this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
110 points (95.8% liked)

Linux

5324 readers
220 users here now

A community for everything relating to the linux operating system

Also check out !linux_memes@programming.dev

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Ategon@programming.dev
anzo@programming.dev
dwraf_of_ignorance@programming.dev
110
Asahi Linux’s bespoke GPU driver is running Windows games on Apple Silicon Macs (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/linux@programming.dev
13 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Games are technically run inside a virtual machine because of differences in how Apple Silicon and x86 systems address memory—Apple's systems use 16 KB memory pages, while x86 systems use 4 KB pages, something that causes issues for Asahi and some other Arm Linux distros on a regular basis and a gap that the VM bridges.

Rosenzweig's post shows off screenshots of Control, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Ghostrunner, Cyberpunk 2077, Portal 2, and Hollow Knight, though as she notes, most of these games won't run at anywhere near 60 frames per second yet.

"Correctness comes first. Performance improves next," she writes.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] astrsk@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can you show where they’ve gone further than apples game porting toolkit or game translation layers? Genuinely curious because I haven’t seen any comparison but do know several large profile games have come to apple silicon recently.

[–] nave@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

It’s not quite as good as gptk. Gptk can run games like cyberpunk at 60+ fps on more powerful Mac’s but Asahi currently can’t run AAA games at 60 fps. Also gptk has support for avx which Fex technically has but doesn’t work on m1 because the chip lacks SVE(2). However I imagine in the future asahi will almost definitely be better.

[–] TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I mean it more in terms of wider API support than in terms of outright performance. GPTK games, when they work, certainly run faster.