The nature of Apple’s barely-upgradeable hardware and tightly controlled ecosystem doesn’t score it many points among the gaming crowd.Įven if the M1 Pro and M1 Max offer a glimmer of hope in terms of how well games could run on a modern Mac, how many Mac-buyers will opt for the higher-end silicon over the MacBook Air or Mac mini with their capable but comparatively underpowered entry-level chips? Outside of indie titles and mainstays like World of Warcraft, the Mac has always struggled to land native games. Most big-budget developers have never offered Mac versions of their games. Apple has made it easy for developers to export universal binaries that support both architectures, but that’s only going to be of benefit for recent releases. With gaming being a low priority for most Mac users, there’s little incentive for developers to update their older games for the new architecture. Games that were released for Mac prior to 2020 may never receive native Apple Silicon versions, and while Rosetta does a stellar job of bridging the gap between the old and the new, compatibility issues will mean that some games simply won’t run. Mobile gaming aside, Windows is still the go-to gaming platform of choice for non-console gamers, and the 2021 MacBook Pro refresh alone isn’t going to change that.Īpple’s switch from Intel’s 64-bit x86 architecture to its own ARM-based Apple Silicon further complicates things. And this is where the Mac often falters when it comes to gaming. In addition to hardware, you need the software too. So far so good, but there’s a lot more to gaming than raw numbers and theoretical performance. The Mac Gaming Scene is Still Very Limited So not only will you be able to use your MacBook Pro in bright sunlight, you’ll have your socks knocked off when watching HDR movies and playing HDR games too. While HDR content like games and movies is about more than searing highlights, peak brightness is often cited as being the most impactful benefit over standard SDR content.

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