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Introduction
A few years ago I installed Windows 8.1 on my Mac Pro cylinder so I could play games that weren't available on macOS. At the time, I was able to run modern 3D games through Steam with no trouble. 8/10 (216 点) - 無料でDirectX 12をダウンロード DirectX 12はマルチメディア開発の最も複雑なタスクでビデオゲームプログラミングのAPIのコレクション。. Microsoftは、Windows 95以降、マルチメディア開発の最も複雑なタスク、特にビデオゲームプログラミングを考えることを目的としたAPIのコレクション. DirectX. 12 improves the CPU efficiency in frame rate unlocked mode which allows more power to be used for additional graphics performance. In frame rate locked mode, the additional CPU efficiency provides overall lower CPU and Graphics power that translates into power savings and better battery life.
The Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition was a high-end graphics card by AMD, launched on March 7th, 2013. Built on the 28 nm process, and based on the Tahiti graphics processor, in its Tahiti PRO variant, the card supports DirectX 12. Even though it supports DirectX 12, the feature level is only 111, which can be problematic with newer DirectX 12 titles.
For many years, anyone wanting to play games on their Mac has been left with two choices – either accept the reduced gaming performance of OS X, or use Boot Camp to install Windows on a separate partition to use as a game launcher.
Apple’s new Metal API, announced for macOS in 2015, was designed to remedy this and to replace the old OpenGL API which, on Apple hardware, was stuck at version 4.1 – released all the way back in 2010
So, how does Metal compare to DirectX under Windows in terms of performance? Can you game on macOS in 2019?
To find out, we ran some Metal supporting games under macOS Mojave 10.14.2 and Windows 10 on the same hardware.
Directx 12 Mac Version
First, at the low end, a 2015 MacBook Pro with a 2.9Ghz i5 and Iris 6100 integrated Graphics.
And at the higher end, a Hackintosh with an i5-8400 and Radeon RX 570, which is the same GPU used in the base 5K iMac.
To begin, we tested Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, released in 2018.
On the Hackintosh, the game surprisingly ran significantly faster under macOS than under Windows. At least to begin with. At 1080P, on the high detail preset, the game was hitting over 90fps on macOS compared to the high 70’s in Windows 10. However, once the action moved inside the city, with lots of particle effects and heat haze distortion, the macOS frame rate fell apart, with Windows beating it by a significant margin.
On the MacBook Pro, at 1280×800 and the lowest detail preset, as expected the frame rates are consistently bad on both operating systems, but just about still playable, with Windows beating MacOS by a couple of frames per second.
| Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia | macOS Mojave | Windows 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Hackintosh 1080P / High | 80.7 fps | 81.9 fps |
| Hackintosh 1440P / High | 57.3 fps | 68.8 fps |
| Hackintosh 4K / High | 28.8 fps | 35.1 fps |
| MacBook Pro 1280×800 / Lowest | 26.6 fps | 28.2 fps |
Overall, at 1080P in high detail, Windows is about 1 fps faster. Moving up to 1440P, however, Windows’ lead increases to almost 12 fps, while at 4K resolution the difference is 7 FPS. On the MacBook Pro at the lowest details setting, the overall difference is about 2 fps.
The next game, Rise of the Tomb raider, was released in 2016 on Windows and the macOS port in 2018.
Directx 12 Mac Download
Running at high detail on the Hackintosh under macOS and Windows the game looks identical but the Windows version is noticeably smoother. On the MacBook Pro, even at the lowest detail setting in 1280×800 the game was predictably slow on both.
Overall at High detail 1080P Windows is about 10fps faster. At 1440p it’s 9 fps faster, and at 4K 5fps faster.
On the MacBook Pro, Windows is slightly better at almost 2fps faster.
| Rise of the Tomb Raider | macOS Mojave | Windows 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Hackintosh 1080P / High | 78.2 fps | 88.2 fps |
| Hackintosh 1440P / High | 51.6 fps | 60.3 fps |
| Hackintosh 4K / High | 26.9 fps | 31.7 fps |
| MacBook Pro 1280×800 / Lowest | 17.6 fps | 19.4 fps |
The final game tested was Total War Warhammer. Released for MacOS in April 2017, this was among the first Metal supporting games to appear on the Mac.
On the RX 570, at high detail in 1080P, Windows was 15 fps faster. At 1440P, 9 fps faster, and at 4K the gap was reduced to about 4 fps.
On the MacBook Pro, meanwhile, in 1280×800 at the lowest detail setting, macOS managed 17.4 fps compared to Windows 20.5 – a difference of about 3 fps.
| Total War: Warhammer | macOS Mojave | Windows 10 |
|---|---|---|
| Hackintosh 1080P / High | 77.6 fps | 92.5 fps |
| Hackintosh 1440P / High | 54.2 fps | 63.6 fps |
| Hackintosh 4K / High | 29.6 fps | 33.6 fps |
| MacBook Pro 1280×800 / Lowest | 17.4 fps | 20.5 fps |
Overall, on average across the different resolutions, Thrones of Britannia was 10.6% faster on Windows.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was 12.5% faster on Windows.
Total War: Warhammer was 14.5% faster on Windows.
So if you want the best possible gaming performance it’s fairly obvious that installing Windows on your Mac is still going to be necessary. That said, Metal is still a vast improvement over the old OpenGL API on macOS.
To illustrate this, Unigine Valley is about 25% faster on Windows than MacOS, while Total War: Attila – the last Total war game on Mac still using openGL – is about 30-40% faster in Windows on the same hardware. Other games are much slower. Civilization VI, for example, is over twice as fast under Windows as under macOS on the same computer.
So, while there’s still room for improvement, what Metal has accomplished so far is reduce the performance gap from 30%-50% to 12-15%. Hopefully with future updates it will continue to improve, and as developers become more familiar with the API, the difference should narrow further.
If you use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, you can visit the AMD website to download the latest version of their drivers for Windows. These Mac computers use AMD graphics:
- 15-inch MacBook Pro introduced in 2015 or later
- 27-inch iMac introduced in 2014 or later
- 21.5-inch iMac with Retina display introduced in 2017 or later
- iMac Pro introduced in 2017
- Mac Pro introduced in 2013 or later
Check your version of AMD graphics drivers
- Start up your Mac in Windows.
- Take any of these steps to open Radeon settings:
- Right-click your desktop and choose AMD Radeon Settings.
- Or click Radeon Settings in the notification area.
- Or choose AMD Radeon Settings from the Programs menu.
- In Radeon settings, click the System Tab, then click the Software tab.
- The version number is shown under Driver Packaging Version.
Download and install the latest AMD graphics drivers
- In Windows, go to the AMD website, then click Drivers & Support.
- Select your product from the list, not the menu: First select Graphics, then select Mac Graphics in the next column, then select Apple Boot Camp in the next column.
- Click Submit to view the list of available drivers.
- Look for the driver version that supports your Mac model. If it's a later version (higher number) than the version installed on your Mac, click Download.
- Extract the downloaded ZIP file, then run the Setup app in the resulting folder to install the drivers.