Even if a Mac is not always the first choice for a professional gamer, Macs can become pretty great gaming machines if you know what settings to improve and how to do maintenance work on your computer.
On the other hand, if you want any computer to run fast and smooth, you need to make sure that it has enough disk space and is not infected by malware.
Thus today, we will share a mac speedup checklist for gaming that will focus mainly on improving your Mac to its best performance and speed.
Tip #1: Make Sure Desktop is Clean
The desktop is an important element in the process of making your Mac perform at its best. Therefore, if your desktop is cluttered, you need to plan a time to clean it up because each icon that is on your screen is slowing down the computer by using additional memory resources.
More to it, it would help if you built a healthy habit of cleaning up your desktop every time you finish working on your computer. But for now, if you want a quick clean up, go to the desktop, click View from the upper menu, and choose the option called use Stacks. It will group all of the items on your desktop by file type.
Another element that has a lot of influence on your computer’s speed is free disk space. It is recommended to always have at least 10% of free storage space on your computer.
To check if your computer is out of free disk space, click the Apple icon on the top menu, go to the option About This Mac, and navigate to the Storage tab. Here, you will see how much storage space is free and how much of it is consumed by multiple types of files.
Tip #3: Go Easy on Your RAM
The processes of the Macbook, such as tasks and apps, are using RAM and processing power. However, games also use many system resources; therefore, you need to close all of the apps and other items you do not need while gaming.
By closing unnecessary items, you will ensure that the game can run at maximum speed and performance without lagging on the most important moments of the game.
Tip #4: Restart & Shut Down the Computer More Often
Surely it is very convenient to just close your MacBook or leave your iMac in sleep mode rather than turn it off properly. Unfortunately, if you will not remind yourself to restart and shut down regularly, your Mac will slow down and possibly start to lag.
The longer you go without restarting or shutting down your computer, the more apps may be running in the background and failing to close, slowing down your Mac.
Tip #5: Check for Malware & Viruses
If you still do not have a proper antivirus for your Mac, you should hurry up and get one. Even though Macs are considered to be one of the safest computers, new malware is created constantly.
More to it, if you play online games or tend to download a lot of new games from the internet just to try them out, having a proper antivirus for your computer is even more important because most of the viruses and malware are downloaded from the internet without even knowing it.
Tip #6: Invest in Better Hardware
If you plan to purchase a new Mac, make sure you think about your gaming needs upfront. You can either choose a Mac with higher disk capacity or pick some improvements that Apple provides. For example, you can purchase an upgraded model.
Also, you may want to look for specialized accessories that improve the gaming experience, such as gaming keyboards and mice.
Tip #7: Improve Your Old Hardware
RAM is responsible for the game to function and run smoothly; therefore, upgrading your RAM can improve your gaming experience as well. Besides, you might not even be able to launch some games if you do not have enough RAM.
Upgrading your RAM can help both to increase the speed of your MAC and maximize the gaming performance. If you are looking to upgrade, consider upgrading to 8GB or even 16GB of RAM.
Tip #8: Tweak Graphical Settings
To improve your gaming experience on a Mac even more, you can tweak some of the graphical settings inside of a specific game. When you launch a game, head to the graphics and video options and see which settings can be changed.
For example, you could edit the screen resolution. The best way to figure out which resolution works the best for you is by testing different versions of it. Also, you can edit the texture and shadow quality of the game.