Finding good, reliable performance data for Mac OS software is surprisingly challenging and the challenge becomes nearly insurmountable if it involves gaming. It’s far too easy to be led astray by information that is outdated, misleading or simply non-existent.
A search for “WoW Mac performance” on Reddit will usually yield one of the following:
- It runs great!!! (without any mention of graphics settings, computer specs or how it was tested)
- Macs can’t game, get a PC
In the rare instance that you do get more specific answers, I’ve found that all too often there are some glaring oversights. For example: in World of Warcraft turning off VSync leads to kernel panics and full system restarts and yet this information does not appear to be common knowledge.
I’m hoping to (slowly) change this.
Starting with the small selection of games that I have on hand I’m planning to do a deep dive into the performance of each. This will include measurements of frame rates, frame times, graphics settings and system specs. For applicable games I also intend to compare their performance to a Windows based RTX 3080 system to get a better idea of where Apple silicon chips are positioned in the market.
I intend to keep it small to start with. First will be AC: Shadows being the most prominent and demanding game on Mac OS right now and World of Warcraft (just because I like it) then I intend to move on to some of the other native titles.
Macstats 