OS X Bootcamp to play Windows games

[winston1236]

This is probably asked all the time, and I've done research, but I'm really not tech savvy when it comes to things like this so I'm asking here because I rarely understand what I'm reading anywhere else.

I just recently bought an iMac, it's brand new, like two months old. I love it, but there are a lot of games I want to play that are only available on Windows, and my old PC laptop is too old to play most of them on without getting very, very frustrated.

Is it easy to use Bootcamp to play games only available on Windows? I don't know anything about how you set up Bootcamp, what kind of memory it uses or anything. I'm not a hardcore gamer so I don't have a lot of games, and most of them are games from Steam or Origin that I would play once and then could uninstall after.

If you need an example of games I want to play, as dumb as this sounds, the main ones are The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. I know they're both available for Mac but I've played them on Mac and much prefer it on PC. Assassin's Creed: Unity is another (please don't judge me for still playing Assassin's Creed), Skyrim, the first two BioShock games... ones like that.

I'm just really worried that I'll end up regretting buying this iMac instead of another really good Windows PC (even though I do like the Mac better when it comes to everything else except games). Or that I will spend the money on Windows and then not be able to use it for what I want anyway.

The games don't even need to be completely maxed out when it comes to graphics and all that, I just want to be able to play them without the constant lagging or freezing that my laptop does. IMO I don't want much, just want to play a few games without being frustrated constantly. It's not like I'm sitting here playing a high performance game for 10 hours a day or anything like that.

No idea if any of this information is helpful but figured I'd post it just in case:

Thanks for any help. Like I said I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff... I just need some information before I go out and buy Windows 8 (or 10 when it's finally available) and try to do this just to find out it doesn't work.

Your specs aren't great but with setting turned down like you said anyway I think you'd be ok. I just went through this on my maxed out 27inch iMac. Just a warning Bootcamp is a huge PIA to use and I work in tech everyday. Go with windows 8.1, it's going to update to 10 for free in July and unlike Yosemite doesn't have a wifi issue.

Some recommendations based on my experience.

Download windows on your PC and use the Windows 7/8 bootable USB creator that Microsoft provides to make your iso:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool

Disconnect everything besides the mouse/keyboard, mine stopped the install because of my second monitor.

Patience!

 

[Jeaz]

I'm saying that the description in the quote says you need the bootchamp app so you don't have to change the default boot partition in System Preferences. Since I prefer the MacOS for most tasks other than gaming, I prefer to have the default boot partition be MacOS.

The quote is misleading because there is the alternative (I think your method 2). It's only three key presses more to hold the Option key on restart, select the desired partition and hit return. There's some convenience provided by the app, (saving three keystrokes) but I've been doing it so long the other way, it's second nature and really no bother.

It's not the keystrokes that's the big gain, for me is that you don't need to worry about paying attention when to press. It's a convenience app, nothing more.