These days, I often feel that I am one of those rare breeds: a gamer that also likes Mac. My home office work is divided between my M1 Mac Mini and my small-work Windows PC, and switching between the two at all times to be honest is annoying.
Unfortunately, my love for gaming – and the relative inexperience of Apple here – means that I have lived with both Macos and Window for some time. Certainly, I would like to leave windows for once and all, but it doesn’t just feel that Mac is still enough in terms of gaming performance.
He said, Apple’s M4 Chips have made gaming very viable on Mac. As we saw in our Mac Studio reviews, the M4 Max Chip is very capable on talking about gaming performance.
I have spoken about how Mac Mini’s gaming performance has made my Windows PC difficult to protest against all-in on McOS. Now, Mac Studio is confusing the entire situation even more.
Mac Studio comes
Pricing-wise, Mac Mini and Mac Studio seem far away, even when you promote the pre-gaming output for better gaming outputs. Get a Mac mini with M4 Pro chip and you will pay around $ 1,399 – for M4 Max Chip for Mac Studio, you are looking at the initial price of $ 1,999. This is a big difference of $ 600.
But things become a bit more interesting when gaming becomes a more serious idea. Because there is no discrepant GPU in these Macs, and because the M4 Pro is far from Apple’s strongest chip, you probably want the most befest M4 Pro that you can get. Upgrade in version with 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU and you are looking at $ 1,599 value-more appropriate than $ 400 less than the CAC studio.
This is important because the M4 Max is much better for gaming than the M4 Pro. In our Mac Studio Review, M4 Max hit 114fps in civilization VI and for example, managed a smooth frame rate when running Gate 3 of Baldur on 4K resolution. It also carries forward the M3 Ultra in gaming performance, which we were not expecting.
When we tested Mac Mini, it performed worse than the M3 Max chip of the previous generation. Although we do not yet have a direct comparison of M4 Pro and M4 Max, it is clear that the latter should be the next way.
It has raised things a little up to me. When the M4 Mac Mini came out, I was taken by its dinky shape and was so impressed by its overall performance (despite a slight decrease in gaming) that I was almost ready to get rid of my M1 Mac Mini and my Windows PC together and replaced them with Apple’s small desktop machine.
Now when M4 Max Mac Studio is here, it looks like a more attractive option for gamers. Certainly, you have to pay more, but it provides more reliable gaming performance, while simultaneously carries the M3 Ultra forward in terms of frame rates. This is clearly very misleading, but if it means that I do not have to spend $ 4,000 and for an M3 Ultra Mac Studio, it’s fine by me.
We need more domestic games
So, does this mean that Mac Studio is the best option for Apple Gamers looking for a desktop machine? Maybe, but Apple has still not solved the biggest problem here: lack of domestic games.
The recent addition of Cyberpank 2077 was a major win for Mac Gamers, but it really feels like an exception that proves the rule. Painting the bay with windows, there is still no indigenous support for franchise on Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty, Alden Ring and Mac.
Sure, you can now complement your Mac with Nvidia GeForce, and this is something that I have considered before. But it can be expensive and does not cover every game. And in fact, I want to play basically the game instead of relying on another expensive membership that puts my bank account into drains every month.
It is a matter of shame that you have to spend Mac Studio money to get decent gaming performance within the ecosystem of Apple. Considering the current GPU prices for Windows machines, perhaps I should not be surprised. But I still do not have to sell a kidney to enjoy a place of Mac Gaming at smooth, stable frame rates.
Nevertheless, I cannot deny that we are seeing progress. The M4 Max can offer solid gaming performance that is a welcome reform in the previous years. It is expected that the year of the top level games coming in 2025 Mac will be-and the biggest problems that solve Apple are currently facing Mac Gamers.
