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Apple CAN’T do AAA gaming [Merged Megathread]

Jeven Stobs said:
Mac users, as well as iPhone users or Apple customers in general, have on average more spending capacity compared to users of other platforms.
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I don’t know why people keep saying this. If I have a $5000 budget for a gaming computer, I could get the more expensive Mac and only a couple of games, or I could get a Windows PC and dozens of games. I know which one I’ll pick.
 
diamond.g said:
Requires seems like such a strong word. Folks have gotten WoW bindings working on a controller...
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I’m not going to spend my resources porting a game that’s not suitable for mobile. Instead I’ll put that effort into making the story or core gameplay better.
 
mi7chy said:
Why non-mainstream games like BG3 and TW: Warhammer 3? You'd think they'd kick it off with platinum tier or at least gold tier. Must be less taxing on hardware requirements since those run on 2011 and 2014 CPUs.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/BestOf2021?tab=1
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Did you just call Data 2 "taxing on hardware"? Also, sells a million copies in a week = "non-mainstream game". Lol.
 
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mi7chy said:
Why non-mainstream games like BG3 and TW: Warhammer 3? You'd think they'd kick it off with platinum tier or at least gold tier. Must be less taxing on hardware requirements since those run on 2011 and 2014 CPUs.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/BestOf2021?tab=1
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Actually, now that I have skimmed the list, only Half life Alyx requires something stronger than a GTX 900 series card as a minimum requirement. And that is only because VR. Pretty much every game on the list can run on hardware from 9 or 10 years ago.
 
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Another reason why ports generally suck is because the games industry pays so poorly and treat their employees horribly.

This generally means that very few skilled experienced software devs become game developers and everyone in the games industry is either very young or has always worked in the games industry and thus has a very narrow skill set.

There is also very little incentive to build high quality robust software because you never know if your job or even the studio will exist in a year.

As such most games are basically just hacked together awful buggy messes that barely work on the platform they were made for, let alone a secondary platform.
 
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jmho said:
Another reason why ports generally suck is because the games industry pays so poorly and treat their employees horribly.
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Every industry pays poorly and treats their employees horribly.

Every employee is overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated.

This has been since the dawn of civilization.
 
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Oh hey it’s this thread again! It’s been about 10 minutes since the last Mac gaming thread died so it’s time for another one, I guess.

So let’s paraphrase what actual game developers have said in every one of these threads: “the market share doesn’t justify the effort”

Any other B.S. in this thread is wrong as far as I’m concerned.
 
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davidg4781 said:
Every industry pays poorly and treats their employees horribly.

Every employee is overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated.

This has been since the dawn of civilization.
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Not to the point of 100 hour or greater work weeks, “stress casualties” and rampant sexual harassment. Unless I’ve been missing something.
 
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davidg4781 said:
Every industry pays poorly and treats their employees horribly.

Every employee is overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated.

This has been since the dawn of civilization.
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I worked in the games industry for 10 years.

Now as a normal software developer I earn 4.5x more than I was earning in the games industry and only work 37.5 hours a week instead of 80.
 
leman said:
Did you just call Data 2 "taxing on hardware"? Also, sells a million copies in a week = "non-mainstream game". Lol.
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You mean Dota 2? That's more taxing than turn based. Do you realize that list is top sales? There's going to be a mix of more demanding and less demanding games. Even for an ancient game like CSGO that runs on a potato PC it doesn't run well on $4K Mac Studio vs lower end 3050 GPU/5600X CPU system that's ~3x faster at 1/4 the cost.


 
Mcdevidr said:
But really where are you standing around that people are just coming up to you and saying your mac is crap because it can’t do games?
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I’m going to give a couple of anecdotes, which I know isn’t true evidence, but if you’ll bear with me I’d like to share.

I’m part of a few groups still focused around games, though I don’t play much anymore. I recently discussed my excitement getting my M1 Max mbp and was immediately met with “lmao you bought a Mac” and others questioning my purchase. Less polite individuals mocked the Mac on the basis that it can’t game or stream. (Two things I don’t typically do anymore) and it’s a common mindset dating back more than a decade at least.

An example that readily comes to mind is in a Let’s Play of Metroid Prime by Slowbeef. In one episode he had a guest on, Proteus4994, which got into a discussion about Mac vs. PC (Slowbeef being a Mac user and Proteus being a PC user). Proteus, of course, ridiculed the Mac on the basis of gaming.

And for a while I was of the same mindset. Macs were a bad deal because of poor gaming performance. And I, along with my friend group at the time, would crack jokes and ridicule the strawman Mac user (hipster who just blogs at a coffee shop, etc.)

My own mindset changed when I purchased a MacBook Air for an iOS development and unix classes for college. I found myself wanting to use the Mac more than my more powerful PC. So I decided to switch full time.

Now when I told my gamer friends this, the first commentary that was brought up was “why? It can’t game” and a few friendly jokes at my expense.

I can confirm this mindset still exists and in gaming circles Macs and Mac users are a common target of mockery. It’s very common.
 
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leman said:
Did you just call Data 2 "taxing on hardware"? Also, sells a million copies in a week = "non-mainstream game". Lol.
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It’s a common goalpost movement. “Only the games and game companies I deem worthy makes the AMAZING GAMES and they’re NOT ON MAC!”

Further, it’s cited as evidence that Mac hardware is bad, etc, etc. it’s just best to ignore these arguments and the individuals who make them.
 
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diamond.g said:
Actually, now that I have skimmed the list, only Half life Alyx requires something stronger than a GTX 900 series card as a minimum requirement. And that is only because VR. Pretty much every game on the list can run on hardware from 9 or 10 years ago.
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Doubt you can play recent mainstream games like Cyberpunk, BF2042, Apex Legends, Forza Horizon 5, Destiny 2, etc. with decent settings and experience on 9 to 10 year old PCs. Maybe 720p low.

Anyhow, the point is if you're going to kick off games on AS why choose crappy low tier games that won't sell well.
 
mi7chy said:
Doubt you can play recent mainstream games like Cyberpunk, BF2042, Apex Legends, Forza Horizon 5, Destiny 2, etc. with decent settings and experience on 9 to 10 year old PCs. Maybe 720p low.
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Cyberpunk 2077 is so poorly optimized everyone has to run it on 720p low.
 
mi7chy said:
Doubt you can play recent mainstream games like Cyberpunk, BF2042, Apex Legends, Forza Horizon 5, Destiny 2, etc. with decent settings and experience on 9 to 10 year old PCs. Maybe 720p low.

Anyhow, the point is if you're going to kick off games on AS why choose crappy low tier games that won't sell well.
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Of what you listed only CP2077 and FH5 require a GTX970 as a minimum. The others can be played on older graphics hardware. (I guess they all could be played on older graphics hardware if you are willing to lower quality and put up with low frames).
JMacHack said:
Cyberpunk 2077 is so poorly optimized everyone has to run it on 720p low.
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Lol, someone has to be the peasant class to the PCMR folk.
 
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I wouldn't expect it anytime soon if at all. Apple doesn't care about the gaming market. I was lucky enough to win a PC, and gaming is so much easier on there. Don't get me wrong, I loath Windows UI, but if you want a great gaming experience, don't search for it in a Mac. I tried to for years, hoping Apple would eventually use the latest and greatest graphics cards, but they never would. I even thought after Steve died that maybe Tim might consider breaking into the gaming sector, but he's continued on the same course.

M1 is slightly better in terms of power consumption and running a lot cooler, but I doubt the graphics power will ever outpace current graphics cards. I know their plan is to somehow merge iOS and Mac OS. And they think mobile games will be the main thing they'll market to. And because mobile games aren't as graphics intensive, they can get away with using less powerful GPUs.

I suggest either making a hackintosh or just getting a low-end gaming PC, and your life will be so much easier. I still have my Mac for handling all my other business except games. Although, I might even try the CS suite on my PC now that I saw how much faster everything runs. The graphics power is just insane like I've never experienced before on Mac. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are even more Mac-like than previous releases, and it didn't take me long to get used to it. I think the only thing I had to do with re-map my control and alt keys to make alt key more like the command key on a Mac keyboard.
 
Omek said:
I wouldn't expect it anytime soon if at all. Apple doesn't care about the gaming market. I was lucky enough to win a PC, and gaming is so much easier on there. Don't get me wrong, I loath Windows UI, but if you want a great gaming experience, don't search for it in a Mac. I tried to for years, hoping Apple would eventually use the latest and greatest graphics cards, but they never would. I even thought after Steve died that maybe Tim might consider breaking into the gaming sector, but he's continued on the same course.

M1 is slightly better in terms of power consumption and running a lot cooler, but I doubt the graphics power will ever outpace current graphics cards. I know their plan is to somehow merge iOS and Mac OS. And they think mobile games will be the main thing they'll market to. And because mobile games aren't as graphics intensive, they can get away with using less powerful GPUs.

I suggest either making a hackintosh or just getting a low-end gaming PC, and your life will be so much easier. I still have my Mac for handling all my other business except games. Although, I might even try the CS suite on my PC now that I saw how much faster everything runs. The graphics power is just insane like I've never experienced before on Mac. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are even more Mac-like than previous releases, and it didn't take me long to get used to it. I think the only thing I had to do with re-map my control and alt keys to make alt key more like the command key on a Mac keyboard.
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Out of curiosity what Mac did you come from and what are the specs of the PC? Because I have had quite the opposite experience.

In my new job I had to work with Windows 10, and I gave it an honest shot, and I ended up writing down a list of the things that bugged me, ignoring subjective qualities like keyboard shortcuts, and came out with a three page manuscript.

I’ve done some dicking around with Windows 11 in a Virtual Machine on my mbp and while the UI is actually less terrible, it’s still not quite as good as MacOS.

Creative Cloud on M1 is muuuch nicer in my opinion. At least Illustrator feels more responsive in moving objects with effects at the very least. (Though I had a weird bug with saving large files) I haven’t had a chance to work in InDesign or with large projects in Photoshop, but I expect positive results.
 
JMacHack said:
Cyberpunk 2077 is so poorly optimized everyone has to run it on 720p low.
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How would you know since it doesn't run on AS? Even on a 3060 laptop it runs ~60fps at 1080 high or ultra with DLSS quality. Cyberpunk 2077 is graphically demanding but worth the eye candy. BF2042 would be what I consider poorly optimized.
 
diamond.g said:
Yeah that is PS4 footage, which got pulled cause it was broken...
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Fair enough, I don’t care enough to argue in good faith with Mitchy anyway. I’ve seen how far the goalposts move and the mental gymnastics he’s willing to go through.

Edit: and it’s easy to find footage of issues in every version anyway.
 
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