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Sketchy Rumor Claims Apple Plans to Announce High-End Gaming MacBook or iMac at WWDC 2020
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I have a gaming PC that I built for around $1k that runs every game I've thrown at it really well (including VR) and I just use my Mac for everything else. I don't think I'd be willing to spend as much as Apple would charge for the same performance.
Macs can already do games. My 2019 MacBook Pro runs Wolfenstein 3D with only minor frame choppiness.
If Apple is getting more serious about gaming with arcade - and they're already moving away from Intel with ARM in some yet-to-be-seen way...
Maybe they can build a very powerful, consumer-friendly, ARM gaming laptop using their own hardware stack and have it compete with windows gaming... That way vendors could build for ios/ipados/macos-arm in one code base.
Maybe they can build a very powerful, consumer-friendly, ARM gaming laptop using their own hardware stack and have it compete with windows gaming... That way vendors could build for ios/ipados/macos-arm in one code base.
Not so sure.
Go to www.apple.com. They’re advertising Apple-branded TV shows on their home page. Yes, entertainment.
It’s weird (for those of us who’ve known Apple for decades) but there it is.
Riddle me this, if they brought in an all in one Mac Mini that could handle the full load of gaming it’s not out of the question.
I love building my own computers but I love not having to set it all up and dial in the software. Bring it on as an all in one Mac Mini.
I love building my own computers but I love not having to set it all up and dial in the software. Bring it on as an all in one Mac Mini.
There is no such thing as high end gaming without the ability to swap out the graphics card.
Yes, some laptops are built for gaming, but they are full of compromises. I also would not necessarily call them high end either.
Yes, some laptops are built for gaming, but they are full of compromises. I also would not necessarily call them high end either.
“While this would surely be great news for gamers...”, no, it wouldn’t. If gamers want anything, it’s a configurable case that they can customize with whatever their needs are. An all-in-one would be the worst kind of machine.
Apple has a capable case now with the Mac Pro, just make it affordable with consumer grade hardware inside of it. It’s not that difficult, it’s more about whether they care supporting it.
Apple has a capable case now with the Mac Pro, just make it affordable with consumer grade hardware inside of it. It’s not that difficult, it’s more about whether they care supporting it.
Exactly. Video games are not sport, they are works of art. The highest form of art as they involve multiple artistic forms. The greatest works of art are now video games.
Yeah, right, Apple just dropped support for all 32 bit games, which make out a huge chunk of high end Steam games. And it's not like there were many games compatible with Macs in the first place, even before Catalina. But right now, to play games, you need Windows more than ever. The state of Mac gaming has never been much worse than it is now. So, sure, you could release a gaming Mac, but you would need to install Windows on it immediately. Not sure how Apple feels about that.
Don't. Windows is so far ahead of the Mac. Please just concentrate on what you are good at. A gaming mac to Apple is Angry Birds at 30 fps. Just buy a Windows PC to game, it is much, much, much, more rewarding.
Apple would need to reinvent their hardware/performance ratio to be competitive and buy something like Steam to make it work. This ship has sailed a long time ago.
Apple would need to reinvent their hardware/performance ratio to be competitive and buy something like Steam to make it work. This ship has sailed a long time ago.
The case itself is not enough to attract. Many “high end gamers” want to use non Mac cases as well. Apple should just allow MacOS to be installed easily outside of Mac hardware. That would be the better way of targeting high end gamers with the likely risk of cannibalizing their own hardware
While I agree they wont do it, for technical reasons (Direct X is gaming on computers, Nvidia dominates the gaming industry for computers). They should think about it. Gaming as a whole, makes more money than all professional sports combined. It makes more money that the movie industry as well.
Apple would need to seriously fund a move to Vulkan, not Metal, if they want a sliver of a chance of A. getting into the Market, and B getting any game developers to write games that support the Mac. Vulkan is the only thing, that has a remote chance at pushing out Direct X API for gaming. It helps that AMD supports it big time and so does NVIDIA. It would be great if Microsoft ditched DirectX in favor of Vulkan, but I doubt that is going to happen.....but the new Edge is using Chromium and I am love it even on a Mac.
Sketchy indeed. Though it would be cool.
- If it's for Apple Arcade, they're advertising those games on an A10 Fusion chip iPod touch so none of the games in their service are particularly demanding and any modern Mac would be a "gaming machine" compared to that.
- If it's for 3rd party AAA games, that ship has largely sailed. Few gaming developers will target Apple's exclusive Metal frameworks and Apple has not kept current on standard technologies like OpenCL. The hardcore Mac gaming community is virtually non-existent and I doubt a better Windows Bootcamp experience is on Apple's radar.
That’s never gonna happen (again). Apple doesn’t want macOS to become another Windows that has to support every hardware configuration under the sun. Hence, why such a “gaming” machine is questionable for Apple.
I agree. A gaming-dedicated Mac doesn't make any sense. But doubling down on ATV and re-positioning it as a high-end gaming console with 4K 60fps gaming does. This is what I prefer Apple do.
To run steamos under bootcamp in thes hort term, longer term convincing devs that macos potts are worth the effort is my guess
Making a 6th generation AppleTV 4k 'Pro' for $499 with extra storage for games from the tvOS platform sounds more like the more logical choice to me, especially if they can squeeze an A14X CPU in it for an October release along side the iPhone 12.
While like most of the commenters here have pointed out, this should be treated with a healthy amount of skepticism. However, it is a small glimmer of hope - akin to water in the desert, for gamers who do actually use macOS for work and then don't have the budget for another 3,000$ gaming computer alongside their workstation.
For years we've dealt with computational / rendering GPUs instead of gaming GPUs. If Apple started to support NVIDIA cards again or even have a low-end CPU high-frequency GPU option to keep the price down (which is what all of the consumer gaming machines are doing, and a glaring hole in Apple's lineup) with a small amount of RAM (32 GB or so) - presto, 1,000-3,000$ gaming computer with an Apple logo on it that can blow gaming benchmarks off.
It is also exciting from a software support standpoint. When Apple wanted developers to adopt Metal for workstation applications (their bulk market) they went out and sought major developers for support to get a healthy ecosystem going. I can easily see them going to Activision, EA, and other gaming companies to get them to commit to writing mac ports that are as high quality as Divinity 2: Original Sin was from Larian.
Anyways, it's good news all around. Naysayers here have posted "well it's cheaper to build your own..." well of course. It's also cheaper to build your own Windows machine than to buy a Windows gaming machine from any OEM like Dell (Alienware). The bulk of gamers try to save money, but some gamers don't have the time or energy to build their own - and take the path of least resistance for a few extra dollars. That is the market Apple is supposedly targeting. Let it happen.
For years we've dealt with computational / rendering GPUs instead of gaming GPUs. If Apple started to support NVIDIA cards again or even have a low-end CPU high-frequency GPU option to keep the price down (which is what all of the consumer gaming machines are doing, and a glaring hole in Apple's lineup) with a small amount of RAM (32 GB or so) - presto, 1,000-3,000$ gaming computer with an Apple logo on it that can blow gaming benchmarks off.
It is also exciting from a software support standpoint. When Apple wanted developers to adopt Metal for workstation applications (their bulk market) they went out and sought major developers for support to get a healthy ecosystem going. I can easily see them going to Activision, EA, and other gaming companies to get them to commit to writing mac ports that are as high quality as Divinity 2: Original Sin was from Larian.
Anyways, it's good news all around. Naysayers here have posted "well it's cheaper to build your own..." well of course. It's also cheaper to build your own Windows machine than to buy a Windows gaming machine from any OEM like Dell (Alienware). The bulk of gamers try to save money, but some gamers don't have the time or energy to build their own - and take the path of least resistance for a few extra dollars. That is the market Apple is supposedly targeting. Let it happen.