Thoughts on Apple's M1 Max?

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10-19-2021, 03:48 AM
_Pigzig

Thoughts on Apple's M1 Max?

Since FFXIV runs in a funny way, through wine, would these extra GPUs benefit the game?
You can choose a faster chip with more GPUs with these new Macbooks.

I ordered the more powerful m1 max chip but if it's not that great for games like this that use Wine, I might change my order.

Any other Mac users around?
10-19-2021, 04:02 AM
Risvertasashi

I'd suggest, for this especially, waiting for someone else to try it first.

Apple's always tended to be a bit "Do it our way or there's the highway", in contrast to say the Steam Deck going out of its way to ensure compatibility. If you wanna be among the first you're taking a big gamble.
10-19-2021, 08:29 PM
_Pigzig

I sniffed around and sort of answered my own question, looks like this game is pretty hard on the gpu while not doing much on the cpu at all.
I will be the guinea pig then, got one of the earlier orders of the m1 max.
10-27-2021, 12:26 AM
russellanas

Hey! I ordered the M1 Max 16" Macbook too and am looking forward to playing FF14 on it. But my order is going to arrive late November.

Did anyone here get to play it on the M1 Max chip yet? How is it running?
10-29-2021, 10:38 AM
Pell_Helix

So I was previously playing on a 13" MacBook Pro - which was okay, FPS in towns and raids was iffy.

I got the 14 inch base model MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip and its honestly pretty great.

Im sitting in Tamamizu on high settings pulling 70fps. It does dip down into the 40s depending on what's going on, but on the M1 I had to run on low - on the M1 Pro I can crank it to medium/high and still great great fps.

I don't know that the M1 Max is going to offer significantly more performance mostly due to optimization, since the game is running through Rosetta (but if someone has a max let me know and we can compare FPS and see what the real world numbers are!)

The nicest thing is honestly the display - the new XDR displays are amazing.

I would highly recommend one of the new MBP's.

Oh one thing to note though, I haven't been able to get an Xbox Elite 2 controller to work, MacOS picks it up fine but FF14 won't let it work, so I'm stuck using a Switch Pro controller (Which is good enough).

If you have any other questions lemme know.
10-29-2021, 12:07 PM
Arrhin

As much as I'd love to game on a Macbook (not mine, it's trash) I don't feel it's cost effective at all unless that's your only machine. The M1 GPU's seem to be geared towards video encoding etc (Tflops don mean crap real world unfortunately for Apple) and do seam to lag behind the hype in 3D rendering and gaming (but still very impressive). Definitely cheaper to grab a Win PC for gaming. HOWEVER, good to see decent enough performance in XIV for those who only have a Macbook. I definitely would like to replace mine with an M1 something and ditch the desktop etc but $$ and all that.
10-30-2021, 12:13 AM
_Pigzig

Got mine now. Its able to pull 4k on low on an external monitor but that is not consistent enough. I'm probably gonna stick to 1080p on very high to max.
11-29-2021, 04:55 AM
russellanas

Do you guys experience a general lagginess on the Mac ff14 port? I'm using crossover to load it up on an M1 Max 16", and despite 70-100 fps, it looks so laggy compared to windows around the same fps even. What's up here?
11-29-2021, 05:41 AM
Rufalus

Quote:

Originally Posted by russellanas

Do you guys experience a general lagginess on the Mac ff14 port? I'm using crossover to load it up on an M1 Max 16", and despite 70-100 fps, it looks so laggy compared to windows around the same fps even. What's up here?

Do other Windows games lag in crossover? People running the mac version of ffxiv seem to be doing ok.
11-29-2021, 05:50 AM
Barwara

I’ve been playing FFXIV mac version on my 2013 13” macbook pro for a year now. And the game runs fine enough on lowest settings, despite low fps and occasional lagging in the starter cities. So I’m pretty sure the new macbook pros can handle the game on high settings and whatever else you throw at it. :p
11-30-2021, 02:48 AM
russellanas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rufalus

Do other Windows games lag in crossover? People running the mac version of ffxiv seem to be doing ok.

Well I only ever tried ff14 because it's the only game I care enough about to get the M1 Max for. And I'm probably on a better port than the native Mac version as I'm using Crossover with updated DXVK and MoltenVK files.

To explain further, it's as if it's not very responsive, moving the camera around is a tad bit slow, fps is all over the place going really high, then really low and generally isn't smooth. Any specific graphics settings I should take care of? (I play on windowed borderless with no frame rate cap)

Maybe it's because I'm coming from PC and it's so responsive there even at low fps numbers.
11-30-2021, 05:08 AM
FusiaRain

is that the thing that looks like the VR system they are saying cost 3,000 at min?

Honestly I was talking about it with my husband last night, I don't think its worth anything personally due the fact they are trying to create dot hack type Vr with nerve systems I'd rather save money for that.
11-30-2021, 05:12 AM
caffe_macchiato

Quote:

Originally Posted by _Pigzig

Since FFXIV runs in a funny way, through wine, would these extra GPUs benefit the game?
You can choose a faster chip with more GPUs with these new Macbooks.

I ordered the more powerful m1 max chip but if it's not that great for games like this that use Wine, I might change my order.

Any other Mac users around?

I use the iMac M1 with 8-core GPU and I get a respectable 30-60 FPS on standard settings with 1440p. Because the M1 is the starter option now, it’s safe to say that Macs have become viable gaming options at least for stuff like FFXIV. The only problem is that FFXIV’s client runs on an older version of Crossover that isn’t optimized for Apple Silicon. So this is running on two compatibility layers (Crossover and Rosetta 2). From demos that you can find on YouTube, Crossover 21 plays this game a lot better with around 30-50% better performance. I hope that version is released with Endwalker. That should also remove the bottlenecks that seem to inhibit the M1 Pro and Max.
12-16-2021, 04:13 AM
DocHobel

Hey! So Endwalker is out now, anyone some insights? I would love to play some FFXIV on my M1Max, but would consider using crossover with the WIN licence. Unfortunately, I bought the steam version and don't know how to set up things properly (Crossover with steam, FF and so forth).

I tried that "project" on GitHub, but I am not able to log in and download my Client ( I have two service accounts in one SE account too – guys, it's a mess – lol ).

So – I would love to "just" buy that frikkin' Mac OS version if it were at least in an ARM-based VM .. is it? Could not find anything about this.

Thanks in advance!
12-16-2021, 06:20 AM
Packetdancer

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocHobel

So – I would love to "just" buy that frikkin' Mac OS version if it were at least in an ARM-based VM .. is it? Could not find anything about this.

The Mac client is not currently officially supported on ARM. The Intel version runs just fine under Rosetta 2, however, for whatever values of "fine" apply given the number of translation layers involved in the process, which is... five, I think? (Two translations involved in generating the ARM binary, and three in the rendering process, off the top of my head.) It will not be as performant as running the Windows client natively on an Intel processor—or the Playstation version, for that matter—but it's perfectly playable; I've used the Mac client on my M1 (non-Max) laptop in a pinch when traveling for work, and tend to get about 45-ish fps on average, I think? So, it ain't the like 90fps I get on my Windows gaming desktop, but I can play just fine on the Mac if I need to.