Gaming on MacBook - Is it harmful?

[mklxr]

Hi all!

The main question of this topic - is it harmful for MacBook to play on it? I tried to play Resident Evil Village and CS:GO on my MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro. I am impressed how good MacBook handles the graphics. Everything is very beautiful and smooth, but when I play CS:GO it gets pretty hot, it's ok. But in resident evil it's VERY HOT(even on the lowest settings)! Fans working on max speed, I am really afraid about performance of my MacBook.

Of course, someone will say - Mac is not for gaming. But Resident Evil was built specially for apple silicone and even on apple's presentation they showed the gameplay.

Is it harmful to play on MacBook? What is the normal temperature of the processor when you don't need to worry for your computer?

 

[maflynn]

The main question of this topic - is it harmful for MacBook to play on it?

Short answer, no.
Long answer, no. Apple has designed a computer that is very capable at handling sustained loads and the CPU is able to handle temps up to 100c. MBPs will throttle if temps get into the danger zone, and of course fans will spin up.

Macs are not gaming machines, not because of they're poorly designed, but rather Apple has been rather apathetic towards gaming in the past, Mac users represent a tiny percentage of computer users and studios haven't felt the investment into Mac gaming would not pay off, especially since Macs have the reputation as being for designers.

I'm not saying that reputation is correct or not, but the fact remains that studios typically don't consider macs. If there is a mac compatible game that you want, enjoy and don't worry its not harming your Mac.

 

[Huntn]

Throttling, a MacBook’s friend.

 

[venom600]

I've been gaming on macs since the 90s on my Powerbook G3 with ATI Rage Pro graphics. The M1/Pro/Max/Ultra and M2 represent the best machines for gaming Apple has ever produced (Mac Pro with desktop graphics not withstanding). They finally have graphics cards that can run with some of the best that PC makers put in their machines at various price levels so use them! Get a Steam account and start playing games so they know we want them!

 

[Irishman]

Hi all!

The main question of this topic - is it harmful for MacBook to play on it? I tried to play Resident Evil Village and CS:GO on my MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro. I am impressed how good MacBook handles the graphics. Everything is very beautiful and smooth, but when I play CS:GO it gets pretty hot, it's ok. But in resident evil it's VERY HOT(even on the lowest settings)! Fans working on max speed, I am really afraid about performance of my MacBook.

Of course, someone will say - Mac is not for gaming. But Resident Evil was built specially for apple silicone and even on apple's presentation they showed the gameplay.

Is it harmful to play on MacBook? What is the normal temperature of the processor when you don't need to worry for your computer?

So, game for as long as YOU want or as little as YOU want. It’s your Mac, after all.

Or, if it keeps on worrying you, I can DM you my home address.

😅

 

[Homy]

Only if you play 24/7. Even then it would be more harmful to you than the Mac. I'm sure you would be first to get damaged and quit. The fans max out quickly even with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borerlands 3 or other heavy games.

 

[Ethosik]

Its no different than someone using a production app 24/7 that maxes out the CPU/GPU. Gaming will not harm your laptop. This has especially changed with Apple Silicon. I was more worried about my lengthy productivity work than gaming on previous Macbook Pros because they just got way too hot and having it run for 8-12 hours every single day worried me.

 

[Basic75]

Get a Steam account and start playing games so they know we want them!

This is a good suggestion, and it would be even better if it weren't such a waste of time to find out whether Mac compatible on Steam means 32bit Intel, 64bit Intel or 64bit ARM for every game. And if it's a 64bit Intel game it would be nice to know how well it does in Rosetta 2.

 

[venom600]

This is a good suggestion, and it would be even better if it weren't such a waste of time to find out whether Mac compatible on Steam means 32bit Intel, 64bit Intel or 64bit ARM for every game. And if it's a 64bit Intel game it would be nice to know how well it does in Rosetta 2.

Most Rosetta 2 games I've tried do better on my now last gen 16" M1 Max than they did on my native Intel 16" with an i9 and 8GB Radeon 5500M.

 

[MacYak]

I personally use GeForce NOW game streaming from Nvidia on my Mac. It works pretty well if you have a good internet connection. Since the recent RTX 4080 upgrade, I can play at 4K resolution and 120 fps. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and hardly uses any Mac resources and you can play many PC-exclusive games this way. If you're a competitive online multiplayer shooter player, game streaming might have too much lag, but for normal gaming I can't notice any lag. I usually have around 20-30 ms of latency. As far as I know Resident Evil isn't available, but CS:GO is - you could give it a try.