Cyberpunk 2077 in Ultra on Mac, it’s now possible!

Alongside the new macOS Sonoma operating system, Apple introduced a new video game porting tool, similar to what Valve offers to launch games on its Steam Deck console. The promise is simple: launch Windows games on Mac through a Proton-like environment, used on Linux, in order to translate and launch DirectX 12 titles on Mac.

The Game Porting Toolkit developed by Apple translates Intel’s x86 instruction sets and Windows APIs into ARM instruction sets and APIs for its Apple Silicon chips. Thanks to this, it is possible to enjoy Windows games without any modification.

Cyberpunk 2077 on MacBook, an impossible bet?

Obviously, it is possible (as with any emulation) that the games are strewn with bugs and slowdowns of all kinds, but it is possible to launch some big titles on a MacBook. In any case, this is what Reddit users have tried, who have not failed to share their sequences.

Cyberpunk 2077a reputedly very demanding game, was launched on a 16 GB MacBook Pro M1. By setting the graphics to Ultra and the definition to 1440 x 900 pixels, the Apple laptop manages to achieve a frame rate about 14 fps. Obviously, with such performance, the game is unplayable, but we could optimize by reducing the graphic quality for more fluidity.

Other users have tried the experiment with Hogwarts Legacy on a MacBook Pro M2 Max, and Diablo IV on a MacBook Pro M1 Max, setting the graphics preset to Medium and a resolution of 1512 x 982 pixels. Surprisingly, these recent titles are playable, as evidenced by the monitoring utility which displays a rate of around 35 fps for Hogwarts Legacy and 60 fps for Diablo IV.

Admittedly, these performances are not enough to make a PC blush gaming dedicated, but we can not help thinking that with some optimizations from the publishers, it will soon be possible to launch all PC games on your Apple computer. Will players looking for a light, powerful, durable and discreet machine finally find the ideal solution?