A17 Pro is a good signal and the reveal for what is coming in Apple Silicon M3.
That was my initial gut reaction. I’ve always thought that the yearly improvements to the designs would eventually allow them to catch up to the consoles in performance and possibly exceed them before the next generation jump, while not compromising other core design goals. The pros and cons of the extended technological freeze of the consoles and its impact on game development would be an interesting article for AppleInsider to delve into, in contrast.
Hardcore PC gaming is its own mess. However, it’s my impression that both NVIDIA and AMD intend to milk their legacy market (gamers) while growing into new primary markets. NVIDIA seems more interested in the server market and A.I. (The ARM bid just seems like a way to collect rent, not innovate.) Meanwhile AMD seems increasingly focused on co-processors and transcoders for the server market. Or just about anything but directly compete with each other. Again, something that the writers here could probably better address than I can in a comment.
Beyond that, I feel people who are critical of Apple hardware and software for gaming just don’t seem to understand that it’s a completely different model, and will never work exactly the same way as other platforms. Too many folks have it stuck in their heads that console, mobile, and desktop computing should grandly converge — for gaming as well as other tasks, despite the modality differences. (I frankly think that’s what the Vision attempts to address, but that’s a whole other subject. I see Apple’s focus as convergence and integration — and only having separate devices to lay the groundwork required for those goals.)
On the other hand, figuring out how to get parity without misguided compromises or chasing tiny market share (for a number of sectors) has taken Apple awhile. It’s no easy (or quick) task, and we’ve all seen the growing pains and mistakes. There’s a misperception that Apple can (and should) throw money at any situation to solve tough engineering and market problems.
If we focus on gauging success in the gaming market and the astronomical amounts of resources that have been dedicated to it by Sony, Microsoft, and other companies — why do folks expect Apple to zoom in with a new paradigm and steal the crown?
This is the point where we could split off into all sorts of topics, with divergent takes on all of them. So I’m stopping here.
This content was originally published here.
