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RealChuckB -> RE: Computer Help/Advice (7/25/2016 9:25:18 PM)
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Hi - another Mac user that plays Windows games on a Mac. Like bomccarthy, I use Bootcamp, which works very well for me:
It basically creates another bootable instance on your Mac, which means you will have to shut down Mac OS and boot into Windows every time you play. I have multiple Bootcamp installations on Macbook Airs and they came with SSD (not HDs), so booting is very fast (actually, Mac OS boots in less than 10 secs on my Macbook). You'll need a full version of Windows (I have used it with Windows 7 and Windows 10 without any problems). Setting it up is pretty straightforward, the Mac guides you through the process, installs the correct drivers for your Mac and hardware setup, such as keyboards and mice.
You then have both operating systems on your Mac hardware that you can switch between. Neither system gets into the other system's way, so performance is good (of course, it depends on the Mac hardware you have). Friends of mine have similar setups and I have never heard anything negative so far.
There is another way, which is generally called "virtualization" (that I have not tried myself): there is software from different vendors that allow you to run Windows on top of your Mac OS. That means you do NOT have to shut down and boot into the other operating system but it would basically one or more Windows "windows" on your Mac OS and you can run more or less any Windows app in that environment. You still need a full version of Windows for this, plus the software. The most well-known one comes from Parallels: http://www.parallels.com/ and I believe there is one from VMware, too.
I have never tried it because I believe the Bootcamp solution is better, especially for games: when running one complex OS on top of another one, there will be issues and performance is certainly not as good as running the OS "solo" and performance is key for games. I don't mind re-booting the computer and prefer the cleaner setup of Bootcamp but the virtualization has an advantage, if you need to transfer data directly between the Windows and Mac OS application, which is not necessary for games.
There is also a free open-source app called Wine https://www.winehq.org/ that allows you to run Windows on other operating systems but I have no experience with that.
Hope this help!
P.S. One important note - whatever you do, when running Windows games you'll have to deal with Windows. If your problem is with Windows, none of the above will (generally) solve the issue for you. Your only way around Windows would be to run games on Mac OS natively, which will not work well, as only around 5% (rough estimate) of the wargames are available for Macs
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