The M1 chip is currently only available on the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mac Mini, and iMac 24-inch, none of which are specifically designed for gaming. Their cooling system, battery capacity, screen size, keyboard feel, etc., are not very suitable for playing games for long periods of time. If you want to get a better gaming experience, you may also need to purchase additional accessories such as external monitors, mice, keyboards, etc.
Apple's M1 chip outside of gaming: great performance but not the ultimate choice for gaming.
Apple's M1 chip, as one of the innovations of Mac computers, has attracted widespread attention. The integration of its 5nm process, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine delivers significant performance and energy efficiency gains. However, despite the excellent performance of the M1 chip, there are still some challenges and limitations in the gaming sector.
First of all, the M1 chip uses the ARM architecture, while most games are developed for the x86 architecture of Intel or AMD chips. This results in the need for dynamic binary translation technologies such as Rosetta 2 to run the game, which can lead to performance penalties and compatibility issues. While Rosetta 2 can translate most games, there are still some games that can crash, stutter, or have graphical errors.
Secondly, although the M1 chip is equipped with an 8-core GPU, it is not a professional gaming graphics card, but a graphics processor integrated into the SoC chip. Although the performance is better than Intel's integrated graphics, it still lags behind compared to NVIDIA or AMD discrete graphics cards. For 3A masterpieces with high image quality, multiple special effects, and high frame rates, the M1 chip may find it difficult to meet its high configuration requirements.
Third, the M1 chip uses a unified memory architecture, that is, the CPU, GPU, and other components share the same piece of memory. While data transfer speed and efficiency have been improved, it has also meant that memory capacity is limited. At present, the M1 chip only supports up to 16GB of memory, and it cannot be upgraded by itself. For games with high memory requirements, the M1 chip may run out of memory.
In addition, the M1 chip is currently available on the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mac Mini, and iMac 24-inch, which are not designed for gaming. They may not be very suitable for long gaming sessions in terms of heat dissipation, battery capacity, screen size, and keyboard feel. If you're looking for a better gaming experience, you may need to purchase additional accessories such as an external monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc.
Overall, while Apple's M1 chip excels in terms of performance and energy efficiency, it has a number of limitations when it comes to gaming. That doesn't mean that the M1 chip can't be used for gaming at all, it's just that it's not built for gaming. If you occasionally play lightweight casual games or are willing to lower your image quality and frame rate requirements, the M1 chip may be sufficient. However, if you are a heavy gamer or have extremely high requirements for graphics and smoothness, the M1 chip may not be the best choice.
Conclusion: The M1 chip has brought a revolutionary performance boost to Mac computers, but it still faces some challenges in the gaming world. For users, choosing a Mac product with an M1 chip needs to weigh their personal needs and practical uses, and carefully consider their limitations in terms of gaming before making the most suitable decision.