Your ideal gaming Mac

wake me up when it runs DirectX natively with full support for all DirectX games

that's the reason why gaming on Linux hasn't taken off, that's the reason gaming on Mac won't take off either
 
M3 has h/w raytracing support. That Max may be able to game at more than 30fps natively.
 
www.macworld.com

Mac gaming is finally getting the overpowered upgrade it deserves

Game Porting Toolkit 4 beta is the clearest sign that gaming is becoming a priority for Apple.
www.macworld.com www.macworld.com
For years, Game Porting Toolkit has occupied a strange place in Apple’s software lineup. Officially, it’s a developer tool designed to help studios evaluate how their Windows games might perform on macOS. In practice, it has also become the easiest way for enthusiasts to run Windows games that don’t have native Mac versions.

I’ve been using each major version since Apple introduced the toolkit in 2023. While every update brought incremental improvements, the latest beta announced at WWDC 2026 is the first one that has genuinely surprised me.

The difference isn’t subtle. After spending several days testing Game Porting Toolkit 4 beta on my M4 Pro MacBook Pro, I found performance improvements that fundamentally change the experience of playing demanding Windows games.
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Not worth to game on a Mac for AAA titles. The thing overheats and that wears down your components. It sounds like a gaming laptop except a proper gaming laptop stays cool and with Nvidia graphics will give you much better performance with ray tracing or path tracing. Macs are not for gaming unless for those indie titles or visual novels. Heck even on 'silent mode' a gaming laptop performance with like an RTX 5070 will beat out any Mac and will be more quiet.
 
Mirai said:
Not worth to game on a Mac for AAA titles. The thing overheats and that wears down your components. It sounds like a gaming laptop except a proper gaming laptop stays cool and with Nvidia graphics will give you much better performance with ray tracing or path tracing. Macs are not for gaming unless for those indie titles or visual novels. Heck even on 'silent mode' a gaming laptop performance with like an RTX 5070 will beat out any Mac and will be more quiet.
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Not all gamers need to be able to play the AAA at 4K 60 fps. The Nintendo switch and Steam deck are highly successful platforms which don't rely on sheer graphics.


Apple's cheapest MacBook has CPU performance that absolutely flattens the Steam deck, and its GPU isn't a slouch either. So it isn't a hardware problem.
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Apple are leaving money on the table IMO. They could be getting a generation of gamers growing up in their ecosystem if they had good compatibility with Steam.
 
konfab said:
Not all gamers need to be able to play the AAA at 4K 60 fps. The Nintendo switch and Steam deck are highly successful platforms which don't rely on sheer graphics.
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I didn't say there were in that category so irrelevant and a strawman.

konfab said:
Apple's cheapest MacBook has CPU performance that absolutely flattens the Steam deck, and its GPU isn't a slouch either. So it isn't a hardware problem.
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Apple are leaving money on the table IMO. They could be getting a generation of gamers growing up in their ecosystem if they had good compatibility with Steam.
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Have you tried to game on a MBP Max Apple CPU/GPU? It heats up like crazy in Native Apple store games. It's not pleasant.

You can pull all the benchmarks you want but to play games on such a device for extended periods of time is not good for it or you. Benchmarks don't give you the thermal picture or the sustainability picture.

Yes Steam Deck is a lite device. It's a portable handheld with d-pads and analog sticks. It's a small device and not huge laptop you take with you. Every device has its place.

But Apple makes laptops and larger computers. And for gaming, an Nvidia RTX will offer better performance, game visuals and temps than any Apple silicon Mac.

High end gaming, is about fluid motion and >60 FPS performance, competitive is even higher FPS. So if gaming is it, at a latop level, you want an RTX in there. If you're a casual gamer, who will game occasionally, sure you can get away with a fully fan spun up MBP with 50-60FPS top. Secondly Apple's MBP screens are not very good at high refresh rates. The mini LED display leaves streaking/smearing. Try to scroll this text fast on a MBP Silicon and it will smear vs a dedicated high refresh rate display.

People who game AAA not casually want to game at >60 FPS ideally with all the bells and whistles. Apple still has a way to go there.
 
Easter Bunny said:
of course everyone knows that windows laptops are famous for being whisper quiet and never having any fans spinning. 🙄
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Heat my lad. MBPs are not designed for heat dissipation even if Apple allows their CPUs to run at 105 degrees Celsius.

And there is a difference betwee a high pitch fan noise and low pitch one with the MBP still being hot while running 3D games while dedicated better cooled Nvidia RTX laptops running way cooler.

Never mind that DLSS >>> Apple's up-scaling.

At the end of the day, for gaming Mac is only a side gig device. And it will offer an inferior experience.
 
windows users: "mac users are the worst. always talking down on us and telling us that our equipment is inferior and no good."

also windows users:

Mirai said:
Heat my lad. MBPs are not designed for heat dissipation even if Apple allows their CPUs to run at 105 degrees Celsius.

And there is a difference betwee a high pitch fan noise and low pitch one with the MBP still being hot while running 3D games while dedicated better cooled Nvidia RTX laptops running way cooler.

Never mind that DLSS >>> Apple's up-scaling.

At the end of the day, for gaming Mac is only a side gig device. And it will offer an inferior experience.
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fyi:
i have no problems with the games i've played on my laptop. you gaming gatekeepers with your "you can't be a gamer if you're not playing on a RTX5090 with 128GB ram and an ultrawide 240hz monitor" BS can go fly a kite. if you're just here to crap on people who want to try a thing, then maybe you should go join a windows gamer circlejerk subreddit, because you sure as sh*t aren't providing anything useful here.
 
Easter Bunny said:
windows users: "mac users are the worst. always talking down on us and telling us that our equipment is inferior and no good."

also windows users:




fyi:
i have no problems with the games i've played on my laptop. you gaming gatekeepers with your "you can't be a gamer if you're not playing on a RTX5090 with 128GB ram and an ultrawide 240hz monitor" BS can go fly a kite. if you're just here to crap on people who want to try a thing, then maybe you should go join a windows gamer circlejerk subreddit, because you sure as sh*t aren't providing anything useful here.
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I'm saying that a MBP M4 Max sucks for gaming compared to a likely cheaper RTX 5070 Ti well cooled, 240Hz laptop. I tried it. It heats up and sucks. It's not ideal for gaming. I'm not gatekeeping. You can force anything into any anything, point is that it's not the right tool for the job. Physics.

I'm not forbidding you from buying an M5 or M4 Max which is ideal for battery powered high end video rendering but not ideal for gaming and overpaying when you can get a cheaper machine and enjoy DLSS and smearing free graphics and colder, more sustained gameplay. I tried gaming on an M3 Max and it sucks and on an Apple store bought game.

I also wasted money on this hobby. Watched some clown called Peter Tsai on YT and bought a year of Cross Over and ran with Steam and most of the games did not run and those which ran made the fans spin like mad, and temps go up, despite being old games. Even Mac native games, like RE4 run relatively poorly.
 
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