While Mac has been normally not really considered when choosing a gaming machine, you can still use it for gaming and with some tips, make your gaming on the platform batter as well. Gaming is a popular form to blow off some steam and relax after a tough day at work or school. This form of entertainment has become even more popular after the global pandemic hit the world because as people spend more time at home during the pandemic, some of them tend to engage in playing video games more often.
The perfect gaming session is when it’s uninterrupted, fluid, and the computer is performing as efficiently as it should. Unfortunately, the older the computer is, and the more often you use it, the more likely it is to perform slower. And no matter what computer you use – one with Windows or macOS, you need to take proper care of it if you want to have a great gaming experience.
Even though professional gamers are often investing in gaming computers, there is also a category of people who only play casually. Therefore, they use the computer that they have at home. And even as Macs aren’t considered the best computers for gaming, with the right tips and tricks, you can maximize gaming performance and enjoy a quality gaming session on a Mac.
Tip #1: Delete Steam Cache Files
Steam is one of the biggest gaming platforms in the world that is used to distribute online gaming, offering such popular games as Dota 2, Counter-Strike, Among Us, and many others. In other words, Steam is used by gamers all around the world.
If you want to maximize the gaming performance on a Mac, you should remove the Steam download cache periodically. If not removed, these cache files can cause the platform to load very slowly, stop updates from downloading, games from updating, and make it stuck in the offline mode.
Tip #2: Use Activity Monitor
To enhance the gaming performance on a Mac, you need to understand macOS well so that you can improve the way it works. And one of the best ways of learning more about how macOS functions are by using the Activity Monitor.
The Activity Monitor can help out with examining CPU, memory, disk, energy, and network usage that can provide you with useful information that can serve well in improving the computer’s performance for gaming.
The most important categories for gaming performance are the CPU and memory usage. To increase the performance, you should close the applications that have the highest CPU usage and the ones that use the most memory if those applications aren’t the antivirus or any other ones that shouldn’t be closed.
Tip #3: Minimize the Number of Startup Items
It’s completely normal to have some number of startup items, especially if those items are the apps you use every day right after you turn on your computer. On the other hand, if you have too many startup items and try to launch a game right after your Mac starts, you can experience unpleasant issues, like waiting for the computer to load for a long time.
To manage your startup items, click on the Apple icon in the upper left corner, go to the System Preferences, click Users & Groups, choose the Login items tab, then highlight the items you want to remove and click on the minus icon.
More to it, if you see apps in your startup list that you do not remember installing, you might want to improve to a better antivirus, especially if you like online gaming.
Tip #4: Use Cloud Storage for More Hard Drive Space
Having enough free disk space is very important for a computer’s speed. And fast speed is an element that is a must for good gaming performance. To check how much free disk space you currently have, click on the Apple icon, choose About This Mac, click Storage, and wait until your Mac calculates the data.
The Storage tab on your Mac will show you how much space each type of file or app is taking up on your computer. If you notice that you have many media files stored on your Mac, such as high-resolution photos and videos, one of the solutions is to use cloud storage like DropBox or Google Drive.
Tip #5: Use External Devices for More Hard Drive Space
If you are unable to ensure a constant internet connection but still want to have more hard drive space, you could choose to invest in an external storage device.
By choosing to use an external device instead of cloud storage, you will be able to access your files offline, and if you want to store those kinds of files that aren’t used every single day, an external storage device is a very good solution.
Tip #6: Disable the Notification Center
Disabling the Notification Center will boost the macOS for a better gaming performance because you will avoid unnecessary distractions and have a slightly better speed.
To disable notifications, hold down the Option key, click the bulleted list icon, open the Notification Center, and turn on the Do Not Disturb mode.
