The M1 and M2 MacBook Airs are more than capable of gaming
For Mac users, gaming natively can be arduous thanks to the limited library available on online storefronts. And while Apple has been making slow but steady improvements on that front, Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service is the best choice for those needing access to solid gaming options. Even those using older Mac devices, like the M1 MacBook Air, can easily stream AAA titles.
However, even with access to a superior game library, how does performance fair? For the best PC games that you can download and run locally, is it worth the extra steps? Can you get a better experience through that rather than paying for the GeForce Now subscriptions? And if you’re committed to gaming directly on either the M1 MacBook Air or M2 MacBook Air, is it still viable to use these older models or should you invest in the most recent models with the most powerful chips?
There are numerous factors at play when it comes to deciding the right Mac gaming system and game platform (streaming or local). I thought, though, the easiest way to understand which systems are right for which gaming jobs would be to put the 13-inch M1 MacBook Air and 15-inch M2 MacBook Air through a battery of tests that relied on both the power of Apple silicon and game streaming.
You can use what I’ve learned to decide what the best option is for Mac gaming, for those who can’t afford MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac minis outfitted with the latest in M2-series chips.How they hold up natively
Native performance is the most distinctive difference between the M1 and M2 MacBook Airs, as the latter boasts much-improved performance and power over its predecessor. Since gaming performance depends entirely on Apple’s CPU, I predicted that the M2’s performance would be leagues ahead of the M1, leading to higher framerates when testing out the best PC games.
I tested both MacBook Airs with two games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War: Warhammer III, as the former is primarily a GPU-reliant game and the latter depends more on CPU power.
