Vratislav Holub Macs have practically always been considered great computers for work, but they are far behind their competition when it comes to gaming. What actually causes this and why new games for macOS are practically not released at all? In the vast majority of cases, we hear only a very brief answer, according to which Macs are simply not made for games. But let's shed some light on the topic in more detail and mention what kind of change Apple Silicon could theoretically bring.
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Flying around the world with Apple Insufficient performance and high price
Let's start from the very basics first. Undoubtedly, the most widespread among users are the logically so-called entry models of apple computers, which until recently did not have any breakthrough performance. If we simplify the whole thing a bit, we could say that the Macs in question only offered an average processor from Intel and an integrated graphics card, which of course cannot be played on. It was a little different with more expensive machines, which already had the power, but only a minority of all users own them.
New MacBook Pro (2021)
The biggest opponent of gaming on macOS seems to be the price in combination with the operating system. Since Macs are generally more expensive than competing Windows computers, naturally not as many people buy them. According to current data, Windows accounts for 75,18% of all desktop users, while only 15,89% rely on macOS. In conclusion, it is still appropriate to mention Linux, whose representation is 2,15%. Looking at the given numbers, we practically get the answer to our original question. In short, it is not worth it for developers to prepare and fully optimize their games for the Apple platform, as there is a significantly smaller portion of users who, moreover, in the vast majority of cases are not even interested in gaming. In short, a Mac is a machine for work.
The already mentioned price plays a big problem in this. The truth is that, for example, the new 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, or the Mac Pro (2019) really offer rocket performance, but the cost of their acquisition must be taken into account. Therefore, if a player were to choose a suitable machine, he would with a high probability reach for the assembly of his own set or a gaming laptop, on which he would not only save money, but at the same time gain access to practically all games.
Will Apple Silicon change the current state of gaming?
When Apple introduced its first Macs equipped with the M1 chip from the Apple Silicon series at the end of last year, it managed to surprise the general part of computer enthusiasts. The performance has noticeably moved forward, which made us think whether, for example, an ordinary MacBook Air could also be used to play some games. After all, we tried that and you can read about the results in the article attached below. The idea has now been further supported by the arrival of the aforementioned 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros, which raise performance to a whole new level. In certain cases, for example The 16″ MacBook Pro beats even the top Mac Pro in terms of performance, whose price in the best configuration can climb up to almost 2 million crowns.
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So now it's clear that the transition from Intel processors to Apple's own silicon chips has been able to noticeably increase the performance of Apple computers, with the best still yet to come. Even so, unfortunately, it seems that even this change will not affect the current state of gaming on Macs, i.e. on macOS. In short, these are more expensive products that players are not that interested in.
Gaming on Mac has a solution
Cloud gaming appears to be a much more realistic option that could make gaming on the Mac a reality. Nowadays, the GeForce NOW platform from Nvidia is probably the most popular, which allows you to play even the most demanding titles comfortably even on an iPhone. It all works relatively simply. The computer in the cloud takes care of the processing of the game, while only the image is sent to you, and you, in turn, send control instructions to the other side. In addition, something similar requires only a stable internet connection.
Although a similar service would have sounded like complete science fiction a few years ago, today it is a relatively common reality that allows (not only) apple users to play their favorite game titles, even in RTX mode. In addition, the platform works quite solidly. Therefore, rather than waiting to see if developers will ever start preparing and fully optimizing their games for macOS, we as Apple fans should accept this alternative, which fortunately is not even the worst in terms of price.
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I can only recommend GeForce NOW. I played practically all of Cyberpunk and a lot of other games like this. The biggest problem with this service is that it has not yet been able to come to an agreement with all the big players (meaning publishers). Recently, EA backed down and some of their games are already there, but Take-Two, which is behind the GTA series, for example, has not been able to convince them yet.
As for Gaming on macOS directly, I now have a Mac Mini with 8GB of memory and I was surprised at what can be played on it. Even Metro Exodus can be run at medium details in FullHD and that's some game:D Anyway, in order for developers to port games to macOS so that it pays off, Apple would probably have to subsidize it. Or start a studio that would do it. Otherwise, it will probably never happen. Despite the fact that when Apple cut off the 32-bit architecture, a lot of games that were on macOS are no longer there. I have about 180 games on Steam, and about half of them went to play on macOS, now I have 11 left :)
And as for the cloud, you can still try Xcloud from MS http://www.xbox.com/play
A controller is needed because it's actually an online console, but that's cool too. And you need to have paid Game Pass Ultimate.