As widespread and ubiquitous as gaming is in 2025, most of the conversations still revolve around the current console leaders: PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, and powerful gaming PCs. While those are big names, it excludes other viable platforms like mobile and Mac from the discourse. I figure this is just a holdover from initial impressions of these platforms as being the home of cheap and casual games. Or, in the case of Mac, simply not having games at all. I admit that I fell victim to that thought process myself for many years. Only in the last three or four years have I completely changed my views on the mobile market and see it as one of the most creative markets for games.
Now, I finally gave Mac gaming that same opportunity to change my opinion by playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a MacBook Pro. Not only did it not disappoint, but it might offer the best aspects of consoles and PC.
Chrome up, choom
My initial impressions of Cyberpunk 2077 weren’t as bad as they could’ve been since I at least played the launch version on PS5 and not PS4, but it was far from good. I put the game down until reviewing the Phantom Liberty DLC that launched with the 2.0 update and had a substantially better time revisiting Night City. It is impossible for a game to make a second first impression, but this reworked, revamped, and improved version of the game was enough to draw me back into the dark and dystopian cyberscape that is Cyberpunk 2077.
I’m no pixel counter or frame rate snob, but my base PS5 ran Cyberpunk 2077 great in performance mode after the 2.0 update. I could spot a few FPS dips here and there when things got intense, but it felt like a mostly solid 60 as I soaked in the atmosphere and took on a gig here and there. I turned on the RTX mode to test that out, and while the city really comes alive visually in this mode, the massive hit to the FPS made it something I only flipped on if I wanted to snap a picture. Seeing the neon lights accurately bounce off the puddles in the street never ceases to amaze, but not at the cost of a smooth gameplay experience. I am aware that a high-end PC can achieve both of these benchmarks with no compromises, but I have neither the time nor the money to invest in getting a rig capable of doing that up and running.
Whether it is a pro or a con, one of the main selling points of a Mac is its ease of use. They cost a pretty penny, no doubt, but they have always struck me as the consoles of the PC world — you can trust it will do what you need it to without any tinkering. That’s what keeps me firmly planted as a console gamer, and why I was interested in seeing if that same level of convenience applied to gaming on a Mac. And what better game to test my theory on than the newly launched Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on the Mac App Store?
Again, I’m no technical wizard, so I can’t say how the specs of this Mac compare to other gaming PCs or the PS5, but I did do all my testing on a MacBook Pro M4 Max using my DualSense controller and wearing AirPods to test out the head tracking spatial audio for the first time (this is available on other platforms as well, but I didn’t have the proper headphones to take advantage of it).
Right off the bat, I jumped into the settings to find the game had defaulted to the new “For this Mac” graphical presets. I understand that many people — especially hardcore PC gamers — love tinkering with all these toggles and sliders to find that perfect balance of visual fidelity and performance for their rig, but that just isn’t me. The For this Mac preset feels tailor-made for console-gaming converts who just want to boot up the game and play. That said, nothing is stopping you from messing with all the available settings to prioritize whatever type of performance you want. With this preset, the benchmark ran at a nearly locked 60FPS with visuals that, to my eye, looked at least on par with what my PS5 was pushing on my OLED. It was only when the benchmark got up close and personal with a puddle that I spotted anything that looked a little off, but that’s to be expected since RTX is off in this preset by default.
I opted to skip ahead to where the Phantom Liberty DLC becomes available rather than begin a fresh file to more quickly return to the open world. Even though I got a tease of the visuals in the benchmark, Night City still took my breath away all over again. Smoke wafted in the air, taillights streaked red across the streets, and vibrant billboards cast a pale, depressing light over the citizens. Hopping on Jackie’s bike to race over to Afterlife, the world looked even better in motion. Arriving at the bar, I was given a stern reminder of how far ahead CD Projekt Red was in its character models and animations.
The head tracking spatial audio wasn’t as transformative as I was expecting, but I think my expectations were a little high. It works, don’t get me wrong, and does add a nice layer of immersion while walking down the street or passing by NPCs chatting at the bar, but the illusion breaks a bit when I deliberately turn and twist my head. Namely, when V was on a call with someone and turning my head meant that V’s voice suddenly moved to one side, which was a strange disconnect between myself and my player character. Once I stopped messing around and played naturally — keeping my head lined up with V’s — it all clicked. It isn’t a reason to play the entire game all over again, but is a feature I found myself missing in other games after putting Cyberpunk down.
As of now, the For this Mac preset is only available for Cyberpunk 2077. The library of Mac games is already stacked with big titles like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and Death Stranding, but I almost feel like this new preset is a bigger selling point for people like me. With portable gaming being on the rise — especially in terms of cost — Macs offering a gaming experience on par with the PS5 in terms of performance and ease of use on a range of laptop models could fill a hole in the market. At the very least, it helped open my eyes to Mac as a viable gaming platform in 2025.
