Apple: «M2 ideal platform for big game developers». With the release of the Mac mini and MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture, Tim Millet, and vice president of marketing, Bob Borcher, held an interview with TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino to discuss what’s new, the Intel transaction, the future of Mac gaming, and more.
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The M1-series chips immediately proved to be fast and a major step forward for mobile computing, showing incredible “performance per watt” that allows processing at full speed, even on battery power.
Starting with the successors to the M1 line, Millet reports that Apple doesn’t want to simply set the precedent by a few percentage points of advantage with each new iteration but intends to push the limits each time as far as possible.
Millet reports that the M2 family of chips allows it to maintain its leadership position, still pushing the limits of technology forward. “We left no stone unturned. We didn’t get 20% more speed by trying to figure out how to spread the increment over three years and squeeze out incremental improvements.” Millet claims that Apple offers everything possible in the new chips and did it in a year, working hard, in non-traditional and unusual ways for the sector.
Borchers explains that by moving to Mac chip design “in house”, Apple is able to offer processors, software and hardware together, without relying on external vendors. Being able to work alongside the designers, for the hardware team and the software team makes many differences in the ability to clearly target objectives and integrate what matters to Mac users.
As for the partnership with Intel (whose chips are currently only used in Mac Pros), Millet and Borchers praised the willingness of the Santa Clara-based company to meet Cupertino’s needs, “inspired by the direction towards which Apple l ‘has thrust,’ something that Miller says was ultimately good for Apple’s competitors as well.
Mac gaming has a promising future
As for Mac gaming, Borchers reports that it gets better with each new release of the M-series chips. “With Capcom bringing Resident Evil, and more titles starting to arrive, I think the AAA game community is starting to wake up and understand the opportunity”.
Borchers Highlights Availability of New APIs for Developers and Enhancements to Metal Technology, with Metal 3 Noted as Offering “Extraordinary Opportunities” to Game Creators; acknowledges that Apple has to work to convince game developers but reports that many things have been designed with “the gaming lens” and that specific features of the GPUs integrated into Apple’s chips are not designed for general use but with areas such as gaming, with dedicated APIs that have attracted the attention of developers like those at Capcom.
The interview continues talking about the transaction to Apple Silicon, iPad Pro, relationships between teams, optimizations in chip design, the Mac mini. Speaking of the latter machine, Borchers concludes: “After all, we are people who use the products and we want to make our systems available to as many people as possible”, underlining how the form factor and price of the Mac mini are a perfect mix to offer everyone the opportunity to give vent to creativity.
