With the successful reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise in 2013, a sequel was inevitable, and on April 12, Mac users finally got their chance to play Rise of the Tomb Raider (RotTR).  The game has received excellent reviews from both the press and users, confirming it is a worthy successor.

As usual, we’re here to help you figure out if your Mac can run it and if it’s worth it.

Fans of the series will find what they expect here: Lara’s bow will be an important weapon, there will be tombs to explore and battles to fight. But to keep things fresh, the developers have added some crafting and RPG elements to the game in addition to some new gameplay modes.

This is our fastest Performance Review turnaround ever, as RotTR was just released on Thursday. As a new game in a popular series, we know you want to find out if your Mac can run it. Let’s get started.

First things first, is the game any good?

Is Rise of the Tomb Raider worthy of the series and the reboot? Survey says yes.

Using the familiar third-person perspective, in RotTR Lara starts out in Siberia searching for a lost city that holds the promise of immortality.

Rise of the Tomb Raider moves the series forward, keeping the successful elements of the reboot while adding in new gameplay elements and types. Improved graphics and a good story round things out. Users and the press seem to agree that Rise of the Tomb Raider is a worthy sequel to the immensely popular reboot.

With an 86/100 Metascore and an impressive 93% positive reviews from 26,000 users on Steam, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a safe bet for fans of the series or those looking for a new action/adventure game to try:

Softpedia’s perspective is a popular one:

Rise of the Tomb Raider successfully reiterates the success of its predecessor by updating and upgrading quite a few different things, like combat, crafting, or RPG mechanics, while improving the environmental design and the general flow of the campaign.

PC Gamer agrees:

In many ways, Rise of the Tomb Raider is peak sequel design: an incredibly similar game with a set of expanded and additional systems. But RotTR is also better because it lets you spend more time engaging with those systems.

If you’re a fan of the series or interested in trying it out, Rise of the Tomb Raider is the game for you. Unless your Mac can’t handle it of course...

The test

The previous Tomb Raider was a perfect example of a Mac port done right. Is Rise of the Tomb Raider another one?

There’s only one way to figure out how demanding this game really is. We tested the game on as many machines as we could find in such a short notice:

Why these machines? We want these tests to be as helpful as possible, and for that, they need to be as close as possible to the Mac you have at home. For that reason, we strive to test a big variety of machines. We always do our best to cover the following setups:

• High-end Macs (the 2017 iMac, the 2017 15-inch MBP and the MBP with an eGPU)
• Recent entry-level Macs (the 2016 and 2017 13-inch MacBook Pros)
• Older Macs (the 2012 MacBook Pro)

These are the settings we used:

• 1280x800 or equivalent resolution
• Medium Preset
• VSync: Off
• Anti-Aliasing: FXAA

We tested the game simply using the in-game benchmark tool.

Why these settings? Most of us have older Macs or Macs with integrated graphics. For that reason, we aim for settings that are acceptable for the average gamer without being too demanding. We want to give most Macs a chance.

The Results

Feral Interactive clearly knows how to do a Mac port. But they can’t do miracles. A great looking game will always be a demanding game...

Given how smoothly the previous Tomb Raider ran, we expected this to be more demanding but still manageable. We were somewhat right:

This is how we describe the different levels of performance:

Do you have a high-end Mac?

A high-end Mac can, of course, run this game without a problem. Our 2017 15-inch MacBook Pro, can run this game at a Smooth 48.7 FPS. That’s a good result, but for the fastest Apple laptop available, it isn’t that high and leaves little margin to push settings or resolution much higher.

Our 2017 13-inch MBP with an eGPU (Mantiz Venus Radeon RX Vega 56 with 8GB RAM), on the other hand, runs the game at a Very Smooth  82.5 FPS. Clearly, settings can be pushed higher, but how much more?

Is 4K gaming possible?

Our tester ikir went ahead and pushed all the settings to the max (while keeping VSync Off) and the resolution all the way to 4K and still achieved a Smooth 53.33 FPS. In case it wasn’t clear before, eGPUs are a game changer, making 4K gaming a reality for an entry-level 13-inch MBP.

As a rule of thumb, if you have to choose between increasing the settings or the resolution, go with the resolution. Notice that playing with the settings, going from Medium to Very High won’t result in a jaw-dropping improvement:

Takeaway: A high-end Mac will do just fine, but if you have a MacBook Pro, don’t expect to play this game at the highest settings and resolution. Unless you have an eGPU that is.

Do you have a recent entry-level Mac?

This is when things get tricky. Feral Interactive official supports the following integrated graphics cards: Intel Iris Graphics 540 or better.

Our 2016 13-inch MBP runs the game at an Unplayable 16.46 FPS while our 2017 13-inch MBP can run it at a slightly improved, but still Unplayable, 19.4 FPS. These machines with Intel graphics are clearly borderline. But don’t give up just yet.

While running the game at the lowest settings, our 2016 13-inch MBP runs at a virtually Playable 29.92 FPS. This is why these machines are officially supported. They can run the game, but only at the lowest (or almost lowest) settings. If you’re ok with giving up on all the bells and whistles, Rise of the Tomb Raider can be enjoyed, providing a nice and fluid gameplay experience.

On the plus side, the lowest settings show less detail, of course, but they don’t look too bad:

Takeaway: Entry-level Macs can get the job done, but only if you’re willing to play on low settings. If you have a recent entry-level Mac, make sure you double checked the system requirements first...

But what if you have an older Mac?

I’m afraid this section will be very short. If you have an older Mac not officially supported by Feral Interactive, the game won’t even launch:

Takeaway: System requirements are critical with this game. Do not buy it if your machine does not meet them. Simple as that.

Still unsure?

Remember, you can always run the free Unigine Heaven Benchmark using the Basic Preset and compare your results with ours:

If your machine had a better/worst Heaven score, expect a higher/lower FPS score.

The correlation between in-game performance and a standard benchmark is far from perfect, but it can still be a good comparison point.

Always check those system requirements

Sometimes you can still play a game even if your machine doesn’t officially meet the minimum system requirements. Not today.

Unless you have a recent top-of-the-line machine, you need to pay special attention to Rise of the Tomb Raider Mac system requirements:

The game will be supported on the following Macs:

• All 13" MacBook Pros released since 2016
• All 15" MacBook Pros released since Late 2013 with a 2.3GHz processor or better
• All 21.5" iMacs released since Late 2017
• All 27" iMacs released since Late 2014 (except models with a Nvidia GT 755M graphics card)
• 27" iMacs from Late 2012 with a 2GB Nvidia 680MX graphics cards
• All Mac Pros released since Late 2013

And if these are too high for you, you can always check the still relevant Tomb Raider.

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