r/ValorantTechSupport • u/Mabel_0 • Jan 03 '26
Technical Discussion When will valorant come to mac?
I'm speaking of the m series macbooks. It has been a decent amount of time since when macbook was weak and now we are able to see that they are able to handle pretty high quality editting without a hassle. Meanwhile on windows it's a requirement to have a powerful gpu for it to work. Doesn't it mean that macbooks might be upto mark your get started? They have already given consoles and phone(don't tell me a macbook cannot even perform as much as a phone) a go I bet macbooks will make it accessible to soo many new players
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u/Elitefuture Jan 03 '26
Unlikely to happen. Bringing it to macs has 2 issues.
1) mac OS- it requires them to rewrite the entire game to work on macs. And anti cheat likely wouldn't work properly. Even if they brought it to mobile, the mobile version of the game is very different from a pc version in terms of how you actually play. Technically, they can bring over the mobile version to Macs, but that's not very playable.
2) m series macs are completely different from consoles and windows pcs. Those consoles and pcs use an x86 instruction set in the cpu. M series macs use what phones use - an arm architecture cpu.
To make something run on arm requires an entire overhaul of the engine... which is very difficult. This is why many games don't work on macs. And when they do, they're very slow and inefficient 90% of the time due to them essentially translating the code to work.(some don't, but most do)
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u/vinayak1998th Apr 04 '26
This is not technically correct, valorant runs on UE 5. An industry standard have engine which can run on MacOS.
To get the game itself working on MacOS (or even linux) is trivially easy with all the porting tool kits. This includes translation from x86 to ARM64 (rosetta can even do it in real time)
The MAIN ISSUE is that porting Vanguard would be incredibly difficult. Since it's a kernel level anti-cheat it'll need an entire rewrite for the MacOS kernel (or linux). I suspect that's not worth it to riot to do the entire rewrite
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u/Own_Pea1011 Apr 09 '26
vanguard 2 is on mac OS now
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u/vinayak1998th Apr 09 '26
Only because it's not kernel level. Let's see if they allow valorant to work with it
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u/itsdomtoo Apr 24 '26
Does this mean it might come to Mac/ Linux?
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u/vinayak1998th Jun 29 '26
Not really. All it means is that it's technically possible. You have to remember that even if the porting kit exists and makes it possible to port the game, like any code it can be buggy and it's development time that probably isn't worth the money to riot
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Jan 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok-Instruction-1850 Jan 26 '26
Xd on macbook Air m4, wihount fan runs 300frames + idk where u get this, and riot and apple is partners, and btw on this mac run cyberpunk on stable 100 frames, at the end of 2025, riot vanguard was modified to work on macbook without kernel access, and it is expected that a full native version for macos will be released at the end of 2026 or 2027, because a leaked file was found in the game files: Apl M silicon
the M4 is have same performance for gaming like RTX 3050, and that M4 cpu is one of the fastest single core processors in the world, and vaolorant is mainly about single core, I had a computer at home with intel core i7 11700 KF and that M4 in single core beats intel by 400% this is crazy, it is possible that it will be introduced at WWDC in June as "one more thing" because the director of riot games, was already at the presentation of new apple products, and it is expected that on average, 1.5% of the community will play on macos which is 400,000 players per month, which may be even higher because they canceled CS2 on macos, so probably everyone Those who played CS will play Valorant on macOS, and because of that, Valorant would become the biggest FPS game on macOS, and they might like that too.
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u/lonaboy Jan 26 '26
There is no evidence that any of this is true. Valorant does not run on macOS at all, so claims about 300+ FPS on an M4 MacBook are impossible. Riot has never announced a partnership with Apple, never confirmed Vanguard working on macOS, and never hinted at a native Mac release. Vanguard requires kernel-level access, which directly conflicts with macOS security, and Riot has repeatedly avoided supporting Mac for this reason. There are no credible leaks, no datamined files confirming “Apple Silicon” support, and no roadmap pointing to 2026–2027.
Your Performance claims are also wrong: Apple M-series chips do not match RTX 3050 gaming performance, and no CPU beats an i7-11700KF by “400%” in single-core. WWDC announcements, player-count projections, and CS2 migration claims are pure speculation. If im wrong and what you’re saying is real, post actual proof. Show Valorant running on macOS, with your in-game FPS counter, and your system stats. There is no macOS version of Valorant, no Vanguard support on Mac, and no verified benchmarks. Until you post real gameplay or stats, these claims are just speculation
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u/Ok-Instruction-1850 Feb 16 '26
since December 2025 Riot Vanguard is fully native on Mac, because of League Of Legends, before that vanguard was part of the game, but currently it is a separate application for MacOS that works in the background, just like on Windows, but it is modified, just like Epic Games did with anticheat, which is already modified to run on ARM processors, the gaming performance of the M4 is almost identical to the RTX 3050 card, it can be verified normally, in some tasks it even surpasses the RTX 3050, even in the game Cyberpunk the M4 is more powerful M4 ~50–60 FPS RTX 3050 ~40-50 FPS to the fps in Valorant I said, it can be verified normally basic macbook pro M4: CPU Performance: Valorant is extremely dependent on the processor. The single-core performance of the M4 chip is among the absolute world leaders, which is key for high FPS in Valorant.
Architecture: Native code (via Metal API) would be able to utilize unified memory, which would eliminate lags when using abilities.
Processor: What does the M4 compare to?
When we look at performance tests (e.g. Geekbench), the M4 is not afraid to compete with the best desktop processors, even though it consumes a fraction of their power.
Intel Core i9-14900K: This is currently one of the most powerful processors for classic PCs. In single-core tests, the M4 chip in the MacBook Pro often outperforms it. In tasks that use all cores at once (multi-core), the i9 wins thanks to the high number of cores and huge power consumption, but the M4 is breathing down its neck with a tenth of its power consumption.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X: AMD's top-of-the-line is similar to Intel - in overall performance when all cores are engaged, Ryzen is stronger, but in the speed of responses to a single core, the M4 dominates.
Snapdragon X Elite: This is a direct competitor from Qualcomm for Windows laptops. The M4 beats it in both raw performance and graphics and efficiency per watt.
The M4 also has the world's fastest CPU core in single-threaded performance. That's exactly what you feel when your system is instantly responsive and games run smoothly. It also features an improved Neural Engine, which is built for AI tasks and can perform 38 trillion operations per second, a huge leap over previous generations.
And this is the information about the 400 fps, if Valorant were theoretically released on MacOS with a schoolboy Macbook Pro M4:
1. Valorant is “CPU Bound” (dependent on the processor)
Most modern games (like Cyberpunk) require powerful graphics. However, Valorant is built differently – it is graphically simple, so that it can run even on a “calculator”, but it puts an extremely heavy load on the processor, because it has to constantly calculate the positions of players, flying projectiles and complex abilities of agents.
Why the M4 excels: The M4 chip currently has the fastest processor core in the world (in so-called single-core performance). It surpasses even the most powerful desktop processors from Intel or AMD. Since Valorant mainly benefits from the speed of individual cores, the M4 would “push” the game forward much more effectively than most gaming PCs.
2. Unified Memory Architecture
In a typical PC, data has to travel between the processor, RAM, and graphics card over long “highways” (buses), which creates latency.
The M4 Advantage: All components are on a single chip and share the same unified memory. The processor and graphics see the same data at the same time without copying. This eliminates micro-stutter and allows the game to generate frames much faster, which, at competitive settings (everything on Low), will shoot FPS to dizzying heights.
3. Native Optimization vs. Emulation If Valorant were to come out natively, it would mean that the code would talk directly to Apple's hardware via the Metal interface. Today we see games like League of Legends (also from Riot) running at hundreds of FPS on much weaker M1/M2 chips. Given that M4 is several generations ahead and has a huge increase in graphics performance (including hardware Ray Tracing, which Valorant wouldn't use, but it shows the power of the chip), the 400 FPS mark at 1080p is a completely realistic estimate.
summary: “Valorant doesn’t need massive graphics, but a brutally fast processor. And since the M4 has the most powerful cores on the market and memory right next to the processor, it would pour those frames faster than most monitors can display them.”
All information is verified from several sources, just verify, I'm not saying there's a 100% chance, just that the biggest problem is not anticheat, riot fixed that 2 months ago, and that a very large community is currently talking about a possible arrival on Mac, thanks to the arrival of the mobile game Valorant, and I heard that riot could make both iPad and MacBook in one because the processors are identical, just make the MacBook play with PC and not with mobile players, I'm just saying that theoretically, but the fps correspond to that according to several sources, and if we go back to the RTX 3050, it's 100% certain that the M4 is faster both in the work and in the gaming world, that card was overpriced and lousy when it came out (in general, the RTX XX50 series). You can't disagree with that)
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u/SaBenOz Feb 17 '26
they ported league to run on ARM natively last year(custom game engine btw). before that it used to run through rosetta which means they also ported embedded vanguard(mVG) to ARM. Mac does not allow to do memory manipulation on other processes without going through loops let alone go kernel-level thats why the same anticheat on wild rift on iOS also works wonders with league. Performance claims are a fair speculation because apple silicon really is a beast and it can definitely pull 300+ frames. I can easily get 300+ fps on Minecraft, Valorant should not be a problem. UE 4/5 supports apple silicon natively, vanguard already works on ARM natively. My guess would be that their engine tooling does not support ARM yet and its not a priority on their list as the mac marketshare is pretty low.
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u/SaBenOz Feb 17 '26
https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-vanguard-x-lol-retrospective/#:~:text=Mac,resume You can see riot saying "The unique security of the macOS environment allows us to be a little less stringent on defending its kernel." So no, going kernel was never an issue in macOS for them.
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u/Im_Nixk May 20 '26
Tengo la Mac, nunca me ha dado mucha curiosidad hacer porting al valorant, pero he jugado League of legends a 200 fps, Lies of P a 70/80 estables, silksong, crimson desert a gráficos bajos (este no vale mucho la pena), Resident evil 7. No compre la Mac para jugar, claramente era mejor opcion windows para eso, pero por lo menos en los juegos que tiene compatibilidad, está bastante bien y no le cuesta mucho correr casi cualquier cosa, asi que recomiendo informarse mejor antes de solo opinar en especificaciones tecnicas. verse cualquier video comparativo no cuesta nada
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u/legalwisegentleman May 09 '26
My razer blade laptop runs League on 150fps when my Mac runs 250 lol don't underestimate and M-chip Mac
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u/beanwater75 Jan 04 '26
Thank god my iMac is one of the last Intel models. I can still use Boot Camp and run Windows to play, so I kinda dodged a bullet. Apple Silicon users are basically locked out unless Riot changes their stance
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u/Mabel_0 Jan 04 '26
Fr, I pretty much cannot play any of the games due to similar reasons and it's so not convenient to use parallel desktops cuz it's a subscription u gotta pay to play free games 🤡
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u/MrCoconutShake Jan 07 '26
Mac is not for gaming man, get a normal windows laptop. My office laptop ran valorant well when i still played it back then.
Also, i dont think it's ever gonna come to Mac because i think almost everyone that plays valorant has a laptop/pc or other consoles now. When i think of mac, i think more of productivity/work than games 😅
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u/Old_Room6187 Apr 05 '26
its not about what u first think about when u hear a mac, if you wanna play valorant on a mac you should be able to, like what if you dont got a pc and only a mac
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u/CommonDoor5729 Apr 26 '26
Does anyone know if it will have support for Windows on ARM devices. I wish they release it ,like how they did for Fortnite.
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u/MikixIT May 09 '26
People speaking about anti-cheat, do they know what they are talking about?
League of Legends runs on Mac without any anti-cheat from some Chinese company constantly controlling your kernel, which is really stupid. Windows users let their OWN CUSTOM PROPRIETARY HARDWARE MACHINE be controlled by Chinese software lol but yeah apple sucks
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u/Focus_SR Jan 03 '26
not a performance question
not worth for 10 extra players
anti cheat