It’s something of a running joke among Windows users that Macs are rubbish for gaming. Traditionally the Mac hasn’t been considered a great choice for gaming. There are Macs that can play games well, but they are generally much more expensive than the equivalent PC. Also the fact that upgrading a Mac to meet the requirements of a graphically-demanding modern game is pretty much a no-no makes Macs the least future-proof option for gamers (who often like to be able to tinkle with their computers to build the ideal machine for their purpose).
But Macs have become a much better choice for gaming enthusiasts with the advent of Apple’s first M1 Macs in late 2020, the subsequent M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra, then the M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max and M2 Ultra, and now the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. In the past, only the most expensive Macs offered the discrete graphics necessary for gaming. While M-series Macs don’t feature discrete graphics, their graphics capabilities are far beyond the integrated options in Intel Macs and they even beat the best of the discrete graphics cards that were previously included in Intel-powered Macs. With the arrival of Apple’s Pro and Max variants of Apple’s M-series silicon in the MacBook Pro, Mac mini and Mac Studio, Apple has finally produced a chip that is capable of handling graphics-intensive games.
Another significant change, that arrived with macOS Sonoma in 2023, is a new Game Porting Toolkit for developers and a Game Mode for gamers (Apple silicon only). Game Mode will kick in to give games higher process priority, reduce AirPods audio latency and double the Bluetooth sampling rate for game controllers.
The Game Porting Toolkit will take x86 code and other elements, such as DirectInput commands, XAudio commands, Direct3D commands and other Windows gaming API calls, and translate them to run
