My M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14-inch is perfect - so I don’t care about an M2 Pro upgrade
It’s the M3 Pro I’m waiting for
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The rumors are on fire this week, withAppleapparently ramping up new releases for itsMacBookline, such as the debut of the M2 Pro chips that could bedebuting in new MacBook Pro models, previously released in October 2021.
I was one of those who had been waiting for the newMacBook Pro 14-inchto arrive, especially when it heralded the return of ports such as HDMI and an SD card slot, but with a new design and a bigger, brighter display,I ordered one soon after they were announced.
Since then, I’ve seen the debut of theM2 chip in the MacBook Air, and with the chance that an M2 Pro MacBook Pro is going to replace the 14-inch and 16-inch models soon, I’m holding off for its alleged successor - the M3 Pro chip.
After testing my MacBook Pro in Parallels with some games, it feels as though skipping a generation of Apple Silicon could be a great gamble.
It feels like we’re on the brink for gaming on a Mac
We’ve already seenResident Evil Village debut on the Macin 2022, with No Mans Sky appearing soon, but you can play the eighth entry of Resident Evil on a MacBook Pro at 120FPS with ease.
Back inDecember 2021, I tried out a bunch of games inParallels Desktop, a virtualization software package that can run anARMversion ofWindows 11, and in turn,Steam. Playing Metal Gear Solid V for example was a revelation - even in a virtual environment, I was playing the game at full speed.
In benchmarks, theM2 chiphas been shown to include more cores that focus on graphics, resulting in a bigger score than an M1, but the M1 Pro still wins out. So while an M2 Pro could easily outrank my MacBook Pro, it could be minor compared to what an M3 Pro could bring for games.
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Ray-tracing still isn’t on any of Apple’s lineup, including games on iOS, which brings real-world reflections to games, so that could be the next frontier we see soon - either for the M2 Pro soon or the M3 chip in 2024.
It seems as though the company is aware that these chips will be able to run games such asElden RingandHalo Infinitewith ease soon. WithResident Evil VIllagealready showcasing how well a game from 2021 performs on an M1 Pro, an M3 Pro could blow everything out of the water, which is mainly why I’m holding off until late 2024 when that chip, hopefully, arrives in an upcoming MacBook Pro.
And when it does, I’ll be one of the first to take one up and see how well Metal Gear runs in Parallels once again - and hopefully, natively by downloading it from the Mac App Store.
Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he’s written a book, ‘The Making of Tomb Raider’. His second book, ‘50 Years of Boss Fights’, came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2025. He also has a newsletter called ‘Springboard’. He’s usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that’s about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.
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