The old but commonplace stereotype is that “Macs are too slow, all show and too expensive to game on.” But all of us have wondered, at some point, if that is true nowadays. Apple has significantly revamped its architecture, hardware, software and firmware since its Intel days, and consumers have been seeing some genuinely astronomical improvements in all sectors of the computing world with the quasi-recent introduction of their unique M-series SoC. For this review, a last-gen 2022 M2 Macbook Pro (13”) 256 GB will be tested running both low-stress games like “Roblox,” as well as significantly higher-stress games like “Rise of the Tomb Raider” (“Tomb Raider”) and “Resident Evil 8: Village” (RE8).
Apple’s M2 chip (13”), although appearing relatively anemic for a modern laptop with a measly 8 GB RAM, proved incredibly efficient during testing.
Running “Roblox” on the M2 Mac was a pleasant experience. It yielded a solid 60 frames per second (FPS) with maximum graphics. Popular, high-demanding “Roblox” experiences like “Doors” and “Deadlines” remained playable on maximum settings without any choke-ups or freezing. On another note, the Mac’s fans never spooled throughout and ran relatively cool, which was undoubtedly a huge peeve Macbook owners had with previous Intel models.
But how will it play high-demanding games such as “RE8” and “Tomb Raider”?
When “Tomb Raider” started up, the visuals were smooth, and everything ran strongly. It took some optimization and balancing, but eventually, intense combat ran at 50-60 FPS with minimal hiccups.
With some optimization in “RE8’s” (a newer and more performance-intensive game) graphics settings, cutscenes reached 50-60 FPS and overall game performance averaged 50 FPS. I believed these numbers would have a significant impact on image quality, but I was able to run “RE8” and “Tomb Raider” at a resolution of 1080p and 1200p with no significant drops in smoothness; additionally, HDR was turned on in “RE8,” along with MetalFX texture upscaling on and several other cosmetic graphics effects.
Other honorable mentions are “Bioshock” and “Bioshock 2,” both capable of running on max graphics at 60 FPS.
The computer’s fans did spool up, and the chassis was quite warm, but the performance nearly made up for it.
Another important component was the incredibly high battery life, which is currently the top of its class. During heavy gaming with “RE8,” the machine ran without throttling games for two hours before dying. With light use, the machine runs for nearly 24 hours before dying.
Current and last-generation M-series Macs are capable gaming machines, and the test results certainly show the synergy of hardware components and proper optimization at work. If a MacBook Pro is too expensive, the MacBook Air lineup keeps up with the Pro’s performance very well and is considerably more affordable.
