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Despite benchmarks showing how Apple’s first Silicon outperformed desktop graphics cards of 2016, some may still not be convinced of the late 2020 Macs’ ability to play games. After all, even Intel-based Macs had compatibility issues with games that were designed with Windows PCs in mind. It’s still too early to make a decision, of course, but if CodeWeaver’s experience running “emulated” PC games is any indication, it could be a mind-blowing experience as well.
CodeWeavers is the company behind CrossOver, software built on top of the WINE open source project (WINE is not an emulator) that aims to run Windows programs on Linux. CodeWeavers has taken that original goal and made CrossOver run on macOS, Android, and even ChromeOS. Naturally, the company was very excited to test the new ARM-based MacBooks.
On their company blog, CodeWeavers recounts how they just bought the lowest-end MacBook Air model (late 2020) that they were able to find quickly. In context, this model only has 7 of the maximum 8 GPU cores and is thermally regulated. In other words, it’s not the sharpest M1 knife in the drawer.
Despite that, CrossOver was able to run Windows programs like Quicken, Team Fortress 2, and even The Witcher 3, although the games naturally exhibited some performance drops here and there. However, you should consider that these are 32-bit Windows programs built for Intel processors “translated” to 64-bit CrossOver running using Rosetta 2 x86 emulation on a relatively low-powered ARM CPU.
However, this does not mean that most Windows software will now run on the Apple M1 Mac as they are still subject to the CrossOver compatibility list. Still, it’s still quite an impressive feat, especially for Apple’s first try.
