4 ms·

> With the M3 family of chips, hardware-accelerated ray tracing comes to the Mac for the first time. Ray tracing models the properties of light as it interacts

> With the M3 family of chips, hardware-accelerated ray tracing comes to the Mac for the first time. Ray tracing models the properties of light as it interacts with a scene, allowing apps to create extremely realistic and physically accurate images. This, along with the new graphics architecture, allows pro apps to deliver up to 2.5x the speed of the M1 family of chips. Does this mean we can finally play Cyberpunk 2077 on a laptop? Is it going to be anywhere near as powerful as desktop Nvidia cards?

etchalon 3y ago
No. It's nowhere near as powerful as desktop Nvidia cards. It's about as powerful as a PS5.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- ranguna 3y ago
  I'd be impressed if it was as powerful as a ps5.
  - etchalon 3y ago
    The PS5 gets around 10.28 teraflops, while the M1 Max, from two years ago, was getting about 10.4.
    - ranguna 3y ago
      Interesting how the ps5 can run much more intensive graphic applications than the mac
- guax 3y ago
  It could be theoretically as powerful as a ps5 but not nearly as performant. Game studios are not spending any time optimising for apple silicon and dumping tons of dev hours to make sure it runs smooth on the console. Sony uses its custom graphics API (GNM and GNMX) and custom shader language and x86 platform. Xbox uses DirectX. Apple went in on its own route with Metal. That widens the gap.
  - etchalon 3y ago
    Game studios release games for the iPhone. Which means they do spend time optimizing for Apple Silicon and dump tons of dev hours to make sure things run smoothly.
    - guax 3y ago
      Good point. But I still think that would be completely different games and teams doing both for most games. I can think of very few examples of games being cross ported on all platforms like Fortnite or Genshin Impact. To the point of the ps5 comparison we're talking very different games people are thinking of. Maybe Apple needs to go the usual route of buying a studio and releasing games but I don't think apple likes or respect gaming enough to do that with good results.
KAdot 3y ago
The performance is not that great, but you can already play Cyberpunk 2077 on a M2 Pro laptop using Game Porting Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJpkRmsceU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJpkRmsceU Keep in mind, it has to do x64 -> ARM64 transition and translate Direct X into Metal. I would expect a native version to work better.
- spookie 3y ago
  It's impressive, but still ways to go. Impressive nonetheless.
- chmod775 3y ago
  Pretty cool but that isn't enjoyable. Those are minimum graphics settings with heavy upscaling and it still barely manages 40FPS with extreme lag spikes in combat (and slowdowns?). Also having played the game, I can tell you the scenes chosen there (pretty much all of Act 1) are some of the best optimized/least demanding areas. Especially the DLC is going to be unplayable with that performance. Certainly looks like with just a bit more hardware power and development it could be getting somewhere though.
jayd16 3y ago
Do you mean at max raytracing settings? Alienware laptops should run Cyberpunk at 60, just not maxed out.
- ranguna 3y ago
  Interesting how the ps5 can run much more intensive graphic applications than the mac
  - ranguna 3y ago
    Replied on the wrong thread, sorry.
brucethemoose2 3y ago
> Does this mean we can finally play Cyberpunk 2077 on a laptop? My 2020 14" RTX 2060 laptop played it just fine, with decent settings (and copious DLSS). At 4K! In the state I played it (earlier this year), it was great looking even without raytracing.

etchalon 3y ago

No. It's nowhere near as powerful as desktop Nvidia cards. It's about as powerful as a PS5.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ranguna 3y ago
I'd be impressed if it was as powerful as a ps5.
- etchalon 3y ago
  The PS5 gets around 10.28 teraflops, while the M1 Max, from two years ago, was getting about 10.4.
  - ranguna 3y ago
    Interesting how the ps5 can run much more intensive graphic applications than the mac
guax 3y ago
It could be theoretically as powerful as a ps5 but not nearly as performant. Game studios are not spending any time optimising for apple silicon and dumping tons of dev hours to make sure it runs smooth on the console. Sony uses its custom graphics API (GNM and GNMX) and custom shader language and x86 platform. Xbox uses DirectX. Apple went in on its own route with Metal. That widens the gap.
- etchalon 3y ago
  Game studios release games for the iPhone. Which means they do spend time optimizing for Apple Silicon and dump tons of dev hours to make sure things run smoothly.
  - guax 3y ago
    Good point. But I still think that would be completely different games and teams doing both for most games. I can think of very few examples of games being cross ported on all platforms like Fortnite or Genshin Impact. To the point of the ps5 comparison we're talking very different games people are thinking of. Maybe Apple needs to go the usual route of buying a studio and releasing games but I don't think apple likes or respect gaming enough to do that with good results.

KAdot 3y ago

The performance is not that great, but you can already play Cyberpunk 2077 on a M2 Pro laptop using Game Porting Toolkit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJpkRmsceU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJpkRmsceU Keep in mind, it has to do x64 -> ARM64 transition and translate Direct X into Metal. I would expect a native version to work better.

spookie 3y ago
It's impressive, but still ways to go. Impressive nonetheless.
chmod775 3y ago
Pretty cool but that isn't enjoyable. Those are minimum graphics settings with heavy upscaling and it still barely manages 40FPS with extreme lag spikes in combat (and slowdowns?). Also having played the game, I can tell you the scenes chosen there (pretty much all of Act 1) are some of the best optimized/least demanding areas. Especially the DLC is going to be unplayable with that performance. Certainly looks like with just a bit more hardware power and development it could be getting somewhere though.

jayd16 3y ago

Do you mean at max raytracing settings? Alienware laptops should run Cyberpunk at 60, just not maxed out.

ranguna 3y ago
Interesting how the ps5 can run much more intensive graphic applications than the mac
- ranguna 3y ago
  Replied on the wrong thread, sorry.

brucethemoose2 3y ago

> Does this mean we can finally play Cyberpunk 2077 on a laptop? My 2020 14" RTX 2060 laptop played it just fine, with decent settings (and copious DLSS). At 4K! In the state I played it (earlier this year), it was great looking even without raytracing.