Macs have not always been known for gaming but they’ve come a long way in recent years so here we’ve looked at the most suitable Macs for gaming in 2024.
10 years ago not many people would have recommended Macs for gaming.
But as the processing and graphics power of Macs has increased, more and more developers have embraced Macs for gaming.
The Steam gaming platform now runs on Macs and the list of compatible games is constantly growing.
The latest Apple Silicon Macs with M series Pro, Max and Ultra chips are the fastest ever with graphics capabilities that can more than handle the most demanding AAA games.
Although Apple Silicon Macs don’t feature discrete graphics cards like most PCs do (that’s graphics cards that are separate from the processor) the M series chips are more than capable of handling gaming.
And although there are still many big titles not released for Mac, there now many ways of playing PC only games on Mac that perform surprisingly well.
And don’t forget that Game Center has been improved on the latest version of macOS Sonoma, so that you can game seamlessly between your iPhone, iPad and Mac although there aren’t any major games releases on it.
You can also read our full guide on How To Optimize Your Mac for Gaming for more on how to get the most out of it.
Quick Navigation
- 1. M2 MacBook Pro 16 inch
- 2. M2 Mac Mini
- 3. M2 Mac Studio
- Price Comparison Table
- Mac Gaming FAQ
- Are Apple Silicon Macs Good For Gaming?
- Playing PC Only Games On Mac
- Which Mac Is Better For Gaming?
- External Displays For Gaming On Mac
- External Hard Drives For Gaming On Mac
- Connecting Controllers To A Mac
- Are The MacBook Pro & MacBook Air Good For Gaming?
1. M2 MacBook Pro 16 inch
If you’re looking for the ultimate MacBook for gaming in 2024 and budget isn’t an issue, the 16-inch M2 MacBook Pro stands out as the most powerful option available.
Released in January 2023, the 16-inch M2 MacBook Pro is one of the top-performing MacBooks on the market, capable of handling even the most resource-intensive games with ease.
Although it’s now been superseded by the M3 MacBook Pro, it’s better value and almost as powerful as its successor.
With its large 16-inch display, it provides a comfortable gaming experience, even during extended sessions.
However, pairing it with an external monitor can elevate the experience even more.
The Liquid Retina XDR display boasts stunning resolution at 3456 x 2234 pixels, along with ProMotion technology, which offers adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz. This high refresh rate is crucial for smooth gameplay, especially with fast-paced action.
For the best gaming experience, you can customize the MacBook Pro with up to 96GB of unified memory, opt for the powerful M2 Pro or M2 Max chips, and expand storage to a massive 8TB SSD.
Although configuring it to these specs would come with a hefty price tag, even a less extreme build would still provide more than enough power for gaming.
In terms of performance, the only Apple Silicon Mac that can outperform the 16-inch M2 MacBook Pro with the M2 Max chip is the M2 Mac Studio maxed out with the M2 Ultra chip.
Compared to the 14-inch or 13-inch models, the 16-inch version is definitely the better choice for gaming unless you’re planning to game primarily on an external monitor. It also boasts a battery life of up to 22 hours, though heavy gaming will significantly reduce this.
For more insights, check out our full M2 MacBook Pro review.
Pros:
- The most powerful MacBook for gaming
- Large 16-inch display for immersive gameplay
- High resolution and 120Hz ProMotion display
- Long battery life (up to 22 hours in ideal conditions)
- Configurable up to 8TB SSD storage
- Supports up to 96GB of unified memory
- Compatible with multiple external displays (M2 Pro and M2 Max chips)
Cons:
- Heavier than other MacBook models
- Expensive
2. M2 Mac Mini
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly Mac to play games on but don’t need a laptop, the M2 Mac Mini is an excellent choice. It’s the best value Mac for gaming available today.
Released in January 2023, the M2 Mac Mini starts at just $599, which is $100 less than the original M1 Mac Mini from 2020. However, we don’t recommend the base model for gaming, as it only includes 256GB of storage, which could quickly fill up with games.
You can configure the M2 Mac Mini with up to 32GB of unified memory and boost storage to a maximum of 8TB. Keep in mind that it doesn’t come with a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, so you’ll need to purchase these separately. Luckily, it’s compatible with most monitors and peripherals, giving you flexibility in setting up your gaming rig.
For gaming, the display quality will be key, so we recommend reviewing our guide to the best external monitors for Mac Mini, especially for gaming purposes.
Although pricier, the M2 Mac Mini with the M2 Pro chip is a better option for gaming, as it can support up to three external displays—two via Thunderbolt and one via HDMI 2.1.
The basic M2 Mac Mini, on the other hand, supports two external displays but only one via Thunderbolt.
Both versions come with an HDMI 2.1 port, making it easy to connect your Mac Mini to a TV for gaming.
If you’re on a budget, the M2 Mac Mini is a fantastic value for gaming, although it lacks the portability and built-in screen of a MacBook.
For a deeper dive, check out our full M2 Mac Mini review to explore more details about this budget-friendly powerhouse.
Pros:
- Great value for gaming
- Supports up to 3 displays with the M2 Pro chip
- Up to 8TB storage capacity
- Easily portable
- HDMI 2.1 port for connecting to TVs and external displays
- Cheaper than the M1 Mac Mini
Cons:
- Requires separate purchase of keyboard, monitor, and mouse
- Less portable than a MacBook
- Limited to 32GB of RAM for gaming
3. M2 Mac Studio
The M2 Mac Studio is Apple’s most powerful desktop computer and an excellent choice for gaming, thanks to its impressive performance and connectivity options.
Think of the Mac Studio as a supercharged version of the Mac Mini. While it’s primarily designed for creative professionals, its power makes it a fantastic gaming machine too.
The first Mac Studio, powered by the M1 chip, was launched in 2022 alongside the 27-inch 5K Apple Studio Display.
Together, they provide stunning 5K visuals. Fast forward to 2023, Apple unveiled the M2 Mac Studio at WWDC, featuring the even faster M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips and HDMI 2.1 support for enhanced external display connections.
Currently, Apple only sells the M2 Mac Studio new, but you might still find a refurbished M1 Mac Studio through Apple’s website.
This desktop powerhouse is the only Mac available with the M2 Ultra chip, offering up to 24-core CPU and a 76-core GPU, making it lightning-fast for gaming and other high-demand tasks.
Even the base model, without the M2 Max or M2 Ultra chip, packs a punch with a 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU.
For those going all-in, the M2 Ultra chip version provides up to 20% CPU and 30% GPU performance boosts over the M1 Ultra.
You can also configure the M2 Max version with up to 96GB of unified memory, while the M2 Ultra can handle an incredible 192GB of memory and offers 800GB/s memory bandwidth, easily outpacing the M2 Mac Mini and M2 MacBook Pro—a dream for gamers and well beyond the capabilities of many PC gaming rigs.
The M2 Mac Studio is also rich in connectivity options, including four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10GB Ethernet port, two USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a Pro audio jack for high-quality sound, perfect for in-game chats.
Pricing starts at $1,999 (£1,999) for the M2 Max version, while the M2 Ultra model starts at $3,999 (£3,999).
For the top-of-the-line configuration with an M2 Ultra chip, 8TB SSD, and other upgrades, the cost reaches $7,999 (£6,100), but it’s an investment that will last you for years without needing to upgrade.
To get the most out of the Mac Studio, pairing it with the 27-inch 5K Apple Studio Display (starting at $1,599 or £1,499) is ideal, although other monitor options are available too.
If you’re interested, check out our guide to the best monitors for the Mac Studio.
Read our full Mac Studio M2 review for more.
Pros:
- The most powerful Apple Silicon Mac with the M2 Ultra chip
- Up to 76-core GPU for incredible performance
- 8TB SSD for massive storage capacity
- Up to 800GB/s memory bandwidth
- Supports up to 5 external monitors
- Outstanding image quality when paired with the Apple Studio Display
Cons:
- High price point
- Cannot be upgraded after purchase
- Requires separate purchase of monitor, keyboard, and mouse
Price Comparison Table
Here’s a price comparison of these Macs to make it easier to see how they compare side-by-side. The M2 Mac Studio is excluded as it isn’t available from Amazon but is available from Best Buy.
Mac Gaming FAQ
Are Apple Silicon Macs Good For Gaming?
The main problem for Mac users is that there still aren’t many developers making games for Apple Silicon ARM chip Macs.
Most games are built for the Intel x86 chip which powered the previous generation of Macs. It used to be much easier for developers to create a Mac version of an Intel driven game on PC.
However, the Apple Silicon chips have a completely different ARM architecture which means rewriting the game for ARM chips.
Understandably, many developers simply don’t have the resources or financial incentive to do this considering the relatively small Mac user base compared to PCs.
Some developers have created native Apple Silicon versions of their games to work on Apple Silicon Macs such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Gameloft’s Asphalt 9 and Microsoft’s Minecraft but these are notable exceptions to the rule.
macOS does include a free tool called Rosetta which translates Intel only games and software to work on ARM chips but it adds another layer of translation to gaming and often results in lag or glitching during gameplay.
Examples of games that work on Apple Silicon Macs via Rosetta include Diablo III, Borderlands and Final Fantasy XIV.
You can search which games work natively on ARM and which work via Rosetta on a Mac here.
There have been other changes made by Apple that have also made it harder to develop games for Macs.
For example, Apple introduced Metal for 3D graphics on Macs which is an Apple specific API for harnessing the power of graphic cards for 3D.
This has added another layer of complexity for developers wanting to create games for Macs.
In addition, from macOS Catalina onwards, Mac stopped supporting 32 bit games and software meaning 32 bit games won’t work on Macs anymore without unreliable workarounds.
In the wake of these changes, Steam even dropped it’s Mac VR gaming platform as developers increasingly turned their back on macOS.
Finally, there’s the lack of eGPU support in Apple Silicon Macs.
An External Graphics Processing Unit (eGPU) is sometimes used by gamers with Intel Macs to play demanding AAA titles that won’t normally work with a Mac’s internal graphics card.
However, Apple Silicon Macs do not support eGPUs and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon.
Playing PC Only Games On Mac
The lack of Mac compatible games on the market mean that many Mac users resort to running Windows on their Mac to play Mac games.
There are various ways of playing PC only games on a Mac although these have been reduced with the introduction of Apple Silicon Macs.
Traditionally, the most effective way to play PC games on a Mac has been to run Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp.
The advantage of Boot Camp is that it devotes all of your Mac’s resources to running Windows and any games that you want to run on it compared to other less efficient methods all of which require some kind of virtualization or translation layer.
However, Boot Camp is no longer an option for Apple Silicon Macs.
Apple has removed Boot Camp from Apple Silicon Macs thus removing one of the most popular and free ways of playing Windows games on a Mac.
The other most popular way of running Windows on a Mac is to use a virtual machine such as Parallels.
Whereas Boot Camp only gives you the option of booting in either macOS or Windows, virtual machines run Windows within macOS so you can use Windows and macOS at the same time.
The disadvantage of this is that it takes a lot more processing power to run Windows this way and as a result games often don’t work on a Mac as well as in Boot Camp.
Unlike Boot Camp, virtual environments also do not support anti-cheat software such as Vanguard that is used to protect games from cheating.
The other problem for Apple Silicon Macs users is that M, M2 and M3 Macs can only run the ARM version of Windows in a virtual machine.
The ARM version of Windows is different to the x86 Intel version of Windows that most people use and there are very few games that work in Windows ARM.
Although Windows ARM can translate games to work on it using what’s called x86 emulation, it adds a further level of processing which again leads to games performing poorly or not at all on a Mac.
Finally, an increasingly popular way of playing Windows only games on a Mac is via cloud gaming platforms such as NVIDIA’s GeForce Now and Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud.
All you need to play a game on a Cloud gaming platform is a fast internet connection because the game isn’t actually installed on your Mac.
Using the Cloud gaming service GeForce Now is the best way to play Fortnite on a Mac for example.
The disadvantage of Cloud gaming services is that not all games are available on them. They also require a monthly or annual subscription to play which is usually in the region of $10 per month.
There are also apps that allow you to stream console games to a Mac. For example, you can use OneCast to play Xbox games on a Mac which is currently the only way to play Hogwarts Legacy on a Mac for example.
Which Mac Is Better For Gaming?
The simple truth is the more powerful the Mac, the better it is for gaming. Gaming demands a lot of your processor (CPU) and graphics card (GPU).
There’s no such thing as an Apple gaming laptop or computer but there are some Macs which can handle gaming better than others.
In terms of processor (CPU), the more cores it has the better as it means it can handle more tasks at once.
The Mac Studio with M2 Ultra chip is the most powerful Apple Silicon Mac on the market with up to 24 cores.
The more portable M2 MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chip has up to 12 cores.
In terms of graphics card (GPU), the Mac Studio is again the most powerful with up to 76 cores in the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra chip compared to up to 19 cores in Macs with the M2 Pro chip and up to 38 cores in the M2 Max chip.
Finally the more RAM the better. This is always true when it comes to gaming but especially if you’re planning to run a virtual machine on a Mac.
Apple has renamed RAM to “Unified Memory” in the latest Apple Silicon Macs as the memory is physically unified with the hard drive.
You can’t add more RAM (or indeed anything else) to an Apple Silicon Mac after purchasing it so you need to add as much as you can afford on checkout.
The Mac Studio M2 Ultra can support up to 192GB of RAM, the M2 MacBook Pro with M2 Max up to 96GB of RAM and up to 64GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini with M2 Pro chips.
Note that you can no longer buy Intel Macs from new from Apple although you can buy then refurbished.
If you buy a refurbished Intel Mac that you intend to mainly game on, then you’ll need to go for one with at least an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 running at 2.0Ghz plus.
However, we wouldn’t recommend getting an Intel Mac anymore as the future of Mac is clearly Apple Silicon based.
External Displays For Gaming On Mac
Finally you may want to consider getting an external monitor for gaming on a Mac.
The Mac Studio and Mac Mini don’t come with a display so you’ll already need to buy one but you’ll also want a bigger screen than the MacBook Pro can offer too.
The best display for most Macs is the amazing Apple Studio Display which offers stunning 5K Liquid Retina resolution.
However, there are cheaper alternatives available although the best external monitor for you will depend on what you’re mainly using it for.
External Hard Drives For Gaming On Mac
Another factor to consider is hard drive space. Although you can max out some Macs with 8TB of hard drive space on purchasing, it’s extremely expensive.
We recommend adding at least a 1TB internal SSD drive to your Mac on purchase because the smaller hard drives have actually been found to be slower in testing.
A much cheaper option is to buy an external hard drive preferably an external SSD drive and ideally an external thunderbolt hard drive.
These offer fare value in terms of TB per dollar and can easily be connected to a Mac and carried around.
Connecting Controllers To A Mac
You can connect a PlayStation or Xbox controller to a Mac via Bluetooth.
Note that this does not currently work on Apple Silicon Macs using Parallels although this is expected to be fixed soon.
For more check out our guide on how to use an Xbox or PlayStation controller with a Mac.
Are The MacBook Pro & MacBook Air Good For Gaming?
The latest M2 MacBook Pro is certainly powerful enough for gaming, especially if you max it out with as many CPU cores, GPU cores and hard drive space as possible.
The M2 MacBook Pro has fans inside to cool it down which is essential when you’re gaming on a Mac.
The best MacBook Pro configuration for gaming would undoubtedly be a maxed out M2 MacBook Pro with M2 Max chip, 12GB of RAM and an 8TB hard drive.
The MacBook Air however is not good for gaming. Partly this is because even the MacBook Air is a lot less powerful than a MacBook Pro but also because it has no fans for cooling and intensive gaming could rapidly overheat the MacBook Air.
With all this in mind, here then are the best Macs to handle gaming in 2024.
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