The latest version 1.1.71 of the futuristic business simulation Factorio from the Prague-based Czech development studio Wube Software runs natively for the first time on the M2 processor and the M1 processors from Apple Silicon, which are based on the Arm64 architecture. Two new builds will be available for this in the future.
Apple Silicon gets a native build
The developers at Wube Software have for the first time created a native Arm64 build for the Systems-on-a -Chip provided by Apple Silicon. Unsurprisingly, the native version runs much more efficiently than the x86 emulation via Rosetta.
The manufacturer benchmarks attest the native Arm64 build 19 to 25 percent better performance than the x86 build and significantly better efficiency, as the development studio announced on its official website.
Factorio runs natively with up to 25% more FPS
Factorio 1.1.71 was tested on macOS 10.13.6 (“High Sierra”), 12.6.1 (“Monterey”) and 13.0 (“Ventura”).
- Overall, we observed that the arm64 version of Factorio performed 19%-25% better in our benchmarks than the x86_64 version.
- We even compared runs between macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra, 12.6.1 Monterey, and 13.0 Ventura.
- We observed no notable performance difference between these OS versions. The differences we observed were all less than 10% and did not consistently favor any particular version.
- In addition to running benchmarks, I did a couple of very unscientific tests on my laptop to check FPS and energy consumption: < ul class="text-ul text-width">
- x86_64: Average FPS: 37; Energy Impact: 5,270
- arm64: Average FPS: 45; Energy Impact: 4,545
Wube Software
The native build for Apple Silicon achieves an average of 20 to 25 percent more frames per second on the M1 and the M1 Max, which results on the one hand from the high performance of the respective SoC and on the other hand from the omission of the emulation layer. Efficiency increases by 15 to 20 percent.
Windows, macOS, Linux and Nintendo Switch
The economic simulation, which left Early Access in August 2020 and was released for Windows, macOS and Linux and later also for the Nintendo Switch, will in future be made available as a build for Apple x86 and Arm64.
More information can be found on the game's official website and extensive wiki. Assistance is offered in the forum, while players can also access an extensive mod portal.
“The editors would like to thank team and community member “Mordenkainen” for the tip, which led to this message.”