Best Mac, MacBook & iMac for Gaming 2023

Playing games on the mac is considered a joke to the windows users. But the reality is different, you can play games on mac as well. I hope you probably preferred mac for daily use like me and want to play games inside too. Actually, Mac is not designed for playing games but many of them can still provide you excellent gaming experience. In this guide, I am going to show you the best mac for gaming with every aspect in detail. I will show you which one is the best true apple gaming computer and which ones you should avoid.

With the introduction of Apple’s first M1 Macs in 2020, followed by the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra, and now the latest M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max, Macs have truly emerged as an excellent choice for gaming enthusiasts. In the past, only the priciest Macs offered the dedicated graphics required for gaming. However, the M-series Macs have surpassed the integrated graphics options in Intel Macs and even outperformed the top-of-the-line discrete graphics cards found in earlier Intel-powered Macs. The MacBook Pro and Mac mini equipped with the M2 Pro, and the MacBook Pro featuring the M2 Max, have finally given us an Apple chip that can effortlessly handle graphics-intensive AAA games.

This guide is going to be useful whether you are buying a mac for the first time or upgrading your old ones. And it doesn’t matter whether you are looking for a desktop or laptop, I’m covering both of them. You can also check the gaming guide for mac here.

Best Mac For Gaming – 2023

Apple is leading the market for a lot of extraordinary things: its innovative build design, the remarkable quality of its products, fantastic client support also its skyrocket prices can make your head spinning.

Despite leading players in the market, mac computers are never seen in the gaming arena. Now the questions arise. Are mac computers are good gaming? And What is the best Mac for Gaming? I am going to discuss every mac which is best for gaming one by one but first here is a table for the top 5 best macbook for gaming you should try. If you want to play games on android devices then here is an article for best android for gaming, best monitor for MacBook Pro, and best mac for game development which you might find useful too.

1. Apple iMac Pro – Best Mac for Professionals

Apple created a single product for pros with high-end graphics and processor ever. iMac Pro is the best product by apple as it is designed with high tech storage capacity, extraordinary memory along with great 5k Retina Display. It is best suited for Video Producer to Music composer to professional developers to the scientist to gamers. In short, it has the power and speed for your creative workflow to run smoothly.

In the same price, you can get a high-performance gaming pc but if gaming is the second choice after work then it is suited for you. iMac Pro came along up to 18 cores which make it a beast. It’s a completely different creature with turbo boost up to 4.5GHz. Along with new AVX-512 vector mandate and new cache build style, the process can handle more computations, with an extraordinary speed which you cant imagine. You can easily render 8K Video, develop a blazing application with thunder’s speed.

iMac Pro along with a such number of cores and hyperthreading allows you to build and render 2D and 3D particles with ease. Vega Graphics are packed along with this machine, which gives the best work-station experience ever. 16 GB of high-end GPU memory can boost the performance two times than any mac. It also gives you higher frame rates for VR, Real 3D Rendering and more processing power. It also gives you single and half processing computing. So if you need a 32-bit operation it will work twice as fast as 64-bit operation. Imagine playing any game at max setting on such a great machine, where you can do your routine task as well as play games in free time.

With iMac Pro Retina 5K display, you can dream in billion colors. Its 27-inch display is best ever by mac with 500 nits of brightness along with its 14.7 pixels. All in one build design of this beast disappears behind the dashing screen, so you can focus completely on your workflow. iMac Pro delivers a stunning and real-life imaging experience with P3 color set and billons of color types.

2. Apple iMac – Best Budgetable Mac For Gaming

If you really looking for mac for playing games then 27 inch iMac is the best choice for you. Its base model delivers a lot of value to you with the amazing build quality, high-performance monitor. The integrated 4 GB Radeon Pro 570 GPU can give you an extraordinary gaming experience. This mac can run Rise of Tom Raider at splendid 80.9 FPS and Dirt Rally and dirt rally at perplexing 123.4 FPS, then it can also run any latest game available for mac at 1080p resolution and higher game setting.

This new iMac packaged with most recent processors, faster memory, and wonderful graphics. The Retina display gives you show-stopping. eye-popping experience with 500 nits of brightness and 1 billion colors. The 8th-9th generation processor provides the power couple processing speed with turbo speed up to 4.6 – 5.0 GHz.

In any case, if you put the iMac 2019 near to the 2017 model, you wouldn’t in all likelihood separate without turning it on. It’s the proportionally diminished body plan Apple has been using with the iMac since late 2012 – the longest it’s swindled gratitude to a particular quest for the no matter how you look at it if you ignore minor changes to port assurance and consoles.

There may be a part of “if it ain’t broke… ” to that nonappearance of improvement. With talk about Apple moving the Mac to ARM-based processors, we have a sneaking uncertainty that an extreme redesign rotates around that.

3. Apple Mac Pro Desktop – Best Budgetable Mac For Gaming

One another gaming beast by mac for sure if gaming is the second choice after work then this will be a great choice for you. You can use this beast for music and video production and can play games in your free time. This machine came along with stunning design with a unified thermal core, which allows a compact design that cooled with a single fan easily with absolute little noise. This size of this machine is one-eight volume or previous mac pro. The embedded PCIe-based flash storage provides up to 10x faster than a standard 7200-rpm hardware device.

This includes a most advanced I/O technology with six thunderbolts 2 ports provide the fastest most versatile I/O available. The three independent thunderbolts 2 ports offer 20 Gb/s throughput per port and can provide support up to 36 devices. The Thunderbolt 2 has support for displays and high-performance expansion chassis. The four USB three ports are 10 times faster than and compatible with old USB 2. HDMI 1.4 is also available for easy connectivity to projectors and latest UltraHD 4K, 5K display monitors.

The Apple Mac Pro Desktop is packed along with latest Intel Xenon E5 processor with 3.7 GHz quad-core speed, which can deliver performance to handle the most demanding tasks. The embedded four channel 1866 MHz memory controller offers up to 2x the memory bandwidth than the previous generation Mac Pro.

This machine contains a DUAL workstation-class GPUs standard. Dual AMD FirePro is embedded in every Mac Pro. Each GPU is interconnected to the main system through a dedicated x16 Gen 3 internal connection medium. 4Gb of the total available GDDR5 VRAM with 1280 stream processor can deliver about 2 teraflops of performance. The GPU can support up to three 4K, 5K displays or up to six Thunderbolt displays.

4. Apple MacBook Pro – Best MacBook For Gaming

Apple has multiple MacBook model to offer from cheaper shiny Macbook Air to expansive MacBook Pro with 15″ Retina Display and Touch Bar. Each MacBook is dedicated to specific work or purpose. MacBook Air is for office work only while Macbook can be used for professional developers. This 15 inches Macbook Pro with a Radeon Pro Vega 20 (4GB of Memory) can give you about 110 FPS at the average for games quite low the iMAC but enough if gaming is the second choice for you. In short, it is best for playing any modern games available for MacBook.

The 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor with 2.4GHz can provide Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz which will give more computational power to your professional work. Along with 4 GB of GPU, you can play games on your mac without any issue. The gaming experience will be great on this entry as it came along with Brilliant Retina Display and Truetone technology.

One of the latest Model for Macbook by Apple that provides 1TB SSD storage with blazing read/write speed. This MacBook is not the cheapest but Why we consider it as best apple gaming laptop? The reason is it offers the best value for money. The other MacBook models are cheaper than this one but you can’t play games at extraordinary experience on them.

5. Mac Mini + eGPU + AMD RX Vega64 – Best eGPU for Mac Mini – Best Gaming Combo

This gaming combo will give you a great gaming experience on the Mac system. You will get a great FPS using a good quality eGPU. This box doesn’t include display monitors but other units to build a good mac for gaming. You will get such gaming box in about 2000$ to 3000$ depending upon the specification you choose. Mac Mini will give you great processing power. The dashing Razer Core X enclosure will give you a great chroma lighting effect along with high-speed connection of eGPU to your mac mini. The main part of this box is ASUS external graphics card which is the main base for your gaming machine box.

Mac Mini: > Check Price

After many years without getting any proper update, the Mac mini seemed as dead. Apple took some long time but finally released the long-awaiting more robust new Mac Mini in late 2018. The update came along with a huge performance boost but also a significant price increase. Previously it was 499$ now the base model is 799$. The new mac mini is not considered as a cheap apple computer but at least it gives a great performance in such price.

• Quad-core i3/i5 8th-generation Intel Core processor
• Intel UHD graphics 630
• 8GB 2666MHz DDR4
• Blazing SSD storage
• Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, one HDMI 2. 0 port, and two USB 3 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet and 802. 11ac Wi-Fi

Razer Core X Chroma Aluminum External GPU Enclosure (eGPU): > Check Price

The Razer Core X Chroma highlights support for the most recent PCIe desktop graphics card including NVIDIA GeForce and AMD XConnect empowered Radeon cards. Exceedingly versatile engineers would now be able to outfit the intensity of perfect NVIDIA Quadro cards and AMD Radeon Pro cards for expert illustrations execution.

• Desktop Grade Performance: Boosts Thunderbolt 3 laptop performance with support for up to 3 slot wide PCIe full-sized desktop graphics cards (sold separately)
• Built-In Power Supply: Includes a 650W ATX PSU with 100W laptop charging via Thunderbolt 3; GPU max power support up to 500W
• Compatibility (Windows): Requires Thunderbolt 3 external graphics (eGFX) support with RS45 or later and compatible NVIDIA or AMD graphics cards
• Compatibility (macOS): Requires Thunderbolt 3 and High Sierra 10.13.4 or later and compatible AMD graphics cards only (NVIDIA cards not supported)
• GPU Max Power Support: 375 Watts

ASUS Arez Strix Radeon Rx Vega64 8GB OC Edition: > Check Price

A great card by ASUS to give you a great gaming experience in this combo box. Using this with Mac Mini will work beautifully along with two 4K, 5K monitors display effortlessly and, more to the point, without the odd drop-outs. The noise level is very low as compared to the Mac mini under load. The gaming experience will become great using this version of ASUS.

• 1590 MHz Boost Clock (OC Mode) featuring 8GB HBM2 Memory with AMD’s Vega architecture
• ASUS Aura Sync RGB lighting provides a nearly endless spectrum of colors with the ability to synchronize effects across an ever-expanding ecosystem of ASUS Aura Sync enabled products
• Contact Plus Auto-Extreme manufacturing technology delivers 2x more GPU to heatsink contact for increased cooling efficiency and premium quality aerospace-grade Super Alloy Power II components
• Patented wing-blade 0dB fans with Fan Connect II maximizes cooling performance using three axial fans to deliver 105% more air pressure and dual 4-pin headers
• GPU Tweak II makes monitoring performance and streaming easier than ever, featuring Game Booster and a free 1-year premium license of XSplit Gamecaster

Buying Guide – Mac Gaming Guide

Apple has moved its majority of mac to high-resolution Retina displays, and playing games on such displays can give you an astonishing view. However, a Retina display needs a lot of power to drive numbers of pixels that’s why you needed a GPU that will give you a real 3D gaming experience. Most of the Mac computers are integrated with Intel HD Graphics or a standard Intel Iris which are not good for gaming thus giving you a disappointment. So if you are thinking about playing games on such mac computer with the mentioned graphics then you have to stop thinking now as you can’t play the games on them with ease.

You should always look for mac with the dedicated graphics units. Apple computers have two types of GPUs one is integrated and another one is dedicated. So let’s look at what type of GPUs are available to us by apple. Also, check our best gaming mouse guide.

Intel Integrated Graphics

• MacBook: Intel HD Graphics 615
• MacBook Air: Intel UHD Graphics 617 (Retina display) and Intel HD Graphics 6000 (non-Retina display)
• MacBook Pro 13″: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 (non-Touch Bar) and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 (Touch Bar)
• Mac mini: Intel UHD Graphics 630
• iMac 21.5in: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 (non-Retina)

Dedicated Graphics

• MacBook Pro 15in: Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB (Touch Bar, 2.2GHz), Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB memory (2.6GHz)
• iMac 21.5in: Radeon Pro 555X with 2GB (Retina, 3.0GHz), Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB (3.4GHz)
• iMac 27in: Radeon Pro 570 with 4GB (3.4GHz), Radeon Pro 575X with 4GB (3.5GHz), Radeon Pro 580X with 8GB (3.8GHz)
• iMac Pro: Radeon Pro Vega 56 with 8GB (standard), Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB (build to order)
• Mac Pro: Dual AMD FirePro D500 with 3GB each (6-core), Dual AMD FirePro D700 with 6GB each (8-core)

Generally, Intel HD graphics are not meant for playing 3D games. The same is also true to Inter newer UHD models. The Intel Iris Plus Graphics card has a lot of improvement and currently used in today’s macs and are good for gaming but still may cause an issue. So whenever you look for playing games on mac always look for such macs, which have a dedicated graphics unit.

Macs for gamers to avoid

The below-mentioned macs are not good for gaming so you should avoid them. They don’t have such power to run graphically demanding titles and frame rate will drop out quickly to such point so that you will not be able to play a game for a single minute. The temperate of your machine will also get raises very quickly which also affects the gaming experience. These macs are okay with mac store 2D games as such games are not much GPU driven.

• Mac mini
• MacBook
• MacBook Air
• Non-Retina 21.5in iMac
• 13in MacBook Pro

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