Thanks to committed developers such as Aspyr, Feral Interactive, and even Blizzard and Valve, there are now lots of great, recent games you can play on your Mac.MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)The iMac Pro is the most powerful Mac available right now, surpassing even the infamous Mac Pro. But things have definitely changed a lot. There were very few games to choose from, and the options available were quite old. Should they be completely discarded as decent gaming Macs? iMac Pro gamingFinding good games for Mac used to be slow and painful. But other desktop alternatives exist.That means a lot of the raw power the iMac Pro has to offer will be wasted on most games.So, is the iMac Pro good for gaming? Unless your job demands it, the iMac Pro is overkill. It costs twice as much as a 27-inch iMac with a Radeon Pro 580 and runs our test games at 125.5 FPS on average compared to 128.3 FPS on the Radeon Pro 580 iMac.What gives? Professional applications such as Final Cut are optimized to take full advantage of everything the iMac Pro has to offer but most games don’t. But when it comes to gaming, it’s simply overkill. In fact, if you’re a professional in need of raw power for video or 3D graphics editing, this is probably the Mac for you.
![]() Previously $499, the base model is now $799. Apple took its time but it finally released the long-awaited New Mac Mini in late 2018.The update brought huge performance improvements but also a significant price jump. Mac Mini gamingAfter literally years without receiving a meaningful update, the Mac Mini seemed to be as good as dead. It will be significantly cheaper while offering even better gaming performance. With 80.7 FPS on average and a $2,999 price tag, an iMac is a cheaper and faster choice.So, is the Mac Pro good for gaming? For the record, a Mac Pro is a capable gaming machine. In the meantime, the current Mac Pro is overpriced and not that fast. I won’t go into the whole story, but the Mac Pro was a failure and you should stay away from it too.The iMac Pro was partially released to help Apple recover from that disaster and a new Mac Pro is coming… eventually. Mac Pro gamingThe current Mac Pro was supposed to revolutionize desktop computing. That said, a new Mac Mini + eGPU is probably the best gaming setup one could get. Plus, you’ll also have to buy a monitor to use it (same goes for the Mac Pro). ![]() MacBook Air gaming (13-inch)The MacBook Air (MBA) also received a huge update a few months ago. If won’t be as fast but it can certainly handle most modern games on Medium settings. Unless you see it on sale, you should stay away from it.So, is a 13-inch MacBook Pro good for gaming? If you can’t afford a 15-inch MBP, the touch bar 13-inch model is a good compromise. With an average of 44.3 FPS, expect decent gaming performance except for on very demanding games (such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, which this Mac can only run at 19.5 FPS).The 13-inch non-touch bar version may be cheaper but it probably be updated (or discontinued) soon. It won’t be as fast as a 15-inch model, but it’s $500 cheaper.For $1,799, you can get the touch bar version with an Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655. 13-inch MacBook Pro gamingWhat if you don’t have over $2,000 to put into a laptop? You can always get a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s so thin and small, it makes the MacBook Air feel bloated. MacBook gaming (12-inch)The 12-inch MacBook is an impressive machine. That said, it can still handle many popular games. DiRT Rally, for example, runs at 32 FPS which is more than enough to have an enjoyable experience (Rise of the Tomb Raider on the other hand barely runs at all).So, is a MacBook Air good for gaming? The new MacBook Air wasn’t built for gaming so don’t be surprised if you can’t play all the latest and greatest on it. Don’t get me wrong, the list of games for MacBook Air is limited but still bigger than expected. ![]() Pro 2017 How Good Is It For Games Upgrade Will ResultAccording to our results, that upgrade will result in a 26% boost in performance (going from 102 to 128 FPS on average) and roughly the same bang for the buck ($18 per FPS).To take another example, if you chose the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Radeon Pro 560X, you can upgrade the graphics to Radeon Pro Vega 16 for an extra $250. That will cost you $500 more. You’ll have to choose the more expensive iMac model that comes with a faster processor, a bigger hard drive and a Radeon Pro 580. You’ll often have to choose the higher end model and then upgrade the graphics furthermore if you want.For example, you can’t upgrade the Radeon Pro 570 graphics on a 27-inch iMac. Unfortunately, graphics can rarely be upgraded on the base models. Also, some upgrades can only be performed by Apple while others you can do yourself for less money.It goes without saying that the faster your graphics card, the better your games will run. That’s a lot of money for a barely noticeable improvement. Some games are sensitive to faster processors, but the vast majority will benefit more from an upgraded GPU.To give you an example, a 15-inch MacBook Pro with an upgraded processor (a top of the line Intel Core i9) is only 0.5 FPS faster than the Intel Core i7 model but costs $300 more. ProcessorIf gaming is important to you, prioritize upgrading your graphics instead of your processor. Legal forms software for macRAM and a speedy processor are certainly important, but for most games, a powerful graphics card will make the most difference.It goes without saying that a dedicated graphics card will result in a much better gaming experience than an integrated card. After all, modern video games require a decent amount of raw power. As our target is to give you an unbiased and complete overview of the best Macs for gaming, we had to use multiple criteria to ensure things stay as objective and comparable as possible: Raw Performance (FPS)It’s no secret our most important criteria was performance. Otherwise, I don’t recommend paying for an upgrade from Apple.It wasn’t easy choosing the best Apple machines among the several models available. If you want one of these models, upgrade the RAM yourself. There was a time when most Macs could be upgraded by users for a fraction of the price, but those days are over.You can’t upgrade the RAM yourself in any of the current models except the 21-inch iMacs, the 27-inch iMacs, and the Mac Pros. Or we could test all current Macs and just recommend the ones with the highest FPS.But if we stopped there, we would be ignoring a critical factor: money. Value for moneyWe could simply list the Macs with the most powerful graphics card and call it a day. That information should give you a realistic and accurate idea of how well each machine can run modern games. But while most guides make do with simply listing the most powerful cards available, we ran real-world tests on games.As you can see from our results, we used the frames per second metric to evaluate and compare the different machines we tested. That’s why every model was evaluated taking both performance and value into account. We all have limited budgets and are forced to always be in the lookout for the best value for money.
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