CRAIG667
Member
As a photographer who also does video editing, the MacBook air with M1 chip is still miles ahead of anything running Windows at a similar price point.
Gaming wise though it's windows all day long for me
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Apple’s new Proton-like tool can run Windows games on a Mac
- Thread starter Astray
- Start date
Gaming wise though it's windows all day long for me
I have a new MacBook Air, and that thing is SICK. My wife can't get into Mac (and she doesn't like computers in general). Her laptop was getting slow, so she got a new one earlier this year. She got an MS Surface laptop. The one that has the felt like texture on the keyboard side. It's not bad (for her), but the MacBook Air oozes quality compared to her new Surface.
Crayon
Member
The idea with proton is that games don't have to support it natively. At most a dev can check to see how/if it runs on proton and fix something if there's a minor hangup. If it's a deeper issue stopping it from working, they probably can't justify that. But most games work with no intervention. The game thinks its running on windows as normal.
Well then, I am back on board then. I like that.
Badlucktroll
Member
is this a nothingburger
Insane Metal
Gold Member
|Damn it looks and runs better than XB1S version
Unknown Soldier
Member
It works for Steam Deck so it ought to work fine for Macs. I'm actually surprised that Steam never ported their Proton build for Steam Deck over to Mac, it's a completely untapped market for Steam that seems like it would be a no-brainer for Valve.
I would like to play actual games on my M1 MBP, hopefully something comes of this.
I would like to play actual games on my M1 MBP, hopefully something comes of this.
hououinkyouma00
Member
It's a game never meant to run on any Mac, running through emulation and at way lower power then basically any GPU in a gaming PC in 2023.
I have both and vastly prefer MacOS over Windows. for everything but gaming obviously. My windows computer is solely for games. my M2 MBA is for everything else. Hell if GFN had support for every game I play I could probably go without the pc entirely.
I've never encountered any of the issues you mention outside of the 30fps cap thing on my old monitor/dock when outputting via HDMI. That issue has only been on my MacBook Air and for the time I had the 14" MBP it ran full speed at 1440p. My M2 through USB-C runs fine at 1440p/165hz with VRR. Never once had any issues with mouse or keyboard. What even issues did you have with them?
You sure love RT Don't you? lol
Again it's the first try on hardware not even meant to play games outside of Apple Arcade and running through emulation.
Crayon
Member
Lookin good!
There's the additional complication here of having to translate x86 to ARM, as well. Proton doesn't quite handle that, though I suspect one day valve will have something that can.
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
it's about the performance without RT or PT. Would be like 1 fps with PT? And when it's "well optimised" will it at least reach near 60 fps? Maybe with a miracle with Jesus programming.
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Wildebeest
Member
Emulating x64 is not something that isn't done. I think that Window on Arm does it without much fuss, but there is a noticeable performance hit. I think it is much better to get a recompile than emulating it.
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Maybe because Steam Deck is x86 while these Macs are ARM.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
For now other than allowing gaming on a broader range of devices.
A $2000 PC running Cyberpunk at 30FPS at non native 1080p ish resolution without RT is underwhelming.
In the future though .. who knows, it shows that Apple aren't completely oblivious to gaming.
Crayon
Member
I'm not sure how existing x86 emulation works but the reason proton is so performant is that it's doing more of a translation than an emulation. For awhile I said it's not emulation at all, but a developer did inform me that it is sometimes called "high level emulation". So it's not modeling an actual processor to run on and has way less overhead.
Topher
Gold Member
Linux already has Proton
Crayon
Member
Kinda. A lot of the games that don't work on proton were due to issues that would have required zero additional effort to avoid had the developer known what to watch out for. Developers getting used to watching out for that kind of stuff will make for better compatibility with linux proton, apple whatever this is called, and other future methods to run windows software without windows.
Doesn't the M1/2 chip have built in accelerator for transcoding x86 to ARM? That would defiantly help out rather then having a software emulator. Only problem is if Apple release a later processor that removes that functionality.
LiquidMetal14
hide your water-based mammals
It's really hard to knock this if it matures and gets better and then all depends on Apple since they control all the cards with this one. But if this helps expand the reach of PC games I'm all for it. Proton has done great for Linux and is a game changer and I don't want to put this on that level at this time.
Just because it's Apple doesn't mean they automatically get some degree of free pass from having to prove or show that this is as good as other things like that. But at the end of the day, if this opens up being able to play PC games on Apple devices like the new desktops that are $6,000 and higher then great. My only issue is that according to some of the videos that I watched, you cannot add PCI expansion graphics cards since they want to push their M1/M2/R1 (you sunk my battleship?) chips.
So if they claim their hardware is anywhere near as fast as AMD or Intel on the CPU side, they are not competing on the high end with Nvidia. So for them pushing their technology and this barrier of entry, I repeat what I said in the VR headset thread, you cannot be that much of a apple loyalist to see that this is great for the compatibility but once it going to take to run those high-end games and how many compromises do you have to make when Apple themselves make the barrier entry so high and they seem to be limiting the ability to add aftermarket cards to their desktops.
But much like the steam deck maybe the application can be also just for smaller devices or other things that they may introduce that would fit the bill a little bit more assuming they don't give you their patented Apple tax. None of their ecosystem interest me so I'm definitely not the consumer but I damn well sure can see what the value is and I will make that clear if I ever see that. And to be clear, that hasn't happened yet with apple since everything they do is overpriced and it works because people eat it up.
Just because it's Apple doesn't mean they automatically get some degree of free pass from having to prove or show that this is as good as other things like that. But at the end of the day, if this opens up being able to play PC games on Apple devices like the new desktops that are $6,000 and higher then great. My only issue is that according to some of the videos that I watched, you cannot add PCI expansion graphics cards since they want to push their M1/M2/R1 (you sunk my battleship?) chips.
So if they claim their hardware is anywhere near as fast as AMD or Intel on the CPU side, they are not competing on the high end with Nvidia. So for them pushing their technology and this barrier of entry, I repeat what I said in the VR headset thread, you cannot be that much of a apple loyalist to see that this is great for the compatibility but once it going to take to run those high-end games and how many compromises do you have to make when Apple themselves make the barrier entry so high and they seem to be limiting the ability to add aftermarket cards to their desktops.
But much like the steam deck maybe the application can be also just for smaller devices or other things that they may introduce that would fit the bill a little bit more assuming they don't give you their patented Apple tax. None of their ecosystem interest me so I'm definitely not the consumer but I damn well sure can see what the value is and I will make that clear if I ever see that. And to be clear, that hasn't happened yet with apple since everything they do is overpriced and it works because people eat it up.
Badlucktroll
Member
I think it’s just a matter of time before that becomes a reality.