In his latest YouTube video, MrMacRight compared the gaming performance of the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips. The YouTuber tested games like DiRT 4, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Baldur’s Gate 3, and more along with Spaceship – Visual Effect Graph Demo.
M1 Max vs M1 Pro vs M1 – Gaming Performance
A Total War Saga: TROY
At 1080p, the native Apple Silicon game got 32.3 fps on the 13-inch M1 MacBook and about 64.7 fps on the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro. With the M1 Max chip, the game hit 102.8 fps on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. On 1440p, the 13-inch MacBook Pro achieved 32 fps once again and the 14-inch got 69.9fps. Finally, on 2160p or 4K, the MacBook with the M1 Max chip got 60 fps and the 14-inch model got 35.9.
Spaceship – Visual Effect Graph Demo
Next, the YouTuber tested Spaceship next, a three to five-minute tech demo which showcases high-end visual effects. The resource is primarily used by game developers but tech enthusiasts are free to check it out. It was optimized for M1 hardware by Unity and the Apple metal engineering team.
On the M1 Mac, the was optimized for 1080p and achieved around 30 fps. The M1 Pro Mac hit a little over 60 fps and the M1 Max device ran at 90-100 fps at times. Both M1 Pro and M1 Max devices can pull off 1440p but 2160p is only supposed on M1 Max right now.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
As noted by MrMacRight, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the most demanding games on Mac. At 1080p, the 13-inch MacBook Pro hit 28 fps on average. The M1 Pro achieved 60 fps and the Mac equipped with the M1 Max chip got saw 100 fps on average. Only the new MacBook Pros can pull off 1440p with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The M1 Pro saw 37 fps on average and the M1 Max saw 82 fps. The YouTuber suggests 2160p should only be used on M1 Max devices.
DiRT 4
The racing simulator can handle 4k resolution with “relative ease” on the first generation M1 chip though we are talking 30 fps at medium settings while the newer chips can hit around 60fps. The M1 chip achieved 40 fps at 1440p while the M1 Max and M1 Pro reached 60 fps. On 1080p, the M1 hit 60 fps and the M1 Pro and M1 Max achieved over 100 fps.
The YouTuber concludes the video by saying that the sole purpose of these laptops is not for playing games. However, the video does provide good examples of the type of performance users can expect on their M1 Macs.
Check out the full video by MrMacRight down below:
Read more:
- Gaming on M1 Max and M1 Pro – GTA V, CS GO, and other games tested on MacBook Pro
- M1 Max vs Nvidia RTX 3080 comparison shows Apple lags in gaming benchmarks
- M1 Pro and M1 Max Geekbench and Cinebench benchmarks show how fast they are [U: GFXbench 5]
- 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro is a power house, says professional photographer Austin Mann
- Apple’s M1 Max outperforms AMD Radeon Pro W6900X in Affinity GPU benchmark
- M1 Pro and M1 Max analysis reveals the new chips vastly outperform competitors
