M1 Pro gaming: 10 AAA Games Benchmarked

According to Apple, these new MacBook Pros are the fastest and most powerful laptops they have ever released.

But are the new M1 Pro and M1 Max Macs truly good gaming machines? Did Apple finally deliver MacBook Pros that are capable of running triple-A games at decent speeds?

Let’s find out. Today we’re taking a look at the new 14-inch MacBook Pro powered by the newly introduced M1 Pro Chip.

More M1 gaming? Visit our M1 Supported Games list for 100+ Mac games we have tested and confirmed as M1-compatible.

Gaming on a 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro

We’ll be benchmarking 10 games today. All of them running natively on macOS. Some of these games are among the best-looking AAA games available today whilst others are complex games requiring fast processors.

The machine we have in our hands is the base 14-inch model you can buy for 1,999 dollars. It comes with an 8-Core CPU, 14-Core GPU, 16GB of Unified Memory, and a 512GB SSD.

Metro: Exodus

The first game we’ll test is Metro: Exodus. Arguably one of the best-looking games available on macOS.

Metro: Exodus has great graphics, which means it has high-performance requirements. On top of that, the macOS version of the game doesn’t support M1 chips natively yet, which means this is the Intel version running through Rosetta 2.

Don’t know what Rosetta is? Rosetta 2 is a translation process that enables an M1 Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for Intel-based Macs.

To be fair, Metro Exodus was optimized for M1 Macs, and as you can see, the M1 Pro manages to run it well.

At high settings and 1200p, the game can run at 40+ frames per second. And if you’re looking for a smoother experience, Medium settings will give you even better performance.

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support
	Metro: Exodus	Shooter	Yes		Metal	Rosetta

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Next up, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest Tomb Raider game from Square Enix and was ported to macOS by Feral Interactive.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is hands down an impressive-looking game, and it’s great to see it run smoothly at 1200p resolution and Medium settings on the M1 Pro chip.

Same as before, the game doesn’t have an M1 native version, which means this is again an Intel game running through Rosetta 2. Still, Feral Interactive is one of the top Mac developers around and all of their games are always well-optimized thanks partly to good use of the Metal API, exclusive to Apple machines.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft was one of the first games to ever receive a native M1 version.

But what does “native” mean? Unlike games that require Rosetta 2 to run on Macs with Apple silicon, native games were coded to run on M1 Macs and should offer the best possible performance.

And as advertised by Apple, a native M1 game or app can offer much better performance than previously.

In this case, WoW, which can be quite demanding when a lot is going on at the same time, runs beautifully on M1 Macs. The game is no slouch on Intel Macs, but as you can see here, M1 Macs, and especially M1 Pro and M1 Max Macs, can run it at very high settings and resolution without a problem.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Switching gears a bit, let’s take a look at an older classic. Counter-Strike Global Offensive may be a few years old but it remains one of the most popular first-person shooters out there.

CS: GO already ran pretty well on the M1 MacBook Air, but as expected, the M1 Pro can run it at higher settings and resolution while pushing good frames per second.

CS: GO could definitely run much better if Valve gave its Mac version some love. The game still runs on the outdated OpenGL API, instead of using the much faster and more efficient Metal API. And as you probably guessed already, the game does not have a native M1 version yet. This is the intel version of the game running through Rosetta 2.

Civilization 6

The latest entry in the legendary Sid Meier’s Civilization series, Civ 6 is not only the best turn-based strategy game out there, but it’s also one of the best strategy games, period.

We were lucky enough to get a same-day release for both the Mac and Windows versions of the game. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t all that well optimized for macOS.

On Intel-Macs, Civ 6 struggles due to a lack of Metal support and high CPU loads. Clearly, the use of the outdated OpenGL API is holding it back.

Luckily, M1 Macs are much more powerful than Intel Macs. As you can see on screen, the M1 Pro can handle Civ 6 just fine. As you can see on screen, the game runs smoothly, even when matches are in their final stage and maps are chocked full of units.

League of Legends

The king of the MOBA genre, League of Legends is one of the most popular and competitive games you can play on a Mac.

League of Legends has had its ups and downs on macOS. For a while, it wasn’t even playable when macOS Catalina was released. These days League of Legends on macOS runs just fine, especially thanks to its Metal API support.

League of Legends runs well on all M1 Macs, even if it requires Rosetta 2. And when looking at its performance on an M1 Pro, the game does great.

DOTA 2

In that same vein, the other extremely popular MOBA in the market, Dota 2, also runs great on the M1 Pro.

Dota 2 was the first-ever game on Mac to use the Vulkan render API. That is made possible thanks to the MoltenVK tool, which allows Vulkan games to use Metal to run on a Mac. When moving from OpenGL to Vulkan “slash” Metal, the game saw huge performance improvements.

Dota 2 may require Rosetta 2 to run on our M1 Pro, but that isn’t really a problem, given how fast it can run.

Minecraft

Minecraft, the indie game that eventually became bigger than most AAA games is considered an easy and lightweight game to run.

It’s probably because of the blocky graphics and seemingly low res style. But don’t be fooled. Minecraft can be surprisingly hard to run properly, especially when a lot of things have been built in its world.

Our gameplay from the video above doesn’t do Minecraft justice. This is quite early on in the game with not a lot going on, but as you can see, Minecraft reliably hits max FPS on our M1 Pro.

Cities: Skylines

The new king of city-building games, Skylines has always been a challenging game to run on Mac. Most Intel Macs struggle to run it properly to this day.

On an M1 Pro, the game certainly runs better. In fact, it can achieve acceptable frames per second at a relatively high resolution of 1200p.

But to be clear, in spite of supporting Metal, this game is still a challenge to run on macOS. Perhaps if Paradox ever decides to create a native M1 version, Skylines will be finally able to shine on M1 Macs…

Dirt Rally

And finally, Dirt Rally is the last game we’ll test today.

Another excellent Mac port from Feral Interactive, DiRT Rally runs great on most modern Macs. As can be expected, even though it requires Rosetta 2 to run on our M1 Pro, the game just flies on our test machine, even at 1200p resolution and the highest settings.

Final word

So that was our first go at M1 Pro benchmarks. We’re sorry Mac Gamer HQ has been so quiet lately, but expect many more benchmarks and guides. After all, this is why we purchased these machines!