HighballWhich renderer to use
Highball can run each game through three different Direct3D translation layers. This is what the database knows for this title — empty rows are open questions, not failures.
| Renderer | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| DXVKDirect3D 9-11 over Vulkan | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
No dated Highball run yet. When one lands it records the renderer, the engine build and the macOS version it was seen on — which is what stops a verdict quietly rotting. Send one.
Notes
Reported perfect on Wine's own Direct3D over a 40-minute session on an M4 with the Wine 11 engine r9. Whether the default DXMT mode also works is not recorded, so the page sets no mode.
Provenance
Reported by balumn (highball-db#425, 2026-10-09), Apple M4, macOS 26.2, Highball 0.9.35, engine x64-crossover26.3-r9, Wine's own Direct3D (wined3d), rated 5 of 5 after 40 minutes, no Steam app id given. Not verified by the maintainer.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) work on Mac?
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. This comes from community reports rather than a Highball test run, so treat it as a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.