No Oculus Rift for the Mac, but your Mac couldn't handle it anyway
Bummer. But hey, Macs are so great, they can even run Windows. You can just use Boot Camp, launch Windows, and you're all set to run the Oculus VR. Right
Um, probably not. In case you didn't click the above link to actually see the PC specs, here they are.
The story behind the story:Hayden Dingman points out at our sister site, PCWorld, that from a PC perspective, these are steep specs but within reach of PC users. But this is Macworld, and here's the Mac perspective: it's a different story for Mac users. Rift requires a desktop-level graphics processor, and almost all Macs rely on mobile graphics processors. Therefore, no Rift support on the Mac, even if you are using Boot Camp to run Windows.
Foiled by mobile GPUs
In his blog post, Binstock wrote, "almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec, though upcoming mobile GPUs may be able to support this level of performance."
The Mac mini, MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro use Intel integrated graphics, which doesn't have the oomph Rift requires. The 15-inch MacBook Pro and the standard iMacs use mobile graphic processors that don't have the processing power of the desktop graphic cards in Rift's specs. Even the Retina iMac uses a mobile GPU, the AMD Radeon R9 M290X.
The only Mac in Apple current lineup that could be able to run Rift is the Mac Pro. It comes with a dual workstation-level AMD FirePro cards that aren't necessarily optimized for gaming.
Apple is dedicated to thin, lightweight computers, so chances are mobile graphics processors in Macs are here to stay. In other words, you're probably not going to see a consumer-level Mac made that would meet Rift's demands anytime soon. Maybe when future mobile GPUs match the performance of today's desktop GPUs, we could see Rift on the Mac. By then, Rift will be optimized and have less demanding specs.