Sounds like Intel will be pleased to know the M1X and M2 are quite capable of gaming and Apple is finally going to take gaming seriously now that they're no longer hindered by chips that have built-in garbage graphics limited to single digit FPS.
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PCs Offer 'Better Gaming Experience Than 100% of Mac Laptops,' Intel Claims in Ongoing Anti-Apple Campaign
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I'd say it's mostly because of graphics hardware performance, but software such as drivers and graphics API is also important.
CPU absolutely plays a role, but in general I'd say a modern CPU is ”fast enough” so it's more often the graphics card that's the bottle neck. I say this as a person who has used three generations of graphics cards in a Mac Pro from 2010. CPU has stayed the same but I've still seen improvements in graphics performance for each graphics card I've used with the computer. I currently have an AMD RX 5700 XT graphics card in that computer and while that wold surely perform better with a faster processor (CPU) behind it it was still a noticeable increase in frame rate in many games coming from GTX 1070 graphics. In Windows 10 that is, hasn't done so much gaming tests in macOS.
Like I said it's also about graphics drivers and graphics API. Graphics drivers are very progressively developed and gaming focused in the Windows side and so is Microsoft's Direct3D (part if DirectX) which in my experience makes a game perform much better in Windows compared to macOS on the same (Intel) hardware – even if the game is ”Mac optimized” in the sense of utilizing Apple's Metal API for the graphics.
With Apple's own silicon I think there's a change this might change for the better. I think Apple can probably optimize their macOS graphics drivers more easily when using ”in house” graphics hardware. But at the same time, we haven't really seen any strong graphics hardware from Apple in the sense that it can compete with what's available from AMD's and Nvidia's stronger offerings. I'm expecting that to come, though.
We'll see...For a lot of peoples it is. There is probably a lot more gamers than serious video editors which is what the M1 is the best at.
It depends on the game. Some games are more CPU intensive than others (Cities: Skylines for example is very CPU intensive because it runs constant calculations on all of your buildings and population, whereas a straight up racing game or shooter will be less CPU intensive).
Operating system absolutely makes a difference too. Developers are much better at optimizing their games to run well under DirectX or OpenGL than they are under Metal for macOS. You can run the Mac version and Windows version of the same game on the same hardware (ie: via Boot Camp) and the Windows version will almost always perform better than the Mac version. There is some evidence that Metal just isn't as fast or as optimized as DirectX on the same hardware, though this might change on Apple silicon as Apple targets Metal for the specific capabilities of its own GPUs. (For example by switching Metal to tile based deferred rendering instead of immediate mode rendering. This is why M1 Macs don't support eGPUs, because M1 GPUs support TBDR and most external GPUs only support IMR).
Intel is not wrong, but the reasons have little to do with intel itself.
Apple is not going to be a contender in this space until their Metal hardware jumps way up in performance. If they can get their graphics into the range of modern discrete hardware, then more devs may get on board.
Graphics needs to be more than an afterthough.
It’s a shame the current Apple Silicon doesn’t support eGPU hardware. All the code is there.
Apple is not going to be a contender in this space until their Metal hardware jumps way up in performance. If they can get their graphics into the range of modern discrete hardware, then more devs may get on board.
Graphics needs to be more than an afterthough.
It’s a shame the current Apple Silicon doesn’t support eGPU hardware. All the code is there.
Thanks for telling us, Intel. I definitely didn’t already know this or anything.
Intel, your biggest threat atm is not Apple silicon but it’s AMD, because they make CPUs for Windows gaming laptops that are still better than yours.
Intel, your biggest threat atm is not Apple silicon but it’s AMD, because they make CPUs for Windows gaming laptops that are still better than yours.
And meanwhile - the world is - evidently - happy to continue buying M1 macs in ever increasing numbers for creative production, getting office work done and education 🥳
You know this is *almost complete non sense, the OS has nothing to do with it, hardware does and games should support macOS better but they don't.
Educate yourself.
* Keep in mind I say almost.
IMHO Intel’s ads campaigns are targeted towards the average parents looking at replacing or getting a new notebook or computer for their children. All parents knows that playing games are something children love. Highlighting this point to parents will gravitate them towards x86 systems, which Intel hope will be one of theirs. Intel is most definitely not targeting the gaming market as it’s probably a blip in their revenue pie.
When Macs uses Intel CPUs, Intel doesn’t care, since they get their cut for every Mac sold.
Now that the M1 Macs are getting very good reviews, Intel felt threatened, so will try anything to get sales going. Every M1 Mac sales is lost revenue for Intel.
When Macs uses Intel CPUs, Intel doesn’t care, since they get their cut for every Mac sold.
Now that the M1 Macs are getting very good reviews, Intel felt threatened, so will try anything to get sales going. Every M1 Mac sales is lost revenue for Intel.
Not their only argument, one of several. There have been a couple of intel ads lately stressing their strong points versus macs.
This ad only states the obvious: apple doesn’t give a crap about gaming, hasn’t in a long time (if ever), and won’t in the foreseeable future (at least about serious gaming, they seem interested in the arcade thing). However, there was still a valid point: hardware was not an issue (or not the major one), you could play some titles decently via bootcamp, so if your main concern was working, then playing the occasional game, a mac could be a good enough option. Even some developers put enough effort into porting their games to macos with, let’s say, mixed results. Now the bootcamp option seems out of the question, and I don’t know how many developers will bother programming for apple silicon.
Intel makes great chips and have done so for many years. However, their marketing is just terrible.
Comparing Gaming on Mac OS to Gaming on Windows is just stupid.
They keep doing this over and over. When AMD's Ryzen became big, Cinebench Charts became suddenly irrelevant and "non" real world performance, just because they couldn't compete anymore.
Comparing Gaming on Mac OS to Gaming on Windows is just stupid.
They keep doing this over and over. When AMD's Ryzen became big, Cinebench Charts became suddenly irrelevant and "non" real world performance, just because they couldn't compete anymore.
I have a ps5 for gaming and a Mac for everything else. Simple.
it’s why I also have a MacBook and an iPad. Different tasks for different machines etc. I also want to game in my man cave and not in my office.
my macs have always run world of Warcraft perfectly fine and that’s the only game I play on a “computer”.
it’s why I also have a MacBook and an iPad. Different tasks for different machines etc. I also want to game in my man cave and not in my office.
my macs have always run world of Warcraft perfectly fine and that’s the only game I play on a “computer”.
Put away your tin foil hat!
It's a result of Apple. Apple largely ignored gaming for so long, shipped ( Intel ) laptops and desktops with weak graphic cards. Discontinued support for OpenAPI, and went to Metal, which results in more effort in porting games to Mac.
If a consumer is buying a PC largely for gaming, and $1K would buy a great gaming rig, why would they choose to buy an Apple machine that costs more, with an inferior GPU?
You are correct, I agree with the theory and would love to see it in action, unfortunately practice is going against common sense too often. Cognitive inertia and gain (or rather fear of loss) on investments - they drive each and the rest of the business world. That's reality, you can accept it or fight against it. I wish you ALL THE LUCK if choose second.
Intel and AMD should switch to ARM. As Apple has done. The writing is on the wall:
Apple’s performance trajectory and unquestioned execution over these years is what has made Apple Silicon a reality today. Anybody looking at the absurdness of that graph will realise that there simply was no other choice but for Apple to ditch Intel and x86 in favour of their own in-house microarchitecture – staying par for the course would have meant stagnation and worse consumer products.
Source:
Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14
Apple’s performance trajectory and unquestioned execution over these years is what has made Apple Silicon a reality today. Anybody looking at the absurdness of that graph will realise that there simply was no other choice but for Apple to ditch Intel and x86 in favour of their own in-house microarchitecture – staying par for the course would have meant stagnation and worse consumer products.
Source:
Apple Announces The Apple Silicon M1: Ditching x86 - What to Expect, Based on A14
IMHO the development of the Metal APIs actually shows Apple’s desire to improve macOS graphics performance. It also stems from the need from the iOS space.
OpenGL is not a very good APIs when it comes to performance as it apparently has a lot of overhead and not very developer friendly.
The main reason games are not ported to macOS has to do with its small market share of Macs capable enough to run games. Hopefully the Apple Silicon Macs will change this. I’m at least hopeful of this outcome. If the market is there, game developers will code for it, regardless of how many hoops they have to jump thru.
I'd never dream of thinking the Mac comparable to what is possible in the PC space when it comes to gaming but this reads like someone who has never so much as touched a Macintosh let alone used one.
1k$ is a great gaming rig ? maybe in the pre mining world , a 1080Ti is 1000+$ in today market.
These prices are temporary. GPU prices spiked several years ago, and came down once the miners stopped buying. Prices will reduce once the semi conductor shortage is over.
On another note these charts will be valid for all of the next 7 days. Hope they pull them next Monday, or risk a false advertising claim.
