Introduction to gaming on Apple silicon M1 Macs

Welcome to AppleGamingWiki and our main introduction to gaming on Apple silicon Macs.

Introduction

Apple silicon Macs were introduced in November 2020, bringing about a new era of CPU and GPU performance which rivals that of high-end Intel desktops - but using a virtually silent and much more power-efficient form factor. This new chipset is no less than a revolution in integrated chip gaming performance - the Apple Silicon chips are now completely capable of running high-end AAA games - but only if they are compatible with the new ARM platform.In Unleashed event (October 18th of 2021) apple introduced M1 PRO & M1 MAX chips.The 32-Core GPU on M1 MAX is even as powerful as PS5!

Unfortunately few games are currently taking advantage of the full benefits of Apple silicon, and most games rely on the Rosetta 2 translation layer to run existing Intel macOS games on the new ARM chip. However there are many methods, fixes and workarounds available to get excellent macOS, iPhone, iPad and even triple-AAA Windows games working through methods like CrossOver, Parallels and Windows ARM. But getting compatibility information is really tough as information (and misinformation) is strewn around various forums and websites on the internet.

Methods

Different ways of playing games on Apple silicon M1 Macs:

Native

At time of writing in Late 2021, there are few 'native' written games, which fully take advantage of M1 Apple silicon hardware. A few notable games at launch includes World of Warcraft and Disco Elysium.Recently Valve Has Finally Made Their SDK Compatible With Apple Silicon So Now Developers Can Release Their Native Games On Steam.