Gaming on Mac: how to get the perfect setup

Mac gaming experience improvement guide: Say goodbye to performance bottlenecks and play games!

Mac computers are known for their superior performance and design, but gaming performance has long failed to be its advantage. However, as the number of gamers around the world approaches 3 billion, Apple is struggling to catch up. The latest MacBooks equipped with M1, M2 and M3 chips already have excellent gaming performance.

Nevertheless, some presets are still necessary. I consulted my fellow gamers on how to optimize gaming performance on Macs and what methods can help their devices perform at their best. Their tips (and their favorite game titles in case you need some ideas for next game night) are collected in this post.

Common Mac game problems	Solution
Macs overheat frequently	Use iStat Menus to manually adjust the fan speed.
AirPods and controller performance issues	Upgrade your Mac to the latest macOS Sonoma and use game mode to prioritize CPU and GPU resources.
Game delay and shutdown issues	Use iStat Menus to manage background activities to reduce RAM or CPU load.
Insufficient storage space to install and update games	Install CleanMyMac X to clean up space on your Mac.
Hardware unstable	Install Disk Drill to analyze hard disk metrics to avoid hardware problems.
Game power consumption issues	Install Endurance to extend battery life by up to 20%.
Online game delays and slow game updates	Install WiFi Explorer to identify channel conflicts and overwrite issues on the network.
Game security vulnerabilities	Install ClearVPN to enhance game security, reduce latency and access geo-constrained games.
System and application interference	Install One Switch Quick Access and Mute MacOS Features.
Game resolution issues	Install DisplayBuddy Quick Access and Control Display Settings.

How to prepare your Mac for performance enhancement?

Clean up your Mac with CleanMyMac X, delete unnecessary files and applications, and improve its overall performance. Get it on Setapp.

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Is MacBook suitable for gaming: Advantages and limitations?

Traditionally, Mac computers are not relevant to gaming: Intel Macs lack the discrete graphics performance that handles modern gaming, and they have always been harder to upgrade than PCs. Therefore, the Mac version of popular games is not on the priority list of game developers.

I would say that two or three years ago there were still some restrictions depending on whether you are using Intel (insufficient graphics card capabilities) or M series (with limited gaming directory compared to Windows and Intel-based Mac versions). I remember having problems running The Witcher 3 and Civilization VI on my M1 Mac. But now things are much better. I believe that with the rise in Mac sales in recent years, it is expected that the number of Mac games will increase rapidly. Dan, Setapp software engineer's favorite game: "No Man's Sky"

So, that doesn't mean you can't do it successfully if you want to relax with your game on your Mac. As long as your model has the correct hardware specifications and knows where to find games that support macOS, you should be ready to enjoy gaming on your Mac.

Speaking of the latter, let’s talk about Steam, the world’s largest gaming platform, which includes games like Call of Duty, DOTA, Counter-Strike, and The Lambs. You can download Steam games for Mac since 2010, not to mention that the platform currently has more game options available to Mac than the App Store.

Additionally, the gaming performance of Mac is changing: With the arrival of the first M1 chip Mac in 2020, and later the M2 and M3 chips (launched in 2022 and 2023, respectively), Mac is now fully capable of handling graphics-intensive AAA games at levels that older Intel Macs cannot achieve.

Tip If you are curious, you can even understand how your Mac performs compared to your gaming computer. To do this, you need an application that runs benchmarks. Check out the screenshot: I used a medium-level gaming PC as a baseline and you can see that my MacBook Air M2 (2022) has lagged behind. The test is run using Novabench.

What to do with games on your Mac

Being able to play modern fast-paced games on a Mac requires a lot of power—first of the graphics card and processor. When questioning whether a Mac is suitable for gaming, here are what you need to know:

• GPU: If your game has a detailed 3D gaming environment, look for a powerful graphics processor.
• CPU: A fast CPU will help with your streaming capabilities, frame rates and scalable gaming elements – investing in the most powerful CPU you can afford.
• RAM: 8 GB is the minimum value. If possible, choose more.
• SSD: A SSD with reasonable capacity will provide faster load times. 1 TB SSD may be a wise choice.

How to prepare for a Mac for gaming

In addition to the right hardware, playing games on a MacBook requires some steps to enhance the gaming performance of your Mac. After adjusting the settings below, you can expect Mac games to run smoothly.

Make sure your Mac is always cooled properly

The most important tip every gamer mentioned by interviewed is to never let your Mac overheat. When your Mac handles processor-intensive games, it requires fan power to avoid overheating. Otherwise, your processor will have to slow down to dissipate heat and all your Mac gaming fun will be affected.

The good news is that you can control the overheating problem of your Mac.

My usual practice is to run the game for about 20 minutes while my Mac monitors key performance metrics. After that, I check the temperature level and if I notice that the Mac tends to overheat, I manually adjust the fan speed using a dedicated app. Alexandra, Setapp designer's favorite game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

A set of apps you can use to follow this MacBook game setup method includes CleanMyMac X and iStat Menus (by the way, these apps can solve many gamer problems – you'll see later).

The CleanMyMac X menu bar monitor contains information about the Mac's key performance metrics (RAM, CPU load, disk space, battery, etc.) and reports CPU temperature changes every second, and warns when the processor overheats.

If you know your Mac tends to overheat after monitoring games on your Mac for a while, you can manually adjust the fan speed using the iStat Menus:

1. Download iStat Menus and select the sensor data to display in the menu bar.
2. Click the sensor icon ➙ Fan in the menu bar.
3. Use the exhaust slider in the drop-down menu to enhance fan activity.
4. Click Edit Fan Rules to apply custom fan rules as needed.

Monitor Mac's backend activities

To ensure that your Mac games don't have shutdowns or delays, it's best to be aware of any background processes that may take up RAM or CPU. This way, if something is slowing down, you can exit it in time to save the game.

You can use macOS built-in activity monitor to overview processes and applications that use the most memory, CPU, and disk resources on your Mac. The only problem with using it while playing Mac games is that it cannot be tracked at the same time. The aforementioned iStat Menus is a great alternative performance monitor, which is located in your menu bar.

iStat Menus collects comprehensive real-time system data and displays detailed statistics where you can see. The app is very lightweight to your system and can quickly help you understand the types of issues that may affect your gameplay on your Mac (whether it's a bad fan or a CPU-intensive application running in the background).

Upgrade to the latest macOS

Each upgrade brings some improvements and bug fixes. For example, macOS Sonoma introduced a completely new game mode that specifically prioritizes CPU and GPU resources for games. macOS Sequoia's second-generation game porting toolkit should make it easier for developers to port Windows games to macOS.

Game mode minimizes backend tasks that may affect game performance and ensures that your gaming experience remains smooth and uninterrupted. It also addresses latency issues when using accessories like AirPods and game controllers, giving you a seamless and responsive gaming experience.

Game mode will automatically turn on when you start the game. A notification will appear to let you know it is turned on.

Clean the disk to make room for Mac games

Everyone knows that deleting unnecessary files on your Mac can help speed it up. Apart from that, you need enough space to download Mac games. Even if you play games online, the game still needs space for cache and buffering. All of my respondents agree: Even the best Mac games start to delay when you run out of disk space or memory.

If I plan to do a game day, I always make sure to clean up my Mac as much as possible. I certainly won't delete anything important, but I'll clean up system junk files (which can take up several GB of disk space), delete old, unused files, and uninstall unnecessary applications. This helped create the cleanest possible environment for my game to run smoothly. Max, Setapp QA engineer's favorite game: The Witcher 3

You can perform these tasks manually (in this case, don't forget to delete the remaining files). Alternatively, you can use CleanMyMac X, which is the application I previously recommended for monitoring Mac performance.

CleanMyMac X can clean up the system junk files, email attachments, and junk files stored in different applications on the Mac. Even better, the app's smart scan feature will automatically find all files you can safely delete, conduct in-depth checks on viruses and system vulnerabilities, and make suggestions to increase your Mac's speed.

Another tool that quickly identifies files that take up the most space on your hard drive and helps you recycle that resource is Disk Drill.

Disk Drill is a disk space analyzer that tracks various metrics of hard disk reliability so that you can avoid hardware issues before they can cause them. It is very helpful when you want to back up your data, clean up, or relocate files directly from within your application.

Helps Mac's battery last longer

If you play games on your MacBook, especially a slightly older MacBook, the battery can easily let you down and end your game unexpectedly.

Try to lower the display brightness, use headphones (they consume less battery than speakers), exit or pause inactive applications running in the background, or ask Endurance to do all of these automatically.

Endurance can help extend battery life by up to 20%, handling applications that use too much power and pausing unnecessary backend services.

Ensure reliable network connection

Network performance is essential for playing games on a MacBook, and players measure their quality by the actual transfer time (called ping rate) from your Mac to the server and from the server to the small amount of data sets returned to you — rather than the internet speed released by the provider.

You can test the ping rate in the terminal: just type the ping, then enter the space and the game domain name, and press Enter (any value below 50 milliseconds is considered suitable for playing games on your Mac).

In my experience, the network performance requirements of ordinary players and professional players are very different. For the average player, about 40 milliseconds of ping, 25 Mbps download speed and 3 Mbps upload speed are enough. For professional players, the requirements are much higher. I recommend ping values ​​below 10-20ms, download speeds at least 100 Mbps and upload speeds at 10 to 20 Mbps. In addition, zero packet loss rate will be perfect. Max, Setapp QA Engineer

In addition to the physical distance between you and the game server, ping speed is also affected by other traffic on the network and overlapping channels competing for bandwidth. So if you want to improve it, look for a dedicated network analyzer to measure signal-to-noise ratio, such as WiFi Explorer.

WiFi Explorer scans your network environment and helps you identify channel conflicts and coverage issues. It displays survey results as visual charts so that you can evaluate the situation at a glance and provide basic wireless troubleshooting advice that can be performed without seeking professional help.

Use a VPN to enhance your Mac gaming experience

A great VPN game protects you from DDoS attacks, reduces the risk of being maliciously harassed, allows you to play games safely on public Wi-Fi, helps you avoid bandwidth limitations, allows you to play geo-restricted games, allows you to play some new Mac games ahead of time, and in some cases, even lowers the ping rate. You just need to choose the right VPN.

Sometimes it's a good idea to use a VPN while playing games, but remember that most VPNs will slow down your connection. So be aware of your connection speed and the tools you use. Andrew, Setapp marketers' favorite game: World of Warcraft

I recommend you try ClearVPN, a great one-click solution that offers bank-level security and ready-to-use VPN shortcuts that you can personalize. It automatically connects you to the best idle server available, doesn't complicate things with technical terms, and just securely encrypts all in and out traffic to connect to content anywhere in the world.

Disable notifications

Another thing to enhance game performance when playing games on your Mac is to make sure you are not disturbed by system and application notifications.

You can disable notifications individually for each application used in your Mac's system settings (Apple menu ➙ System Settings ➙ Notifications).

You can also turn off all notifications immediately by clicking the One Switch menu bar icon, which helps you quickly access macOS features that are important to you: hide the desktop icon, turn on dark mode, connect AirPods to your Mac, or make sure your game time is not disturbed.

Optimize display settings

To optimize the game display effect of Mac, you need to pay attention to the following settings in the Mac system settings (Apple menu ➙ System Settings ➙ Display):

• Refresh rate: Display the number of times the monitor updates the displayed image in one second. Make sure to set it to the highest available value.
• Resolution: Select the default value for display.

If you're playing games on a Mac with a Retina display, try the low resolution mode in the game settings to significantly improve gaming performance: the game resolution will be halved, making almost everything else faster, while the default settings of your pixel-intensive Retina display will compensate for image quality. Dan, Setapp software engineer

To access monitoring settings directly and quickly from the menu bar, try One Switch or DisplayBuddy (for controlling external displays).

Please read also:

• Can I play Steam games on my Mac?
• Best Games MacBook
• Play Fortnite on Mac
• Download the Steam game for Mac

Where to get games for Mac?

The main resources for creating a personal game library on your Mac are:

• macOS games on the main gaming platforms (see Steam, GOG, Blizzard's Battle.net, Epic, etc.).
• Game category in the App Store (if you are using an Apple Silicon Mac, be sure to try games marked "designed for iPhone" or "designed for iPad").
• Cloud gaming (Xbox cloud gaming, Nvidia GeForce NOW and Amazon Luna).

Also, if you want to occasionally view content outside of your Mac game library, feel free to use ClearVPN to access Amazon Prime UK or the US. While there is no dedicated gaming service, you can still enjoy a rotation free game choice as part of Prime member benefits.

Choose the best Mac gaming computer

If you want a powerful Mac to run graphics-intensive games, the general idea is to choose M2 Pro, M2 Max, M2 Ultra, M3 Pro and M3 Max. With that in mind, my first consideration will be the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Max, M2 Pro, M3 Max or M3 Pro chips. Even though they are not designed specifically for high-performance gaming, these two products make strong claims for the title of "Best Mac Gaming Computer":

• The 14-inch MacBook Pro mid-range model with the M2 Pro chip comes with a 1 TB SSD, a 12-core CPU and a 19-core GPU.
• The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Max chip is expensive, but it comes with a 30-core GPU and 32GB of RAM.
• 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro chip , 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 8GB unified memory and 1TB SSD storage space.
• Equipped with the M3 Max , the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a powerful machine with a 14-core CPU, 30-core GPU, 36GB of unified memory and 1TB of SSD storage.

If you are willing to consider gaming configurations with external large screen monitors, my next suggestion applies:

• Apple has launched the Mac mini M2 Pro as a showcase gaming model, and it is the cheapest way to get a powerful enough Mac to handle modern AAA games (starting from a 10-core CPU, a 16-core GPU, and 512 GB of SSD storage, which can be configured to up to 8 TB).
• The Mac Studio M2 Max is a model that offers a particularly powerful setup for Mac games, with up to 38 cores of GPU and up to 96 GB of RAM.

Get ready for Mac games

If you never think of a Mac as a gaming device, but want to try playing games – I hope I can help you find that Mac games can be very fun. It's not difficult to learn how to optimize your Mac for gaming, as long as you have the right tool set to perform tweaks:

• Free up space for gaming on your Mac with CleanMyMac X.
• Use iStat Menus to monitor your Mac's backend activity.
• Use WiFi Explorer to ensure a stable network connection.
• Use Endurance to extend battery life.
• Use ClearVPN to access global gaming content.

All in all, my main advice is to see if you can use existing settings to enhance your gaming performance before deciding whether you need to find the best Mac gaming computer.

You can try all the above apps for free with Setapp’s seven-day trial, a top-notch iOS and macOS productivity app platform. Learn how to optimize your Mac for gaming and see over 250 other options to improve your performance.

FAQ

Is the gaming experience better on macOS Sonoma?

Yes, Apple’s new game mode features introduced in its new macOS Sonoma are designed to enhance gaming performance on Macs. Game mode is automatically activated when you turn on the game, assigning all game processes to the highest CPU and GPU priority. This acts as a true gaming booster for Mac, offering smoother frame rates and improved wireless connectivity (think AirPods and controllers perfectly synced with gaming).

Can Steam run on Mac?

Yes, Steam supports Macs. But be prepared, not all Mac-compatible games will run just as smoothly on your Mac: some Steam games, for example, can only run with the Rosetta 2 conversion on Apple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs (which usually means some performance limitations).

Tip: Find the Steam Curator page and compiled wiki to see how your favorite Steam game for Mac works on your specific Mac model.

Is the MacBook M1 suitable for gaming?

While the M1 Mac has a much better graphics capability than the older Intel-based Macs, the MacBook M1 isn't your best gaming Mac in modern fast-paced AAA games.

On the other hand, the M1 performs well in games optimized for native performance of the M1 chip (such as World of Warcraft or Baldur's Gate 3) and is expected to get game enhancements through macOS Sonoma game mode.

Is Mac more suitable for gaming than PC?

While you can easily find Apple models that perform very well when playing games on your Mac, as of now, Macs cannot compete completely with dedicated gaming PCs.

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