Play X-Plane 12 on Mac: M1 Benchmarks and Guide

We’ve had Microsoft Flight Simulator for decades, but now X-Plane 12 has finally hopped into the limelight after enjoying an excellent Early Access period. After tons of bug fixing and polishing, the game is now out, and the attention to detail speaks for itself. Laminar Games redid the entirety of the franchise with pinpoint, accurate airplane models, realistic lighting, weather, and other vehicles.

But with that added sparkle of realism come some demanding requirements to get the game up and running. You’ll need a steady frame rate. Sure, it’s possible on macOS, but how does this excellent Mac Simulation game run on your Mac?

Art	Genre	64-bit	API	M1 Support	Performance	Optimizations
	Adventure		Metal	Native	Poor	None
	Racing		Metal	Native	Excellent	MetalFX
	Action		Metal	Native	Good	MetalFX
	Action		Metal	Native	Excellent	MetalFX
	Adventure		Metal	Native	Good	MetalFX
	Simulation		Metal	Native	Good	None
	Simulation		OpenGL	Rosetta	Good	None
	RPG		Vulkan	Rosetta	Good	None

Can You Play X-Plane 12 on Mac?

X-Plane 12 can definitely be played natively on the Mac. This includes Intel-based and ARM-based models, including the M1, M2, M3, and all other future Apple Silicon chips.

The game can run at a stable yet capped 30 FPS on max settings at 4K resolution on higher-end M-chips. In fact, X-Plane 12 runs natively on macOS using the Vulkan and Metal API. Did you know X-Plane was developed primarily on Macs?

The performance is pretty much as good as it was with X-Plane 11 after the Metal update 11.5, but things get a bit iffy with the lighter base M1 MacBook Air. More on that below…

X Plane 12 on macOS

X-Plane 12 Mac Requirements

While the official site states that X-Plane 12 runs natively on Apple Silicon and Metal API, the waters are a bit murky. You might want to skimp out on the base Apple Silicon products and go for Macs with 16 Gigs of RAM and Higher End M1 and M2 Chips, say the M1 Pro, M2 Pro, or the Ultra, if you have the money.

Can You Run X-Plane 12? Benchmarks & Performance

You can absolutely play X-Plane 12 on macOS on any Apple Silicon MacBook. X Plane-12 features Metal and native support for ARM-based Macs. Having said that, the more RAM, the better performance.

These are some of the benchmarks we’ve gathered so far:

Without the need for Rosetta 2, the MacBook M1 Pro can run the game at a respectable 40–50 FPS at 4K, provided you’ve got 16 gigs of RAM. X-Plane 12 is extremely CPU and GPU-intensive. 

Expect to play on a mix of High to Medium settings at 4K, which is quite impressive. You might expect a few dips when going through a billow of clouds, but that’s about it. You could lower the resolution and lock in at a stable 60 FPS on the M1 Pro.

Mac Mini Performance

On the M2 Mac Mini, X-Plane 12 delivers a modest experience at best. At native 1080p, the game runs at a solid 30 FPS at Medium Settings.

Turn things up a notch with the M1 MAX with 64 gigs of unified memory, and the game runs like a dream. You can expect to get 80–110 FPS on the title with all the settings maxed out. You’ll have to lower the resolution a bit down from 4K.

If you’ve got a tiny M1 Mac Mini lying around, you can still enjoy X-Plane 12, probably. At 1080p with a mix of medium settings and FSR turned up, the M1 Mac Mini can still output a solid 19-23 FPS. Cinematic, right?

Moving on to the Mac Mini M2, things get slightly better. At 1080p, with FSR balanced and the settings set to high, you can garner up to 45 FPS at most.

We recommend lowering the native resolution of the game to get better FPS, keeping the rendering distance the same, and setting the cloud quality and world detail quality to a minimum to get the best possible performance.

🚨 But the best news here is that the game offers a free Mac demo, which means you can test it out yourself!

X Plane 12 Mac demo

X-Plane 12: Can It Run On Base MacBook Air?

In theory, X-Plane 12 should be able to run on the base MacBook Air M1. But you should definitely expect some frame drops, stuttering, and crashes. In the best-case scenario, you can crank the resolution down to the lowest settings, crank up FSR to performance mode, and hope for the best. 

The best you could hope for is something between 11-30 FPS–depending on whether you’re on the ground, in the air, or the clouds. If you plan on playing X-Plane 12 on an 8GB MacBook Air M1, let Jesus take the yoke.

The Verdict: Should You Play X-Plane 12 On Your Mac?

While Windows has Microsoft Flight Simulator, Apple fanatics can natively enjoy X-Plane 12 with the right Apple Silicon Mac. X-Plane 12 takes realism to the next level.

With highly detailed airplanes, well-crafted cities, biomes, and impeccable lighting hook up a yoke or a flight stick and have a great time. Compared to Microsoft Flight Simulator, it’s the Forza Motorsport 7 to your Gran Turismo 7. The best part is that you get to enjoy some sweet eye candy on a Retina screen.

But that’s only possible if you’ve got an Apple Silicon-based M1, or M2 MacBook Pro and M2 Mac Mini, and things get even better with the M1 and M2 Max. If you’re stuck with a base M1 MacBook or Mac Mini, X-Plane 11 is probably a better choice.

X-Plane 12 Download

You can download X-Plane 12 via the official X-Plane Website or use Valve’s game client, Steam.