Experience with different games
World of Warcraft ran with pretty good results, only in heavily populated areas did the frame rate drop to 45 fps at the selected settings. Minecraft, certainly not known as the most graphically opulent title on the market, achieved up to 300 fps in 1080p – which is still respectable for a 699 euro device. However, Cyberpunk 2077 requires more powerful hardware, as it only runs reasonably smoothly at 720p and minimal settings. Resident Evil Requiem, as a RAM-heavy game, largely fails due to the lack of memory (15 fps at 720p) – whereas Resident Evil 2 (Remake) also doesn’t cause any problems with 60 fps at 1080p.
The results are particularly mixed for Windows games using translation layers. Tsai shows quite well how unpredictable this field is on the Neo: He describes Counter-Strike 2 as “completely unplayable” (5 fps), while Mewgenics runs “almost problem-free” according to him.
Conclusion: Overwhelmed with AAA, but better than expected
The bottom line is that the MacBook Neo is noticeably more versatile than its key data suggests. It can also run games – sometimes even surprisingly well. At the same time, the device remains clearly limited by 8 GB of RAM and the A18 Pro. Native Mac games and less demanding titles naturally work best, but things quickly get tight with AAA games or Windows titles using translation layers. But if you only play occasionally, you might still be pleasantly surprised. In general, this is another test in which the MacBook Neo exceeds expectations.