Macs, in general, are not known for playing games. It is because PCs have a clear dominance when it comes to gaming. But after 2006 when Mac changed to Intel Processors, the gaming abilities of Mac started to increase. In this article, we will discuss how to play games on a Mac.
Apple and Gaming
Aug 29, 2020 How To Run Windows On A Mac & Play PC Games Using Boot Camp Mac owners can use a built-in tool to run Windows on their computer and then unlock access to PC games, Windows programs, and extra features. By Gabe Cameron Aug 29, 2020 Apple provides Mac users with built-in software that can manually run Windows on their Mac computer. GeForce NOW Instantly transforms nearly any laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of. Instantly play the most demanding PC games and seamlessly play across your devices. If you really want to play PC games to the best of your hardware's capability, you'll want to install Windows on your Mac using Boot Camp (unless you have an ARM-based Mac, which won't support Boot. Here's everything you need to know about how to play PC games on a Mac. Pick a Platform. Because I didn't have the budget to buy an Xbox or a PC, the only way I could play Cuphead.
It is a fact that we need to accept that Apple and games are two words that really do not go well with each other. From the very beginning, Mac has never been able to gain a strong position in the gaming world. Macs were stronger in terms of performance, but gaming was still a huge question mark. But in the last decade, there was a drastic change, and the tide is turning the other way.
Mac App Store
Roughly speaking there are more than 5000 games on the Mac App Store. Finding the games in the App Store is the simplest way to play games on a Mac. There are a lot of options that you can choose from. Do not be surprised if you come across some names that you are familiar with. All you need to do is search for the games that you want, and the App store displays the results based on the availability of the particular game. If you are searching for something new, there are good possibilities that you might not find one. It is because the game developers generally develop the games for PC as it is a comparatively bigger market. It will take a minimum of six months to one year for you find the game in the App Store after the launch.
Installing a game
If you are a person, who has already used the App Store or familiar with its functionality you know how easy it is to install a game from the App Store. All you need to do is a simple search for the game and select the tile that appears on the results. There is no manual installation, it starts downloading and is saved on your device. Once you have purchased it, you can also install the game in other Apple devices that have the same Apple ID.
Performance check
If you are running some heavy application simultaneously while playing games, it is necessary that you need to check the performance. It is because there are good possibilities that you are pushing the limits of the device which might affect the overall performance.
To check the performance you need to launch the task manager mac. It is called as the activity monitor in Mac. To launch the activity monitor follow the instructions. Select the launch pad and then click the utility options and then click the Activity Monitor. When the activity monitor is launched, you will have a lot of options. To display the current CPU usage, choose window option and select CPU usage. To see the performance graph choose View, Dock Icon and select the option Show CPU usage.
Things you might encounter while playing games in Mac
These are some of the common things that you need to go through while playing games in a Mac. They are lack of major titles and lack of performance.
Lack of major tiles
As mentioned earlier, in the present situation game developers are very much interested in designing games for PCs. So normally the new games are not available for Mac.
Lack of performance
In general, Macs are not built for gaming purposes. The normal affordable Mac does not have a separate graphics card. Only the high-end Macs that cost more than 1500 dollars have a separate graphics card. So if you are playing a heavy game that demands a lot of graphics power you are more likely to experience a lot of interruptions during the game.
One of the first things a lot of people look for, once they get over the ‘newness’ of unboxing a new MacBook and switching on OS X for the first time, is how they can play their favorite games on Mac. We’ll help you figure out how to do it.
Traditionally, Macs were not known for their gaming prowess. It wasn’t uncommon for Mac owners to own a Windows-powered PC explicitly for gaming – you’d use your MacBook (or PowerBook!) for work and relaxation, then boot up your Windows PC when you wanted to sit down and shoot things. For the most part, it worked really well. A few games were ported over, but never very many. That all began to change when Apple switched the processors found inside of Mac computers. Not only could Windows be installed, but major game studios brought some of their titles over. World of Warcraft became a huge seller on the Mac.
The Best Way to Get Games for Mac? Steam.
A few years ago, Valve sent waves through the Mac world when they announced that they were planning to port their Steam video game store / distribution channel / social network to OS X. Valve pushed devs to port titles over to the Apple platform, and now there are hundred or even thousands of games running in the Mac version of Steam (of the 315 games in my Steam account, 176 of them are Mac compatible).
The easiest way to get started with a few games for Mac is to use Steam. If you’re a PC gamer, chances are you’ve bought more than a few Steam titles – and it’s likely some of those support the Mac at the same time; Valve doesn’t charge extra for non-Windows versions of their games.
But for Mac gamers, Steam is more than just a way to find Mac-compatible games. It’s also a way to play any game in your entire library, even if it’s Windows-only. It’s thanks to a newer technology from Valve known as In-Home Streaming.
Here’s the bad news, upfront: you still need a Windows PC for this to work. Preferably a good one, but any recent computer will do. In-Home Streaming works by actually running the game on your Windows PC, then routing the video over the network to your Mac.
Setting it up is actually pretty simple. Make sure your gaming desktop is attached to your network via an Ethernet cable. You want it to be plugged directly in rather than relying on wireless access. Next, download and install Steam on your Windows computer, and make sure the games you want to play are installed, configured, and have been launched at least once. Sometimes running a game for the first time causes issues when you’re trying to stream it elsewhere in the house.
Next, go to your Mac and download and install a copy of Steam there, too, if you haven’t already. Like with the gaming PC, your Mac will stream games better if it’s hardwired into your network. If that’s not possible, you can use your wireless network – but you should be running an 802.11ac network, and you should make sure you have a strong signal (even then, you might find some issues with playing really fast twitch shooters).
Log in with your Steam account credentials on both computers, and you should be good to go – if you don’t see all of your Windows games (at least, the ones that are installed on your gaming PC) available on your Mac, check the Steam settings on both computers and make sure that the ‘Enable streaming’ box is checked.
Steam’s implementation of game streaming works extremely well on most titles. First person shooters, especially if you’re into multiplayer, may prove problematic thanks to increases in latency.
Not every Mac game is available on Steam.
A number of high-profile publishers have gotten uncomfortable with the amount of power Steam was building up and decided to roll with their own game distribution services. Fortunately, many of them have their own Mac ports.
Games you won’t find on Steam, but can run on your Mac include Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Diablo III. Games you won’t find on Steam and are also Windows-only include most of the EA stable, with Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect: Andromeda (likely), Mirror’s Edge, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and more.
For this latter category, Steam may yet be able to help you out. For any games distributed via EA’s Origin service, you’ll need to download and have the Origin client installed and running – but you can still add them to your Steam library. Steam lets gamers add these non-Steam titles to their library for a couple of reasons: it gives them access to the Steam overlay and web browser in full-screen mode, and it lets your friends see what games you’re playing.
In-Home Streaming isn’t officially supported on non-Steam titles that you add to your library, but some games will work fine; you’ll need to experiment and see. To add some of these non-Steam, non-Mac titles, go up to the ‘Games’ menu on your gaming PC, and select ‘Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library’. A window will pop up listing a bunch of programs from your computer; scroll through to find the one you want, click on it to highlight, then click OK.
Depending on which Apple computer you’re using, you might wish to add non-Steam games to your Steam library and try to stream them even if they have native Mac clients; your gaming PC is likely going to play them at a much higher quality.
Don’t forget: Your Mac is an excellent Windows PC.
A common refrain you’ll find among tech sites is that an Apple MacBook or iMac will often be one of the best Windows computers you can buy. Thanks to Apple’s Boot Camp assistant, it’s actually pretty easy to install Windows on your Mac, and use either Windows or OS X, depending on what it is you want to do.
It’s a great way to run software that is Windows-only and can’t be virtualized, which is an apt way to describe many modern games. It might be a good idea to try even if you want to play an app that has a Mac client: some tests have shown a substantial frame rate increase by running the Windows version of a game over the Mac version – even on the exact same computer.
The company has a great support page (here) detailing how to go about installing Windows 10 on your MacBook or iMac. It boils down to updating your Mac software, installing Windows, and then updating drivers – pretty simple, in all.
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