Gaming benchmarks of MacBooks running on M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max chips – M1 Pro is a significant upgrade from M1

Apple has introduced its next-generation custom-built chips, the M1 Pro and M1 Max in the latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. The transition of the Mac lineup to Apple Silicon started in 2020 with the release of the M1 chip. Although the M1 chip is a powerful processor, the new M1 Pro and M1 Max offer up to 70% more CPU performance than the M1 chip which is incredibly fast. 

But for gamers, the question remains which M1 MacBook is more suitable for gaming? YouTuber @Andrew Tsai tried to answer that for us with gaming benchmarks of M1 MacBook models powered M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips. For the games benchmarks of M1 MacBook models, Tsai used the following models:

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air (8 CPU and 8 GPU cores and 8GB RAM) – $1,249
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro (8 CPU and 14 GPU cores and 16GB RAM) – $1,999
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro (10 CPU and 16 GPU cores and 16GB RAM) – $2,499
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro (10 CPU and 32 GPU cores and 32GB RAM) – $3,499

Gaming benchmarks of MacBook Pro reveal average fps performance of models powered by M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max Apple Silicon 

@Tsai ran games benchmarks of MacBook models on five high graphics games: Hitman, Borderlands 3,  Company of Heroes 2, DiRT Rally, and Shadow of Mordor. Here are the average fps of each MacBook Pro. 

Hitman 

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air – 25.91 fps 
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 73.76 fps
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 80.28 fps
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro – 98.08 fps

Borderlands 3 

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air – 29.05 fps 
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 42.01 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 46.99 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro – 55.89 fps 

DiRT Rally 

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air – 64.06 fps
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 119.7 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 124.38 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro – 138.23 fps 

Company of Heroes 2 

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air – 27.22 fps 
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 52.11 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 56.25 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro – 70.07 fps 

Shadow of Mordor

• 13-inch M1 MacBook Air – 20.93 fps 
• 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 33.04 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro – 35.53 fps 
• 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro – 39.89 fps 

Which M1 MacBook is best for gaming?

In conclusion, Tsai says that M1 Pro Apple Silicon is a substantial upgrade that delivers 2x the gaming performance than the base M1 chip. However, he was disappointed by the mid-tire M1 Pro configurations because there was not a noticeable jump in performance with additional cores. So, the verdict is the base 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro hits the sweet spot with price and performance. 

Read More:

• M1 Pro and M1 Max Geekbench and Cinebench benchmarks show how fast they are [U: GFXbench 5]
• M1 Max vs Nvidia RTX 3080 comparison shows Apple lags in gaming benchmarks
• Apple’s M1 Max outperforms AMD Radeon Pro W6900X in Affinity GPU benchmark
• M1 MacBook Air outperforms Intel’s 11th gen Tiger Lake processor in Geekbench benchmarks