Apple recently unveiled the latest M2 series chip, the M2 Ultra at its WWDC 2023 event. Powering the 2023 Mac Studio and Mac Pro, the new M2 Ultra is built on an advanced 5nm process and UltraFusion technology to connect the die of two M2 Max chips.
It is the largest and most capable processor by the company yet, with a faster CPU and GPU, and more unified memory than the M2 Max and M1 Ultra chips.
But does the new tech deliver a better gaming experience on the new Mac Studio (2023)?
9 games you can play on M2 Ultra Mac Studio in 4K today
YouTuber @Andrew Tsai played multiple popular games on the 2023 Mac Studio with an M2 Ultra chip to test their performance in 4K resolution. Here are the 9 best games you can play on the new desktop today.
No Man’s Sky
It is an action-adventure survival game by Hello Games. The gameplay of No Man’s Sky revolves around five pillars: exploration, base building, combat, trade, and survival. It was recently released on macOS and iPadOS in June this year.
On M2 Ultra, the game runs natively with 80 to 100 fps. MetalFX delivers good image quality in 4K resolution and performance.
Resident Evil Village
It is a survival horror game by Capcom and is a sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017). The story of Resident Evil Village is based on the life of Ethan Winters who is in search of his kidnapped daughter in a village infested with mutant creatures.
As the game is natively optimized for Apple Silicon, Metal, and MetalFX, it delivers around 90 fps in 4K resolution.
Layers of Fear
This psychological horror adventure game by Bloober Team has first-person perspective gameplay in which players control a psychologically disturbed painter who unlocks secrets from his past while completing his magnum opus in a Victorian mansion.
On M2 Ultra Mac Studio, the game is not playable without MetalFX as it delivers around 20 fps only. However, the game delivers 25 to 40 fps with MetalFX turned on. But it delivers the best performance when MetalFX performance is enabled with around 60fps in 4K.
Dota 2
Developed by Valve, Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena game with matches between two teams of five players and each player controls their own character called a “hero”. Each team has to occupy its own base and defend it.
Dota 2 runs through Rosetta 2 on Mac Studio (2023) with M2 Ultra and delivers around 100 fps in 4K resolution.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO)
It is a popular multiplayer tactical first-person shooter game by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment. The gameplay includes two teams: terrorists and counter-terrorists against each other in various objective-based game modes.
With most of the settings at low in 4K, the CS: GO delivers up to 180 fps on Mac Studio with M2 Ultra.
Baldur’s Gate III
The upcoming Bladur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing game by Larian Studios and the third iteration of the Baldur’s Gate series. Its gameplay is based on players against mind flayers who have launched an invasion of Faerûn and supports single-player and cooperative multiplayer elements.
As the game is currently available through early access, it delivers only around 35 fps in 4K in Ultra quality settings on M2 Ultra. But the game easily delivers 60 fps in 4K when AMD FSR 1.0 Quality and upscaling are turned on.
Diablo IV
Developed by Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo IV is a multiplayer-only action role-playing game. Players get to create a character from any one of the five classes: Sorcerer, Barbarian, Necromancer, Rouge, and Druid, and get to use their skills to win combats and complete quests.
Although it is a Windows game running through Game Porting ToolKit, it delivers good performance on M2 Ultra Mac Studio. In 4K Medium, it delivers around 40 fps, but when FSR 2 is enabled, the game delivers around 50 to 60 fps and handles high frame-rate gameplay at 4K resolution pretty smoothly.
Grand Theft Auto V (Singleplayer)
GTA V by the Rockstar Games is the seventh main entry and fifteenth installment of the Grand Theft Auto series available in single-player and multi-player variants. The story of GTA V single-player revolves around three characters: drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips, retired bank robber Michael De Santa, and street gangster Franklin Clinton who try to carry out heists under the regime of a corrupt government and criminals in the fictional state of San Andreas.
With default settings at 4K resolution, the GTA V is playable but achieves up to 35 fps only on M2 Ultra because the game was not optimized for Windows. Thus, it does not deliver good performance when translated through Game Porting ToolKit.
GTA Online
Based on Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games released GTA Online as its online multiplayer action-adventure game version. Up to 30 players can compete in racing matches from around the globe in an open-world environment.
This multi-player game is surprisingly playable on M2 Ultra Mac Studio with no issues in joining online races. Enabling resolution scaling and dropping the main resolution of the game will give a boost in performance.
Furthermore, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Fire Emblem: Three Houses are also playable on M2 Ultra Mac Studio (2023) via emulation.
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