Apple this week announced that it will be holding an online-only special media event on Monday, October 30th starting at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT, and MacRumors believes that there are several reasons why gaming on the Mac will be one of the major focuses of the event.
Joe Rossignol for MacRumors:
Like the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple’s upcoming M3 series of chips for Macs will likely feature hardware-accelerated ray tracing for significantly improved graphics rendering compared to software-based ray tracing. M3 series chips are also expected to be manufactured with TSMC’s 3nm process for faster performance and improved power efficiency compared to M2 series chips. These advancements pave the way for more AAA games to launch on the Mac.
Japanese game developer Capcom recently announced that Resident Evil Village will be available on the iPhone 15 Pro and on iPad models with the M1 chip and newer starting October 30, which is the same day as Apple’s event next week.
It’s possible that the release date lining up with the event is merely a coincidence, but it could hint at additional Mac-related gaming news to come from Apple and Capcom, and perhaps other game developers. A source informed us that Apple is holding its online event at the unusual time of 5 p.m. Pacific Time because it will fall during business hours in Japan, and claimed that the event will include a major tie-in with a Japanese game developer, but we have not independently confirmed the accuracy of this information.
MacDailyNews Take: For the 20+ years we’ve been closely covering Apple, the promise of real Mac gaming has been as elusive as the Holy Grail. Is Monday, October 30th finally the day? Read MacRumors‘ full article for more strong clues that Mac gaming is about to make a significant leap.
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Interesting.. It’d be extra interesting if Apple releases an M3 Apple TV Pro, although I suppose that’s not likely.
Yes, the 30th is THE DAY where Apple reveals they are truly all-in on gaming (and a few other related markets), and here is why:
Last Month: Tim Cook stated “We are all-in on gaming” or “fully committed” something to that extent (I can’t recall “exactly” his terminology, but it was about Apple being fully committed to gaming moving forward.
A16 Bionic vs A17 Pro: The redesigned Graphical Cores were to launch in the A16 Bionic, alas, something very odd happened… Thermal software, which is typically very, very, reliable in predicting actual heat issues with design, failed. Once the sample chips were produced, the heat was higher than anticipated and could not work in iPhone Pro’s even elope (it simply overheated)… Thus, Apple had to backtrack and stick with the current legacy graphical core design, delaying the gaming initiative for an entire year.
iPhone 15 Pro + A17 Pro: Enter the A17 Pro and its all-new reconstructed graphic cores, which now include hardware ray tracing. Apple boasted about Resident Evil and few other titles coming to iOS and the iPhone Pro. But the real power, where Apple can fully exploit this all-new design, is within the notebook and desktop spaces.
October 30: This Monday, Apple is going to be showcasing its all-new M3 Pro and M3 Max processors on TSMC’s 3nm build process. We will see M2 Max’s 30-core GPU design move north to 40-cores. Theoretically, that’s a 25% step-up in performance, but that’s not how realized performance works. Apple added a 6th core to the A17 Pro, along with re-designing the cores, all while adding aster clock speeds. Overall, the iPhone 15 Pro’s deliver (roughly) a 20% GPU performance increase over the iPhone 14 Pro’s w/A16 Bionic (one of many test results here: https://wccftech.com/a17-pro-gpu-performance-20-percent-better-than-a16-bionic/).
Apple increasing their percentage of graphical power over the iPhone increases even more so with their Mac. The odds of this leap being in the 25% range boost of an A3 Max vs an A2 Max MacBook Pro is very, very, high.
The MacBooks have a larger envelope, thus more abilities to disperse heat – including utilizing those nearly silent fans. Apple could crank up the clock-speed, getting back to those old Intel frying pan days (virtually useless in direct sunlight), and if it’s gaming performance Apple is aiming for, then a hot MacBook Pro undercarriage is the price to pay. Need I mention almost 3″ thick laptops that must be plugged in at all times in order to deliver high-level PC gaming abilities (seriously guys, just go get a big old loud tower and be done with it)… If Apple can compete in that arena, yet do so in their svelte packaging, it’s just a massive win.
Apple’s new graphics should not only show well in gaming, but also in the graphics world. In the FX market, Apple could boost its “for real” use cases in a impressive way. Where RenderMan, Cinema 4D, Pixie Renderer, and AutoDesk’s Maya, on and on it goes, are used, Apple building ray tracing as a built-in hardware feature is indeed – dare I say it – huge. Every graphics card maker has that as a standard, Apple is just now getting onboard. However, if Apple can do so in class-leading fashion, it will again show how the company was correct in moving into it’s own processors for the Mac.
Somewhere in that 2019/2020 timeframe, hardware ray tracing in graphics cards became the new standard, and took gaming and FX software to new levels with API’s quickly following suit.
In the light speed development world of SW+HW, ray tracing is basically a must for any serious gaming solution and effects solution.
Ironically, Apple being delayed by a year or so in this initiative has probably given it time to perfect it’s software and hardware combo attack to a more efficient level for developers, and has bought Apple time to bring additional software companies and their packages onboard for the launch event. If so, this provides Apple the gravitas these markets demand, as it showcases how serious and ready Apple is for these graphic market spaces. It’s a company one can invest in and not get burned.
On October 30th, Apple needn’t mention Intel or Qualcomm, they’ve already dispatched of these players. Coming Monday, Apple is done shooting across the bow, and is going to take nVIDIA head on.
I think that for Apple to be successful in gaming, they must acquire a gaming studio and make some Mac exclusive titles.
Acquire??? Think bigger
….what she said.