Apple could reshape mobile gaming with iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, allowing AAA console games like Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage
During its ‘Wonderlust’ event, Apple unveiled that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have native compatibility with console games, including AAA titles such as ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’.
Apple emphasized that its new mobile chipset, the A17 Pro Bionic, powering the iPhone 15 Pro series, introduces hardware-accelerated ray tracing support—an advancement not even found in the latest Macs.
Apple contends that hardware-based ray tracing offers a fourfold speed improvement compared to software-based solutions. However, while this holds true for desktop GPUs, where AMD’s Radeon series provides notably lower performance than NVIDIA’s RTX GPU series with dedicated Ray-Tracing cores, the performance of Apple’s latest GPU in games with ray tracing support remains to be tested.
Utilizing TSMC’s 3nm process node, Apple asserts that the pro-class GPU exhibits a 20 percent performance boost over its forerunner. It showcases a novel 6-core architecture, enhancing energy efficiency. The A17 Pro Bionic introduces mesh shading, allowing games to render intricate environments with reduced power consumption. Furthermore, it incorporates support for the AV1 decoder, a feature commonly present in mid and high-tier GPUs.
Apple has officially stated that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have the native capability to run games like Death Stranding, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, and Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Although the first three games are set to become available later this year, Assassin’s Creed Mirage for iPhone is anticipated to debut in the first half of 2024. However, Apple has not yet disclosed information regarding the device’s battery life during gameplay of graphics-intensive AAA titles.
Over the past few years, iPhones have been steadily gaining popularity among gamers. Although some individuals favor Android devices for gaming due to factors like rapid charging, Apple’s Bionic chipsets distinguish themselves by exhibiting less thermal throttling compared to Qualcomm’s recently released Snapdragon chipsets.
As an increasing number of AAA console and PC games become available on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple appears to be positioning itself to compete with handheld gaming consoles like the Lenovo Legion Go and ROG Ally. These consoles enable on-the-go PC gaming but come with limited battery life, typically a couple of hours. Consequently, it might be more economical to invest in a pricier smartphone that can serve both as a gaming console and a regular device. The iPhone 15 Pro is priced starting at Rs 1,34,900, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max can be acquired for Rs 1,59,900.
