In this video, I try to cover what it's like to game with the Mac Pro 7,1 2019 using modern GPUs. Things are much better for the Mac Pro 2019 since it was released, mostly due to the availability of newer GPUs.


My Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/dmug

0:00 - Intro
1:03 - Mac Pros 2019s are easier to acquire
1:39 - Hardware Overview
4:02 - Test bench
4:16: - Installing the GPU is almost straight forward
5:10 - Beware, GPUs are longbois
6:59 - Hardware Requirements Summary
7:32 - Why Mac gaming isn't so great
8:47 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider Benchmarks
10:20 - Windows vs macOS for Mac Gaming
12:25 - Red Dead Redemption Benchmarks
12:48 - Far Cry 6 Benchmarks + vs gaming PCs
15:11 - Lord of the Rings: Shadow of War
15:29 - 3Dmark Benchmarks
16:40 - Emulation in Windows
17:17 - What about the 6600 XT?
18:10 - ML Upscaling
19:19 - Should you get a 2019 Mac Pro?
20:46 - Closing Comments

- Corrections, I think I refer to the 14 inch MacBook Pro as a 24 inch. Derp. 24 core GPU.

I've written an entire upgrade guide on the Mac Pro 2019, which you can check out here.
https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2021/12/19/definitive-mac-pro-2019-upgrade-guide.html

There's so much more that could have been covered. For starters, I could have covered more games that are popular in different genres, especially the PUBG variety that all the kids play. However, never having played these or any online games, I elected to skip them. Also, I'd loved to compare against a 2010 Mac Pro with these same GPUs but I no longer own one and it'd be fantastic to compare a 3080 Ti vs 6900 XT in the Mac Pro 2019.

I realize I committed a cardinal sin of benchmarking, not doing all of them myself but realistically, this is impossible for obvious reasons (time, money). Also, I'm not accounting for driver differences as generally, GPU drivers mature over time, unlocking better performance. When possible, I tried to use the closest and most recent tests.

Obviously, tricked gaming PCs do better, but in my personal opinion, the Mac Pro 2019 does a fine job of gaming. This is my opinion, I'm not a hardcore gamer, nor do I even identify as a gamer myself. People who are gamers certainly will have opinions.

People are often concerned with bottlenecking and its never a hard performance cliff, rather performance realized. As you crank visual fidelity and resolution, the limiting factor tends to be the GPU whereas lower resolutions and lower fidelity tends to be a function of CPU as the limiting factor. For every frame-per-second added, you will end up needing to perform more calculations per second on the CPU side. Ultra high refresh gaming (generally beyond 120 Hz) likely would show a wider gap between the top tier gaming PC and 2019 Mac Pro.

Also, my visual fidelity tests aren't the best. Sorry, I captured them and it wasn't until late reviewing I noticed the bitrate hammered some of the visual fidelity. It's easy to see 1080p vs 4k but harder to see the ML upscaling differences between 1080p vs 1440p. Live and learn, as I didn't think to look for capture quality settings in the AMD software.

Bonus content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiumEZHaY2w


Videos you might like by me:

MacBook Pro M1 Max Review by a Mac Pro 2019 owner
https://www.youtube.com/user/slickninja1/videoshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RnAPiC3uNs
macOS 13 Ventura and the classic Mac Pro 2010 5,1 and Mac Pro 2013 6,1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9PmHvHNTnA
Arcade /NeoGEO Emulation (MAME) on Apple Silicon M1 and Intel x86 Macs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-par-QHi-A4

Mac Pro 2010 vs the Oculus Quest 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RnAPiC3uNs

6x50 Compatibility:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/rx-6950xt-and-6650xt-compatibility-in-macos.2344391/

GPU Lengths:
https://www.iswitcher.tips/which-graphics-cards-work-in-mac-pro-2019/

Snazzy Lab's Can You Game on a $6,000 Mac Pro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZUADicY-ko

Benchmarks Used
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/far-cry-6-benchmarks
https://www.techspot.com/article/2339-far-cry-6-benchmarks/
https://www.thefpsreview.com/2022/02/08/intel-core-i9-12900k-vs-amd-ryzen-9-5900x-performance-review/
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-rx-6950-xt-first-3dmark-score-leak
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-radeon-rx-6900-xt-review,1.html
https://www.macworld.com/article/630297/m1-ultra-vs-m1-max-benchmarks-speed-graphics.html

Software/Hardware used to make this video:

Software:
Final Cut Pro, Motion, Pixelmator Pro, Cubase, Ableton, Keynote, AMD Catalyst Capture
Hardware:
Shure SM7b, FocusRite Clarett, Rode Wireless Go, Olympus OM-D EM5, iPhone 12 Pro, DJI Osmo Pocket, Mac Pro 2019 + M1 Max

Music by me.