Here's what nobody's talking about: Apple just proved that a smartphone processor can run one of the most demanding games ever made on a laptop. Not smoothly. Not at high settings. But playably.
YouTuber ETA Prime tested several games on the MacBook Neo and found that it could achieve playable frame rates in AAA titles, including Cyberpunk 2077. Multiple reviewers have since replicated these results, and the numbers are consistent enough to be interesting. Tom's Hardware benchmarked the MacBook Neo in Cyberpunk 2077, achieving 33 FPS, while another tester reported around 50 FPS at the lowest possible settings.
Before you start planning your gaming laptop purchase, let's be real about what's happening here. Running on its native macOS version at the absolute lowest settings and 720p resolution with MetalFX upscaling from an internal 360p source, Cyberpunk delivered "just about playable" performance, according to tech reviewer Andrew Tsai. That's the key phrase: "just about playable." It's the difference between technically possible and actually pleasant.
The MacBook Neo costs $599 and ships with the A18 Pro chip, 5-core GPU, and 8GB of unified memory. It wasn't designed for gaming. It's designed for email, browsing, and light creative work. That Apple's mobile processor manages to run a PC game at all is worth examining, even if the result is compromised.
The software story matters more than the hardware
Games that are specifically optimised for Apple hardware like Control, the Resident Evil 2 remake and even Cyberpunk 2077 can be enjoyed at playable frame rates even on a low-end laptop with a mobile chip like the MacBook Neo. The difference in performance between a game built for macOS and one forced through translation software is stark.
Resident Evil Requiem delivered respectable performance straight out of the box, while Dark Souls Remastered also impressed, running near 60 FPS at 1080p low and feeling smooth and responsive. But CrossOver results were more mixed: the 2D game Mewgenics ran great, but bigger Windows titles struggled, with Counter-Strike 2 becoming completely unplayable due to memory constraints, and Elden Ring averaging only the mid-20s FPS at a low 450p resolution, plagued by stuttering and poor frametimes.
This is the uncomfortable truth that Apple doesn't advertise. The MacBook Neo's gaming capabilities entirely depend on whether developers have bothered to optimise their game for macOS. Without that optimisation, you hit a wall quickly.
Memory is the real limit
The 8GB RAM ceiling isn't just a specification; it's the reason your gaming experience turns to stuttering mess. When the 8GB pool hits its limit, the system runs out of physical memory, and to keep games running, macOS is forced to start swapping active memory pages to the internal SSD, and the moment swapping occurs, performance plummets because the SSD simply isn't fast enough to replace physical RAM or VRAM.
This constraint shapes everything. Well-optimised native games run surprisingly well, while memory-hungry titles quickly hit the 8GB RAM wall. You can't upgrade the memory. You can't add more. If a game's minimum requirement is higher than what you've got, you're limited to either running it at compromised settings or not running it at all.
What this actually means for gamers
The MacBook Neo isn't a gaming laptop, and no amount of optimism about smartphone processor efficiency changes that. But it's also not worthless for gaming. Games that are specifically optimised for Apple hardware can be enjoyed at playable frame rates even on the low-end laptop, whereas when you start to add in more demanding titles that are not tailored-made for the Mac, especially Windows games that run through a translation layer, you'll start to butt up against the MacBook Neo's gaming limitations.
For Australian gamers considering the Neo, the practical answer is straightforward: if you want to play recent AAA titles, this isn't your machine. If you play games optimised for macOS, or if you're happy with older titles and indie releases, the Neo can deliver a surprisingly competent experience for the price. For Nintendo Switch emulation, the MacBook Neo maintained a mostly stable 30 FPS, with minor hitches during shader compilation.
The broader implication is more interesting. Apple's modern iPhones have the hardware chops to run PC games since the Neo uses Apple's A18 Pro rather than M-series silicon. It's a reminder that raw processing power has become almost irrelevant compared to software optimisation and memory architecture. A smartphone processor in a laptop, given the right conditions, can deliver real gaming performance. But "can" and "should" remain two different questions.