Apple has positioned its iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max as powerhouses for mobile gaming, primarily thanks to the sophisticated A18 Pro chipset. This advanced processor boasts a 6-core GPU that Apple claims is not only faster than the A17 Pro but also offers a substantial leap in performance, allowing it to render hardware-accelerated ray tracing up to 200 percent faster than before. This should theoretically mean a significant improvement in framerates for AAA games, right? Well, the reality is a bit more nuanced.
While these devices can indeed run games like Alien Isolation natively, the performance doesn’t match what you might expect from more powerful gaming PCs or consoles. A title as old as Alien Isolation, released a decade ago, struggles to maintain performance above 30FPS at its native resolution.
However, there’s hope: lowering the resolution lets Alien Isolation run at a smooth 60FPS, demonstrating the A18 Pro’s capability. This doesn’t change the fact that the A18 Pro impressively handles AAA games originally designed for more powerful systems, despite some limitations. Reviewing the gaming experience on an iPhone 16 Pro Max with MrMacRightPlus revealed that while the game runs, it doesn’t perform optimally.
Alien Isolation, free for the first two missions on Apple’s App Store, was put through its paces. Without many in-game video settings to tweak, gamers only have the ‘Graphics Preset’ option to choose between performance and visual fidelity. The ‘Graphics’ mode runs the game at a crisp 2,796 x 1,290 resolution but caps the framerate at 30FPS. Alternatively, the ‘Performance’ mode downgrades the resolution to 2,097 x 967 but boosts the framerate to a stable 60FPS.
However, a noteworthy caveat is that during testing, the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s temperature soared to 49.7 degrees Celsius, hinting at the device working its limits. Interestingly, no upscaling options, such as MetalFX, were available in the game settings, likely because these technologies weren’t available when the game first launched in 2014. Despite these constraints, it’s still a marvel that a game of this caliber can run on a smartphone.
For iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max owners eager to dive into such games, enhancing the experience with the Backbone One game controller is a smart move. This accessory, priced at $99.99 on Amazon, transforms your device into a more ergonomic and enjoyable gaming handheld with dedicated buttons.
Despite the limitations, the gaming potential of the iPhone 16 Pro series is clear, offering a promising canvas for future mobile gaming advancements. If you’re a mobile gamer or simply curious, it’s worth exploring what Apple’s latest devices can do in the gaming realm.
