What's my Mac class? Air, Pro and Max explained…

Not every Mac is created equal. Having more CPU cores, or ones that run faster may be required to run more demanding games. Larger games may require more memory, possibly more than is available on base level Macs. Modern games often demand good GPU performance, again, more is better.

At M1 Gamer, we deal with this by treating Macs as belonging to to one of three classes: Air, Pro and Max. Although two of the these share the same name as Mac models, it's not quite one-to-one. A MacBook Air with 32 GB of RAM and the latest M4 processor may run games than an 8 GB MacBook Pro can't even start.

Starting with game recommendations and settings the classe your Mac best matches is the best bet for a stress free experience, which is the whole reason we make these distinctions in the first place.

Air

All Macs with 8GB of Memory, 8 or fewer CPU Cores

Thanks to the power of even the earliest M1 CPU compared to CPUs of even a few years ago, even the least powerful Macs are still quite capable of great gaming experiences, if you're careful about picking the games.

Older games, games without demanding 3D graphics, mobile games and emulators are all excellent choices for Air-class Macs.

Pro

All Macs with at least 16 GB of Memory, 10 CPU Cores, 16 GPU Cores

If you were smart enough (and lucky enough) to get a Mac that was an upgraded model, you'll have the most critical thing you need to run a lot more games, particularly Windows games: much more memory. Because Apple Silicon Macs shares system memory with the GPU, 8 GB is not enough for many sophisticated games, once you subtract the 2-3 GB that can be consumed by graphics, and operating system overhead.

Pro-class Macs also have enough performance CPU cores and GPU cores to run games with 3D graphics, although particularly demanding games may have to run at reduced graphics setting.

Max

Macs with at least 24 GB of Memory, 14 CPU Cores, 24 GPU Cores

These Macs were and are some of the top of the line as gaming Macs, with performance comparable to mid-tier or higher PC gaming laptops. Large amounts of memory make it unlikely that a game will face memory pressure and large numbers of CPU and GPU cores mean that games that can take advantage of all that horsepower can produce spectacular graphics.

With few exceptions, even extremely demanding 3D games can be run at their highest settings, or can be tuned to have extremely high frame rates.

The extra performance envelope is particularly helpful because it can allow you run more demanding Windows games under emulation, and still using the Mac for other things at the same time.

If a game can run on the Mac, it's likely to run well on a Max-class Mac.