M4 Max: A Silent Gaming Competitor in the Shadows

Despite the fact that laptops with the M4 Max SoC have been available for some time, their gaming tests are still rarely encountered. An owner of such a laptop shared on Reddit the result in the demo of the new game Pragmata from the developers of the cult franchise Resident Evil. His laptop with M4 Max with a 40-core iGPU in this game at Full HD resolution with maximum settings and without upscalers delivered about 100 fps.

If you look at the graphics card tests in this demo, you can see that this is roughly the level of the GeForce RTX 5070. That means the result is very good, and it’s important to note that in this case, the game was launched through the Rosetta layer, meaning this is not the native version, otherwise, the performance would have been even higher. Whether the game will be released for macOS is still unknown.

Recent Developments and Technical Insights

The Pragmata game, slated for release, has been creating buzz with its intriguing science fiction narrative set in a dystopian future. Although there are no updates about its macOS version, the game is confirmed for major platforms including PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The M4 Max, with its robust architecture, shows promising performance, mirroring the GeForce RTX 5070 capabilities. This is particularly impressive, highlighting the iGPU’s power. Test results indicate that gaming on Rosetta can significantly impact performance, yet the seamless experience in Pragmata suggests a fine optimization.

The Rosetta Layer Advantage

Rosetta, Apple’s translation layer for running Intel x86 apps on Apple Silicon, has matured significantly. While some games experience a performance hit, others, like Pragmata, maintain surprisingly high frame rates. Continued optimizations could enhance overall gaming experiences in non-native environments.