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Major gaming news at WWDC: Metal and New games
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I bet it'll just be basically a big floating window and still 3rd person and largely irrelevant that it doesn't run at 90 FPS.
Hi @leman! Do you know if MetalFX Frame Interpolation, Denoising and Path Tracing were possible prior to Metal 4, for example with Metal 3? Apple announced and advertised these features in their press release about Metal 4 at WWDC. They said ”With Metal 4 developers can now run inference networks directly in their shaders to compute lighting, materials, and geometry, enabling highly realistic visual effects for their games. MetalFX Frame Interpolation generates an intermediate frame for every two input frames to achieve higher and more stable frame rates, and MetalFX Denoising makes real-time ray tracing and path tracing possible in the most advanced games”.
In MetalFX documentation MTL4FXFrameInterpolator and MTL4FXTemporalDenoisedScaler were introduced in Metal 4 which require macOS 26 Tahoe but there are also MTLFXFrameInterpolator and MTLFXTemporalDenoisedScaler. Some guy on Reddit argues that with those it’s possible to add MetalFX Frame Interpolation aka Frame Gen and Denoising even to Metal 3 but not once anywhere I’ve seen any news about it. Apple hasn’t mentioned it either. You would think they would say ”These new features will be available in Metal 3 too so you can update even your old Metal 3 games with MetalFX Frame Interpolation, Denoising and Path Tracing” but I haven’t heard a word.
In MetalFX documentation MTL4FXFrameInterpolator and MTL4FXTemporalDenoisedScaler were introduced in Metal 4 which require macOS 26 Tahoe but there are also MTLFXFrameInterpolator and MTLFXTemporalDenoisedScaler. Some guy on Reddit argues that with those it’s possible to add MetalFX Frame Interpolation aka Frame Gen and Denoising even to Metal 3 but not once anywhere I’ve seen any news about it. Apple hasn’t mentioned it either. You would think they would say ”These new features will be available in Metal 3 too so you can update even your old Metal 3 games with MetalFX Frame Interpolation, Denoising and Path Tracing” but I haven’t heard a word.
I know and/or understand very little about these APIs, so I can’t really serve as an authority here. The documentation states that these are available starting from 26 release. Do note that Metal 4 and Metal 3 exist simultaneously - Metal 4 is a new, slightly redesigned style of API focusing on lowering the driver overhead and pattern compatibility with DX12. It seems that MTLFX4*APIs are to be used with this newer style while MTLFX* is to be used with the “older” style (e.g. updating your game with these features without having to port everything to new command buffer style). But you probably still need newer OS to use them.
Escape From Duckov is out for Mac.
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Save 12% on Escape From Duckov on Steam
Escape from Duckov is a PVE top-down looter-shooter game—in a duck's world!. Scavenge for resources, build your hideout, and upgrade your gear in the world of Duckov. Start from nothing and rise to the top. Outwit hostile ducks, survive, or make it out alive.
Also on the Mac App Store.Escape From Duckov is out for Mac.
Save 12% on Escape From Duckov on Steam
Escape from Duckov is a PVE top-down looter-shooter game—in a duck's world!. Scavenge for resources, build your hideout, and upgrade your gear in the world of Duckov. Start from nothing and rise to the top. Outwit hostile ducks, survive, or make it out alive.
I am very tempted. It could be a good change from killing zombies (did I say how good RE games are on Mac?).
I wonder if they are having issues with the online part of the game. Assuming they wouldn't just port the iOS version and drop the online play.
In a post on Reddit I suggested that Apple M5 could be even faster in games than shown in Geekbench Metal, based on the results from A19 Pro being 45—61% faster than A18 Pro in games like Death Stranding and RE 4. Some people were convinced it would be impossible and argued that almost all the performance increase was thanks to the new cooling with vapor chamber in iPhone 17 Pro/Max and the results couldn’t be applied to M5.
I argued that Apple increased the CPU speed and power consumption for A19 Pro with 20% in total by using better cooling. Most Macs have active cooling so Apple could increase the speed and power even more or at least have the same improvements with the better cooling in Macs. That would mean still up to 60% better performance in games. Macs with better cooling than iPhone could gain at least the same GPU performance boost as iPhones with worse cooling.
Now the M5 reviews are out and we see as I thought a huge performance boost in different games compared with M4 MBP/MBA.
193% in Total War: Warhammer 3 (1200p Ultra settings) M5 67.5 fps vs M4 23 fps (Tom’s Guide)
133% in Lies of P (1080p Highest settings), M5 140 fps vs M4 60 fps (Engadget)
122% in Total War: Warhammer 3 (High settings) M5 60 fps vs M4 27 fps (Macworld)
101% in Cyberpunk (1080p Ultra settings, RT Off) M5 30.1 fps vs M4 MBA 15 fps (Ars Technica)
96% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1700p High settings) M5 51 fps vs M4 26 fps (Luke Miani)
58% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1200p Ultra settings) M5 57 fps vs M4 36 fps (Tom’s Guide)
58% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1200p) M5 57 fps vs M4 36 fps (Tom’s HW)
48.5% in Rise of the Tomb Raider (High settings) M5 101 fps vs M4 68 fps (Macworld)
42% in Borderlands 3 (Medium settings), M5 64 fps vs M4 45 fps (Macworld)
41% in Borderlands 3 (1200p Ultra settings) M5 32.5 fps vs M4 23 fps (Tom’s Guide)
41% in Death Stranding (1080p Very high settings) M5 82 fps vs M4 58 fps (Geekerwan)
41% in Cyberpunk (1080p MF Balanced RT Medium) M5 31 fps vs M4 22 fps (Geekerwan)
35% in Baldur’s Gate 3 (1080p High) M5 42 fps vs M4 31 fps (Geekerwan)
34% in Cyberpunk (1440p MF Balanced) M5 39 fps vs M4 29 fps (Geekerwan)
33% in Cyberpunk (1080p High settings) M5 36 fps vs M4 27 fps (Geekerwan)
28.6% in Cyberpunk (1200p Ultra settings) M5 27 fps vs M4 21 fps (PCMAG)
28.6% in Cyberpunk (1200p Ultra settings, no RT, no scaling) M5 27 fps vs M4 21 fps (The Verge)
Remember that we’re comparing M5 with M4 and not with gaming PC laptops but as Tom’s Guide writes ”Apple's base chip can really deliver the gaming goods. In fact, it surpassed the Dell 14 Premium with an RTX 4050 GPU in Total War: Warhammer 3 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and considering that a discrete graphics card as opposed to the M5 chip's integrated graphics, that's a superb feat.”
I argued that Apple increased the CPU speed and power consumption for A19 Pro with 20% in total by using better cooling. Most Macs have active cooling so Apple could increase the speed and power even more or at least have the same improvements with the better cooling in Macs. That would mean still up to 60% better performance in games. Macs with better cooling than iPhone could gain at least the same GPU performance boost as iPhones with worse cooling.
Now the M5 reviews are out and we see as I thought a huge performance boost in different games compared with M4 MBP/MBA.
193% in Total War: Warhammer 3 (1200p Ultra settings) M5 67.5 fps vs M4 23 fps (Tom’s Guide)
133% in Lies of P (1080p Highest settings), M5 140 fps vs M4 60 fps (Engadget)
122% in Total War: Warhammer 3 (High settings) M5 60 fps vs M4 27 fps (Macworld)
101% in Cyberpunk (1080p Ultra settings, RT Off) M5 30.1 fps vs M4 MBA 15 fps (Ars Technica)
96% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1700p High settings) M5 51 fps vs M4 26 fps (Luke Miani)
58% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1200p Ultra settings) M5 57 fps vs M4 36 fps (Tom’s Guide)
58% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1200p) M5 57 fps vs M4 36 fps (Tom’s HW)
48.5% in Rise of the Tomb Raider (High settings) M5 101 fps vs M4 68 fps (Macworld)
42% in Borderlands 3 (Medium settings), M5 64 fps vs M4 45 fps (Macworld)
41% in Borderlands 3 (1200p Ultra settings) M5 32.5 fps vs M4 23 fps (Tom’s Guide)
41% in Death Stranding (1080p Very high settings) M5 82 fps vs M4 58 fps (Geekerwan)
41% in Cyberpunk (1080p MF Balanced RT Medium) M5 31 fps vs M4 22 fps (Geekerwan)
35% in Baldur’s Gate 3 (1080p High) M5 42 fps vs M4 31 fps (Geekerwan)
34% in Cyberpunk (1440p MF Balanced) M5 39 fps vs M4 29 fps (Geekerwan)
33% in Cyberpunk (1080p High settings) M5 36 fps vs M4 27 fps (Geekerwan)
28.6% in Cyberpunk (1200p Ultra settings) M5 27 fps vs M4 21 fps (PCMAG)
28.6% in Cyberpunk (1200p Ultra settings, no RT, no scaling) M5 27 fps vs M4 21 fps (The Verge)
Remember that we’re comparing M5 with M4 and not with gaming PC laptops but as Tom’s Guide writes ”Apple's base chip can really deliver the gaming goods. In fact, it surpassed the Dell 14 Premium with an RTX 4050 GPU in Total War: Warhammer 3 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and considering that a discrete graphics card as opposed to the M5 chip's integrated graphics, that's a superb feat.”
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That means the base Apple M5, running on integrated graphics, manages to beat the dedicated RTX 4050 GPU in a Dell laptop in two heavy-hitting AAA titles.👍
Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is out for Mac.
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The cult-classic saga is back! Battle for fame, power, and wealth in the subterranean nation of Avernum. Conquer an enormous underworld in this epic turn-based fantasy RPG. Features huge, clever dungeons, varied and cunning foes, 100s of artifacts to find or craft, and a really cool story.
Fear the Spotlight for Mac is free on Epic.