Cyberpunk & AC Shadows on Apple's M4 Max - Gaming performance comparable to the RTX 5060 Laptop

We were obviously curious to find out how the performance of the native Cyberpunk 2077 version differs from the emulated one via CrossOver we used for our original review of the MacBook Pro 16. If we take all our standard benchmark presets (1080p Low, Med, High, Ultra, QHD, 4K), then we see a performance advantage of 68 % for the native version. Especially the 1080p and QHD presets show major improvements, while the 4K result is almost identical. However, 4K is not playable anyway and requires MetalFX upscaling, where we managed to improve the result from 23.6 to 34.1 fps (quality setting).

Cyberpunk 2077 runs very well on the MacBook Pro 16 with the M4 Max, even with high details. Even the preset Raytracing Ultra is still playable in the QHD resolution at 37 fps. Apple's own version of frame generation should improve the performance even further when it releases. The situation is different for Assassin's Creed Shadows, which is more demanding for the hardware The preset Ultra High only results in ~30 fps and the difference between 1080p and QHD is small. The High preset is much smoother at ~50 fps.

Compared to Windows laptops, the performance is roughly on the level of laptops with fast versions of the mobile GeForce RTX 5060 with a TGP of 100 Watts. Slower version with a TGP of 80 Watts are beaten. The M4 Max can also beat slow versions of the RTX 5070 Laptop, like the 60W model in the Dell 16 Premium. AMD's Strix Halo with the Radeon 8060s is also a bit faster.

As mentioned before, the native version of Cyberpunk 2077 also gives us the chance to compare the gaming efficiency with Windows laptops. The measurements are taken while the laptop is running on an external screen, so the internal screen does not affect the result. The first thing we see is that the efficiency for the native version of Cyberpunk 2077 is 46 % better compared to the emulated version.

Compared to Windows laptops, Apple's M4 Max can beat almost all the rivals with similar performance figures, only the slower 60W version of the GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop in the Dell 16 Premium is pretty much on the same level.