How to Make Games Run Faster on Your Retina Mac

It’s well documented that gaming is just a better, more fluid experience on PC than it is on Mac. However, Apple, for its part, in recent years has sought to address gamer’s concerns by equipping the company’s top-tier computers with some equally top-tier graphics silicon. The 27-inch Retina 5K HD iMacs are the most recent to benefit from AMD’s latest and greatest Radeon M9 GPU.

Even if you’ve been so fortunate as to have used one of Apple’s Retina 5K iMacs for the purpose of gaming before, then you’re likely well aware that — even on iMac — when you try to play a game at full resolution (5,120 x 2,880), the game often runs choppy, lags, and is just inconsistent with what you’d expect of a modern machine boasting an impressive graphics chip.

Of course, there are several ways you could go about rectifying this issue on your own. One, for instance, would be to simply reduce the game resolution manually by navigating to the Options panel within the game itself. However, if for some reason following this protocol doesn’t work out for you, there’s also this alternative way you can make your games run more fluidly. Just follow the steps as outlined below!

1.) If you’re currently playing the game, or if the app is still open in the background, quit straight from your desktop.

2.) Once closed, head into the computer’s Finder panel and locate the game’s application under the Applications sub-menu.

3.) Highlight, but do not open the game, and then right-click to reveal the drop down menu > Select Get Info.

4.) From the Get Info menu, locate and select the Open in Low Resolution checkbox.

Once the game has been restarted, it should open in a lower, non-Retina resolution. In turn, this should all but ensure your games are running more smoothly than before and that your playing performance improves in light of that.

Keep in mind, this game performance, or perception thereof, largely depends on the kind/intensity of game you’re trying to play on your iMac. Apple’s Retina 5K iMacs, in particular, are powerful machines, equipped with powerful graphics cards. So they can handle even the most immersive, action packed games — such as Rust or Civilization V. Yet when these games are run in a lower resolution, they run as smooth as butter — slick enough to warrant going easy on the special effects, that’s for sure.

The overall graphics performance will be a bit diminished when a game is run in a lower-resolution, of course; however, given how the majority of games aren’t even compatible with high resolution displays yet, we highly doubt that even the most avid gamers would be able to notice the difference anyways.

Learn More: How to Speed up Your Mac in Less than 15 Minutes

Do you play games on your Retina 5K iMac? Have you tried this performance boosting, low-resolution gaming trick?