Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Age of empires 4 on MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Pro
- Thread starter erkanasu
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Age of Empires 4 is a Windows exclusive. With that said, M1 Pro should be able to handle it even in Parallels, so you might be able to play it that way.
That I don’t know. Majority of Intel apps can be emulated under ARM Windows, so you would basically be running an emulator in a VM…. But maybe the M1 can pull it off. It wouldn’t be optimal.
Fortunately, I just remembered Age of Empires 4 supports Xcloud, so you can play it on any Mac in a browser. You will also most likely be able to play it with GeForce Now.
Unfortunately the answer is no for Age of Empires 4 and playing through Parallels or Crossover. The reason being is Age 4 is a Directx 12 game which isn’t supported yet on Parallels or Crossover. The only way to currently play Age 4 on an M1 Mac is streaming it through Microsoft Game Pass via Safari.
Here you go...doesn't look too bad. You have to use crossover...
https://blog.himself65.com/2021/10/how-to-play-age-of-empire-2-multiplayer.html
or this one
https://blog.himself65.com/2021/10/how-to-play-age-of-empire-2-multiplayer.html
or this one
You mean this theoretically right? I just tried and found no way of running AoE4 in xCloud / GamePass. Or how are you able to do that?
I have attempted to run AOE 4 on a MacBook Air (M1) running Parallels 17.1, Windows 11 - no go, the message I get is "Your CPU needs to support AVX instructions to run this game". I did have success running AOE 2 Definitive Edition, have not tried any others. I am not a true techie, especially on Windows, but my basic understanding is that the M1 will not support AVX instructions that are part of the 8086 architecture. I did read something about SIMD and SIMDe, but I was way over my head at that point. If anyone has any insight into this, would be appreciated.
I am in the same boat, no way to run it for me either in GamePass. Would love to know if you found a way around this at all.
I am getting the exact same error. Hopefully we can get a fix to this soon.
Same, gave it a shot - doesn't seem possible unless you have a windows machine or xbox ? But hopefully OP knows something I/we don't!
Did you install it from the Xbox app in Windows 11 or somewhere else? Xbox app has been broken for me in the recent insider builds and won't download/install anything so I'm curious as to whether its working for you.
I installed through the Xbox app in Windows 11 and have had zero luck. I've even tried some terminal tricks from YouTube to try and solve the problem but still to no avail. Hope we get some kind of news soon or OP could shed some light on how to make it happen.
AVX instruction set is unique for X64 architectures which might not be available with ARM-based mac, unfortunately. I tried to get it through GeforeceNow and it is not available (and likely will never be since those two are competitors). I think the best hope there is to hope it is playable through XCloud -- has anyone tried that option?
XCloud doesn't have PC games yet as I understand it - it's just Xbox at the moment. I believe they're coming though so I guess I just a waiting game.
Too bad that I did not know that Macbook Pro with M1 chip does not support Age of Empires 4 and just bought one a few days ago. Now I cannot play Age of Empires 4 on the new laptop. I still have to play Age of Empires 4 with my older computer. At least it tells me that if I need a gaming machine, still go with Intel with higher end processors. Next time I will go with Intel computers with a good graphics card. Take-home message: if you ever want to play game, don't go with Apple M1 chip.
Because I bought the computer and ran into problems then searched for answer. Sad. Like $2499 only for work less AOE IV gaming. At least gave M1 chip a try. Will see how other games work on this M1 Pro chip.
Well, I just gave it a try. I think I am still gonna keep this one, and buy other Windows gaming machine for fun. My other Surface Book 2 still runs AOE IV okay. It was that I was surprised by not able to play AOE IV on the new Mac M1 chip. I guess the ARM architecture just does not have AVX instruction set, which I did not know.