I just experienced super-smooth Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra settings on a Mac, but the developers say there’s more to ‘squeeze out’ of Apple Silicon

[ad_1] We’ve recognized that Cyberpunk 2077 is ultimately coming to the Mac, and builders CD Projekt Pink (CDPR) have been arduous at work – and nonetheless are – at getting the title match to run on any Apple Silicon-powered system. Which means the large AAA title, which has been incessantly used to benchmark techniques, will have the ability to run on the M1 chip or newer.

It was reconfirmed at WWDC 2025 – Apple’s week-long developer convention – that it could be arriving later this yr, and again with the launch of the brand new Mac Studio, TechRadar noticed a demo of it operating on that super-powered laptop.

Now, although, I had the prospect to get one other demo of Cyberpunk 2077: Final Version – a more moderen model of the in-development title – on a 16-inch MacBook Professional with the M4 Max chip and 128GB of RAM.

You could like

It was on ‘Extremely’ settings with a buttery {smooth} and excellently rendered 120 frames per second. And sure, this efficiency is derived from Apple’s M4 Max chip – no discrete GPU required. Additional, this was absolutely profiting from Apple's Metallic 4, coming later this yr, together with MetalFX Body Interpolation.

It seemed incredible and was responsive, however that had me excited about the plans to launch this on any Apple Silicon Mac.

I used to be interested in efficiency on much less highly effective chips inside Apple’s lineup, because the requirement for the title is anticipated to be Apple Silicon, that means it ought to run base M1, M2, M3, or M4 chips in addition to the extra highly effective creations.

(Picture credit score: Jacob Krol/Future) I requested Pawel Sasko, Affiliate Recreation Director of CD Projekt Pink, about what efficiency may appear like on different Macs with completely different ranges of efficiency from varied chips, like even a MacBook Air.

Join breaking information, evaluations, opinion, prime tech offers, and extra.

He first defined that Cyberpunk 2077 is operating on CDPR’s proprietary Pink Engine 4, which is designed to be scalable. “It is attempting to make use of all the pieces that given platform offers,” Sasko defined and known as out that the title is on the market on a wide range of gadgets already, together with the Nintendo Change 2 forward of its launch on the Mac.

"Pink engine is principally attempting to test what {hardware} you've gotten and squeeze out the max you possibly can have,” he continued. That means that Cyberpunk 2077 will work to run and ship the very best efficiency primarily based on the chip you've gotten inside. Sasko couldn’t give a particular quantity but primarily based on the chip or a possible Mac SKU, however that’s as a result of the sport continues to be not finalized – CDPR continues to be engaged on it and sprucing it.

Sasko even shared that they’ll work on optimizing efficiency till the very finish, and just lately CDPR discovered how you can optimize material, also called what a personality is sporting, to make it look higher.

Suffice to say, he shared that “We're attempting to squeeze all the pieces that given {hardware} provides us,” that means it would run the very best it probably can on the Mac – which probably implies that a extra highly effective chip, like an M4, M4 Professional, or M4 Max, will ship the very best outcomes.

And the excellent news is that we’re probably just a few months away from one of many greatest AAA titles arriving on the Mac – the CDPR staff wouldn’t give a precise time-frame, however Cyberpunk 2077: Final Version will arrive in 2025.

I additionally received to see this demo of the title shortly after Apple unveiled macOS 26 Tahoe, which can introduce the Video games app. Though CDPR hasn’t introduced if it will likely be integrating with the brand new hub, it would work with the brand new ‘Recreation Overlay.’

It is a sidebar that may be delivered to the highest right-hand aspect of the display screen, making it simple to allow recreation mode, regulate brightness or quantity, and even swap controllers, in addition to join with buddies. You can even choose to push your MacBook additional with completely different vitality modes.