Intel says Windows is better than Mac for gaming, to no-one’s surprise
Intel has recently taken the offensive against Apple after Cupertino switched from Intel processors to its own arm-based M1 silicon for new Mac computers. Now Intel has decided to throw more mud by attacking the Apple platform’s credentials.
According to PCGamerIntel recently claimed that Intel-based Windows PCs offer a better gaming experience than any Macbook. To prove it, the company claimed that more than half of today’s most popular games are unavailable on macOS.
Most gamers would tell you that Intel isn’t wrong, but that has nothing to do with Intel. Virtually all computer games are designed to run on the x86 version of Windows. Few developers have chosen x86 versions of macOS and / or Linux as additional platforms (let alone the arm version of macOS, Windows, and Linux). This has nothing to do with Intel’s alleged chip superiority, and everything to do with Windows being the platform of choice for game studios. People who buy Macs generally don’t buy them because gaming is also a top priority.
Nevertheless, Intel continued the attack and presented a graphic in which a 16-inch Macbook Pro was compared with an “Intel” brand system (Core i5 11400H / Geforce RTX 3060). Check it out below.
In the graphics, different games like GRID, War Thunder, Hitman 3 and Far Cry New Dawn were compared, with the Intel system prevailing every time. There is one major limitation here, however, as the 16-inch Macbook Pro actually runs on an Intel power supply (Intel Core i9 9980HK / Radeon Pro 5600M) and is not equipped with Apple’s M1 silicon. So Intel is basically saying that its newest processor is better than its previous processor, which is to be expected. It also seems to reflect the GPU manufacturer better.
We would have liked an Apple M1-based Macbook compared to a similar Intel offering. In fact, the developers of the Dolphin emulator released a native version of the emulator for Apple Silicon and compared the performance with an Intel-based Macbook Pro (Intel Core i7 8559U) from 2018. The result? Well, the native emulator that runs on a Macbook Air M1 has clearly beaten the x86 version that runs on the older Macbook Pro. In fact, the x86 version of Dolphin still traded the older Macbook when run through the Rosetta translation layer.
We still expect Windows to be the platform of choice for the vast majority of PC gamers, but it’s clear that Apple’s hardware and software can do the job if developers take the time to provide native ports.
