Is Apple’s M2 MacBook Air Any Good for Games?

Baldur's Gate 3's performance was impressive and could improve in subsequent releases. The longer the Mac was on, the performance dropped. Tomb Raider's benchmark and in-game frame rates went down after an hour of constant play. Either you have to deal with it or give the Mac a break. The issue of poor performance after changing games was quickly fixed. We don't know if a 16-gigabyte MacBook Air would have this problem, but we think it would.

There are Macintosh games on Windows.

It was difficult to run native Windows content on a mac. None of the options are great. Adding complexity and installing multiple versions of steam hamper performance because the games don't run native.

The most user-friendly and powerful option is Parallels Desktop. CrossOver requires more fiddling to get games running. PlayOnMac is a free option to ride on Cross Over's coattails.

Finding games that work is harder to find on CrossOver. The majority of 2D titles will work well. During testing, Death Ray Manta and Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 played perfectly. It failed in CrossOver and was similar to a slow- motion replay in Parallels Desktop.

Depending on the games you like, you may have more luck. The M2 is capable of playing at over 50 frames per second. That is a fairly old game. If you want to fire up an existing Windows collection on your MacBook Air, go for simpler fare or higher-end titles that have been around for a while. Get a PC for newer games.

Is the MacBook Air good for games?

Some people think the M2 MacBook Air is good for games, while others don't. There are problems withAAA titles. The hardware is mostly capable, but it's not enough. When Mac users took whatever scraps they could, they got a lot of Windows games years late, and for more money.

For the price of an M2 Air, you can get a PC that is more suited for games. It wouldn't make sense to buy an Air for games. If you upgrade from an M2 Air to an M1 Pro or M1 Max machine, the price difference alone would net you a PS 5, XBOX, or Steam Deck. Any of those would work well in a game like that.

Many fun titles are supported by the M2 MacBook Air, despite what gaming obsessives might say. The Air will serve if you just want to play the odd game to relax, enjoy casual fare or aren't too picky about games. If you like to play classic games, OpenEmu is the most user-friendly system on the desktop.