Before Apple Silicon, the Majority of the Mac Range Comprised of Intel’s Integrated GPUs, Which Was Not Sufficient to Game
The introduction of Apple Silicon materialized with the M1, and though the SoC’s 8-core GPU was not on par with dedicated solutions from NVIDIA and AMD, the increase in performance when compared to integrated GPUs was massive. An argument can be made that the Apple Silicon is capable of gaming at increased graphics settings, but according to several benchmarks, it is less than a stellar experience. MacRumors recently did an interview with game developer Feral Interactive, who states that there is an audience for high-quality games on the macOS platform. Also, Macs with dedicated GPUs were significantly more expensive compared to those with integrated solutions, but the arrival of the M1 makes everything consistent across the company’s lineup, though consumers still have to pay more for the better performing M1 Pro and M1 Max. Regardless, with affordable Apple Silicon Macs now getting access to better GPUs, one problem for the developer has gone away, to an extent. Apple is currently prepping the M2 for a launch later this year, and it should offer a small bump in performance thanks to its 10-core GPU. In addition, we should see the M2 Pro and M2 Max arriving next year with up to a 38-core GPU, which should encourage more developers to get serious about porting games to macOS. Back in 2020, Apple was rumored to be developing a Mac focused on gaming, but the product never materialized, for whatever reason. News Source: MacRumors
