What's gaming really like on Apple Silicon? We've tested M1, M2, and M3 (2024)

Apple's latest Macs are some of the best computers for creative work and general productivity. Nevertheless, the platform has been infamous for not being gamer-friendly. However, with the switch from Intel to Apple Silicon chips, there have been some notable advancements in the CPU and GPU departments that might appeal to potential gamers. Do these upgrades make serious gaming on Apple Silicon Macs possible, though? We've tested the M1, M2, and M3 chip families to find out.

Specifications

Here's a quick look at the specifications of each Apple M1, M2, and M3 chip in the lineup:

Before we begin, it's worth pointing out that if you're a heavy gamer, you should consider buying a Mac with M3 Pro, M3 Max, or M2 Ultra. While Apple's base M1, M2, and M3 are also capable, they're no match for the Pro, Max, and Ultra variants. The MacBook Pro (M3, 2023) models also have superior displays with support for a higher refresh rate, further improving the overall gaming experience. Alternatively, you can pick up a Mac Studio (M2 Ultra) and pair it with a high-end monitor for playing video games. That setup will probably cost you a lot of money, though.

M1 Pro performance

MacBook Pro M1 Max

To start, we're looking at the performance in a couple of games, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a few gaming simulation tests. We should be able to get a good understanding of the kind of gaming experience you can get by looking at the performance tests.

We were able to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider on a MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip, and it ran fairly well. At the highest preset and 1080p resolution, the MacBook Pro churned out close to 50FPS. Shadow of the Tomb Raider continues to be a demanding title for Macs, so we're finally glad to see a notebook that's capable of running it at playable frame rates. You should easily be able to get over 60FPS while playing the game on a MacBook Pro powered by the M1 Max chip.

We also ran the Hitman reboot from 2016. The M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro could easily handle this one and yield over 100FPS. Sure, Hitman from 2016 isn't exactly a new game, but there are a lot of Windows laptops out there that'll struggle to run this at playable settings.

Moving on to the synthetic benchmarks, we're looking at GFXBench 5 and 3DMark tests that run natively on the M1 silicon. The MacBook Pro with M1 Pro scored 10,322 on the 3DMark Wild Life test. That's a significant improvement over what the original M1 chip scores in the same test. We were also able to record over 400FPS in GFXBench 5 Pro's offscreen Car Chase test.

Looking at both the real-world gaming and the synthetic game simulation tests, it's safe to say that newer Macs are getting better at handling video games.

M2 Max and M2 Ultra performance

While we haven't actively gamed on M2 Max and M2 Ultra machines, our Senior Editor Ben has used Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro on his MacBook Pro (M2 Max) and Mac Studio (M2 Ultra). He additionally ran benchmark tests on both machines to check how they performed. Sin was blown away by both devices, which can export 8K footage at insanely fast rates. We've included some of the relevant results for how the M2 Max and M2 Ultra perform in this department below:

The bottom line is that these two chips are competitively powerful, and they will likely run optimized games with no issues.

M3 and M3 Max performance

To evaluate 2023's second major batch of Apple Silicon chips, we tested M3 and M3 Max Macs. The base M3, despite introducing hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, struggles when competing with the M1 Max Mac Studio in the GPU department. This only reflects how the base M chips continue to cater to casual use and less intensive workflows rather than gaming or graphical editing.

The case with M3 Max, however, is completely different. Sin stated after using the M3 Max MacBook Pro:

"There was nothing I could do to slow down the machine. I would have Final Cut Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Chrome with a dozen tabs, Slack and Spotify running simultaneously, and then jump through all the windows without even a split second of wait time. I immediately hop into Final Cut Pro and start scrubbing through the timeline with the video playing. Jump back to Chrome, and even the tab I had opened yesterday opens up without reloading."

When playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the game maintained 120FPS when connected to a power source but dropped to the high 90s and low 100s on just battery. Sin was also surprised by how well NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition ran on his M3 Max MacBook Pro.

Overall, the M3 family offers a notable GPU bump and focuses on gaming-related improvements. That's not to mention the dedicated Game Mode on macOS Sonoma that further contributes to the performance. Below, we've included some of the relevant benchmark scores of the M3 and M3 Max chips.

The big problem? There are few games available

As you can tell, Apple's hardware is definitely ready to tackle some gaming workloads. It may not be winning across the benchmark board, but it's capable of running many of the biggest titles from a few years ago. Apple has also been showing off how the Mac can run newer games like Resident Evil Village, too. Unfortunately, there's no denying that most games that can take advantage of the stellar MacBook hardware simply don't exist on macOS. That's one of the main reasons why Macs have had a hard time evolving as a viable gaming platform.

There are multiple ways to run Windows games like Grand Theft Auto V, among others, on a Mac, but the process is rather complicated. Not to mention, the workarounds also tank the performance. While it's a good way for enthusiasts to make some Windows games run on the new hardware, we don't recommend it for average users. It's better to stick to the limited selection of native titles that run on macOS.

The good news, though, is that Apple has released a game porting tool that makes optimizing PC games for the Mac simpler, and early tests show very promising results for Windows games running on Mac. Consequently, we could see more Windows titles coming to macOS in the near future, as developers now have a simpler way to port their work to Apple's platform.

Streaming games on Mac

If you want to expand the titles you can access, there are streaming options. First up is Steam Link, which you can use to stream the games that are available in your Steam library to your Mac. It uses the hardware from the native machine to run the game, so you don't have to worry about the capabilities of your Mac. This is a solid workaround for those with a capable Windows machine who want to share their library with others at home. Steam Link is best used when both devices are connected to your router via Ethernet to avoid latency issues.

Other alternatives are cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now. It allows you to play a range of games from Steam, the Epic Games Store, and other PC platforms instantly without worrying about graphical power. Nvidia handles all the processing at sites scattered around the globe, which power the game remotely and sends it to your Mac with high performance.

Apple Arcade for gaming on Mac

Lastly, there's Apple Arcade, which is the company's premium subscription gaming service that lets you download and play included games for a flat monthly fee with no ads. Pretty much all Apple Arcade games run very well on the Mac, and it's great for casual gamers who might want to try some new titles. Apple has also done a great job of keeping its library up-to-date with fresh titles across different genres, including mystery, family, puzzle, and more.

In addition to new titles from lesser-known devs, Apple Arcade also holds a solid collection of games from some popular names, including Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, Annapurna Interactive, and more. There are plenty of games to choose from, and we think it totally justifies the price tag. Most of these Apple Arcade games also support third-party controllers, which is great.

One of the best things about Apple Arcade is that one subscription gives access to up to six members of a family group. This means you can easily play the games with other family members together without having to buy the titles separately. This also makes it a much more compelling option from a family-sharing perspective, as a platform like the Switch demands each user in the party to own a copy of the game.

Even if you don't look at Apple Arcade as a standalone alternative to Switch or playing AAA titles, it's still a great way to experience some quality games in your free time. And the fact that you can play these games on a Mac with a controller makes up for an even better experience overall. You can learn more about Apple Arcade and the company's other subscription services by heading over to our Apple Subscription Services guide.

Support for DualSense and Xbox controllers

The Mac may not be the most gaming-friendly platform out there, but it allows you to use a variety of controllers to play games. With the release of macOS Big Sur 11.3, Apple introduced support for Sony's next-generation DualSense controller for PS5 on Mac. The PS5 controller works with any controller-supported game, and you can connect it via Bluetooth or USB. The PS5 DualSense controller works with MFi-supported games on the App Store, including those available as part of Apple Arcade and Sony’s Remote Play app. It also works with many controller-supported games available on Steam and Epic Games Store.

Alternatively, you can also pair an Xbox controller to your Mac via Bluetooth and use it to play controller-supported games. In addition to these popular controllers, you can also use a lot of other ones, including some of the 8Bitdo controllers.

Gaming on Apple Silicon Macs: Is it possible?

Even with the limited set of tests that we were able to run, it's quite evident that the Apple hardware has come a long way. You could play games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider on the base M1 and M2-powered machines too, but the experience is vastly superior on the M3 Max MacBook Pro and M2 Ultra Mac Studio. These computers will happily entertain you with gaming as long as the titles you run are natively available for macOS. The selection is somewhat limited for now, but you can still find some good titles to play on your Mac in your free time.

Besides that, there's also Apple Arcade, which can act as a primary source of gaming for a lot of casual gamers. Being able to pick up and continue the same game on, say, your iPhone or iPad is also a huge selling point for Apple Arcade.

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  MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)

  The new MacBook Pro offers Apple's M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max chips in 14-inch and 16-inch designs. It features a 20% brighter display and an all-new Space Black finish option.

  $1999 at Best Buy (14-inch, M3 Pro/Max)$2499 at Best Buy (16-inch, M3 Pro/Max)$1999 at Amazon (14-inch, M3 Pro/Max)$2499 at Amazon (16-inch, M3 Pro/Max)

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  Apple Mac Studio (2023)

  The 2023 Mac Studio with either M2 Max or M2 Ultra is Apple's second most powerful computer behind only the Mac Pro. Its smaller size and lower price make it arguably a better option than the latter.

  $1999 at Best Buy (M2 Max)$3999 at Best Buy (M2 Ultra)$1999 at Apple (M2 Max)$3999 at Apple (M2 Ultra)