4 ms·

I love my MacBook Air M1; it's small and lightweight and simple, no moving parts, no dust, and it's fast enough for me. But it clearly lags in 3D gaming perfor

I love my MacBook Air M1; it's small and lightweight and simple, no moving parts, no dust, and it's fast enough for me. But it clearly lags in 3D gaming performance; the silicon just isn't there to the same degree. It might compete with low-TDP SoC graphics such as AMD's APUs, but it's not a gaming device. (...and now I resume reading the article...)

mixmastamyk 3y ago
My Intellivision is a gaming device and has no 3D support. There's tons of games that don't require recent hardware. :-D Not to mention the M1 Air is the or near weakest A.S. Mac you can buy.
- watersb 3y ago
  As I wrote my comment above, I suddenly thought of Nintendo's strategy: sufficient hardware to support a fantastic experience. Nintendo plays like Apple builds. It's clearly a great way to make games. And of course, "casual" games on Apple's handheld devices can be successful. Even spawning new game paradigms like Niantic's Pokémon Go -- yes, that's from arch-rival Google, but there's no denying Apple's influence in powerful handheld device design. Unified memory architecture, resemblance to console design... So yes, actually: there's plenty of hardware capability even in the lower-end Apple Silicon platforms, enough for great games. Sigh. I remember it as if I were in the room at the time, I knew a couple of people who were there in 1999 when Bungie, already Mac-famous from Marathon, demoed Halo ... then Microsoft bought it. Holy dogcow... Apple didn't have the cash then to attract game studios, and the longevity of their platform was still a legitimate concern. It's a very different playing field now.
  - starkparker 3y ago
    > Unified memory architecture, resemblance to console design... Console design ca. 2001, right down to having its own graphics APIs that nobody else uses
    - musicale 3y ago
      > having its own graphics APIs that nobody else uses It's amazing how many games are written for, or ported to, those APIs on iOS.
musicale 3y ago
> it's not a gaming device If only the M1 Mac were as powerful as gaming devices like the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck. Or the iPhone, which can run games like Resident Evil Village or Death Stranding - not to mention mobile titles like Genshin Impact, or a bunch of great Apple Arcade games. No idea what Apple is thinking. ;-)
- gloryjulio 3y ago
  There are already many triple A games that runs on ios. Technically they would run easily on Mac and apple doesn't even bother with these low hanging fruits
shzhdbi09gv8ioi 3y ago
I'm pretty sure a Steam Deck or say a Switch is lesser hardware than a M1, yet they seem to pull it off.
- wtallis 3y ago
  There's more than a 4x difference in pixel count between those handhelds and a M1 Air. The Switch and Steam Deck simply have far less rendering work to do.

mixmastamyk 3y ago

My Intellivision is a gaming device and has no 3D support. There's tons of games that don't require recent hardware. :-D Not to mention the M1 Air is the or near weakest A.S. Mac you can buy.

watersb 3y ago
As I wrote my comment above, I suddenly thought of Nintendo's strategy: sufficient hardware to support a fantastic experience. Nintendo plays like Apple builds. It's clearly a great way to make games. And of course, "casual" games on Apple's handheld devices can be successful. Even spawning new game paradigms like Niantic's Pokémon Go -- yes, that's from arch-rival Google, but there's no denying Apple's influence in powerful handheld device design. Unified memory architecture, resemblance to console design... So yes, actually: there's plenty of hardware capability even in the lower-end Apple Silicon platforms, enough for great games. Sigh. I remember it as if I were in the room at the time, I knew a couple of people who were there in 1999 when Bungie, already Mac-famous from Marathon, demoed Halo ... then Microsoft bought it. Holy dogcow... Apple didn't have the cash then to attract game studios, and the longevity of their platform was still a legitimate concern. It's a very different playing field now.
- starkparker 3y ago
  > Unified memory architecture, resemblance to console design... Console design ca. 2001, right down to having its own graphics APIs that nobody else uses
  - musicale 3y ago
    > having its own graphics APIs that nobody else uses It's amazing how many games are written for, or ported to, those APIs on iOS.

musicale 3y ago

> it's not a gaming device If only the M1 Mac were as powerful as gaming devices like the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck. Or the iPhone, which can run games like Resident Evil Village or Death Stranding - not to mention mobile titles like Genshin Impact, or a bunch of great Apple Arcade games. No idea what Apple is thinking. ;-)

gloryjulio 3y ago
There are already many triple A games that runs on ios. Technically they would run easily on Mac and apple doesn't even bother with these low hanging fruits

shzhdbi09gv8ioi 3y ago

I'm pretty sure a Steam Deck or say a Switch is lesser hardware than a M1, yet they seem to pull it off.

wtallis 3y ago
There's more than a 4x difference in pixel count between those handhelds and a M1 Air. The Switch and Steam Deck simply have far less rendering work to do.