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by cudgy 1705 days ago
They are impressive machines, but you can’t run Windows on it … yet, which is a big deal for many. Very few games are optimized for it, which is a primary use case for most average users to require horsepower like this.

Hopefully, these drawbacks will change if enough people buy these M1 machines, but there is no guarantee.

1 comments

> which is a primary use case for most average users to require horsepower like this

I think this is a big misunderstanding of Apple's customer base for these systems.

These GPUs are optimized for rendering tasks, not for FPS count for gaming.

> Very few games are optimized for it...Hopefully, these drawbacks will change if enough people buy these M1 machines, but there is no guarantee.

There is a guarantee, and that guarantee is hardware-level compatibility with iOS and iPad platforms.

There's a whole section of the Mac App Store called "Great iPhone and iPad Games for Mac with M1"

iOS and iPad probably represent a larger gaming installed base and revenue than PC and consoles combined.

Opinions may vary, but personally I think that being able to run Windows on your Mac is far, far down on the list on reasons to purchase a Mac. It was a very handy tool to have especially 15 years ago when the Mac didn't have as much commercial support, but in 2021 I don't think a lot of potential Mac customers really care about Windows compatibility.

“These GPUs are optimized for rendering tasks, not for FPS count for gaming.”

A small market indeed. Very few people need this powerful of a computer. Most people browse the internet, use a word processor, and some play demanding video games. Video games is the only category that remotely approaches the need for these powerful machines by John Q Public.