Are there any downsides with FM21 on a Mac?

[Geheugenkaartje]

Title says it all. I am trying to decide if I should buy FM21 for my windows desktop or for my Macbook M1. I prefer to buy it for the M1 because then I can play wherever I want, with the desktop obviously being less flexible. Are there any downsides with playing on a Mac? 

[Grifty]

I played it on Mac for a couple of years with no issues.

[JordanMilly]

You can play the Steam version on both Mac and Windows, so you could buy it and try it on both and see which you prefer.

[Kloppy]

I play it on Mac, no issues. Match engine runs well and looks lovely. Quick enough to run in the menus. Have gone 10 seasons in my journey man save with little let up in game speed. Would recommend.

[rsihn]

I run FM21 on a M1 Air.  Runs like a dream on high settings.   Doesn't heat up like my Intel MacBook Pro did.  No issues at all with it.   Also runs an incredibly long time playing FM on battery power.  

[Icy]

I play it mainly in a macbook pro and have for a few years already. It works fine, the only issue for the retina screen macs is that SI changed the rendering in FM21 and it uses much more resources even just idling in any game screen, not even in the match, so the mac heats up a lot, the fans run at full speed and battery is drained if you are not plugged in. I complained about it earlier this year but was told there is no solution other than running the game in low resolution to not to use the retina high res, but then it looks more blurry (I'm talking about the interface, not the 3d games). If you want to play with the notebook unplugged over your knees for more than 30 minutes, you have that tradeoff of lower resolution.

See here for more info: 

and also do a search for "retina" in the forums and you will see similar threads. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Icy

[Vlowman]

On 03/06/2021 at 03:45, rsihn said:

I run FM21 on a M1 Air.  Runs like a dream on high settings.   Doesn't heat up like my Intel MacBook Pro did.  No issues at all with it.   Also runs an incredibly long time playing FM on battery power.  

By 'high settings' do you mean maximum graphics settings in the match engine (rather than just a tonne of leagues)? Thanks.

[Xfactor9600]

I play it on my year old macbook pro with no issues. 

[rsihn]

17 hours ago, Vlowman said:

By 'high settings' do you mean maximum graphics settings in the match engine (rather than just a tonne of leagues)? Thanks.

Yeah, high graphics.  The M1 Macs also don't seem to have any problems loading a lot of leagues either. 

 

On 03/06/2021 at 09:49, Icy said:

I play it mainly in a macbook pro and have for a few years already. It works fine, the only issue for the retina screen macs is that SI changed the rendering in FM21 and it uses much more resources even just idling in any game screen, not even in the match, so the mac heats up a lot, the fans run at full speed and battery is drained if you are not plugged in. I complained about it earlier this year but was told there is no solution other than running the game in low resolution to not to use the retina high res, but then it looks more blurry (I'm talking about the interface, not the 3d games). If you want to play with the notebook unplugged over your knees for more than 30 minutes, you have that tradeoff of lower resolution.

 

The M1 chips don't have the same heating problems.  My M1 Air without fans doesn't heat up at all running FM21 unlike my Intel MacBook which required the fans to be on full blast most of the time.  I can play FM for hours without plugging in and frequently do.  It's amazing how power efficient these chips are. 

[Vlowman]

On 03/06/2021 at 03:45, rsihn said:

I run FM21 on a M1 Air.  Runs like a dream on high settings.   Doesn't heat up like my Intel MacBook Pro did.  No issues at all with it.   Also runs an incredibly long time playing FM on battery power.  

Could I also ask if you opted for the 8 or 16GB model? Wondering if 8 is enough given the £200 difference....

[kevhamster]

1 hour ago, Vlowman said:

Could I also ask if you opted for the 8 or 16GB model? Wondering if 8 is enough given the £200 difference....

8GB is ample for FM, regardless of whether you're playing on a Mac or a Windows PC.

[rsihn]

15 hours ago, Vlowman said:

Could I also ask if you opted for the 8 or 16GB model? Wondering if 8 is enough given the £200 difference....

Yeah, I've just got the base 8GB model with the 7 core GPU.   Works great.   

[Smurf]

Be great to know how many leagues/divisions/database size is being played.

Truly - most decent computers around the £999 can run the game at lots of leagues and large database for 10 seasons with no slow down.

 

Back to the OP. You can install on both your computers and save your file to the Cloud - play on both Windows and Mac - anytime you like. You just need to install Steam on both to play. 

 

[rsihn]

On 07/06/2021 at 08:01, Smurf said:

Be great to know how many leagues/divisions/database size is being played.

 

I've got 55k players in my save in 2034.  All of the big European leagues plus USA, Australia, and the rest of the UK. 

[Smurf]

13 hours ago, rsihn said:

I've got 55k players in my save in 2034.  All of the big European leagues plus USA, Australia, and the rest of the UK. 

England (all - 7 divisions?) 

Spain (La Liga any other? 3?)

Italy (serie A serie bany other? 3?)

Germany (Bundesligaany other? 2?)

France (Ligue 1 any other? 2?)

USA (1?)

Australia (1?)

 

18 leagues?

55k players - is that a medium database?

 

I'd expect most computers in that price range/spec to handle that easily.

[petr.faukner]

On 03/06/2021 at 04:45, rsihn said:

I run FM21 on a M1 Air.  Runs like a dream on high settings.   Doesn't heat up like my Intel MacBook Pro did.  No issues at all with it.   Also runs an incredibly long time playing FM on battery power.  

Hello, I bought MacBook Air M1 yesterday and want to play this game. I had bought it on steam and it can't open :(. Other games on steam are working well. Do you play also over steam? Thank you :)

[kristofer85]

On 19/06/2021 at 19:58, petr.faukner said:

Hello, I bought MacBook Air M1 yesterday and want to play this game. I had bought it on steam and it can't open :(. Other games on steam are working well. Do you play also over steam? Thank you :)

Not sure of your exact issue, but you may need to verify the game file. That's what I needed to do with mine.

Follow the instructions in this link: https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/solved-football-manager-2021-wont-launch/

[TopToffee]

On 19/06/2021 at 11:28, petr.faukner said:

Hello, I bought MacBook Air M1 yesterday and want to play this game. I had bought it on steam and it can't open :(. Other games on steam are working well. Do you play also over steam? Thank you

I verified game files (as shown above) and also turned off the steam overlay in steam preferences and it ran fine.

 

Actually I say “fine”…

I bought the base level MacBook Air yesterday (work emergency, my 2018 top of the line MacBook Pro packed in and we’re on a crunch in work, so was left with little option - I’d been planning to upgrade when the 2nd gen of “M” processor Pros are released in a few months…

Loaded up FM for the first time just this morning.

I am ASTONISHED at the performance. The speed is just incredible. The match engine runs on High and is absolutely buttery smooth. Running 13 ish nations on large DB  (~60k players) and the processing is lightning.

On top of that, I played for 5hrs this morning on battery power and only dropped to about 50%, and doesn’t get more than SLIGHTLY warm, despite no fan.

Honestly can’t get over this machine. I know any time Apple get mentioned in a forum there’s always the naysayers, but honestly, what they’ve done with these M1 processors is kind of crazy.

[Grifty]

1 hour ago, TopToffee said:

I verified game files (as shown above) and also turned off the steam overlay in steam preferences and it ran fine.

 

Actually I say “fine”…

I bought the base level MacBook Air yesterday (work emergency, my 2018 top of the line MacBook Pro packed in and we’re on a crunch in work, so was left with little option - I’d been planning to upgrade when the 2nd gen of “M” processor Pros are released in a few months…

Loaded up FM for the first time just this morning.

I am ASTONISHED at the performance. The speed is just incredible. The match engine runs on High and is absolutely buttery smooth. Running 13 ish nations on large DB  (~60k players) and the processing is lightning.

On top of that, I played for 5hrs this morning on battery power and only dropped to about 50%, and doesn’t get more than SLIGHTLY warm, despite no fan.

Honestly can’t get over this machine. I know any time Apple get mentioned in a forum there’s always the naysayers, but honestly, what they’ve done with these M1 processors is kind of crazy.

They can be tough to get used to but my Mac book is the best thing I’ve ever bought technology wise.

[TopToffee]

2 minutes ago, Grifty said:

They can be tough to get used to but my Mac book is the best thing I’ve ever bought technology wise.

Been using Macs since 2006 so no trouble getting used to it, but just the jump in performance (especially considering it was a switch from a top end Pro to a base model Air) is genuinely difficult to believe