diff --git a/.ci/build-mac-arm64.sh b/.ci/build-mac-arm64.sh
index d05b18150a0f..ff3c30e5ba90 100644
--- a/.ci/build-mac-arm64.sh
+++ b/.ci/build-mac-arm64.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh -ex
+
 brew update
-brew install -f --overwrite nasm ninja git p7zip create-dmg ccache pipenv llvm@16 sdl2 glew cmake molten-vk vulkan-headers faudio qt@5 ffmpeg
+brew install -f --overwrite nasm ninja git p7zip create-dmg ccache pipenv llvm@16 sdl2 glew cmake faudio qt@5 ffmpeg@6 molten-vk@1.2.4 vulkan-headers
+
 brew link -f llvm@16
 
 
@@ -10,41 +12,28 @@ export CC=clang
 
 export BREW_PATH;
 BREW_PATH="$(brew --prefix)"
-export BREW_BIN="/opt/homebrew/bin"
+export BREW_BIN="$BREW_PATH/bin"
 export BREW_SBIN="$BREW_PATH/sbin"
 export CMAKE_EXTRA_OPTS='-DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=AArch64;ARM'
-export PATH="$(brew --prefix llvm@16)/bin:$BREW_BIN:$BREW_SBIN:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin:$PATH"
+
+export PATH
+PATH="$(brew --prefix llvm@16)/bin:$BREW_BIN:$BREW_SBIN:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin:$PATH"
 export LDFLAGS="-L$BREW_PATH/lib -Wl,-rpath,$BREW_PATH/lib"
 export CPPFLAGS="-I$BREW_PATH/include"
 export LIBRARY_PATH="$BREW_PATH/lib"
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$BREW_PATH/lib"
-export Qt5_DIR="$(brew --prefix qt@5)/lib/cmake/Qt5"
+export Qt5_DIR
+Qt5_DIR="$(brew --prefix qt@5)/lib/cmake/Qt5"
+
 export VULKAN_SDK
 VULKAN_SDK="$(brew --prefix molten-vk)"
 ln -s "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libMoltenVK.dylib" "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libvulkan.dylib"
 export VK_ICD_FILENAMES="$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json"
 export LLVM_DIR
 LLVM_DIR="$(brew --prefix llvm@16)"
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/asmjit && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/cubeb && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/curl && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/flatbuffers && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/glslang && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/GPUOpen && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/hidapi && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/libpng && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/libsdl-org && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/libusb && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/miniupnp && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/pine && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/pugixml && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/rtmidi && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/SoundTouch && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/SPIRV && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/stblib && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/wolfssl && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/xxHash && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/yaml-cpp
+
+# exclude FAudio, SPIRV, moltenvk and LLVM from submodule update
+git submodule -q update --init --depth=1 --jobs=8 $(awk '/path/ && !/FAudio/ && !/MoltenVK && !/llvm/ && !/SPIRV/ { print $3 }' .gitmodules)
 
 # 3rdparty fixes
 sed -i '' "s/extern const double NSAppKitVersionNumber;/const double NSAppKitVersionNumber = 1343;/g" 3rdparty/hidapi/hidapi/mac/hid.c
@@ -58,9 +47,9 @@ mkdir build && cd build || exit 1
     -DLLVM_INCLUDE_UTILS=OFF -DLLVM_USE_PERF=OFF -DLLVM_ENABLE_Z3_SOLVER=OFF \
     -DUSE_NATIVE_INSTRUCTIONS=OFF \
     -DUSE_SYSTEM_FAUDIO=ON \
-    -DUSE_SYSTEM_MVK=ON \
+    -DUSE_SYSTEM_MVK=OFF \
     -DUSE_SYSTEM_SDL=ON \
-    -DUSE_SYSTEM_FFMPEG=ON \
+    -DUSE_SYSTEM_FFMPEG=OFF \
     -DPNG_ARM_NEON=on \
     $CMAKE_EXTRA_OPTS \
     -DLLVM_TARGET_ARCH="AArch64;ARM" -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 \
diff --git a/.ci/build-mac.sh b/.ci/build-mac.sh
index 7a05941b9349..509496057da2 100755
--- a/.ci/build-mac.sh
+++ b/.ci/build-mac.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,13 @@
 #!/bin/sh -ex
+
 brew install -f --overwrite nasm ninja git p7zip create-dmg ccache pipenv
+
 #/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license
 arch -x86_64 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
 arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew update
-arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew install -f --overwrite llvm@16 sdl2 glew cmake molten-vk vulkan-headers faudio
+arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew install -f --overwrite llvm@16 sdl2 glew cmake faudio moltenvk@1.2.4 vulkan-headers
 arch -x86_64 /usr/local/bin/brew link -f llvm@16
+
 #export MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=12.0
 export CXX=clang++
 export CC=clang
@@ -19,6 +22,7 @@ export CMAKE_EXTRA_OPTS='-DLLVM_TARGETS_TO_BUILD=X86'
 
 export WORKDIR;
 WORKDIR="$(pwd)"
+
 # Get Qt
 git clone https://github.com/engnr/qt-downloader.git
 cd qt-downloader
@@ -28,8 +32,6 @@ git checkout f52efee0f18668c6d6de2dec0234b8c4bc54c597
 cd ..
 
 export Qt5_DIR="$WORKDIR/qt-downloader/5.15.2/clang_64/lib/cmake/Qt5"
-
-
 export SDL2_DIR="$BREW_X64_PATH/opt/sdl2/lib/cmake/SDL2"
 
 export PATH="$BREW_X64_PATH/opt/llvm@16/bin:$WORKDIR/qt-downloader/5.15.2/clang_64/bin:$BREW_BIN:$BREW_SBIN:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/Library/Apple/usr/bin:$PATH"
@@ -37,32 +39,16 @@ export LDFLAGS="-L$BREW_X64_PATH/lib -Wl,-rpath,$BREW_X64_PATH/lib"
 export CPPFLAGS="-I$BREW_X64_PATH/include -msse -msse2 -mcx16 -no-pie"
 export LIBRARY_PATH="$BREW_X64_PATH/lib"
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$BREW_X64_PATH/lib"
+
 export VULKAN_SDK
 VULKAN_SDK="$BREW_X64_PATH/opt/molten-vk"
 ln -s "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libMoltenVK.dylib" "$VULKAN_SDK/lib/libvulkan.dylib"
 export VK_ICD_FILENAMES="$VULKAN_SDK/share/vulkan/icd.d/MoltenVK_icd.json"
+
 export LLVM_DIR
 LLVM_DIR="BREW_X64_PATH/opt/llvm@16"
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/asmjit && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/cubeb && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/curl && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/ffmpeg && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/flatbuffers && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/glslang && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/GPUOpen && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/hidapi && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/libpng  && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/libusb && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/miniupnp && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/pine && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/pugixml && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/rtmidi && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/SoundTouch && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/SPIRV && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/stblib && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/wolfssl && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/xxHash && \
-git submodule update --init ./3rdparty/yaml-cpp
+# exclude FAudio, SPIRV, moltenvk and LLVM from submodule update
+git submodule -q update --init --depth=1 --jobs=8 $(awk '/path/ && !/FAudio/ && !/MoltenVK && !/llvm/ && !/SPIRV/ { print $3 }' .gitmodules)
 
 # 3rdparty fixes
 sed -i '' "s/extern const double NSAppKitVersionNumber;/const double NSAppKitVersionNumber = 1343;/g" 3rdparty/hidapi/hidapi/mac/hid.c
@@ -85,10 +71,9 @@ mkdir build && cd build || exit 1
 "$BREW_PATH/bin/ninja"; build_status=$?;
 
 cd ..
-export BUILDING_FOR="X64"
 {   [ "$CI_HAS_ARTIFACTS" = "true" ];
 } && SHOULD_DEPLOY="true" || SHOULD_DEPLOY="false"
 
 if [ "$build_status" -eq 0 ] && [ "$SHOULD_DEPLOY" = "true" ]; then
     .ci/deploy-mac.sh
-fi
+fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.ci/deploy-mac.sh b/.ci/deploy-mac.sh
index 4fb60a18168c..8fcd033ae2c2 100755
--- a/.ci/deploy-mac.sh
+++ b/.ci/deploy-mac.sh
@@ -16,14 +16,33 @@ cd bin
 mkdir "rpcs3.app/Contents/lib/"
 
 # check if we are on ARM or x86_64
-if [ $BUILDING_FOR = "arm64" ]; then
+if [ "$BUILDING_FOR" = "arm64" ]; then
 	cp "/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm@16/lib/c++/libc++abi.1.0.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/lib/libc++abi.1.dylib"
+	# copy avfilter and avdevice as they are missing 
+	cp "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavfilter.7.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/libavfilter.7.dylib"
+	cp "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavdevice.60.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/libavdevice.60.dylib"
+	
+# we have ffmpeg libs bundled in the app bundle in rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks , now we need to change the rpath to point to it
+# this is needed because we are using a homebrewed ffmpeg for arm64, and the rpath points to the system ffmpeg
+# for example we want to point to rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/libavcodec.60.dylib
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavcodec.60.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libavcodec.60.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavdevice.60.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libavdevice.60.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavfilter.7.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libavfilter.7.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavformat.60.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libavformat.60.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libavutil.58.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libavutil.58.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libswresample.4.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libswresample.4.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib/libswscale.7.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libswscale.7.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+
+	# do the same for sdl2
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/sdl2/lib/libSDL2-2.0.0.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libSDL2-2.0.0.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
+	
+	# now faudio 
+	install_name_tool -change "/opt/homebrew/opt/faudio/lib/libFAudio.0.dylib" "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libFAudio.0.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
 
 
 else
 	cp "/usr/local/opt/llvm@16/lib/c++/libc++abi.1.0.dylib" "rpcs3.app/Contents/lib/libc++abi.1.dylib"
 fi
-
 rm -rf "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtPdf.framework" \
 "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtQml.framework" \
 "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtQmlModels.framework" \
@@ -33,6 +52,9 @@ rm -rf "rpcs3.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtPdf.framework" \
 "rpcs3.app/Contents/Plugins/virtualkeyboard" \
 "rpcs3.app/Contents/Resources/git"
 
+
+# codesign it 
+codesign --force --deep --sign - "rpcs3.app/Contents/MacOS/rpcs3"
 # Need to do this rename hack due to case insensitive filesystem
 mv rpcs3.app RPCS3_.app
 mv RPCS3_.app RPCS3.app