If gaming is everything to you, for example, then Windows is a no-brainer. If you're a creative type, then you’re likely better off with a Mac. So, without further fanfare, here's the final.
For example, the Radeon Pro 5500M that you’ll find in the $2800 16-inch MacBook Pro has worse gaming performance than the budget-oriented GTX 1650 Super whose MSRP is a mere $150. The same goes for the Vega-equipped iMac Pro and Mac Pro configurations: they are simply too expensive for the kind of performance that they offer – as far as.
An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more. EGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac 1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later.
Clean The Clutter & Optimize Mac For Gaming: Smart Mac Care is our favorite tool, and we highly recommend this optimization suite to all the gamers. As it keeps Mac healthy by retrieving chunks of space, improving boot time and deleting redundant data like duplicate files, unwanted apps, etc.
An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.
eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.
An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:
Accelerate apps that use Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL
Connect additional external monitors and displays
Use virtual reality headsets plugged into the eGPU
Charge your MacBook Pro while using the eGPU
Use an eGPU with your MacBook Pro while its built-in display is closed
Connect an eGPU while a user is logged in
Connect more than one eGPU using the multiple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports on your Mac2
Use the menu bar item to safely disconnect the eGPU
View the activity levels of built-in and external GPUs (Open Activity Monitor, then choose Window > GPU History.)
eGPU support in apps
eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.3
In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:
Pro apps designed to utilize multiple GPUs
3D games, when an external monitor is attached directly to the eGPU
VR apps, when the VR headset is attached directly to the eGPU
Pro apps and 3D games that accelerate the built-in display of iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro (This capability must be enabled by the app's developer.)
You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.
Use the Prefer External GPU option
Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:
Quit the app if it's open.
Select the app in the Finder. Most apps are in your Applications folder. If you open the app from an alias or launcher, Control-click the app's icon and choose Show Original from the pop-up menu. Then select the original app.
Press Command-I to show the app's info window.
Select the checkbox next to Prefer External GPU.
Open the app to use it with the eGPU.
You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.
Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display
If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:
Quit any open apps that you want the eGPU to accelerate on the primary display.
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences. Select Displays, then select the Arrangement tab.
Drag the white menu bar to the box that represents the display that's attached to the eGPU.
Open the apps that you want to use with the eGPU.
If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.
About macOS GPU drivers
Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.
Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.
The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.
Supported eGPU configurations
It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.
Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.
Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products
These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:
Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro4
Gigabyte RX 580 Gaming Box4
Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck5
AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sapphire Gear Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 350W
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
HP Omen4
Akitio Node6
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
Pc Vs Mac For Gaming
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
OWC Mercury Helios FX4
PowerColor Devil Box
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 550W4
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
PowerColor Game Station4
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Box 650W4
Razer Core X4
Learn more
Learn how to choose your GPU in Final Cut Pro X 10.4.7 or later.
To ensure the best eGPU performance, use the Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with your eGPU or an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable. Also make sure that the cable is connected directly to a Thunderbolt 3 port on your Mac, not daisy-chained through another Thunderbolt device or hub.
If you have questions about Thunderbolt 3 chassis or graphics cards, or about third-party app support and compatibility, contact the hardware or software provider.
Software developers can learn more about programming their apps to take advantage of macOS eGPU support.
1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.
2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.
3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.
4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.
6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.
Despite the complexities and limitations, gaming on Mac is fun. Well, you must know that Mac is quite a robust and secure system to handle your gaming speed, configurations and settings provided you know a few tricks.
From making enough space to download and run games to purging inactive memory, running terminal commands to closing all the unnecessary apps, there are various methods by which you optimize Mac for gaming. Moreover, after making all the required software updates, hardcore gamers can also think of upgrading to new hardware such as eGPU or new SSD, but that is optional. So gamers, are you ready to set up your Mac for gaming? Let’s do it!
How To Optimize Mac For Gaming
1. Check The Status Of Disk Usage
How To Optimize Mac For Gaming
This is one of the best ways to keep your Mac in good shape as well as optimize it for gaming. If you go through the details of Mac, you can find startup apps, resource-hogging or unwanted apps or other utilities that keep running in the background without our knowledge.
Status Of Disk Usage:
For this, Disk Inventory X is a free and potential tool that has been running for years and quickly displays the status of disk usage in a textual and visual manner. This step is essential as it will help you understand how much space on your Mac is occupied. So, you will know precisely how much space you need to retrieve to play games seamlessly and get optimum performance.
Although you can also find the disk space of your Mac by clicking Apple icon > About this Mac > Storage, yet the minute details are easily covered by Disk Inventory X and hence recommended.
Clean The Clutter& Optimize Mac For Gaming:
Smart Mac Careis our favorite tool, and we highly recommend this optimization suite to all the gamers. As it keeps Mac healthy by retrieving chunks of space, improving boot time and deleting redundant data like duplicate files, unwanted apps, etc. Its automatic scanning and cleaning not just improves the overall performance of Mac but also can be helpful for Mac games.
You might also be aware of the fact that games may require a lot of gigabytes whether you play it from Steam or download them on your Mac. That’s why it is recommended that atleast 15% of free space or 18GB space is available on your Mac, even after a game is downloaded, for it to function seamlessly. Maintaining it manually can be cumbersome. For it, you must rely on a third-party tool like Smart Mac Care, which can clean your junk files, duplicate, uninstall unwanted apps, which in turn, recovers space and maintains the system health.
2. Disable OS X Features (Notification Center & Dashboard)
The native features are hardly used for everyday purposes, yet they take up the processing power and RAM, hindering the good gaming experience. Thankfully, they can be easily disabled or enabled using Terminal as and when required.
2.1 Disable/Enable Dashboard:
To disable, click on Spotlight icon from the menu bar and type ‘terminal’ or go through Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Enter the command: defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
Next enter: killall Dock
These two commands above will restart the Finder with the dashboard being disabled.
Mac For Gaming Computer
In case you want to enable it again, follow these steps:
To enable; defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
Next enter: killall Dock
2.2 Disable/Enable Notification Center:
To disable: Open terminal once again and enter command: launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
Next enter: killall NotificationCenter
To enable: Open terminal once again and enter command: launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist
Next open Finder, press Command + Shift + G and copy-paste /System/Library/CoreServices/
Restart your Mac, and you will be able to get back your Notification Center.
As both processes keep running in the background, it is better to keep them disabled and utilize it to get better gaming experience than ever.
3. Stop The Apps From Starting Automatically
Does this happen to you as well that when you log in to the system, various apps start automatically and hog the system resources? Well, if it is happening, you can disable login items and optimize your Mac for gaming.
For this;
Go to click on Apple icon > System Preferences > Users and Groups > Login items. Here, you can select the app that you do not want to pop-up or rather select all of them and click on the ‘-’ sign below.
4. Close All Applications & Menu Bar Apps
Your Mac will inevitably run at a slow speed, and your performance of your games would not be as expected when multiple applications are running behind. Hence, this step is another necessity of the list.
Check your dock and quit all the running applications by right-clicking on them and selecting Quit. Looks like a small process but believe me it’s an effective one!
5. Configure Game Settings
Your games’ in-built settings can be tweaked side by side while you optimize Mac for gaming and learning how to make the gaming experience better. These settings can be different, depending on the game. Hence we will tell you some generalized tips here that will help you with most of them.
Go to Graphics settings from the options and select in between Low, Medium and High to suit your graphics card.
Go to Game settings or Options within and make the screen resolution settings appropriate as per the game requires.
Play the game, and you will be able to decide which settings ideally suit your game.
6. Play In Different Viewed/Windowed Mode
Not many people believe this, but playing games in different modes do help in recognizing the speed and graphics variation of the game. You can always try for both the options, including Windowed mode or full-screen mode one by one.
You can switch between modes by visiting Video or Graphics settings of the game itself. Switch the options and find the most suitable mode as per speed, texts display and transient graphics.
7. Keep Checking Activity Monitor
Activity Monitor is an in-built tool of Mac, which is capable of explaining where and how Mac is using memory, CPU usage, Energy consumption, etc. It can also show you which application is running behind when you are enjoying your favorite games on Mac.
Other than this, you can also keep track of RAM and CPU usage, especially when you hear the fans running at speed while playing games on Mac. If any of the tasks is taking a toll on resources, you can simply choose to end it right from here.
8. Keep Software Up To Date
Now, this seems obvious, but the step helps in maintaining the process of the system as well as optimizing Mac for gaming. Keep visiting the App Store to find any new update on the game as any kind of bug might be slowing down the gaming speed. You can even let Mac update all the gaming or other applications to stay up to date with a simple tweak.
Just go to System Preferences > Applications > Tick mark the ‘Automatically check for updates’.
Also, make sure that you update all software, including OS for the smooth performance of Mac, which, in turn, helps in removing any bugs or glitches as well.
And you are good to go!
9. Run Windows To Play Window-Specific Games
We know that your Windows users’ friends might be telling you the story of cool games that they enjoyed last week, but it is still not available for Mac. Even in this case, you are at luck as Mac lets you install Windows on your system and let you enjoy the same way your friends are.
Is Imac Good For Gaming
There are various methods by which you can install Windows on Mac. So, check out how to run Windows on Mac?
EXTRA TIPS
We are sure that you have got all the tips and tricks on how to optimize Mac for gaming. But we have something else for you. All these methods were focused more or less on the internal settings. Yet if you are someone who wants more to enhance your gaming experience on Mac, we have some quick suggestions for you.
Upgrade HDD / SSD
While learning how to optimize Mac for gaming, this trick is good to try! Do not limit yourself to graphics or processors as hard drives play an essential role in letting your game load in no time, boots the system quickly and improves the system tasks.
It is best if you upgrade to SSD if your Mac doesn’t come with one. Learn the working mechanism of SSD and make sure you go for those SSDs which can upgrade in future and optimize Mac for gaming.
Upgrade Your RAM
RAM plays a crucial role for smooth gaming on any system and so on Mac. Explore your Mac with Activity Monitor, and if your system needs better memory, better upgrade it.
Some gamers are comfortable with 4GB of RAM, but some of them require more and upgrade their RAM to 8GB or even 16GB. Which gamer are you? Define and upgrade!
Try External Graphics Processor or eGPU
For this trick and before investing, you need to find if your Mac is compatible with Thunderbolt 3 standard by identifying the port. In addition to the internal video processor, eGPU provides additional performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content and more for the enhanced gaming experience.
A good eGPU is capable of accelerating apps, allows VR headsets to connect and let you charge the MacBook Pro. It surely is a costly affair to invest in a good eGPU, but those gamers who have afforded it already are pretty content with their Mac for gaming sessions.
Additional Tip: Feeling generous, if yes, then check out the new Mac Pro, which comes with robust Xeon processors up to 28 cores, Apple Afterburner, a revolutionary Accelerator Card and more.
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