Revisiting 6 Assumptions: Mac’s Lackluster Gaming Capabilities

The latest Macs and MacBooks, with their Apple silicon chips, are powerful and efficient computers. That’s why many are thinking, “With all this performance, why don’t I have AAA games on my Apple computer?”

Apple is also realizing this; that’s why it developed the Game Porting Toolkit, which it launched in WWDC 2023. This tool will make it easier for developers to make their titles natively compatible with Mac.

But despite all these, you don’t hear gamers flocking to an Apple store to get a Mac or MacBook to play the latest titles. Here’s why.

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1. Macs and MacBooks Are Expensive

The MacBook Air is an affordable computer relative to its power, but the first-generation M1 model still costs $999. Admittedly, you can get a Mac mini for just $599, but that doesn’t include peripherals like the monitor, keyboard, and mouse, which could set you back by an additional $150 to $200.

If you’re saving money, you can get one of thebest budget gaming laptops for less than $700. You can alsobuild a well-rounded gaming computer that ensures you get the best bang for the buck for every dollar you spend.

And if money is really tight, there’s a healthy second-hand PC parts market to tide you over until you save enough to get the specs you want. Linus Tech Tips (YouTube ) is even known for building gaming PCs within a $500 budget.

So, gamers that want to start gaming but don’t want to spend a lot of money will find it easier to get an Intel or AMD computer over a Mac.

2. You Cannot Upgrade an Apple-Silicon Computer

The Apple-Silicon chips brought interest to Mac gaming, but it’s also one of the biggest things holding back Macs and MacBooks. That’s because Apple silicon chips are SoCs (What is an SoC? ).

An SoC combines all major components—the processor, the GPU, the RAM, and even the SSD—in one small package. Since they’re all physically closer, all these parts are far more efficient and power dense than traditional builds.

Image Credit: Girts Ragelis/Shutterstock

But that also means you cannot upgrade an Apple-silicon-powered computer. Gaming machines are usually known for their upgradability, so even if you started with a $500 gaming PC, you could eventually upgrade it to a $5,000 beast if you wanted to.

Even gaming laptops, which do not have upgradable CPUs and GPUs, often give you upgradeable RAM and SSDs. But if you have a MacBook Pro with a 512GB SSD and 16GB Unified Memory, you’re stuck with that unless you buy a new laptop.

3. Entry-Level MacBook Airs Don’t Have Active Cooling

The M1 MacBook Air is the most affordable Apple laptop, so it will likely be one of the options for gamers on a budget. However, the computer doesn’t offer active cooling—it relies on its aluminum shell to passively cool its SoC.

Image Credit: Apple/YouTube

While this is acceptable for non-demanding office tasks, it’s not enough for gaming. I tried playing The Sims 4 on my M1 MacBook Air, and it was noticeably warm after just 30 minutes of gaming. How much hotter will it be if I play demanding titles like Call of Duty?

This heat means the computer is likely eitherCPU thermal throttling orGPU thermal throttling (or both), so I was getting less performance than expected. But when I play on my Acer Predator gaming laptop, I can push it for several hours and not notice any performance drop.

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4. Some Required Gaming Apps Aren’t Available on macOS

Many games rely on other apps to run properly. For example, many games rely on DirectX 12 for their visuals. However, Apple does not support DirectX. Instead, it has its own Metal API. So, to run games that do not support Metal API, you need to run a compatibility layer app like CrossOver.

WhileCrossOver now supports DirectX 12 , which lets you play games on Mac using a compatibility layer, it still uses up more resources than running the game directly on the operating system.

And even if some developers port a game to macOS to run natively, some eSports titles require third-party services, like anti-cheat, to run properly. And since most anti-cheat apps aren’t compatible with macOS, you cannot run those games at all.

5. You Only Get a Limited Number of AAA Titles on macOS

Although Macs are now getting some AAA titles, they’re still not as many as we’d like. For example, several titles, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Company of Heroes 3, aren’t available on Mac.

Even popular legacy titles, like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2, aren’t natively compatible with macOS. So, if you want to play these titles, you must use a compatibility layer like CrossOver or Wine.

And while you can technically enjoy these games using these apps, you still won’t get the best experience as these titles aren’t designed to run on a Mac. Nevertheless, you cancheck if your Mac can run a game if you see a title you like but don’t have a gaming PC.

6. Mac Game Ports Usually Have Lower Quality

Image Credit:Apple

Since most games aren’t designed for the Mac, a developer needs to port a title to macOS to make it available to Apple users. You can check out ourdeeper explanation of what a game port, remake, remaster, and reboot is . But the gist is that the game developer simply makes a game released on another platform (like the PlayStation 5) natively compatible with another (like the PC).

Unfortunately, it is a well-documented fact thatmany AAA PC ports are bad . Games adapted to the PC from console platforms usually have bugs, visual artifacts, and even performance issues. So, if these issues appear on PC ports, which developers have been doing for many years, it’s easy to say that macOS ports of AAA titles might suffer from the same problems.

Apple Needs to Do More to Entice Gamers

The power and efficiency of Apple-silicon-powered Macs allowed many users to enjoy a powerful computer at a relatively affordable price point. However, it’s still expensive compared to entry-level gaming rigs and suffers from gaming-related hardware and software issues.

Unless there’s a major shift in how gamers think, Apple needs to do much more than just release better hardware. Instead, it requires the perfect blend of gamer demand, developer support, hardware advancement, and more to shake up the gaming industry—much like how the Apple App Store made the smartphone we know today.

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