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 count on from a chromed-up Night City merc. Knowing you may run CD Projekt Red’s graphically intense sport, even when not on the peak extremely settings, is a mark of how effectively the system 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 few years. The excellent news is it’s playable, however for a lot of Apple followers, this might be their first true style of finagling graphics choices and drowning in body price knowledge like your common PC gamer. Welcome to the social gathering, chooms.

I used to be impressed by how the sport ran on Nintendo Switch 2, and that was as a result of the builders put in further effort to allow AI upscaling to take away small environmental particulars that might hinder the CPU. That sport ran at 1080p in handheld mode and when docked. But the Mac ecosystem is way extra diversified, and CD Projekt Red wasn’t going to create a unique model of the sport for every particular person dimension and chip. Whereas players may count on 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 manner down for the sake of constant gameplay. It’s the worst strategy to play the sport.

On an M4 MacGuide Air 13, with its 2,560 x 1,600 decision show, Cyberpunk robotically pushed the decision right down to 1,170 x 1,068. The sport runs at medium settings with no ray tracing and manages to squeak out slightly 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 give the impression of being higher. This retains body charges at a playable degree. Without MetalFX, you’ll wrestle to fulfill 30 fps at these similar settings. If you increase 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 is 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 dwelling after an extended night time. It’s value seeing body price dips into the excessive 20s for the sake of smoother gameplay. With that mentioned, the sport doesn’t look half dangerous on a $1,200 MacGuide 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 once you get shut.

Older MacBooks with non-Pro-level M-series chips will probably dip the graphics settings and backbone even decrease, should you can truly play it in any respect. Previous fashions of MacGuide Air got here with solely 8GB of reminiscence at their minimal spec, and people fashions can not run Cyberpunk in any respect. The M1 MacBooks can technically run the sport, however on the low, low decision of 900p. Things aren’t a lot better on a $1,600 MacGuide 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 price simply isn’t constant sufficient with medium settings. On an M3 MacGuide Pro 14, Apple units the decision to the identical because the one with M4, nevertheless it desires you to play on most settings set to low. In my exams, I discovered it is 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 actual minimal you need for the sport is without doubt one of the newer Macs with a Pro-level chip, just like the $2,500 MacGuide Pro 16 with M4 Pro. Apple and CD Projekt Red 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 price at over 70 fps. Turn on ray tracing to extremely and set to 1200p, and you’ll get slightly below 60 fps throughout gameplay. Even at 4K, you may nonetheless obtain playable body charges, although you’ll want to just accept beneath 40 fps gameplay and minimal ray tracing. I haven’t examined the Mac mini with M4 Pro and Cyberpunk 2077; it might need extra constrained efficiency. That system begins at $1,400 for a model of the M4 Pro with a 16-core GPU in comparison with the 20-core GPU on the MacGuide Pro.

So now that Mac has a couple of extra video games chances are you’ll wish to play, can a MacGuide be your subsequent cellular gaming rig? It depends upon how a lot you’re keen to spend. When I reviewed it in 2023, my M3 Max MacGuide Pro 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 Ultra chip at present solely discovered on Mac Studio. Those gadgets begin at $2,000 for a 14-core M4 Max. The 60-core GPU on the M3 Ultra Mac Studio calls for $4,000 at base. As good as earlier M-series Macs had been, solely the most recent and dearer fashions will be capable to supply an expertise near what you may get on at the moment’s present consoles or gaming PCs.

Apple’s major concern needs to be the way it will current these graphics choices if it retains pushing Macs and gaming. The “For this Mac” graphics choices faux to supply console-like ease for moving 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 desires to make it simple for the typical Mac proprietor. Apple followers will simply must undergo inside their graphics settings, like the remainder of us PC players.