Can you game on a $6,000 Mac Pro? Probably, but you shouldn't

Mac Pro announcement (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Snazzy Labs tested gaming on an entry-level Mac Pro.
It didn't go great at all.
Adding a new GPU might help.

Quinn Nelson of YouTube channel Snazzy Labs has new Mac Pro content out, this time taking a look at whether the entry-level $5,999 machine can be used as a gaming rig.

That machine comes with a Radeon Pro 580X as standard which isn't great by any stretch of the imagination. Nelson tested it in both Windows and macOS and sure enough, the results speak for themselves. And just for kicks an Nvidia GTX 1080ti was used with Nelson foiled by the lack of macOS drivers. He was, however, able to make the card work in Windows. Eventually.

The only real solution was to pick up an AMD 5700XT GPU in order to make gaming work at all in macOS, and sure enough gaming was done. But it still wasn't breaking any FPS records.

Be sure to check the full video out for Nelson's rundown on exactly what happened at each stage as well as the advise that we'd all expected – don't buy a $5,999 Mac Pro to game on.

But, we all knew that already. Right?

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.