The future of Mac gaming may be changing PC loyalists like me
Although I’ve been gaming on PCs since I was in elementary school, it’s literally been decades because I have no reason to go back to Apple devices from the Oregon Trail and other early education-players days.
The fact that Apple hasn’t done much to support gaming on its devices, beyond popular mobile games and lone indie titles here and there, over the past two decades really isn’t a well-kept secret.
So naturally, I had no urge to buy a laptop or PC from the brand when I couldn’t play the best PC games or access its extensive Steam library of mostly niche games that didn’t have enough space to support Mac development. There is no budget. Such a small audience.
And so Apple’s negative feedback loop is not supporting gaming because the audience is too small, not putting games on Macs because of lack of support and tools, and gamers not buying Macs because there weren’t enough games to pull off. .
This meant, however, that I was put off by the best MacBooks and Macs I’ve ever had, making the assumption that any game on macOS should be poorly optimized and that the controls are awful at best.
Lately, though, we’ve been testing the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021)—which is considered one of the best laptops on the market, especially when it outpaced the Apple M1 Max chip in our test unit. To compare it to the latest Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2) and I got a chance to give Best Mac Games a whirl.
I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.
Apple deserves a chance
So I tried some of the best PC games with Mac support for a wide range of graphical and gameplay differences, including Hades, Crusader Kings 3, the original Dying Light, and my personal favorite indie title, World of Horror. Almost all of them ran smoothly, with only the occasional framerate hiccup or slowdown on more graphically intense titles.
By far the best feature was the gorgeous picture quality. The color palette and textures through the MacBook’s premium Liquid Retina XDR display shine brighter than any other Windows laptop I’ve used so far.
Despite a few minor setbacks, the results were still impressive because this was a laptop that wasn’t built for dedicated gaming in the first place. It was almost kind of worrisome after seeing Apple as a PC gaming nerd for so long that I realized how General was experience.
With more support, the experience could be even better, and the power of Apple Silicone is no longer an excuse. The company still needs to invest more in PC gaming-focused hardware as well as give developers the support and toolset they need to bring their latest titles to Apple desktops and laptops.
The good news is that the tech giant has a new weapon in its arsenal that could turn things around.
Could macOS 13 Ventura usher in a new future for Mac gaming?
During Apple WWDC 2022, Apple announced a new update for its flagship OS, MacOS 13 Ventura, And it revealed a powerful new gaming weapon: MetalFX upscaling. It’s essentially Apple’s answer to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), and has the potential to be a game-changing addition to Apple’s Metal rendering API.
These devices render a frame to be displayed at a lower resolution, then use algorithms and specialized hardware to enhance that frame to a higher resolution. This reduces the stress on the GPU when running graphically intensive games, and when implemented well, it significantly improves performance with little impact on graphical fidelity.
And the fact that Apple has whipped up such a powerful feature to compete with its flagship gaming competition shows just how serious Apple is finally getting about gaming. Even more than ray-tracing, algorithmic upscaling is the most exciting gaming technology to hit the scene in over a decade.
That’s why earlier I mentioned that there were some graphical hiccups with more demanding games, which – despite the M1 Max’s strength – are probably due to these games not being optimized for Apple silicon the way EVE Online is. But with MetalFX upscaling upscaling frame rates, a lot of those issues will disappear, because rendering at low resolutions is very taxing. We’ll still have to see how MetalFX upscaling performs, but if it’s compared to DLSS or FSR, we could see truly incredible performance that could rival some of the best gaming laptops – and sooner than we expect. Do it sooner than that.
Some AAA developers are already adopting Macs. Will more follow?
Another Apple initiative I’m excited about is a partnership with Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky and Capcom’s Resident Evil Village. It gives Apple two very popular AAA titles to bolster its gaming library (a major weakness of the Mac), as well as use them as high-profile demos to demonstrate the power of MetalFX upscaling. .
And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a high-end developer come out in support of Mac gaming. EVE Online developers have talked about how much potential they see in Apple’s devices, especially since the release of the M1.
Imagine being able to play graphically demanding AAA games on a light and thin MacBook Pro or even a MacBook Air? I’ve never considered this until now, but it’s just not a very real possibility, it’s already happening, and I’m excited to see if this new twist — and technology — works for Apple. does.
If it does, color me a whole new take on Mac gaming.