Virtual Machines: Virtual machines are often the ideal way to run Windows desktop applications on your Mac, as you can run them on your Mac desktop. There are other ways to play PC games on a Mac, but they have their own problems: RELATED: 5 Ways to Run Windows Software on a Mac

You do have to be on the same local network as your Windows gaming PC to stream a game, so this isn’t ideal if you want to play PC games while away from your Windows desktop. This allows you to play games on your MacBook and do the heavy-lifting on your PC, so your Mac will stay cool and its battery won’t drain as quickly. If you already have a Windows PC - ideally a gaming PC with powerful enough graphics hardware, enough CPU power, and a big hard drive - you can use Steam’s in-home streaming feature to stream games running on your Windows PC to your Mac. If your Mac has a small hard drive, you may not be able to install both Windows and a huge game like the 48 GB PC version of Titanfall alongside Mac OS X. Macs with slower integrated graphics won’t be able to run demanding PC games well. The problem with Boot Camp is that it uses your Mac’s hardware. RELATED: How to Use Steam In-Home Streaming You won’t have to fiddle with anything - install Windows with Boot Camp and your Windows system will work just like a typical Windows system. This allows you to run Windows games at the same speeds they’d run at on a Windows PC laptop with the same hardware. Macs don’t come with Windows, but you can install Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp and reboot into Windows whenever you want to play these games. Every game seems to support Windows - we can’t think of a popular Mac-only game, but it’s easy to think of popular Windows-only games.īoot Camp is the best way to run a Windows-only PC game on your Mac. While more games support Mac OS X than ever, many games still don’t. RELATED: How to Install Windows on a Mac With Boot Camp Don’t underestimate the games available for Mac OS X itself. For example, Minecraft supports Mac, too.

Even games available outside of storefronts may offer Mac versions. If you purchase the game for Mac, you should have access to the Windows version, too. If you’ve purchased a game and it already supports Mac, you should have access to the Mac version immediately. You can install Steam, Origin,, and the GOG.com Downloader on your Mac. The big digital PC gaming storefronts all have Mac clients. Some game developers are more cross-platform than others - for example, all of Valve’s own games on Steam and Blizzard’s games on support Mac. These days, many of the games you already own probably have Mac versions available. When the rare game was ported to Mac, you’d have to purchase the Mac-only version to run it on your Mac. In the old days, you’d have to look elsewhere for Mac games. Like Linux, Mac OS X has gained more and more PC gaming support over the years.

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