M4 Mac Gaming

[Hellfire]

I have been able to install the PC version of steam on the mac m4 mini using Whiskey. It plays pretty much any game the steam deck can with ray tracing and the works. It's about time for Valve to just make the Mac version work with proton and be done with it. It's silly to not support the Mac fully.

[megavolt17]

I agree. Proton works for linux, MacOS is based on linux, so at least give us access to a beta version to Proton for MacOS

[The_Abortionator]

Originally posted by Hellfire:

I have been able to install the PC version of steam on the mac m4 mini using Whiskey. It plays pretty much any game the steam deck can with ray tracing and the works. It's about time for Valve to just make the Mac version work with proton and be done with it. It's silly to not support the Mac fully.

People realllllllly need to drop the emotional take on this topic, this isn't some moralistic favoritism nonsense that is holding back the Mac like you guys seem to think it is.

Apple has chosen not to support Vulkan (which is literally the MAIN rewuirement for Proton to work) or really ANY open standards for that matter. They DO NOT support third party GPUs anymore, theres no repairability/upgradability in the Mac ecosystem anymore and the lowest buy in is $1000 with 8GB for a machine that competes with gaming desktops half its price.

The Mac platform is harder to develop for as it requires adding another API that ONLY Apple uses to support half of the Mac population on Steam which is already at only 1.3%.


Theres no financial or population incentives to invest in an ARM client let alone trying to magically get Proton to work on Mac.

[The_Abortionator]

Originally posted by megavolt17:

I agree. Proton works for linux, MacOS is based on linux, so at least give us access to a beta version to Proton for MacOS

So two big things. One MacOS is NOT based on Linux. Not sure what made you think it was but thats not even close to being correct.

And two, Proton literally requires Vulkan, the API Apple has very deliberately chosen not to support.

[Homy]

The cheapest Mac is Mac Mini M4 and costs $599, not $1000. All Macs are now sold with at least 16GB RAM, not 8GB, even M3 and M2. Even the latest Lunar Lake and Snapdragon laptops have soldered RAM on SoC which can’t be upgraded later.

The cheapest and easiest way to upgrade the storage on Mac is to buy a fast and cheap external pocket-sized SSD. iFixit gave Mac Mini M4 a repairability score of 7 out of 10 thanks to easy to remove components, swappable SSD, and the detailed repair manuals that Apple made available.

The most common graphics API is not an open standard and is called Direct3D. Only about 200 of 172,000 PC games support Vulkan natively.

Apple doesn’t support other GPUs because theirs are the most power efficient for their needs. The new M4 Max 40c performs like a desktop 4070 in gaming while using a fraction of the power. In Blender it’s faster than AMD’s flagship desktop card 7900XTX, RTX 4070 Super or 4090 laptop.

Apple has the cheapest VRAM prices over 24GB for professional work like LLM 72b and 3D. M4 Max with 128GB is twice as fast as a $7000 card like RTX 6000 Ada 48GB and over 12 times faster than 4090 24GB according to Geekerwan when you need lots of VRAM.

In October survey Linux had 2% and macOS 1.39% but 36.79% av Linux consists of Steam Deck so desktop Linux has only 1.26% and Steam Deck has 0,74%. Mac has still a larger market share on Steam.

Finally the latest proof that it’s neither harder to develop for Mac nor a financial suicide is CD Projekt Red bringing Cyberpunk 2077/Phantom Liberty to Mac with advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio.

[The_Abortionator]

Originally posted by Homy:

The cheapest Mac is Mac Mini M4 and costs $599, not $1000. All Macs are now sold with at least 16GB RAM, not 8GB, even M3 and M2. Even the latest Lunar Lake and Snapdragon laptops have soldered RAM on SoC which can’t be upgraded later.

The cheapest and easiest way to upgrade the storage on Mac is to buy a fast and cheap external pocket-sized SSD. iFixit gave Mac Mini M4 a repairability score of 7 out of 10 thanks to easy to remove components, swappable SSD, and the detailed repair manuals that Apple made available.

The most common graphics API is not an open standard and is called Direct3D. Only about 200 of 172,000 PC games support Vulkan natively.

Apple doesn’t support other GPUs because theirs are the most power efficient for their needs. The new M4 Max 40c performs like a desktop 4070 in gaming while using a fraction of the power. In Blender it’s faster than AMD’s flagship desktop card 7900XTX, RTX 4070 Super or 4090 laptop.

Apple has the cheapest VRAM prices over 24GB for professional work like LLM 72b and 3D. M4 Max with 128GB is twice as fast as a $7000 card like RTX 6000 Ada 48GB and over 12 times faster than 4090 24GB according to Geekerwan when you need lots of VRAM.

In October survey Linux had 2% and macOS 1.39% but 36.79% av Linux consists of Steam Deck so desktop Linux has only 1.26% and Steam Deck has 0,74%. Mac has still a larger market share on Steam.

Finally the latest proof that it’s neither harder to develop for Mac nor a financial suicide is CD Projekt Red bringing Cyberpunk 2077/Phantom Liberty to Mac with advanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and built-in Spatial Audio.

Wow, what a bunch of nonsense.

I like how you call out a few laptops randomly for soldered parts ignoring literally everything else.

Pulling out a random made up number for titles supporting vulkan also doesn't help you because again the point is devs can use vulkan for easier cross platform development which Apple chose to make harder, you have this backwards view on what vulkan support means.

Telling me about how Apple has mad it so hard to upgrade their Macs that you needed to buy and external drive is not a pro.

And no, Apple blocks other GPUs for no reason other than control and profit. And no, workload optimized parts DO NOT translate to gaming parts.

And lastly and very dumbly, why does every clown count all Arch installs as if they were steak decks? And why do you kids think that would change anything if they were?

No, really. The Steam deck is a literal gaming computer with a desktop and everything.

We get it, Mac support is in the toilet and the numbers are shrinking while Linux is growing but making weird excuses isn't a fix for your problems.

PS, that Mac for 600 bucks is a joke. 256GB drive? almost no I/O, no upgradability. 60fps at 1440p for LoL? Thats potato performance.

If you want to pay more for less gaming performance then do it but don't pretend thats some great selling point.

[Homy]

Originally posted by The_Abortionator:

Wow, what a bunch of nonsense.

The feeling is mutual.

[The_Abortionator]

Originally posted by Homy:

Originally posted by The_Abortionator:

Wow, what a bunch of nonsense.

The feeling is mutual.

I mean you feel that way but facts aren't on your side. Infact Linux will be playing AAA games on Macs with better performance and compatibility than you'll ever see on MacOS. Infact, its already happening.

So I'll go play my games on Linux with proper client/platform support and you can sit outside a baseball games screaming about how great Macs are for games (if only it could play them).

[Homy]

Originally posted by The_Abortionator:

So I'll go play my games on Linux with proper client/platform support.

Yes, please do that! Much better than wasting time here on Mac. Goodbye!

[IKiwiz]

not laptop for game

[YehWhatEver]

Seeing gaming studios closing which is bad for everyone. Google and the apple app store are making more money than pc and console combined now. Are we seeing the slow death of pc gaming.

Long live the desktops Windows Mac and Linux , Consoles and mobiles.

Apple released a new porting tool for pc games (good for everyone) its about the game developers keeping in business make games for all the gaming platforms.

So stop being idiots or you will be gaming on a mobile