Apple Silicon: Performance?

[MFarhadi]

Hey ya'll,

I hope everyone's doing great.
During the next month, I'll be moving to a new place and I'm planning on leaving my old i7-7700K and GTX1060 machine behind and buy a Mac laptop.
I was considering a M2 Pro 10-core CPU 16-core GPU as the refurbished ones provide the best performance/value indices. My qauestion was:

- How good does the PSX run on Apple silicone with comparable configs? (as it's not a native "ARM" process)
- How much RAM do I need? is 16GB enough?
- How dependant the PSX is on GPU performance?


Best,

[Marian]

It works quite well on my 2019 MacBook Air M1 8GB. No maximum FPS but typically 50-60 FPS. I don't hand fly on my laptop, just rotation and initial climb using the trackpad. For this the performance is certainly good enough.

I'm pretty sure the M2 will be fine, 16GB RAM probably not even necessary.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

PSX is a 2D program; the 3D effects are painting by Hardy. So it does use the 2D part of the GPU only. Pretty much anything out there today has 2D accelleration.

Hoppie

[MFarhadi]

It works quite well on my 2019 MacBook Air M1 8GB. No maximum FPS but typically 50-60 FPS. I don't hand fly on my laptop, just rotation and initial climb using the trackpad. For this the performance is certainly good enough.

I'm pretty sure the M2 will be fine, 16GB RAM probably not even necessary.

Dear Marian,

Recently I tested the PSX with an M1 Max and got terrible results (FPS between 10-20) which looked and felt awful. You have any insights on why this might occur?

[United744]

Install the Intel version. It will run under Rosetta, if I'm not mistaken.

[Marian]

Dear Marian,

Recently I tested the PSX with an M1 Max and got terrible results (FPS between 10-20) which looked and felt awful. You have any insights on why this might occur?

I have no idea why that is and I'm actually surprised about that.
Try updating Java.
Are you running the normal laptop screen resolution or a higher resolution on an external monitor?

[MFarhadi]

I have no idea why that is and I'm actually surprised about that.
Try updating Java.
Are you running the normal laptop screen resolution or a higher resolution on an external monitor?

Yep, using a 16" M1 Max with Studio Display

Dear Marian,

Recently I tested the PSX with an M1 Max and got terrible results (FPS between 10-20) which looked and felt awful. You have any insights on why this might occur?

Alright; Now using a 14" M3 Pro with 18GB of RAM, getting between 60-65 FPS which is pretty odd while M1 Air gives 50-60. Anyhow, not complaining anymore Thanks everybody for helping out and giving insights.