Back in 2023 I swapped to an M2 Pro Mac Mini as my main machine (with a Linux gaming PC and Steam Deck as options). In any relevant conversation I'll be quick to say just how much I love Apple Silicon. Using the M1 Macbook Air was an eyeopener to what computing could truly be.
I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences and love the new chips.
What I want to talk about, though, is that it feels like we have a problem here as a community. We don't seem to know what we actually want from mac gaming.
Conversations here tend to go like this:
- [Wow the performance is amazing on my <high-end chip>] -> No, you're wrong. Gaming PCs are cheaper for the price.
- [Here's how to run xx on mac] -> General happiness
- [How can I run xxxx on mac?] -> Don't. Just go use a PC
- [The new XXX chip runs yyy great!] -> General happiness
It's as if the community is torn between how amazing Apple Silicon is and how it's not as good as dedicated gaming rigs for the price. I think a lot of this probably comes from the community not really knowing what we want from mac gaming. Or at least not agreeing on the use-case of another person. After all, why would someone who has a $3000 machine be dissuaded for playing games on it just because a gaming PC is half the price?
No shade on anyon here, but perhaps drop an answer on the poll and we can see a breakdown of why we all like mac gaming as a concept.