ASUS Draws Fire for Pitting Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Against Apple’s M5 in a Non-Native Game and Rebranding Memory Bandwidth as “Hyper Speed Transfer”
Native gaming on macOS is improving, but it still trails Windows in both the size of its game library and the number of titles that run without workarounds. That’s why a recent performance claim from ASUS is raising eyebrows among gamers and laptop shoppers alike.
On the Zenbook A16 product page, ASUS promotes its upcoming Zenbook A16 powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, claiming it delivers up to 1.31x higher frame rates than Apple’s M5 MacBook Pro in Diablo IV. At first glance, that sounds like a major win. The problem is the comparison is built around a game that isn’t natively available on macOS.
Diablo IV does not have a native macOS version, which means it must be played through an emulation or compatibility layer such as CrossOver. And that detail matters. Running a Windows game through an emulation-style compatibility layer typically comes with performance overhead. How big that performance hit is can vary depending on the game and how optimized the compatibility layer is, but it almost always means the Mac isn’t getting “native” performance. Comparing a Windows-on-ARM laptop running the game normally to a Mac running the same title through a compatibility layer isn’t an apples-to-apples matchup, yet ASUS’ slide presentation treats it like one.
ASUS also appears to muddle the discussion around memory performance. In its marketing language, the company suggests its system has a higher “transfer rate” than Apple’s M5 MacBook Pro by referencing unified memory bandwidth. Unified memory bandwidth, popularized in consumer marketing by Apple Silicon, refers to how quickly different parts of a system-on-a-chip like the CPU and GPU can access a shared pool of memory. It is not the same thing as general storage transfer speeds or a simple “hyperspeed transfer” metric.
It’s also important context that Apple’s advertised memory bandwidth figure, such as 153GB/s for the M5, is a theoretical peak. Real-world applications rarely hit that maximum due to bottlenecks and workload limitations. Marketing a bandwidth number as a direct real-world transfer advantage can easily mislead readers who aren’t deep into hardware terminology.
There’s another angle that makes the comparison feel selective: if ASUS wanted a more direct fight at the same tier, it would compare the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme against an M5 Pro-class chip rather than the standard M5 configuration. That would better match the kind of “extreme” branding and performance expectations being hinted at, but that’s not the matchup being promoted.
On the CPU performance side, ASUS includes Geekbench 6 results in its slides, but the bigger takeaway is that Apple’s M5 lineup remains highly competitive across the stack. In fact, the M5 described as more “middle of the pack” performs close enough to higher-tier variants to cast doubt on the idea that the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme dominates across the board.
One more key detail: laptops powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme still haven’t broadly arrived in consumers’ hands, so independent testing and real-world gaming verification aren’t available yet. Meanwhile, the M5 MacBook Pro is already on sale in some configurations, with the 16GB unified memory and 512GB SSD model reportedly dropping to around $1,399.99 after discounts. That puts immediate pricing pressure on any upcoming competitors, especially if their bold performance claims depend on unfair testing conditions.
The bigger lesson for shoppers is simple: when you see gaming comparisons between Windows laptops and Macs, always check whether the game is running natively on both systems. If one platform is relying on a compatibility layer, the benchmark may reflect the overhead of emulation rather than the true capabilities of the hardware.
