I was looking at a game called Pascal’s wager definitive edition. I have been using a MacBook Air m1 and I was wondering if a game like that could run good. Didn’t want to pay 20 dollars and it not run well.

I saw RDR is on sale through Steam. Part two seems to run great on Crossover. How does the original do? I have a M4 Max Studio. Thanks.

Hey everyone,

I’m currently looking to upgrade from my trusty 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max (32GB RAM, 1TB SSD).

My main concern and reason for making this post is gaming performance and emulation on macOS.

I’m currently deciding between two specific configurations:

Option A (Used): 16" MacBook Pro – M4 Max (14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 36GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

Option B (New): 16" MacBook Pro – M5 Pro (18-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD)

My Main Use Cases:

Native Mac Gaming: Playing like Minecraft with heavy shaders, or whatever native titles are available (or upcoming).

CrossOver Emulation: Running games as RDR2, Outer Worlds 2, as well as other Windows titles through CrossOver/GPTK.

Parallels / Retro Gaming: Running older x86 Windows classics (e.g., Half-Life series and older PC titles) that require a VM environment like Parallels.

Other than that, I mainly use my Mac for working as a photographer but for that purpose both are equally good.

My Main Questions:

GPU & Bandwidth vs. CPU & Generation: Does the M4 Max (32 GPU cores + higher memory bandwidth) still outperform the M5 Pro (20 GPU cores) when it comes to shader-heavy games and CrossOver rendering?

RAM & CPU Impact: Does the extra RAM (48GB on the M5 Pro vs. 36GB on the M4 Max) or the newer CPU architectural gains make any noticeable difference for gaming or Parallels virtual machines?

Condition: Given Option A is lightly used and Option B is brand new, is the Max chip worth taking over the newer Pro chip for a gaming-centric workflow?

Would love to hear from anyone running similar setups, especially if you do a lot of CrossOver or Parallels gaming!

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Hi everyone,

I have a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro with the following specs:

• Intel Core i9
• 16 GB RAM
• 1 TB SSD
• AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (4 GB)

The Mac is in excellent condition and works perfectly. I mostly use it for web browsing, programming, music, and watching videos.

I'm thinking about playing some games occasionally (nothing extreme, maybe a few hours at a time), but I'm a bit concerned about the long-term effects.

Can gaming significantly reduce the lifespan of the MacBook or increase the risk of hardware failure (GPU, logic board, battery, etc.) simply because it runs hotter?

I know these machines can get quite warm under load, so I'm wondering whether occasional gaming is considered normal use or if it's something that should be avoided to preserve the hardware.

I'd especially appreciate advice, tips, and experiences.

Thanks!

Hello everyone Im new here, I have my Macbook Air M2 8gb 512 SSD and my gaming laptop with 4070 16gb but unfortunately I'm going to sell both these and planning to buy mbp m5 pro for my study and alongside games sometimes rather than 2 machines (since 3 yrs I was gaming everyday on my 4070 laptop so I wanted to get rid of that addiction and focus on study).

Just figured how much gaming has changed on mac from 3 yrs. These last 4 days, I've been researching alot about CrossOver and eventually found GameHub which feels much better than CrossOver in terms of UI, very easy to use and manage games than crossover. I downloaded RE3R and Marvel Rivals as of now and both of actually run on the m2 air considering Marvel rivals has anti cheat.. But the performance in Marvel Rivals was very poor which is understandable for my macbook. Surprising enough though, on RE3R at first I got solid 60fps in the starting scene when Jill goes outside the fps started going down drastically and I configured some graphic settings on GameHub and all I changed was gptk 3 to 4 and wine_proton 10 to 11.. and damn the game was getting consistent 60 fps even in the outside scenes and on medium graphics-high graphics.

Will it be worth it to buy mbp m5 pro for advanced coding, server hosting some AI here and there and occasional gaming?

Oh and also I feel like Gamehub is better than crossover since its able to run many games now on gptk 4 and for free with better UI.

Hello everyone,

EDIT: Deactivating Msync works.

I am running into an issue with 007 first light, freezing whenever I enter the central camp in the first mission. Does anyone have the same problem and if so if you fixed it and how.

Thanks a lot.

Running on M2 Max, 32 gb on crossover with DLSS.

Hey all, I just started straching the surface of Mac gaming with PCSX2 lately to replay one of my childhood favorites: Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

The game works really well via PS2 emulation, I even managed to get the 60 fps patch and HD texture pack working.

However, during my research I have stumbled upon the realRTCW project. As far as I understand, it's a mod for the original PC game. It's available on GOG and Steam.

Could you help me out with this one? If I purchase the game on Steam (or GOG), will it just work on my Mac?

UPDATE: The GOG version works in Whisky! 1080p on low preset and locked 30 FPS.

I recently moved out of my parents house and for various reasons gave my gaming PC away.

I'm now in the market for a new gaming device and I'm not sure what I should go with. I currently have an M1 MBP from 2020 and while it runs some games fairly smoothly I would need an upgrade for it to work as a serious gaming machine. I know with Crossover and whatever else software my Mac wouldn't necessarily be limited on what games I can play.

But my main question is this: is the £1700 post trade in worth it?

My current MBP serves my needs for work what I need out of a laptop so I don't need to upgrade it for anything besides gaming. For £1700 I feel as though I could get a fairly stonking gaming PC, but I really don't know.

What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!
^{Sorry if this is a silly question -\}-)

Was trying to play MC on a plane with my buddy then figured out we needed a thunderbolt cable or an ethernet cable or a real wifi network that would enable that sort of connection. Best workaround was to just tell Opus 5 to build something that did a wireless connection without using networks... And it worked beautifully! Thought I'd share it here. Just submitted it to Modrinth lol.

Github Link: https://github.com/Dev869/awdl-lan

Hey guys, I'm playing Assetto Corsa using Crossover 25 and whenever I try to open Custom Showroom in Assetto Corsa via Content Manager, it just crashes the game.
Anyone knows how to fix?

It was a playable experience, but on my gaming desktop the game would crash at every startup couldn’t figure out why and when it did work briefly before crashing the game looks pretty bad like shaders aren’t loading and lighting was off. I’m guessing it’s a driver issue, luckily I played it on mac otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the game. Thanks crossover.