High-end gaming on a MacBook is not impossible: it’s just expensive
There is no denying that Apple MacBooks are beautiful machines. With that said, gaming was never their strongest suit, nor a particularly huge priority on Apple’s checklist.
MacBooks are productivity machines, crafted to provide the best performance at work, at school, and capable of smooth video playback and amazing display definition. Sadly, when it comes to 3D graphic performance, MacBooks fall short compared to their comparably priced counterparts, spearheaded by MSI ROG and Asus G-Series.
Aside from being built around productivity, MacBooks are also designed according to strict tenets of thinness, and battery life. By this token, integrating any kind of high-end GPU would significantly decrease the battery life on MacBooks.
Fortunately, there will soon be a way to play all of the latest and most graphically demanding game titles, on any MacBook, with a little help from the cloud.
NVIDIA GeForce Now is a subscription service that makes available to gamers on any computer, access to a virtual box, powered by PAscal-based high-end hardware, comparable to a $1500 dedicated gaming PC.
The streaming service allows to play games like The Witcher 3, Mirror’s Edge, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and lots more, with the same quality, and refresh rate, as one would on a gaming laptop, in 1080p, and on “Ultra” quality settings.
NVIDIA’s servers, powered by GTX 1080 GPU’s and above, are ideal for complex, and resource intensive games, which makes paying $25 for 10 hours of gameplay, very attractive, although serious gamers who do not have the resources to build a gaming rig, or buy a gaming laptop, could see that cost adding up quickly, especially when playing open-ended universes like No Man’s Sky, and extremely large maps, like Fallout 4.
The service will be available in March, and will feature different pricing tiers, according to the quality of the experience, ranging from GTX 1060, to the GTX 1080. The service also requires a subscription fee of $7 per month, which, while cheaper than Netflix, does not include many of the best, or newest titles available, although there are a number of titles that are included in the subscription, most likely bound within a qualitatively basic experience.
Ready to shop?
If you are looking for the perfect MacBook, PortableOne has you covered with a great selection of Apple MacBooks, as well as the newly unveiled 13 inch and 15 inch MacBook Pro with TouchBar.