Apple has somewhat revitalized gaming on a Mac with its M-series of chipsets, but despite the improvements, the internal GPU will present a performance bottleneck that cannot be overcome with raw rasterization capabilities.
Instead, Apple has moved to major architectural shifts that enable the use of AI for better gaming performance, as it has with the M5, which sports Neural Accelerators that have been demonstrated by one user to deliver a strong FPS boost with the pairing of Apple’s Metal 4 API.
Without upscaling, Resident Evil Requiem is shown to be running comfortably at beyond the QHD resolution on an M5 Max
Despite Capcom not porting Resident Evil Requiem to macOS, apps like CrossOver help to breathe new life into emulation, allowing Reddit user “Particular_Switch_21” to enjoy the survival-horror title on his M5 Max MacBook Pro configuration that’s kitted out with an 18-core CPU and a 40-core GPU.
On a resolution of 3,024 x 1,890 with no upscaling, even the most powerful of GPUs will struggle to deliver a solid experience. Fortunately, the M5 Max’s Neural Accelerators, combined with Metal 4, can run at a decent 60-70FPS with Frame Generation enabled, showcasing what’s possible for the future of Apple Silicon gaming.
Our only concern is the latency aspect when playing Resident Evil Requiem on a MacBook Pro with Frame Generation enabled. At 60-70FPS, depending on the MacBook Pro display’s response time, the experience can become subpar for those who have a discerning eye for delayed animations.
A decent gaming mouse can help minimize latency, but we’ve also experienced this level of performance in titles like Cyberpunk 2077. While there was a delay between our inputs and the animations, it wasn’t something that would cripple the experience. In short, this is a tremendous showing of Apple’s Neural Accelerators, and it can only improve from hereon.
The M7 could bring Neural Accelerators into overdrive mode
We’re exceptionally excited for the M7’s launch because Apple is said to concentrate more on bringing AI-related improvements. Unfortunately, the only specifications bit we know is that the upcoming SoC will have a memory bandwidth of 240GB/s, which is 56 percent higher than the M5’s, but we can foresee an improvement to the Neural Accelerator architecture.
Looking at these results, it’s safe to assume that the future of AAA gaming will largely depend on the AI upgrades rather than focusing on raw rasterization, especially for chipsets with internal GPUs. Since these graphics processors cannot deliver the same performance without becoming discrete units like NVIDIA’s or AMD’s solutions, the M5’s Neural Accelerators offer a proper gateway to a wide adoption of gaming.
About the author: Omar Sohail is a reporter and analyst for Wccftech’s mobile section, specializing in the technology and business of the mobile industry. His expertise lies in the intricate hardware supply chain, covering developments in semiconductor manufacturing, chip lithography, and camera sensor technology.
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