Can You Game on a Mac? (2018)#Helpful Post

hey guys this is Austin over the years

we've done a lot of videos exploring

whether or not you can game on a Mac

spoiler alert usually the answer is yes

but not all that well however its 2018

and some things have recently changed

you know the last time we did this video

we were trying it on a $200 MacBook and

as you imagine for something that is so

old the results weren't all that

impressive but today we have a 2016 15

inch MacBook Pro in front of us as well

as a whole host of toys that are fresh

and ready to go

it sounds like I'm describing a pizza

I'm describing gaming computers because

hi now the simplest way to game on a Mac

is going to be to use a streaming

service such as NVIDIA GeForce now now

this is actually something that was able

to work all the way down onto the $200

laptop and personally as far as I'm

concerned it's one of the better ways of

gaming here as long as you have a decent

internet connection the way in streaming

service like GeForce now works is that

instead of running it on your computer

which could be a problem if you're

running a Mac and therefore it can't

play a lot of games is that in stay

that's going to be streaming it from the

cloud now the main thing to keep in mind

here is that you do need to have a good

internet connection so especially when

you're playing like high intensity games

such as Fortnight for example having a

good internet connection is going to be

hugely vital all right we are in the

game so there's a couple things that you

are going to notice with a setup like

this first of all there's going to be

latency there's always going to be some

latency so for this it's it's hard to

tell just based on what looking at it

I'd say maybe it's like a quarter of a

second or so it doesn't seem to be too

bad but something else that's going to

be noticeable is the reduction in image

quality because you're essentially just

looking at a video feed as opposed to

play in the game natively depending on

your connection you will see some

artifacts although to be honest this

looks pretty close to a native set up

right now as long as you have a good

internet connection

I really feel like GeForce now is worth

a shot now the only thing you should

keep in mind is that while it is free

it's going to be in beta right now and

so unless you've actually signed up in

the past there's going to be a wait list

so it might be a little while before you

can actually get your hands on the

service but for free especially if you

want to be able to play games on the go

on something like a Mac it really

actually does make a lot of sense also

was a sight note GeForce now is

available on PC as well so you guys want

more information on how it works and

especially on the PC side of things I

did do a full video at CES this

you guys could go checkout continued on

the streaming train we have one cast so

if you guys are familiar with Xbox one

streaming on a Windows PC it's really

straightforward so basically as long as

you have your Xbox and your Windows

computer on the same network you can

stream games from your Xbox to your PC

and generally speaking when you're over

a very short distance say you know a

local Network latency is not going to be

too bad

and with one cast that brings that same

functionality to the Mac I actually

haven't tried this yet so let's give it

a try the app is pretty straightforward

you just need to install the drivers for

your Xbox one controller which you're

going to need and then once you login to

your Xbox account we hit connect it

should get us on to our Xbox yeah there

we go

so if I'm trying to scroll through here

it seems to be just like I'm playing on

normal Xbox alright we're in the game

the first thing I'll say is that video

quality is kind of so-so looks like

there's more compression than there

wasn't GeForce now yeah it does seem

like there's a little bit more lag than

there was with GeForce now the image

quality is definitely not as nice now to

be fair you should always expect some

latency but considering that instead of

running on a server who knows how many

miles away I'm running on an Xbox it's

only a few feet away that's a little bit

annoying yeah I mean it's a twenty

dollar program which is definitely not

going to be cheap luckily there is going

to be a free trial so you can give it a

try and if it sucks then you can bail on

it but I've got to say I'm actually kind

of disappointed I think I think we can

do better now as with any computer

whether it be PC or Mac the GPU matters

when it comes to gaming now hiring Mac's

such as the iMac as well as the MacBook

Pro 15 inch that I have here I actually

do have somewhat decent GPUs inside

however when it comes to lower end stuff

such as the 13-inch MacBook Pro the

12-inch MacBook as well as the MacBook

Air they're all going to have integrated

graphics and are going to have a lot

more trouble gaming at least right out

of the box now external Thunderbolt

enclosures are nothing new but they've

gotten a lot better and they've gotten a

lot more well supported you can see

something like an rx 580 can fit in a

nice small package but on top of that

this also will work on Windows all you

need is a Thunderbolt 3 port and it

should be good to go just keep in mind

that you should connect your display to

the actual graphics card as opposed to

your computer it'll definitely help

alleviate any kind of bottlenecks in the

actual Thunderbolt 3 interface but once

you get up it should be a

seamless setup so to start out with

we're going to be using the MacBook Pro

15 inch with its standard graphics card

and we're going to be using a little

game called rocket League so using my

xbox one controller I'm curious to see

what kind of performance tramatic get

here I was able to actually crank the

graphics pretty much all the way up and

it actually is not going to be too bad

so as some of you guys are probably

aware steam is supported on the Mac and

if you buy a game on Steam for Windows

you are going to be able to play it on

the Mac provided that there is another

version this is actually not bad at all

we're getting 68 frames per second or so

here 67 Wow this is totally playable

next up let's try to see what we can do

with the actual gaming box connected so

like I was saying earlier the set up is

going to be really straightforward

we've got Thunderbolt 3 into the box and

then we've got the Box going DisplayPort

into the monitor this is pretty nice and

smooth although I've got to say the

frame rate actually is not going to be a

huge difference so as opposed to being

in the mid 60's instead we're somewhere

in the 80s oh there we go alright I will

say one thing even though this is not

making a massive difference rocket

league is surprisingly playable on Mac I

honestly really can't see any major

differences and especially with a nice

high refresh rate monitor the

performance is really not going to be

too bad so to put this whole setup to

the test a little bit more we have Deus

Ex mankind divided now this is a game

that is well known to be very taxing but

it's also an interesting title because

it does support metal essentially the

Mac OS version of something like DirectX

12 or volcán so for some context we're

running this right now at 1080p very

high settings on the natural GPU as you

can see performance isn't exactly great

we're getting summer in the neighborhood

of well exactly 14 frames per second so

move over to the gigabyte gaming box

with the RX 580 inside and we can see

something that's a lot more cinematic

with a whopping 24 actually 25 frames

per second now keep in mind this is

obviously not going to be an ideal

scenario we would really want to

probably turn the graphics thing it's

down a little bit but this does show

that we're getting someone the

neighborhood have about double the

performance by plugging in an external

GPU next up we have dirt rally this is a

game that has some slight issues on Mac

most notably when you have dual monitors

so I had to bust out the keyboard and

close the MacBook display so we're only

running on one monitor but here running

canady peon ultra settings on the

MacBooks GPU we're getting somewhere in

the neighborhood of 35 to 40 frames per

second definitely playable it's not

going to be the smoothest experience in

the world if we plug into gaming box

what we're seeing is there is going to

be a little bit of a performance

difference but it's actually not going

to be that big so for certain scenes

when you've got the full car in view

it's going to be only a few frames per

second higher now right now we're a

little bit more in the 40s although even

here look it's dipping to like 38 39

it's a little unusual I'm not sure if

dirt needs an update to fully support it

or something's going on here but a

little bit better not by a lot though

moving right along we have fortnight for

what feels like the 18th time in this

video so this is running on the MacBook

and right now we're actually running it

pretty decent settings this is going to

be 1080p on high and at least in the sky

here it's not too bad everyone starts

jumping out and it starts tanking and oh

wow that's okay I spoke too soon okay

nothing like a whole lot of four frames

per second ah there we go that's better

so it seems like we are hovering around

the 30 or 40 frames per second mark but

man that's stuttering is not good but I

actually do want to get a good sense of

what the MacBook can do on the same

settings is what we're going to be able

to run with the RX 580 whoo that's uh oh

yeah that's stuttering so with our rx

580 what we're seeing here is

immediately a much higher framerate

we're getting somewhere in neighborhood

of 40 to 50 but weirdly we're still

seeing that same stuttering issue I'm

not really sure what that is I mean it

doesn't feel like it's going to be a

network thing it's not like a latency

sort of issue because I mean I even get

it sometimes I'm just sort of scrolling

around here it's interesting generally

speaking for tonight is a very well

optimised game on everything from

Windows PCs to iOS but here a Mac it

seems like it's got some issues well

okay so now that we've actually spawned

everything seems to be smoothed out a

little bit it's a weird issue because it

doesn't seem to be related to sort of

the power I mean right now this is

totally playable again a solid 50 frames

per second 1080p high I don't have any

complaints oh but there go we start

stuttering oh then that's brutal

so as you guys can see gaming on the Mac

has evolved the idea that you can use an

external GPU really does make a big

difference especially to lower end Macs

however the software support is def

not fully there yet some curious what do

you guys think about gaming on a Mac is

it something you would ever try or is it

something that's best left to trained

professionals

let me know in the comments below and I

will catch you in the next one