The video evaluates Cyberpunk 2077’s performance on high-end Apple Macs, highlighting that the M3 Ultra and M4 Max deliver competitive gaming experiences with impressive power efficiency, though they slightly trail comparable Nvidia GPUs in ray tracing. It also praises the Mac port’s polish and ease of use, making it one of the best AAA game ports on macOS for players with suitable hardware.
The video reviews the performance of Cyberpunk 2077 on high-end Apple Macs, specifically the M4 Max, M3 Ultra, and a lower-end M3 chip in the Mac Mini. Overall, the port is praised as well-executed, avoiding common pitfalls seen in previous Mac ports and incorporating Apple-specific technologies like Metal Effects upscaling. The reviewer is generally satisfied with the gameplay experience on these Macs but emphasizes the need for detailed performance testing to compare Apple’s chips against popular PC hardware.
Performance tests reveal that the M3 Ultra outperforms the M4 Max by 35% to 41% in ultra settings with ray tracing overdrive, though this margin narrows to about 23% in Ultra RT mode. Interestingly, despite its name, the M3 Ultra was introduced after the M4 Max and consists of two M3 Max chips linked together. Apple may skip an M4 Ultra chip, making the M3 Ultra the fastest Apple silicon for some time. The Mac Mini, equipped with a smaller GPU, delivers respectable integrated graphics performance but only achieves about a quarter of the frame rates of the M4 Max.
When compared to PC hardware, the M4 Max MacBook Pro competes closely with the Nvidia RTX 4060 in raster-only ultra settings, despite consuming significantly less power (a fraction of the RTX 4060’s 115W TDP). However, the Mac chips lag slightly behind when ray tracing is enabled. The M3 Ultra slots between the RTX 4060 and 5060 Ti in raster tests but matches the 4060’s performance under ray tracing. The Mac Mini falls well behind a modest discrete GPU like the AMD RX6600, especially with ray tracing, possibly due to macOS limitations in ray tracing acceleration. Nevertheless, compared to integrated graphics solutions like the Steam Deck, the M4 Max shows superior performance.
The reviewer highlights that while Apple’s high-end GPUs sometimes match mid-to-high Nvidia 70 or 80 series cards in productivity or synthetic benchmarks, real-world gaming performance tends to align more with lower-end desktop or mid-range laptop GPUs. Despite this, Apple’s chips impress with power efficiency, enabling slim form factors, minimal heat output, and quiet operation. The MacBook Pro, for instance, can deliver over an hour of gaming at max brightness on battery, a feat many gaming laptops struggle to achieve.
Finally, the video praises the simplicity and polish of the Mac gaming experience. The absence of driver updates, fewer hardware compatibility issues, and high-quality, well-calibrated built-in displays contribute to a hassle-free experience compared to Windows PCs. This console-like ease of use allows gamers to focus more on playing rather than troubleshooting. Overall, the Cyberpunk 2077 Mac port is considered one of the best AAA ports to macOS, providing a solid and enjoyable experience for those with the appropriate hardware.