Asahi Linux distro can now run AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077 or The Witcher 3 on Apple Silicon chips

Highly anticipated: A few years after introducing Linux support for Apple's custom-designed Arm chips, Asahi developers are now shifting their focus to gaming. Getting modern Windows games to run on Apple Silicon isn't exactly a straightforward task, but the devs are clearly enjoying the challenge.

Asahi Linux is an ambitious project aimed at bringing a "polished" Linux experience to Apple Silicon Macs. The system was created by Hector Martin, known as "Marcan," a renowned Spanish hacker who reverse-engineered Apple's new SoCs. Marcan has a long-standing interest in gaming and hacking home consoles like the PS4 and Wii.

Asahi developer Alyssa Rosenzweig recently announced that gaming on Linux is finally a reality for M1-based systems. Rosenzweig, who has been developing the graphics drivers for Asahi, detailed the challenges the team faced in achieving this milestone, noting the work will improve support for other non-gaming x86 applications as well.

Windows games are typically x86 binaries that render graphics through DirectX APIs, Rosenzweig explained, while Asahi's goal is to make these binaries run on Arm Linux using Vulkan. This requires a significant amount of emulation overhead, which is why the most demanding games need 16GB of system memory to run properly.

Asahi's new gaming stack consists of three key components: Fex, an x86 ISA emulator for Arm; Wine, which translates Windows APIs to Linux; and the DXVK + vkd3d-proton combo to convert DirectX calls to Vulkan. Beyond graphics APIs, Windows applications also handle memory management differently, particularly when it comes to page sizes, adding another layer of complexity.

Every Windows game running on Asahi is virtualized through a compact virtual machine, thanks to the muvm project. Game content and inputs are passed through devices like the GPU and controller, allowing both the hardware and the game to function smoothly. Gamers can finally play Fallout 4 on their brand-new Apple Silicon machine, Rosenzweig noted.

Running complex graphics engines, such as DirectX, through an advanced Vulkan driver presents a significant challenge, but progress is being made quickly. The official Fedora-based Linux distro, Fedora Asahi Remix, now supports demanding, last-gen games like Control, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077. While many games are already playable, newer AAA titles still struggle to achieve 60fps-level smoothness.

"Correctness comes first. Performance improves next. Indie games like Hollow Knight do run full speed," Rosenzweig said.