How to play Warframe on Mac

Is it possible to play Warframe on Mac?

Warframe is a mind-blowing online cooperative shooter developed and published by Digital Extremes. The game puts its players into a third-person perspective to play for one of the powerful bio-metal ancient warriors with his unique abilities and go through the mysterious plot together with friends. Warframe opens a world of unlimited possibilities ranging from weapon enhancement to action-packed fights with different creatures. It is a true blockbuster with lots of interesting and high-tense missions to stand the test of many locations set in the vast open worlds. Be ready to face off against warring factions, level up your Warframe, build an arsenal of devastating firepower, and discover your true potential with high-end action-RPG graphics based on Evolution Engine. The game is always up in development bringing new content and events to mix up the play. For now, its fascinating gameplay can be officially thrilled on Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. Wondering how you could play it on Mac as well? – Then follow the guide below find the answers and launch it on macOS eventually.

System Requirements

Play Warframe on Mac with Parallels

Warframe 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 Warframe game on Mac.

Download Parallels Desktop

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.

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (Step 1)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (Step 2)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (Step 3)

Install Windows 10 on Parallels (Step 4)

Play Warframe on Mac with cloud gaming services

Update: Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now fully support Warframe! Play the advanced game on a Mac, old Windows PC, and even Android!

If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy the Warframe 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 them, only Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now have Warframe in their game catalog, and you can play on any Mac computer (starting from MacOS 10.10) and even Android! Boosteroid and Nvidia GeForce Now can stream games with high resolution (1080p), every service has its pros and cons.

Play Warframe 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 Warframe 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 Warframe 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.

1. Download Windows ISO file
2. Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
3. Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
4. Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
5. When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)