works the other way around. They develop new stuff to show the way. If they wouldn't develop people would say Apple can't make progress and Mac OS technologies are old not good for gaming. Now that they make progress people instead say who is it for? I guess they can't make everyone happy.

As for their GPUs they've just started. With M2 and future versions of Apple Silicon with 16-128 GPU cores you will have performance up to 3090 level.

 

[sunny5]

Civ 6 has been broken for more than a year on recent Intel MBP's and iMacs. It might be working better with the macOS 11.4 update for some macs but users are still reporting crashes/bugs. As much as I would like proper gaming to happen on macs, most game developers don't seem to take the platform seriously.
https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/...-Why-is-Civilization-VI-is-freezing-mid-game-
https://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/340412628172881722/

And I dont think Civilization 6 is M1 native.

 

[sunny5]

While you may have some valid points I'm still surprised that you claim to be a Mac user with 5700 XT and still make such strange comments.

You say there are NO AAA games for Mac, not that they are few or old but NO games. You don't know what the point is with Apple's new gaming technologies or which games are compatible with Catalina/Big Sur.

There many AAA games for Mac, many ported by Feral Interactive but your definition of AAA games seem to only include FPS. Funny that you mention Cyberpunk with all its problems. Is that what you want for your Mac? Unfinished buggy games? You also mention games that are not ported instead of games that are ported.

Of the five games mentioned before three of them actually are 64-bit and work fine on Big Sur. Here are some 64-bit AAA (or popular) games for Mac working on Big Sur (both old and new):

• A Total War Saga: FALL OF THE SAMURAI
• A Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA
• A Total War Saga: TROY
• Alien: Isolation
• Batman: Arkham City
• BioShock Remastered
• BioShock 2 Remastered
• Company of Heroes 2
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• DiRT 4
• DiRT Rally
• F1 2016
• F1 2017
• GRID Autosport
• LEGO DC Super-Villains
• LEGO Disney•Pixar's The Incredibles
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
• The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame
• LEGO The Incredibles
• Life is Strange
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• Life is Strange 2
• Mad Max
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Sid Meier's Railroads!
• Sleeping Dogs
• Thief
• Tomb Raider
• Total War: EMPIRE
• Total War: MEDIEVAL II
• Total War: NAPOLEON
• Total War: SHOGUN 2
• Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
• Total War: WARHAMMER
• Total War: WARHAMMER II
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II / Retribution / Chaos Rising
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
• XCOM 2
• XCOM 2 – War of the Chosen

In addition to those we have these and many more:

- Baldur's gate 3
- Battletech
- Borderlands 2-3
- Civilisation V, VI, Beyond Earth
- CS GO
- Divinity: Original Sin 2
- Dota 2
- Dying Light + DLC
- Eurotruck Simulator 2
- Fortnite
- Metro 2033 Redux, Metro Last Light Redux, Metro Exodus + DLCs
- Rust
- The Sims 4
- World of Tanks (not only mobile as you said)
- War Thunder

The point of releasing new gaming technologies is to show the possibilities. Apple won't quit developing and wait for the developers to catch up. It always works the other way around. They develop new stuff to show the way. If they wouldn't develop people would say Apple can't make progress and Mac OS technologies are old not good for gaming. Now that they make progress people instead say who is it for? I guess they can't make everyone happy.

As for their GPUs they've just started. With M2 and future versions of Apple Silicon with 16-128 GPU cores you will have performance up to 3090 level.

And I dont see any M1 NATIVE apps. So what's the point if they dont support Apple Silicon natively while Rosetta 2 won't gonna support forever? Forget about Intel Mac. They will be replaced soon. I dont see any point of mentioning Intel apps on Apple Silicon Mac.

 

[InuNacho]

Drops 32-Bit support for a fair amount of Steam games.
Adds adaptive sync for games.

Has minimal AAA games on MacOS.

 

[Homy]

And I dont see any M1 NATIVE apps. So what's the point if they dont support Apple Silicon natively while Rosetta 2 won't gonna support forever? Forget about Intel Mac. They will be replaced soon.

The situation is similar to the transition from PPC to Intel which I went through. Either the apps will get native ports or in the future when Rosetta no longer is supported you can always keep your older fully functioning Mac to play older games. You can also choose to not upgrade to the lates Mac OS after Rosetta. So we're talking about a 5-10 year period. Hopefully by that time you have finished your unfinished games. I don't see a major problem.

 

[cmaier]

Civ 6 has been broken for more than a year on recent Intel MBP's and iMacs. It might be working better with the macOS 11.4 update for some macs but users are still reporting crashes/bugs. As much as I would like proper gaming to happen on macs, most game developers don't seem to take the platform seriously.
https://support.aspyr.com/hc/en-us/...-Why-is-Civilization-VI-is-freezing-mid-game-
https://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/340412628172881722/

Huh. I play it every weekend and haven’t seen any of these problems.

 

[SecuritySteve]

I don't care what anyone says, this is a positive move in the right direction. I am eagerly awaiting this OS update more than any since Mojave introduced dark mode specifically because of this feature. My adaptive sync ultra wide gaming monitor is ready for this.

 

[ikir]

What's the point in doing things like adaptive sync, improving CPU and GPU power and expanding platforms when you're limited to some mobile games like World of Tanks?

The state of gaming on Mac OS was beyond pathetic 20 years ago and it's only gotten WORSE. It's a disgrace now. Even decent games that ARE supported have terrible ports, ie; I've got a 5700 XT with a 1440p 165hz monitor. I tried Grid Autosport in Ultra settings via Mac OS Catalina with old drivers that get me a Metal score of about 47,000 in Geekbench. New drivers in Big Sur? 80,000. And my framerates in the game between both operating systems? Avg 75fps in Catalina, 69 in Big Sur. In Windows? Double.

Nobody is going to care what bells and whistles Apple throws at you; their GPUs are trash, especially now that you can't even spec any MacBook or iMac with anything from AMDs new lineup, the games are missing and the ones that are there are old and dated, and when they are available, they run like ass because the ports SUCK.

Not all ports sucks. Check Metro Exodus for example. Your reasoning is wrong, this are getting better because we now have increasing user base, Apple is investing in metal and features like that. Things will change in few years.

 

[opeter]

How many of those games still work with Catalina / Big Sur? Most of my games in steam are no longer compatible thanks to 32bit support being gone.

The problems with Macs and gaming is endless. It's an embarrassment to Apple.

You are right. Most titles, be it AAA, AA or indies won't work on newer macOS system.

I checked my library on GOG.com and there are like 5 games in it, that have 64-bit (Intel!) Mac support. Most don't have and will never be upgraded. So the only way, to play these is, well, play the Windows version or Linux (if there is one).

You can also try WINE/Crossover/PlayOnMac, but the x86 support on M1 still isn't the best, the performance is very lacklustre.

Than there is also PortingKit, but sadly is in the same league as these other WINE solutions mentioned above.

Paulthetall.com

Play your favorite windows games on your Mac!

www.paulthetall.com

 

[4jasontv]

There many AAA games for Mac, many ported by Feral Interactive

One could make the argument that ports done by a third party are based on a AAA game, but are not one themselves.

 

[4jasontv]

Personally, any game that doesn't output at least 60fps is unplayable for me.

I’m over here going, “wait, it can’t do 240 FPS at 5120x1440?”

 

[JOLoughlin]

Sort of an insignificant question; Is the article image from Apple? A little surprised to see a Razer monitor in an Apple image.

 

[blazerunner]

Not all ports sucks. Check Metro Exodus for example. Your reasoning is wrong, this are getting better because we now have increasing user base, Apple is investing in metal and features like that. Things will change in few years.

I'll believe it when I see it. It's been a disgrace for the last 20 years, I have zero faith in Apple in this regard, especially since they refuse to work with Nvidia as well.

 

[Shreducator]

What games?

 

[nathansz]

What's the point in doing things like adaptive sync, improving CPU and GPU power and expanding platforms when you're limited to some mobile games like World of Tanks?

The state of gaming on Mac OS was beyond pathetic 20 years ago and it's only gotten WORSE. It's a disgrace now. Even decent games that ARE supported have terrible ports, ie; I've got a 5700 XT with a 1440p 165hz monitor. I tried Grid Autosport in Ultra settings via Mac OS Catalina with old drivers that get me a Metal score of about 47,000 in Geekbench. New drivers in Big Sur? 80,000. And my framerates in the game between both operating systems? Avg 75fps in Catalina, 69 in Big Sur. In Windows? Double.

Nobody is going to care what bells and whistles Apple throws at you; their GPUs are trash, especially now that you can't even spec any MacBook or iMac with anything from AMDs new lineup, the games are missing and the ones that are there are old and dated, and when they are available, they run like ass because the ports SUCK.

if you don't want to play games in macOS then boot in to windows and play

whether you think there's a point to this or not it is great for people like me that like to play games in macOS and have a decent gpu and monitor

I like to play the long dark in 4k ultra because its a beautiful game but I have to play with v-sync on or I get tearing. adaptive sync would be great

 

[nathansz]

One could make the argument that ports done by a third party are based on a AAA game, but are not one themselves.

one could make that argument but it would be a silly distinction that has nothing to do with the reason that the original claim of no AAA games on Mac was made, which is that there is no point in adaptive sync in macOS because the games that person likes are either unavailable or perform poorly in macOS compared to windows

 

[wwinter86]

Anyone know if M1 Mac mini with BenQ EW3270U is supported? As I am not seeing the option for it so far.

 

[nathansz]

Anyone know if M1 Mac mini with BenQ EW3270U is supported? As I am not seeing the option for it so far.

I don't think it's actually available in the current beta yet, at least I'm not seeing it

 

[wwinter86]

I don't think it's actually available in the current beta yet, at least I'm not seeing it

I see, thanks

 

[rolphi]

Far too little too late. Anyone that's serious and cares about gaming stays as far away from Macs as humanely possible.

Macs are not and never will be good for any sort of gaming

I'm wondering if I can save this comment forever like the ones complaining about the original iPod (thread #500) or the original iPhone, or the iPad, or Apple Music, or really man there are a lot of examples aren't there?

Apple are making their own chips for Macs now, and based on their previous success, they seem to be very good at it. The only thing holding Apple back from matching or surpassing what is happening at AMD and nVidia is their will to do so, not their ability.

 

[nathansz]

qq

I don't care what anyone says, this is a positive move in the right direction. I am eagerly awaiting this OS update more than any since Mojave introduced dark mode specifically because of this feature. My adaptive sync ultra wide gaming monitor is ready for this.

completely agree

 

[CarlJ]

not sure what the point is unless developers make games.

...

Probably better off to buy a PS5 if I could find one lol.

Agreed that Apple will need would need to, one, bring hardware that can support AAA titles; two, bring software support that game companies would want to write those AAA titles with (probably working with companies that make cross-platform engines, because you'd have a hard time getting developers to release Apple-exclusive AAA titles at this point), and, three, work hard to develop a track record of supporting game development efforts continuously - they've made half-hearted starts on this at various times, and then Apple invariably loses interest and wanders off - so much so that it's going to take a lot to make the game developers believe a, "and this time, we mean it", from Apple.

The PS5 is lovely, by the way. Wide support, access to pretty much anything that isn't Xbox-specific, and zero setup/tweaking to get to where you can play. And it's pretty much guaranteed to be the same hardware target for another five years or so, so none of that constantly having to upgrade individual parts to keep up. Highly recommended. If you want one, there's a bunch of "PS5 restock" type accounts on twitter, which usually post notices of which online stores will be getting inventory and when (usually several hours ahead of time - note that some "drops" are small, and it's difficult to beat the bots, while others are quite large and many individuals come away happy). Follow a few, and turn on notifications, and then hit refresh a bunch at the appointed time(s). Took me a week or two, back in February.

I expect I'll be getting an M2(?) MBP when the 16" models come out, but I expect most of what game playing I do will still be on the PS5. Easier to keep the two separate (I'm always in the middle of a bunch of other stuff on the Mac, anyway, wouldn't want to have to shut everything down in order to take a break to play games).

 

[arvinsim]

How many of those games still work with Catalina / Big Sur? Most of my games in steam are no longer compatible thanks to 32bit support being gone.

The problems with Macs and gaming is endless. It's an embarrassment to Apple.

The ironic part is that the non-graphics intensive games that I love that lend themselves well to gaming on the Macbook are all 32-bit. Still bitter about it.