Someone somewhere on this forum pointed out, that these references are only in the Intel version of Big Sur - not in the OS for ASi Macs. But I am afraid I can’t find the post.
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The final blow for real gaming on the Mac, or the beginning of a new era?
- Thread starter Frankied22
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Someone somewhere on this forum pointed out, that these references are only in the Intel version of Big Sur - not in the OS for ASi Macs. But I am afraid I can’t find the post.
What I am trying to say is that if Apple wants to offer a 5600M class GPU in an Apple Silicon Mac, there is no reason for them to use a solution from AMD. At the same power consumption level they can build a GPU that’s faster and integrates better with the rest of their system design. One of Apples selling point for example is true unified memory, which promises big gains in performance and utility for pro applications. It would be extremely weird if they had this pro-level feature it on low-end Macs but not on high-end pro-oriented ones. It’s exactly the kind of fragmentation Apple attempts to avoid at all cost.
The Navi 2 references are for upcoming Intel Macs. Higher-end Apple Silicon Macs are still at least a year away.
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That would assume that Apple will build eGPUs, which doesn’t sound likely to me.
Agreed, but I wasn't referring to Apple. Could we get an ImTec GPU, or one from a company that licences from them?
Thats even less likely. Not to mention that a third party TBDR GPU won’t be compatible with Apple API either.
Sure, but do you think they will develop something better than the Vega II duo or whatever exists in the PC space?
That's assuming they maintain the Mac Pro line.
Developing high-end GPUs for such a niche product does not seem reasonable.
That’s the big question. There is a long thread on this very topic but all we can do is speculate. My personal guess is yes, they are going to build high-end GPUs for the Mac Pro, but I guess we are just going to wait and see.
I'd reckon that there's two possibilities:
1. They keep using AMD's dGPUs in their "Pro" machines.
2. (the arguably more "Apple" way) They have specific "accelerator" cards/chips that will have ASICs for common tasks. After all, that's what GPUs started out as.
I really don't see them using iGPUs across their entire lineup, nor discontinuing the Mac Pro. But I'm guessing that they're gunning to replace the Mac Pro by December 2022, the last Intel Mac. Whatever comes out before then will clue us in.
Apple's biggest advantage right now is a team of software engineers cooperating with circuit designers with direct access to every critical path on a die with a device budget numbering in the billions. This has got to be close to an ideal situation to see really dramatic performance gains at the system level. The situation reminds me of the explosion of computer architectures in the Sixties shrunk to the level of a single die. I think that we are going to see dramatic changes in system organization paradigms over the next few years way beyond iGPU vs dGPU. I believe that Apple's performance advantages will be so dramatic that Wintel will be forced to try and duplicate it.
With NVidia's acquisition of ARM they announced that they're going to be making CPUs targeting notebooks. I think if Apple manages to pull off the transition even more companies are gonna smell the blood in the water and try their hand at desktop-class, non-x86 silicon.
Yeah, I feel like this is a very probable outcome of ASi working out. Even if not all companies will bother with their own custom designs, they'll go for chips that don't cost what Intel charges (especially with MS' progress with WoA).
Yeah. I can see hardware ASIC for Metal compute being a thing. Per the thread topic, gaming on the Mac (like PC gaming) is likely dead. Mobile gaming on the Mac is where things are going.
For me, the mac is my 'everything machine'. I dont have a console and like to have all my needs taken care of in one 'package'. Thats why I got a 2019 imac with the vega 48. It runs almost any game (in bootcamp) easily at 2560x1440 and high settings. On the mac side, I edit 4k videos, run the usual productivity applications, you name it.
Its the reason I love this imac - because its a do-everything machine. And thats why arm macs probably won't appeal to me.
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Bah, Leagure of Legends can run even on a toaster. Still, if it helps with public perception of Apple devices as being good for gaming, then it's a win for us Apple users.
Wait is there not a MacOS version of LoL already?
If anything I would be afraid they will just port this version to AS MacOS and not bother with the “fat client” version.
AFAIK, LoL is a 32-bit game so.... On Windows, it uses DX 9!
It they port it to Metal, they need to port the full version to keep compatibility with the PC version I suppose.
If that is the case, then I would fully expect them to just port the iOS version to AS Macs and ignore Intel Macs.
. If no new (current) Mac can run the game now, and future Macs can run the iOS version why would they bother?