Apple’s push into high-end mobile gaming gets a clear real-world check in a new video that plays 10 demanding PC and console quality titles on iPhone 17 Pro Max to see how its A19 Pro GPU and updated cooling behave over extended sessions. The headline is consistency: steadier frame pacing, fewer dips in busier scenes, and longer stretches at target performance modes than earlier Pro iPhones.
The testing is from MrMacRight’s latest YouTube video, recorded with Apple’s on-screen performance HUD to show frame rate and thermal state during gameplay. The walkthrough focuses on how each title’s presets, resolution targets, and MetalFX upscaling interact with the phone’s hardware to balance image quality and responsiveness across different genres.
A few patterns stand out from the run-through: where a 60 fps option exists, iPhone 17 Pro Max tends to hold higher, steadier frame rates for longer sessions. Where a 30 fps cap is enforced by the developer, the benefit shows up as cleaner pacing and the ability to keep visual settings higher without provoking fast, heat-driven slowdowns. The phone’s vapor chamber helps it remain in manageable thermal states across extended play, which is crucial for consistency.
- Grid Legends: Used as the opening stress test for fast motion and effects-heavy scenes. In a performance-focused setup with dynamic resolution and MetalFX, racing looks fluid and the HUD reflects stable pacing across dense packs and weather effects.
- Resident Evil 2: The video demonstrates two viable approaches – a fidelity-first path that targets 30 fps with very stable pacing, and a performance-first path that pushes higher frame rates when MetalFX is enabled. The net effect is smoother combat and traversal than on older Pro models.
- Resident Evil 4: A showcase for the new GPU headroom. With the right in-game configuration and MetalFX, the phone can approach higher refresh targets in many scenes while keeping thermals in a healthy range, which limits mid-session slowdowns.
- Resident Evil Village: Benefits from a performance preset and dynamic resolution. The footage shows that upscaling helps maintain fluid motion without a distracting drop in clarity on a 6.9-inch display, and the HUD indicates steady thermals over longer sequences.
- Hitman World of Assassination: Crowded sandboxes stress both CPU and GPU. With a performance preset plus MetalFX, camera pans and crowd-heavy areas remain responsive. Short dips can appear in the busiest spots, but recovery is quick and pacing looks calmer than on last year’s hardware.
- Death Stranding: Defaults to a 30 fps target with aggressive upscaling. On iPhone 17 Pro Max the target holds more consistently, and the HUD reports cooler thermals than you’d expect from earlier Pro iPhones. Pushing visual settings beyond defaults is possible, but the video favors stability first.
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Capped at 30 fps on iOS. The gain here is the ability to keep that cap with higher-quality visuals and cleaner frame pacing. The preset names on iPhone don’t map one-to-one with PC or console, so expectations are set around the mobile-specific options shown.
- Sniper Elite 4: A strong candidate for high-refresh play when you prioritize performance and enable upscaling. Long exterior shots and scoped movement look consistent, and the steadier thermals keep inputs feeling predictable across extended missions.
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: As a fast side-scroller, it responds well to higher refresh targets paired with MetalFX. The animation appears uniform through demanding sequences, which helps with precision jumps and combat timing.
- Subnautica: Rewards performance-first tuning. With MetalFX in play, traversal and quick camera turns feel fluid, and the device avoids the quick-onset slowdowns that can disrupt pacing during longer underwater exploration.
Taken together, the video frames iPhone 17 Pro Max as a pocketable console that prioritizes sustained performance over short-lived peaks. If you plan hour-long sessions or clip a controller on top, the tangible win is predictable frame delivery rather than chasing the highest instantaneous number.
Check out the full video below:
