While the MacBook Air M1 and Mac mini M1 have impressed us with their impressive performance and incredible efficiency, some are still reluctant to move away from Intel-based machines. There’s a good reason for that: Apple is quite transparent that the new architecture isn’t compatible with all software, and while this gap will close over time, if the software of your choice isn’t there it’s difficult to justify upgrade.
And while few would buy a Mac purely for gaming options, those with a new M1 MacBook or Mac mini just have a lot more choice. With GeForce Now 2.0.27, Nvidia has added compatibility for M1 Macs in the official macOS app. That, along with games that can be played through an Apple Arcade subscription, makes the new hardware much easier to sell to those who like to play games occasionally.
It’s not just the owners of the new Macs who will benefit. At the same time, Nvidia has added support for the Google Chrome browser, opening the door to millions of entry-level laptops to stream games remotely. As long as they can run a Chrome window, they suddenly have access to over 2,000 games.
Nvidia says the added Chrome support is for Windows and macOS machines (ChromeOS was already added last August). “Other platforms may work, but are not supported,” the notes explain.
For those unfamiliar, GeForce Now even lets you run simple hardware triple-A games by connecting you to a powerful gaming PC in the cloud that does the heavy lifting for you before the video output back to your device is being streamed.
It is not a streaming service like Netflix is. You have to own the games you want to stream on Steam, the Epic Games Store, or something similar, and while you can afford a subscription membership (currently $ 24.95 for six months), it doesn’t include games – it just adds features like priority access , removes the one-hour session duration from the free tier and adds support for ray tracing.
In theory, any game can run on GeForce Now – and the service includes hardware-intensive titles like Cyberpunk 2077 as well as free games like Apex Legends. But it requires game publishers to sign up, which some were initially reluctant to do as they felt they were theoretically funding Nvidia’s paid memberships with no financial incentive to do so.
It seems to have calmed down a bit now, but you can read the full list of games here to make sure your favorite title is in the mix before signing up.