I just got my Mac Studio M1 Max (32-core GPU) last week and would like to add my experience on how it runs WoW. (warning: long post)
It’s a great machine so far. Major upgrade compared to my old 2017 iMac 5K. I’ve hooked it up to a LG 27GN950-B 144 Hz 4K gaming monitor (still also waiting for the Studio Display to be delivered). The cable I use is a USB-C to Displayport 1.4.
I play in native 4K (3840x2160) with most settings on High and Ultra but with Shadows and Liquid on “Fair”, Compute Effects on “Low” and SSAO on “Good”. Not using any anti-aliasing (looks sharp enough).
My FPS results are as follows:
Zereth Mortis: 130-144 FPS
Revendreth: 130-144 FPS
Maldraxxus: 90-130 FPS
Ardenweald: around 100-120 FPS with occasional dips to 70
Bastion: around 48-112 FPS
Oribos: upstairs on the flight master floor ± 48 FPS, the main floor fluctuates between 60 to 120 FPS.
Heart of the Forest: the center area indoors around 60 FPS but as soon as you enter another room it’s back to 130-140 again.
I do run quite a lot of addons, notably ATT (All The Things) and TRP (Total Roleplay) which are known to affect performance.
Now something about FSR, because it puzzles me a little. I’m playing in full 4K (3840x2160) as mentioned earlier, with resolution scale set to 100%. On the iMac (Radeon) I used to set it to 50% and FSR did the rest. However, on the Mac Studio FSR doesn’t seem to do anything. When I set res scale to 50%, it looks far more blurry. Turns out FSR is disabled by default, and enabling it doesn’t improve anything.
The Ambient Occlusion Type (Advanced tab) was set to ASSAO per default (instead of FSR), and the Resample Quality to Point (instead of FSR). However, when changing both to FSR I see no difference. Is FSR only a Radeon thing?
Oddly enough the Resample Sharpness slider is still enabled and on 0.2 (per default) but adjusting that doesn’t seem to change anything either. Nor does my FPS improve.
Anyway, I’m happy with how it runs, a huge upgrade for anyone coming from an Intel Mac.
(edit: changed Bastion performance. it was stuck at 48 FPS at first but seems a glitch, the other day it was 112 again. Depends on the area it seems)