Unreal Tournament, Metro Exodus, Yakuza 0, FrostPunk and other games tested on M1 Apple Silicon Macs

Recently we covered a post where 33 games were tested on M1 Apple Silicon Macs by a YouTuber. The games were tested on 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro, MrMacRight tried to update games using ARM64 updates, Rosetta 2, Parallels 16.5, and CrossOver 20.

The M1 Apple Silicon chip in MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini supports CrossOver 20 to run Windows games. CrossOver is based on the open-source Wine project that enables users to run some 32-bit Windows games and apps on Linux and macOS. This eliminates the need to install Windows to run these games. However, tools like Parallels 16.5, and the native Rosetta 2 translation layer also help with running some games without using CrossOver.

Apple M1

32 games tested on M1 Apple Silicon Macs

MrMacRight has tested many more games on Apple M1 Mac. This time he has tested many games including Wreckfest, Valheim, Metro Exodus, GZDoom, Yakuza 0, and many more. The machines that were used were:

  • MacBook Pro – 13-inch M1 2020
  • MacBook Air – M1 2020 (8-core Apple M1)
  • MacBook Air – M1 2020 (7-core Apple M1)
  • Mac Mini – M1 2020

Metro Exodus

Metro Exodus was previously tested by MrMacRight on CrossOver 20 but now the game is available on M1 Mac natively. The game is, unfortunately, running under Rosetta 2 but the performance on M1 is very impressive. The Steam fps counter showed 30-40 fps. To achieve a higher frame rate then the recommended settings are a resolution of 1600×900 with medium or high settings.

Metro Exodus Apple M1

Spacebase Startopia

Spacebase Startopia is an example of a new game with native M1 support on Steam. The problem that arises with this game is that the Steam app is running under Rosetta. It does not support native M1 games. By launching the game through Steam, the game crashes. You can get around this by going into the root folder and launching the game from there. The game works pretty fine but the fps could not be tracked due to Steam not updating its application.

Spacebase Startopia Apple M1

Unreal Tournament

Before macOS 11.3 beta, MrMacRight was not able to play Unreal Tournament on Apple M1 since the game always crashed. But now the game is up and running. Credits to the Unreal Engine 4 support, the graphics hold up very well. To get over 40 fps it is best to play the game with a resolution of 900p. The gameplay is not amazing but it is much better than the majority of Intel Macs.

Unreal Tournament Apple M1

FrostPunk

FrostPunk finally arrived on Mac in February of last year. But the game runs under Rosetta 2 which is limited by its performance. The performance “isn’t anything to be excited about” but it is a massive step up from playing it on Intel Macs. 30-40 fps were achieved with medium-high settings with 1280×720 resolution.

FrostPunk Apple M1

Wreckfest

This game was running with the help of CrossOver and Steam on MacBook Pro. The game showed a “weird visual blur-bug going on”. The game becomes blurry during races, but other than that the game runs pretty well.

Wreckfest apple M1

Valheim

Due to popular demand, MrMacRight tried out Valheim under Parallels. However, the game displayed major graphical bugs that made it unplayable. Even on the lowest quality preset, it was “abysmal”. The game is not playable at the moment, but there might be an update in the future that would make it run smoothly.

Valheim Apple M1

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 was running under CrossOver 20 and Steam. The update for CrossOver 20 fixed the control support on Apple M1. The game was played with an Xbox One controller. The game was played under 1080p and a high-quality preset. The frame rate was about 60 fps. It is one of the most popular games in its genre.

Yakuza 0 Apple M1

You can check out the full video by MrMacRight here:

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About the Author

Usman has been playing games for as long as he can remember. He is an editor at iThinkDifferent and writes about games, Apple news, hardware, productivity guides, and more. When not writing for iTD, Usman loves to play competitive Team Fortress 2, spends time honing his football skills, and watches superhero movies.

2 comments

  1. “You can get around this by going into the root folder and launching the game from there.”

    I am having some trouble getting games that run fine on my Intel mac to run on my m1 mac. Could you please explain how to do this or direct me to a resource that can? I would really appreciate the help! Thanks,

  2. Ok I am having trouble finding the M1 version of Unreal Tournament to install could you share the link?

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