Is it possible to play Age of Empires IV on Mac?
Age of Empires IV is another and so far the latest installment in the entire 4-chapter series. Relic Entertainment, who is in charge of its development, will embark you onto an exciting journey of medieval fights that decide the course of the entire history. The game is inspired by real-time events that took their place during constantly clashing kingdoms and played an important role in the development of whole humanity. Choose your campaign along with civilization and foster the strategy that will path your way to the top of the world. Build your own kingdom, arm up the troops, and participate in 4K battles against other enemies on gigantic maps. In addition, the game also allows its players to install various modes to mix up their gaming experience with new colors if needed. All of this beauty full of deep history, variable fights, and opportunity to play with up to 8 other players in PVP or PVE modes make Age of Empires IV enter the charts of 2021 games swinging. At this point, the game holds official support only for Windows. If you are a person willing to feel the taste of medieval action on macOS, then you should follow our tutorial below. There are ways to get around the hurdle and launch it on Mac regardless.
System Requirements
| Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 64bit | Windows 11 64bit | Windows 10 64bit | Windows 11 64bit |
| Processor: Intel Core i5-6300U or AMD Ryzen 5 2400G | CPU with AVX support required | Processor: 3.6 GHz 6-core (Intel i5) or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | CPU with AVX support required |
| RAM: 8 GB | RAM: 16 GB |
| Video card: Intel HD 520 or AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 | Video card: Nvidia GeForce 970 GPU or AMD Radeon RX 570 GPU with 4GB of VRAM |
| DirectX: from 12 version | DirectX: from 12 version |
| Disc space: 50 GB | Disc space: 50 GB |
Play Age of Empires IV on Mac with Parallels
Age of Empires IV requires lots of PC resources, but you can play the game if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro), and Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is software for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. You can run Windows just like on a regular PC, install Steam and enjoy Age of Empires IV game on Mac.
Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 Gb of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 Gb of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all versions are suitable), Mac Pro (all versions are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later currently not supported by Parallels.
Play Age of Empires IV on Mac with Boosteroid or Nvidia GeForce Now
Update: Nvidia GeForce Now and Boosteroid do not support Age of Empires IV to the date but due to many requests, it may be added soon! Register and explore cloud gaming now!
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy Age of Empires IV game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming provides you with sufficient cloud resources for a fixed fee. All you need is a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 Mbits/s. There are several great services, that provide such an opportunity, among the best are Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now. Nvidia GeForce Now and Boosteroid don’t have Age of Empires IV in their game catalog, however, the game may appear there anytime, which will allow you to play it on any Mac device and even Android!
Play Age of Empires IV on Mac with BootCamp
Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run Age of Empires IV on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, this is probably the best way to play Age of Empires IV for now. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. BootCamp allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, that uses common processors, RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on Mac by allocating disc space of a minimum of 64 Gb (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games). To set up Windows via BootCamp, please, do the following:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later
Mention, that for MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create bootable Windows USB.
- Download Windows ISO file
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
- Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
- Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)