Is a Virtual Machine Good for Gaming?

There is a good reason why you (or the IT department) opted for a Mac, the only ‘issue’ is that many the best games are developed for the world’s most popular operating system: sorry macOS – that’s Windows. Of course, you can always hit up your iOS device to play games but the screen size and computing power is really what matters. And in this case each new line of Macs have the necessary screen size and processing abilities, but often lacks support for popular big-budget games. Fortunately, there are still ways that you can play your favorite games on your Mac.

Play Games on a Mac Using a Virtual Machine

Virtual machines are convenient because users don’t need to switch computers to run two or more operating systems simultaneously. But this convenience has a cost and that is the performance penalty that you pay by using virtual machines.

The best paid hypervisors available are Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. Both of them provide OpenGL 3.0 and DirectX 10 support – which is essential for playing 3D games – but when it comes to processor-intensive games virtualization isn’t quite the best solution.

Download CleanMyMac X from MacPaw’s website and clean up to 500MB of junk data from your computer while enjoying all the features of the software without major limitations.

Of course, there are ways to optimize the guest OS (in this case, Windows) and its performance, but it’s better to build your own computer optimized for gaming. Unfortunately, the prefabricated nature of the Mac isn’t much help here.

What it does do well, however, is allow you focus on the task and get the job done by squeezing the most out of the installed hardware. Of course, the specifications of that hardware is key in terms of performance both for daily tasks but particular for games, so the better system specs the Mac has, the better the virtual machine’s and therefore the guest OS’s performance will be greater too.

What’s the Best Way to Play Windows Games on a Mac?

The best available answer to this is Boot Camp. Thanks to the built-in dual-boot utility macOS has users can take advantage of the Mac’s hardware to the full and use the device for playing games. Unfortunately, this also means that they cannot run both macOS and Windows simultaneously, but look at the bright side: at least this way gamers can focus 100% on playing the game while the hardware will deliver its best performance since it doesn’t have to share its resources with another operating system.

A secondary option is GeForce Now for Mac. NVIDIA’s cloud-based game streaming service is currently in beta, and so it is available for free to all users ready to get gaming on their Mac. What makes this service a good choice is that the games are processed remotely and delivered to the Mac through the internet – so if this is your preference, don’t forget to connect via Ethernet rather than Wi-Fi.

ТОП-3 способа запуска программ Windows в MacOS

Если вам необходимо запустить на Макбуке программу Windows, то придется воспользоваться сторонним софтом. Самым популярным решением станет бесплатный эмулятор Wine. Он отличается высокой производительностью, благодаря которой программы не «тормозят». Минусами эмулятора Windows для mac OS является то, что он не дружит с некоторыми приложениями.

Как пользоваться эмулятором Wine на macOS?

• Чтобы эмулятор работал на ПК с системой macOS, нужно предварительно скачать и установить утилиту XQuartz. В последних версиях macOS открытый программный код вмонтирован в оболочку системы. Его можно найти по адресу: Applications/Utilities/Xquartz.app.

• После ее установки компьютер необходимо перезагрузить.
• Далее скачайте сам эмулятор . Wine скачать на mac можно с официального сайта.

• Дождитесь завершения установки. После чего софт можно найти в следующей директории: /Users/ваша_учетная_запись/.wine. Она будет скрыта, поэтому воспользуйтесь гайдом, как находить скрытые папки.

• Для запуска Windows нужно ввести команду «wine program.exe» либо запустить установочный файл скрытой папки в предыдущем пункте.

Достоинства и недостатки Wine

Плюсы эмуляторов для Windows:

• Не нужно лицензионное ПО.
• Данный способ значительно экономит ресурсы системы.

• Сложная настройка. Перед использованием любого софта, его предварительно нужно настроить. Особенно это сложно делать с играми.
• Совместимость. Некоторые «тяжелые» приложения, забирающие много ресурсов системы, могут некорректно работать или не работать вовсе.

Виртуальные машины

На выходе получается полноценная оперативная система, только располагается она на «виртуальном» железе. Получается, что внутри одной ОС создается другая, которая при запуске забирает часть ее оперативной памяти.

На данный момент существует несколько таких виртуальных машин. Они бывают платные и бесплатные. По большей части они ничем не различаются между собой. Разве что, в бесплатных функционал ограничен. Но в то же время, при полном образе можно легко запустить на mac программу для Windows.

• Установка дополнительной ОС со съемного носителя или образа загрузочного диска.
• Указание количества ресурсов, которые может использовать дополнительная ОС.
• Установка и пользование приложениями.

Какие бывают виртуальные машины — топ лучших

• Parallels Desktop – самая популярная платная программа. Благодаря ей создается гибрид систем. Любые приложения запускаются сразу, вне зависимости от того, к какой системе они принадлежат.

Достоинства и недостатки виртуальных машин

• Возможность работать с двумя системами одновременно.
• Легко получить доступ к файлам.

• Потеря производительности из-за одновременной работы двух систем.
• Некоторые приложение (чаще игры) не работают.

Что такое Boot Camp?

Это программа, позволяющая устанавливать «окна» на Макбук. Система займет отдельное место на жестком диске и будет работать независимо от «яблочной».

Для этого вам потребуется:

• 50 Гб свободного места во внутренней памяти.
• Загрузочный диск с Windows.

Достоинства и недостатки Boot Camp

• Такой метод не ресурсоемкий, потому что одновременно пользоваться можно только одной ОС.
• Все приложения и игры беспроблемно устанавливаются и работают.

• Чтобы переключаться между ОС, нужно каждый раз перезапускать компьютер.
• Не будет доступа к файлам разных систем.

Что выбрать: эмулятор Wine, виртуальные машины, Boot Camp?

Если вы не можете определиться, каким способом воспользоваться, то следующие рекомендации для вас:

• Boot Camp нужен, в первую очередь, для тех, кто будет пользоваться играми.
• Виртуальная машина нужна тогда, когда необходимо пользоваться одновременно двумя ОС.
• Эмулятор подходит для простых задач и нечастого применения.

Заключение

Нет таких людей, которые не имели бы дело с ОС Windows. Со временем некоторые пользователи «окон» переходят на «яблочную» систему. Но у них остаются на «окнах» программы, не имеющие аналогов на Mac, и без которых не получается обходиться.

Для такой проблемы есть несколько решений: запуск программ Windows в MacOS с помощью эмулятора Wine, виртуальных машин или Boot Camp. Каждое имеет свои особенности и недостатки, и только вы определите, что вам больше всего подойдет.

Ставь лайк, если нравится материал и подписывайся на наш Дзен канал!

How to play Windows games on Mac

by Ric Molina | Apr 2, 2020

You know we’re big supporters of only playing native games on our Macs. After all, they’re the easiest to install, the easiest to run, and they directly support developers who bring their games to macOS. Plus, many of the best games support MacOS, including most indies.

But to be fair, some big games are not available on macOS and probably never will. And for those specific cases, you’ll be happy to learn you can easily run Windows games on Mac.

Today, we’ll show you all the ways you can run Windows games on Mac. We’ll review every single method, from the cheapest to the fastest:

Method	Cost	Requires Windows license?	Requires Reboot?	Pros and Cons
Bootcamp	Free	✔ Great performance ❌ Constant rebooting
Parallels	$79.99	✔ Easy to use ❌ Limited performance
NVIDIA GeForce Now	$25 for 20 hours	✔ Excellent performance ❌ Expensive
Wine	Free	✔ Absolutely free to use ❌Complicated to set up

Pro tip: Stay away from the Mac App Store if you’re planning on playing games on Mac and Windows! Games purchased on the Mac App Store only work on macOS whereas games purchased on Steam or Humble Bundle support both macOS and Windows. We share our tips on where to buy games here.

Let’s start with my personal favorite.

Boot Camp: The best performance for cheap

There are many ways you can play pretty much every Windows-PC game available today on Mac. Yet Boot Camp remains the most popular.

Unlike Virtualization software (which we’ll discuss in a moment), Boot Camp is a free utility that allows you to install and run Windows on your Mac in the same way you would on any other computer: natively.

Boot Camp may force you to restart your Mac every time you want to switch from macOS to Windows, but if you’re looking for performance, Boot Camp will always offer optimal gaming performance. Also, you won’t need to pay anything other than a Windows license (unless you’re willing to live with the “Activate Windows” watermark…).

How to set it up? Installing Windows using Boot Camp is straightforward. You just need to open the Boot Camp application in your Utilities folder and follow the assistant. You can also check Apple’s support page for FAQs and guides on how to install and use Boot Camp.

Benefits:

• Easy to install
• Highest possible performance
• No extra costs (other than a Windows license)

Drawbacks:

• Unpractical (you need to reboot your machine just to play a Windows-only game)
• Requires a Windows license
• Requires lots of hard drive space (Windows installation + games)

Bottom line: With Boot Camp, your Mac can run Windows using all it’s power, just like any other PC would.

Virtualization: The most practical solution

Virtualization is the most practical method to run Windows on a Mac. With a virtualization app, you can also install Windows, but you do more: run both macOS and Windows at the same time. This means you won’t have to reboot your Mac every time you want to play a Windows game.

But running two OSes simultaneously is taxing and performance always suffers. Virtualization still works great with games that are easy to run but many games can easily be too demanding.

There are many virtualization apps out there, but our favorite remains Parallels as it offers the best gaming performance. The team over at Parallels does a great job making sure Parallels can handle demanding games too, including games such as Overwatch. In that case, they went as far as working with Blizzard to ensure the best possible performance.

Pro tip: If you already installed Windows using Boot Camp, you can use Parallels to access it without leaving macOS.

How to set it up? All you need to do is follow Parallel’s installation process, which includes the Windows installation itself. Once everything is installed, you can simply launch Windows as if it was any other Mac app.

Benefits:

• Easy to install
• Very practical: You don’t need to reboot to use Windows
• Allows you to use Mac and Windows apps at the same time

Drawbacks:

• Requires both a Windows and Parallels license
• Requires lots of hard drive space (Windows installation + games)
• Offers significantly less performance than Boot Camp

Bottom line: If you just don’t like having to reboot your Mac in order to play a game, Parallels can be a good option, especially if you’re often playing lightweight games, such as indies or older classics.

Streaming: The best performance (if you have fast internet)

Streaming is the newest method you can use to reliably run Windows games on your Mac. Thanks to services such as NVIDIA GeForce Now, you don’t even need to install Windows anymore. The heavy lifting is done by NVIDIA’s high-end computers and servers, which physically run the games. All you need is a somewhat recent Mac and a good internet connection to stream the image and send your input.

After hours using NVIDIA GeForce Now I can confirm: if you have a good internet connection, the service works great. You can run the most intensive and demanding game available on a MacBook Air. But you do need a very fast internet connection. I’m in France, have the fastest internet connection there is (optic fiber), and still see stutters when running games using GeForce Now.

Benefits:

• Extremely easy to set up and use
• You don’t even need a Windows installation
• Can run very demanding games on lightweight MacBooks

Drawbacks:

• Requires a very fast internet connection
• Requires a monthly fee if you want priority access (a free account will have you wait in line for a long time)
• Cannot run several high-profile games due to issues between NVIDIA and several publishers

Bottom line: If you have a good internet connection, streaming is the easiest way to run Windows games on your Mac, including demanding games.

Wrappers: Cheap but hard to put in place

Finally, there is one last method you can use to run Windows games on macOS: using a Wrapper. In this guide, we shall focus on Wine.

As explained by Cult of Mac:

Wine (and wrappers in general) acts as a translator between the instructions in the PC program and the Mac operating system. It basically fools Windows into thinking they are running in a Windows environment, without actually emulating that environment (and taking the same performance hit) as Parallels does.

Wine also has the benefit of a large, open-source community for support, which means it will continue to get better and improve compatibility for a lot of games along the way.

Benefits

• It’s completely free, no licenses are needed at all.
• It doesn’t require Windows at all
• It doesn’t require you to reboot your machine to play Windows games

Drawbacks

• The most complex method to set up
• Not all Windows games are supported
• Performance won’t be as high as with Boot Camp

Bottom line: Using wrappers is by far the most technical option out there. It’s not as easy to set up but is the only method that’s completely free.

Your turn

As you can see, there are many ways to play Windows games on your Mac. I can’t tell you which method is the best for you because they all have pros and cons. It also depends on your existing setup and needs: How often you want to play Windows games? Does it bother you to have to reboot? Are you willing to pay for a Windows license or third-party software?

Personally, Boot Camp plus Parallels work great. I use Boot Camp when I want to play demanding games (Destiny 2 is my current obsession) but I can stay on macOS and use Parallels when I simply want to play a lightweight game such as a new indie or a remastered classic.

Which one is your preferred method? What is the Windows game that will make you go through all this trouble? I’m curious, let me know in the comments section!