Reasons Why Regular PCs Sell Better Than Macs For Playing Games

Mac OS is less desirable for gaming than PC. (photo: Patrick Ward / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Apple's Mac products are often used to support any work, other than games. That's because the gaming system on the Mac M1 is a bit subpar.

While Macs have never been the best in the gaming world, they can still be used to play games that are both fun and effective. However, this doesn't mean Mac can deliver a better gaming experience.

Here are the reasons why the Mac can't be the pioneer of devices for playing games as quoted from MakeUsOf, Monday 9 August.

Playing Games on Mac Before the M1 Chip

The Mac has never really been an industry leader in gaming for a number of reasons. The modern nature of Macs results in inadequate customizability, smaller internal graphics cards, different system architectures.

In fact, the market share for gamers on macOS devices is so small, most developers even try to make original Mac versions of games, which is another reason to install Windows on Macs.

As a good indicator of the lack of support, there are currently around 7,000 games for macOS on Steam, while there are over 20,000 Steam games for Windows.

To that end, many use third-party applications such as Boot Camp, which allows Mac users to install and run Windows on a separate partition from their hard drive. Not only that, it also allows users to access to the entire Windows game library without any problems.

There are also a range of other tools available such as Parallels and CrossOver, the latter of which provides the means to run Windows on Linux, macOS, and Chrome OS via Wine's open-source Windows compatibility layer. There's also Rosetta, a built-in translation process that allows some Intel code (64 bit) to be understood by new Mac M1 systems.

Not a Few Choose Regular PCs Over Mac

Many have asked why playing games on Mac is second only to PC. The answer, Mac devices are almost difficult to customize. Over time, Apple has made the choice to completely solder on components like RAM inputs and SSD drives on newer MacBook generations, from around the 3rd generation in 2016 onwards.

Likewise with the graphics card on a Mac, there is no room to modify the device to make it fit for gaming.

The Presence of the M1 Chip Limits All Access, But...

Since the new system architecture was purchased as a result of the M1 SoC, Boot Camp is now not available to Mac users, meaning that Windows' primary source and simulation access access is gone.

However, CrossOver can still run on Mac M1, with very good performance. Although CrossOver is emulated to run its x86 code through Apple's Rosetta 2.

Likewise, Parallels welcomed the transition to the M1 chip with enthusiasm, on its official blog Parallels said that the team is excited to see the performance, power efficiency and virtualization features brought to Mac with the Apple M1 chip. Parallels also uses Rosetta technology, promising a fantastic Windows-on-Mac experience.

Lastly, Apple's Rosetta 2 technology is an emulator designed to help transition between Intel and Apple processors. Basically, Apple's Rosetta 2 serves to translate applications built on Intel's architecture into something that Apple Silicon can understand and run.

On an M1 device, if the app or program contains only Intel code, macOS automatically logs into Rosetta, starts the translation process, and then launches the translated program in place of the original. The best part is that after the initial translation, the Mac will remember its own work and launch the translated program right away.

However, the M1 chip's natural advantage over other Mac builds is that it's the right software and hardware, so playing games on the M1 can be as fun and fluid as users expect from other platforms.

Games Still Available

This variety of platforms, programs and emulators means that Mac M1 users still have the opportunity to play games. Whether it's playing Windows games, or translating a once-original game from an old Mac into a new program..

The following is a list of the number of games available on Mac quoted from Apple Gaming Wiki, namely games that are compatible with M1 Rosetta 2: 305, CrossOver Windows: 125 and Windows: 214. This list also shows the total number of titles available 773 games, as many as 597 of them are available on M1 devices (excluding iOS/iPadOS games).

Although, this is insignificant when compared to the 20k+ games available to casual Windows users, it includes many classic and new era versions of games like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, Fortnight, FIFA, Grand Theft Auto, Hitman, The Sims, Star Wars , and much more.