6 ms·

Based on the numbers it looks like the M1 Max is in the RTX 3070-3080 performance territory. Sounds like mobile AAA gaming has potential to reach new heights :D

smileybarry 5y ago
If Proton is made to work on Mac with Metal, there's some real future here for proper gaming on Mac. Either that or Parallels successfully running x64 games via Windows on ARM virtualization.
- MetricExpansion 5y ago
  I’ve been looking into trying CrossOver Mac on my M1 Max for exactly this reason. After seeing the kinds of GPUs Apple is comparing themselves to, I’m very hopeful.
- antifa 5y ago
  At this point I'd rather use parallels to run steam on Linux.
Ronson 5y ago
Not to disagree, but what gave you that impression?
- vesrah 5y ago
  The slides with performance numbers list the comparison machines
- slayerjain 5y ago
  based on the relative differences between the m1 and the m1 pro/max, and also the comparisons shown by apple to other laptops from the MSI and Razerblade both featuring the RTX 3080.
slayerjain 5y ago
And in the case for the M1 Pro, apple is showing it to be faster than the Lenovo 82JW0012US - which has a RTX 3050ti. so the performance could be between RTX 3050ti - RTX 3060. All of this with insanely low power draw.
- ant6n 5y ago
  But still not fanless, right? Maybe they'll update the Macbook Air with some better graphics as well, so that one could do some decent gaming without a fan.
  - zamadatix 5y ago
    Air is already at the thermal limit range with the 8 core GPU, will probably have to wait until the next real iteration of the technology in the chip (M2 or whatever) which increases efficiency instead of just being larger.
jjcon 5y ago
Mobile 3070-80 so around 1080 desktop for those that are interested. I'm curious what their benchmark criteria was though.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> Based on the numbers it looks like the M1 Max is in the RTX 3070-3080 performance territory. The slides are comparing to a laptop with a 3080 Mobile, which is not the same as a normal RTX 3080. A desktop 3080 is a power hungry beast and will not work in a laptop form factor. The 3080 Mobile is still very fast as a benchmark, but the full-size 3080 Desktop is in another league of performance: https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-mobile-GeForce-RTX-3080-is-40-percent-slower-than-the-desktop-GeForce-RTX-3080-What-the-hell-happened.519743.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-mobile-GeForce-RTX-3080-is... Still very impressive GPU from Apple!
culopatin 5y ago
But do you need to play those games through rosetta? Does that make a difference?
TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
It's not a function of capability. I spent $4,000 on a 2019 MBP, including $750 for a Vega 20. It plays Elder Scrolls Online WORSE than a friend's 2020 with INTEGRATED graphics. (I guess Bethesda gave some love to the integrated chipset, and didn't optimize for the Vega. It hitches badly every couple of seconds like it's texture thrashing.) Whatever AAA games that might have gotten some love on the Mac (and there are some), it's going to be even harder to get game companies to commit to proper support to the M1 models. Bethesda has said they won't even compile ESO for M1. So I will continue to run it on a 12-year-old computer running an ATHLON 64 and a nVidia 9xx-series video card. (This works surprising well, making the fact that my Mac effectively can't play it all the more galling.) I'm never going to try tricking out a Mac for gaming again. I should have learned my lesson with eGPU's, but no. I thought, if I want a proper GPU, it's going to be built in. Well, that doesn't work either. I've wasted a lot of money in this arena.
- modulusshift 5y ago
  Well, Apple is selling M1 Macs like hotcakes, so it won't be too long until it'll be stupid not to support them. Also, texture thrashing isn't really an issue when you've got a shared CPU/GPU memory with 64 GB of space. Just cache like half the game in it lol
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    Apple had a shot at making Mac gaming a reality around 2019. They decided to axe 32-bit library support though, which instantly disqualifies the lion's share of PC games. You could still theoretically update these titles to run on MacOS, but I have little hope that any of these developers would care enough to completely rewrite their codebase to be compatible with 15% of the desktop market share.
    - TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
      Yeah, I was living with gaming on a Mac when that happened, and watched 2/3rds of my Steam library get greyed out.
notSupplied 5y ago
Elephant in the room is that an A15/M1 beefed up GPU is exactly the right chip for a Nintendo Switch/Steam Deck form factor device.
- threeseed 5y ago
  Or an AV/VR headset.
hajile 5y ago
The 3080M has something around 20TFLOPS of theoretical f32 performance. That's double that of Apple's biggest offerings. In theoretical compute, it's closer to the 3060M which is nothing to sneeze at.
mhh__ 5y ago
Who actually supports MacOS though? Didn't valve just give up?
- unix_fan 5y ago
  Apple won't support Vulkan, and moltenVK isn't good enough for DXVK. macOS also doesn't support eventtfd system calls like linux. Pretty much the only options are crossover/wineskin engines, or parallels.

smileybarry 5y ago

If Proton is made to work on Mac with Metal, there's some real future here for proper gaming on Mac. Either that or Parallels successfully running x64 games via Windows on ARM virtualization.

MetricExpansion 5y ago
I’ve been looking into trying CrossOver Mac on my M1 Max for exactly this reason. After seeing the kinds of GPUs Apple is comparing themselves to, I’m very hopeful.
antifa 5y ago
At this point I'd rather use parallels to run steam on Linux.

Ronson 5y ago

Not to disagree, but what gave you that impression?

vesrah 5y ago
The slides with performance numbers list the comparison machines
slayerjain 5y ago
based on the relative differences between the m1 and the m1 pro/max, and also the comparisons shown by apple to other laptops from the MSI and Razerblade both featuring the RTX 3080.

slayerjain 5y ago

And in the case for the M1 Pro, apple is showing it to be faster than the Lenovo 82JW0012US - which has a RTX 3050ti. so the performance could be between RTX 3050ti - RTX 3060. All of this with insanely low power draw.

ant6n 5y ago
But still not fanless, right? Maybe they'll update the Macbook Air with some better graphics as well, so that one could do some decent gaming without a fan.
- zamadatix 5y ago
  Air is already at the thermal limit range with the 8 core GPU, will probably have to wait until the next real iteration of the technology in the chip (M2 or whatever) which increases efficiency instead of just being larger.

jjcon 5y ago

Mobile 3070-80 so around 1080 desktop for those that are interested. I'm curious what their benchmark criteria was though.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> Based on the numbers it looks like the M1 Max is in the RTX 3070-3080 performance territory. The slides are comparing to a laptop with a 3080 Mobile, which is not the same as a normal RTX 3080. A desktop 3080 is a power hungry beast and will not work in a laptop form factor. The 3080 Mobile is still very fast as a benchmark, but the full-size 3080 Desktop is in another league of performance: https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-mobile-GeForce-RTX-3080-is-40-percent-slower-than-the-desktop-GeForce-RTX-3080-What-the-hell-happened.519743.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-mobile-GeForce-RTX-3080-is... Still very impressive GPU from Apple!

culopatin 5y ago

But do you need to play those games through rosetta? Does that make a difference?

TheRealDunkirk 5y ago

It's not a function of capability. I spent $4,000 on a 2019 MBP, including $750 for a Vega 20. It plays Elder Scrolls Online WORSE than a friend's 2020 with INTEGRATED graphics. (I guess Bethesda gave some love to the integrated chipset, and didn't optimize for the Vega. It hitches badly every couple of seconds like it's texture thrashing.) Whatever AAA games that might have gotten some love on the Mac (and there are some), it's going to be even harder to get game companies to commit to proper support to the M1 models. Bethesda has said they won't even compile ESO for M1. So I will continue to run it on a 12-year-old computer running an ATHLON 64 and a nVidia 9xx-series video card. (This works surprising well, making the fact that my Mac effectively can't play it all the more galling.) I'm never going to try tricking out a Mac for gaming again. I should have learned my lesson with eGPU's, but no. I thought, if I want a proper GPU, it's going to be built in. Well, that doesn't work either. I've wasted a lot of money in this arena.

modulusshift 5y ago
Well, Apple is selling M1 Macs like hotcakes, so it won't be too long until it'll be stupid not to support them. Also, texture thrashing isn't really an issue when you've got a shared CPU/GPU memory with 64 GB of space. Just cache like half the game in it lol
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Apple had a shot at making Mac gaming a reality around 2019. They decided to axe 32-bit library support though, which instantly disqualifies the lion's share of PC games. You could still theoretically update these titles to run on MacOS, but I have little hope that any of these developers would care enough to completely rewrite their codebase to be compatible with 15% of the desktop market share.
  - TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
    Yeah, I was living with gaming on a Mac when that happened, and watched 2/3rds of my Steam library get greyed out.

notSupplied 5y ago

Elephant in the room is that an A15/M1 beefed up GPU is exactly the right chip for a Nintendo Switch/Steam Deck form factor device.

threeseed 5y ago
Or an AV/VR headset.

hajile 5y ago

The 3080M has something around 20TFLOPS of theoretical f32 performance. That's double that of Apple's biggest offerings. In theoretical compute, it's closer to the 3060M which is nothing to sneeze at.

mhh__ 5y ago

Who actually supports MacOS though? Didn't valve just give up?

unix_fan 5y ago
Apple won't support Vulkan, and moltenVK isn't good enough for DXVK. macOS also doesn't support eventtfd system calls like linux. Pretty much the only options are crossover/wineskin engines, or parallels.