M4 Max Delivers 120FPS in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, Likely Without Path Tracing; Frame Generation Support for Apple Silicon Macs May Have Enabled this Performance

The newest addition to Apple’s Silicon lineup, the M4 Max chip, marks a significant advancement in gaming capabilities. Featuring a powerful 16-core CPU paired with a robust 40-core GPU, this system-on-chip (SoC) demonstrated astonishing performance by running Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition at a remarkable 120 frames per second (FPS).However, a critical question remains: What graphical settings were adjusted to reach this high framerate? Insights suggest that, given the demanding nature of path tracing, it’s likely that this feature was not enabled during the demonstration.

Performance Insights and Configuration Details

During a recent showcase at Apple Park, the M4 Max exhibited its capabilities by achieving approximately 120FPS in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, albeit at ultra graphic settings. Set to launch this year, CD PROJEKT RED has indicated that players will enjoy enhanced features like path tracing, frame generation, and integrated spatial audio. It’s vital to note that ‘ultra’ settings differ from ‘max’ settings, suggesting that not all graphics options were pushed to their ultimate limits, allowing the M4 Max more operational flexibility.

It comes as no surprise that Apple’s MetalFX upscaling technology likely played a role in achieving smoother framerates in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. However, the specifics regarding the settings used remain unclear. The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models boast an impressive native resolution of 3, 024 x 1, 964 pixels, and running the game at this resolution without upscaling, especially on ultra settings, could drastically lower the framerate—potentially dropping it below the playable threshold of 30FPS.

At WWDC 2025, Apple introduced macOS Tahoe 26, which brought new features to the Metal 4 graphics API, including interpolation or frame generation. This technology enhances performance by generating an additional frame between two rendered frames, effectively increasing the overall framerate and providing a smoother gameplay experience. Given that the M4 Max achieved 120FPS in Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, it’s reasonable to suspect that frame generation was indeed employed, and here’s why.

In our tests using the laptop version of the RTX 4090 graphics card—with all visual settings maxed out and DLSS configured for quality resolution at 2, 560 x 1, 600 pixels along with path tracing— we observed frames ranging from 60FPS to 80FPS in the initial 15 minutes of gameplay. This observation leads us to deduce that the M4 Max could comfortably run Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition at 120FPS without path tracing, likely utilizing frame generation. Of course, the upcoming game release could bring unexpected surprises from Apple and CD PROJEKT RED, and we’ll keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.

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