Is it possible to play Fallout 76 on Mac?
Fallout 76 is an online action game, developed by Bethesda Game Studios and launched on 18 May 2018. The game moves us to the post-apocalyptic universe of the destroyed United States after Nuclear War, but 25 years earlier than previous games. Thousands of monsters, mutants, robots, insects, and other creatures will attack you everywhere, so be prepared to not go asleep. You will investigate massive maps, trying to find caches, scraping items and materials, and crafting. Also, you need to construct your weapons and collect water, chemicals, and other resources. New system s.p.e.c.i.a.l. allows you to upgrade your character and edit your special skills, such as strength, charisma, agility, etc. Another big feature is multiplayer mode: all players can try to fight between each other (up to 4 users). Despite you cannot cause any significant damage to another player, this mode is exciting, to kill other players is very difficult. Fallout was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. macOS users can run Fallout 76 only by emulators, on BootCamp, or on cloud platforms. If you wish to know how to run Fallout 76 on Mac, we will explain in the text below.
System Requirements
| Minimal | Recommended |
|---|---|
| OS: Windows® 7 / Windows® 8.1 / Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack) | OS: Windows® 7 / Windows® 8.1 / Windows® 10 64-bit (latest Service Pack) |
| Processor: Intel Core i5 6600k 3.5 GHz / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5 GHz or equivalent. | Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6 GHz /AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz |
| RAM: 8 GB | RAM: 12 GB |
| Video card: NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB /AMD Radeon R9 285 2GB or equivalent | Video card: NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB /AMD R9 290X 4GB |
| DirectX: from 11 version | DirectX: from 11 version |
| Disc space: 80 GB | Disc space: 80 GB |
Play Fallout 76 on Mac with Parallels
Fallout 76 game requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) 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 the Fallout 76 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 Destiny 2 on Mac with cloud gaming services
Update: Xbox Cloud Gaming fully supports Fallout 76! Play the advanced game on a Mac, old Windows PC, and even Android!
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy Fallout 76 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 browser or 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, AirGPU, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now. Among all these services only Xbox Cloud Gaming has Fallout 76 in their game catalog, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting from MacOS 10.10) and even Android! Xbox Cloud Gaming can be used for 1 month for just 1$.
Play Fallout 76 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 Fallout 76 on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all system requirements above, this is probably the best way to play Fallout 76 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)