I Performed ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ on Mac and It Feels Perilously Near PC Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077 strode like a solo cyberninja onto MacBooks with the type of swaggering bravado you’d anticipate from a chromed-up Night time Metropolis merc. Understanding you possibly can run CD Projekt Pink’s graphically intense recreation, even when not on the peak extremely settings, is a mark of how nicely the gadget performs AAA titles. In case you missed it, Cyberpunk is now on Mac, and I’ve examined it on a plethora of Apple’s M-series laptops from the previous couple of years. The excellent news is it’s playable, however for a lot of Apple followers, this can be their first true style of finagling graphics choices and drowning in body charge information like your common PC gamer. Welcome to the celebration, chooms.

I used to be impressed by how the game ran on Nintendo Switch 2, and that was as a result of the builders put in additional effort to allow AI upscaling to take away small environmental particulars that might hinder the CPU. That recreation ran at 1080p in handheld mode and when docked. However the Mac ecosystem is much extra diverse, and CD Projekt Pink wasn’t going to create a special model of the sport for every particular person dimension and chip. Whereas avid gamers might anticipate relative consistency on a console, the Mac model is actually the PC model of the sport. Apple insisted the sport default to the “For this Mac” graphic preset. On all techniques I examined, the default settings pushed the decision means down for the sake of constant gameplay. It’s the worst technique to play the sport.

On an M4 MacBook Air 13, with its 2,560 x 1,600 decision show, Cyberpunk routinely pushed the decision all the way down to 1,170 x 1,068. The sport runs at medium settings with no ray tracing and manages to squeak out a little bit over 40 fps in benchmarks. The decrease decision labored together with MetalFX upscaling, which takes frames at a decrease decision and transforms them so they appear higher. This retains body charges at a playable degree. With out MetalFX, you’ll wrestle to fulfill 30 fps at these identical settings. When you enhance the decision to native, you’ll probably wrestle to fulfill the playable 30 fps in most scenes.

Apple’s base settings additionally allow VSync, which units the max fps at 30. It’s the very first thing it’s best to toggle off should you plan to play the sport on Mac. With VSync on and set to 30 fps, the sport feels floaty and visuals blurry, as if the participant character is a drunk stumbling residence after a protracted evening. It’s price seeing body charge dips into the excessive 20s for the sake of smoother gameplay. With that stated, the sport doesn’t look half unhealthy on a $1,200 MacBook Air with the 10-core GPU, even when the decision and upscaling muddles textures and create odd visible pop-in the place in-game objects or particulars seem if you get shut.

Older MacBooks with non-Professional-level M-series chips will probably dip the graphics settings and determination even decrease, should you can truly play it in any respect. Earlier fashions of MacBook Air got here with solely 8GB of reminiscence at their minimal spec, and people fashions can’t run Cyberpunk in any respect. The M1 MacBooks can technically run the sport, however on the low, low decision of 900p. Issues aren’t significantly better on a $1,600 MacBook Pro 14 with M4, both. It sits at 1,800 x 1,125 decision, and should you attempt to go to native 3,024 x 1,964, you’ll discover the body charge simply isn’t constant sufficient with medium settings. On an M3 MacBook Pro 14, Apple units the decision to the identical because the one with M4, however it needs you to play on most settings set to low. In my exams, I discovered it’s best to nonetheless be capable to deal with medium graphics with that Mac.

Apple will set low decision irrespective of if it’s a lower-end or higher-end chip. After a number of exams, I discovered the true minimal you need for the sport is likely one of the newer Macs with a Professional-level chip, just like the $2,500 MacBook Pro 16 with M4 Pro. Apple and CD Projekt Pink set the “For this Mac” settings base decision at 1,728 x 1,080 and no ray tracing for 60 fps gameplay, however benchmarks put the precise uncapped body charge at over 70 fps. Activate ray tracing to extremely and set to 1200p, and you’re going to get just below 60 fps throughout gameplay. Even at 4K, you possibly can nonetheless obtain playable body charges, although you’ll want to simply accept beneath 40 fps gameplay and minimal ray tracing. I haven’t examined the Mac mini with M4 Pro and Cyberpunk 2077; it may need extra constrained efficiency. That gadget begins at $1,400 for a model of the M4 Professional with a 16-core GPU in comparison with the 20-core GPU on the MacBook Professional.

So now that Mac has a number of extra video games it’s possible you’ll wish to play, can a MacBook be your subsequent cell gaming rig? It is determined by how a lot you’re prepared to spend. Once I reviewed it in 2023, my M3 Max MacBook Professional 16, despatched to me by Apple, was $4,000 at launch, and it nonetheless will set the bottom decision for Cyberpunk at 1440p for 60 fps with ray tracing enabled. For the highest-end, you’ll want an M4 Max or M3 Extremely chip at the moment solely discovered on Mac Studio. These gadgets begin at $2,000 for a 14-core M4 Max. The 60-core GPU on the M3 Extremely Mac Studio calls for $4,000 at base. Nearly as good as earlier M-series Macs had been, solely the newest and costlier fashions will be capable to supply an expertise near what you may get on at present’s present consoles or gaming PCs.

Apple’s primary concern must be the way it will current these graphics choices if it keeps pushing Macs and gaming. The “For this Mac” graphics choices faux to supply console-like ease for stepping into the sport, however they make the sport really feel far worse than should you tuned the settings your self. It shouldn’t be the norm going ahead, even when Apple needs to make it simple for the common Mac proprietor. Apple followers will simply should undergo inside their graphics settings, like the remainder of us PC avid gamers.