Concerned about GPUs, RAM, and optimization with Mac ports? Stadia could end that.
Did Google just save Mac gaming? The Mountain View company never mentioned Apple during the reveal of its Stadia game streaming service at the Game Developers Conference yesterday, but Stadia sounds all but tailor-made for Mac users. A service that let you stream games from a remote server straight to your browser! The ability to play the latest games without needing to invest in fancy eGPUs, graphics cards, and yes—even PCs! Even in 2019, so much of this still sounds like science fiction.
I love my Mac, but necessity compels me to keep a massive PC running at home so I can play graphically intensive games like The Division 2 or Devil May Cry 5 when they release. As we all know, many of these games never come to the Mac at all. If Stadia works as well as Google implies it will, I’ll never have to feel too guilty about using only a Mac for gaming ever again. Google itself would handle all the heavy lifting; all I would need is a browser.
Gently down the stream
Google’s presentation yesterday left plenty of questions unanswered, but here’s what we know. Stadia is a platform that will let you stream games from Google’s servers to any device that runs the Chrome browser (although it may limit the devices at first). Google itself will house all the hardware, and it claims that hardware is better than what we find on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. When the specs flashed the specs on screen yesterday, they resembled those of the Radeon RX Vega 56. Supposedly Stadia works so well, in fact, that you’ll be able to stream a game as graphically intensive as Doom Eternal in 4K resolution at 60fps. Again, in a flippin’ browser. Ultimately, the only thing you’ll need to pay is your presumed Stadia fee (which is unknown at the moment) as well as your internet fee, although Google will sell its own controller.
In other words, not bad. In still other words, this could change everything for Mac and iOS gamers who feel limited not only by the limitations of the operating systems but also by the Mac’s incompatibility with Nvidia cards and other PC gaming staples. If it works as well as described, it effectively tears down all the walls to Mac gaming we’ve dealt with for years. With a service like this, we wouldn’t even have to worry much if Apple started making its own processors for the Macs.
Read more at Macworld.com