Mac Games Run In Opengl
To step away from Windows is to make sure all games are OpenGL compliant, then you just install them on your SteamOS. Also, there is more than OpenGL and DirectX in terms of compatibility. Have you ever wondered why some games run on Windows and Mac but not in Linux? /quote About that last part. In macOS 10.14 Mojave, which Apple unveiled on Monday, the company is deprecating OpenGL and OpenCL technologies in its desktop operating system.In an announcement post to developers, the company wrote: Apps built using OpenGL and OpenCL will continue to run in macOS 10.14, but these legacy technologies are deprecated in macOS 10.14. Games and graphics-intensive apps that use.
Every Parallels Desktop® for Mac user wants their Windows applications to run as fast as possible. There are many factors that contribute to the overall speed of a Windows application running in a Parallels Desktop virtual machine: the speed of the processor in your Mac®, the speed of the hard disk or SSD in your Mac, the macOS® you’re running Parallels Desktop in, the Windows OS installed in your VM, the amount of RAM you have allocated to the running VM*, and many more.
For a Windows application that does lots of complex or 3D graphics, we can add two other factors: the performance of the graphics card in your Mac, and the Windows graphics library that the application uses—DirectX or OpenGL.
Many Windows CAD/CAM applications and Windows games use DirectX or OpenGL. In almost every major release of Parallels Desktop, we try to improve the support for these two libraries. In this blog post, I will focus on OpenGL.
OpenGL
First, a little background:
“Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) is a cross-language, cross-platformapplication programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3Dvector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardware-acceleratedrendering.”
OpenGL is used “extensively in the fields of computer-aided design (CAD), virtual reality, scientific visualization, information visualization, flight simulation, and video games.”
–Wikipedia
Windows applications that use OpenGL include Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Autodesk AutoCAD, Google SketchUp, and so many games that they can’t be listed here.
Setting Expectations
I wish I could tell you that Parallels Desktop can magically turn your four-year-old MacBook Air® into a high-end PC gaming rig with a $3,000 liquid-cooled graphics card, but that is never going to happen.
Parallels Desktop can enable your Mac to run most Windows applications, some games, and some CAD/CAM applications.
Success Stories
The hard work of the Parallels engineering team has resulted in a number of successes with Windows applications using OpenGL 3.2. In particular, the OpenGL work included in Parallels Desktop 13 resulted in some new applications running quite well in Parallels Desktop. Here are some videos of these successes, and a list of other OpenGL applications that work well with Parallels Desktop 13.
glView – An OpenGL benchmarking application. See Video 1. Also check out the following section on OpenGL Versions so that you can better understand the results of the benchmarking shown at the end of the video.
Video 1
DIALux evo – The de-facto standard in the professional lighting design industry. See Video 2.
Video 2
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – A very popular first-person shooter from Bethesda Softworks. Here is a shortened video of a Wolfenstein: The Old Blood game session, playing in Parallels Desktop 13 on a Mac. See Video 3. You can see the entire session at full resolution (1920 x 1080, 1.06GB) here.
Video 3
Here are some additional OpenGL applications that work well:
- Rage (2011)
- Wolfenstein: The New Order (2014)
- Unigine Heaven and Valley Benchmark
- Minecraft
- CATIA
- Solidworks
- Northgard
- Rhinoceros 5
- Navisworks 2017
- ARCHICAD 20
- Solid Edge
- The Quake series (Quake, Quake II, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and more.)
OpenGL Versions
You might be wondering about OpenGL versions. OpenGL has a more complex versioning than most other software standards. For example, it would be quite reasonable to think if an application requires OpenGL 3 and the OS supports OpenGL 4, then the application will work just fine. But for OpenGL, it is not so simple.
In addition, you might have noticed that macOS supports OpenGL 4.1, but Parallels Desktop 13 only support OpenGL 3.2. Why doesn’t Parallels support OpenGL 4.1 in Windows? To add to the confusion, even some OpenGL 3.x Windows applications don’t work in Parallel Desktop 13.
In OpenGL 3.0, many OpenGL 2 or earlier functions were marked as deprecated and then removed completely in OpenGL 3.1. At that time, an additional versioning dimension called “Core/Compatibility profile” was introduced to OpenGL. The Core profile made deprecated functions unavailable, while the Compatibility profile kept them working. In general, GPU vendors supported the Compatibility profile in their drivers for Windows so that more older applications would work. In contrast, Apple chose to support only the Core profile in macOS.
Imagine a developer who has some Windows application created using OpenGL 2.1. Then the developer wants to use some new function from OpenGL 3.x. Now the developer will have to rewrite a lot of legacy code to stop using deprecated functions that are not available anymore. Nobody wants to do it (or at least do it gradually). So here comes a solution: the Compatibility profile.
If you’re developing a new application/engine from scratch, you could start with the Core profile. If you’re improving an old one, Compatibility profile is a better choice. That’s the reason why almost all OpenGL applications for Windows use Compatibility profile.
The Parallels virtualized graphics rely on OpenGL in macOS to actually do the work on GPU. The VM basically mirrors API calls made in Windows to macOS calls. (The actual process is slightly more complicated.) Since OpenGL 3.x deprecated functions are not available in macOS, Parallels has nothing to map these older functions to in the macOS. As a consequence, Parallels Desktop uses the Core Profile.
At the moment, Parallels supports OpenGL 3.2 Core Profile, and for some (highly conservative) applications it can do OpenGL 3.2 Compatibility Profile.
Predicting the Performance of an OpenGL Application
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to predict whether a particular Windows OpenGL application will work well in Parallels Desktop. If you are already a Parallels Desktop customer, just try it.
If you are not yet a Parallels Desktop customer, we have a trial version of Parallels Desktop that you can download and install. You can also get Windows 10 installed in Parallels Desktop 13 at no charge. So try out the application or game you’re interested in and see if it meets your performance needs. If it does, great! You can then purchase both Parallels Desktop and Windows to use that application. If it doesn’t, you have not spent any money.
In addition, we have a forum thread where people add the OpenGL applications that they would like to see supported.
Please let us know in the comments about your experiences with the performance of Windows applications in Parallels Desktop 13.
Want to try OpenGL applications with Parallels Desktop 13? Download a free 14-day trial!
*Concerning RAM, more is not always better, as is commonly thought. When a customer allocates too much RAM to Windows, the Mac can be “starved” for memory, and then everything on the Mac struggles and runs slowly, including Mac applications and Windows applications running in Parallels Desktop.
The tables below list the OpenCL and OpenGL versions that Mac computers support.
Each GPU's hardware capabilities determine the version of OpenCL or OpenGL that's supported. Some GPUs don't support OpenCL and are noted with —. Some applications might have specific version requirements.
iMac
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019) | Radeon Pro 570X Radeon Pro 575X Radeon Pro 580X Radeon Pro Vega 48 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
| iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019) | Radeon Pro 555X Radeon Pro 560X Radeon Pro Vega 20 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) | Radeon Pro 570 Radeon Pro 575 Radeon Pro 580 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017) | Radeon Pro 555 Radeon Pro 560 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21.5-inch, 2017) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) | AMD Radeon R9 M380 AMD Radeon R9 M390 AMD Radeon R9 M395 AMD Radeon R9 M395X | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015) | Intel HD Graphics 6000 Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Mid 2015) | AMD Radeon R9 M290 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) | AMD M290 AMD M295 AMD Radeon R9 M290 AMD Radeon R9 M295X | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014) | Intel HD 5000 Graphics | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) | NVIDIA Geforce GT 755M NVIDIA Geforce GTX 775M NVIDIA Geforce GTX 780M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) | NVIDIA Geforce GT 750M Intel Iris Pro | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21-inch, Early 2013) | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (27-inch, Late 2012 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660MX NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX NVIDIA GeForce GT 680M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21-inch, Late 2012) | NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21-inch, Late 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6750M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6770M ATI Radeon HD 6970M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21-inch, Mid 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6750M ATI Radeon HD 6770M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010) | ATI Radeon HD 5670 ATI Radeon HD 5750 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
iMac (21-inch, Mid 2010) | ATI Radeon HD 4670 ATI Radeon HD 5670 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) | ATI Radeon HD 4670 ATI Radeon HD 4850 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (21-inch, Late 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M ATI Radeon HD 4670 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (20-inch, Late 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (Early 2009) | ATI Radeon HD 4850 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (24-inch, Early 2008) | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS | 3.3 | 1.0 |
iMac (20-inch, Early 2008) | ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro | 3.3 | — |
iMac (24-inch, Mid 2007) | ATI Radeon HD 2400 ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro | 3.3 | — |
iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007) | ATI Radeon HD 2400 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro | 3.3 | — |
iMac Pro
Download Opengl For Mac
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| iMac Pro (2017) | Radeon Pro Vega 56 Radeon Pro Vega 64 Radeon Pro Vega 64X | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac mini
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac mini (2018) | Intel UHD Graphics 630 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac mini (Late 2014) | Intel Iris Graphics Intel HD 5000 Graphics | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac mini (Mid 2012) | Intel HD 4000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac mini (Mid 2011) | Intel HD 3000 | 3.3 | — |
Mac mini (Mid 2011) | AMD Radeon HD 6630 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac mini (Early 2010) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
Mac mini (Early 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
Mac Pro
Mac Install Opengl
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Pro (2019) | Radeon Pro 580X MPX Module Radeon Pro Vega II MPX Module Radeon Pro Vega II Duo MPX Module | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac Pro (Late 2013) | AMD FirePro D300 AMD FirePro D500 AMD FirePro D700 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac Pro (Mid 2012) | ATI Radeon HD 5770 ATI Radeon HD 5870 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac Pro (Mid 2010) | ATI Radeon HD 5770 ATI Radeon HD 5870 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
Mac Pro (Early 2009) | NVIDIA Geforce GTX 285 NVIDIA Geforce Quadro FX 4800 NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 ATI Radeon HD 4870 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
Mac Pro (Early 2008) | NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
| MacBook Pro (15-inch) | Intel UHD Graphics 630 Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB GDDR5 memory Radeon Pro 560X with 4GB GDDR5 memory Radeon Pro Vega 16 with 4GB HBM2 memory Radeon Pro Vega 20 with 4GB HBM2 memory | 4.1 | 1.2 |
| MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) | Intel UHD Graphics 630 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) | Intel HD Graphics 630 Radeon Pro 555 2GB VRAM Radeon Pro 560 4GB VRAM | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) | Intel HD Graphics 530 Radeon Pro 450 2GB VRAM Radeon Pro 455 2GB VRAM Radeon Pro 460 4GB VRAM | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Graphics 550 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) | Intel Iris Graphics 540 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) | Intel Iris Pro 5200 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) | Intel Iris Graphics 6100 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics NVIDIA Geforce GT 750M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) | Intel Iris Graphics | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) | Intel Iris Pro Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) | Intel Iris Graphics | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) | NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012) | NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6770M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6750M ATI Radeon HD 6770M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) | Intel HD Graphics 3000 | 3.3 | — |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6750M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) | ATI Radeon HD 6490M ATI Radeon HD 6750M | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) | Intel HD Graphics 3000 | 3.3 | — |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) | NVIDIA Geforce GT 330M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) | NVIDIA Geforce GT 330M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) | NVIDIA Geforce GT 320M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2008) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M NVIDIA GeForce 9600M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M NVIDIA GeForce 9600M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2008) | NVIDIA Geforce 8600 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2008) | NVIDIA Geforce 8600 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2007) | NVIDIA Geforce 8600 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2007) | NVIDIA Geforce 8600 | 3.3 | 1.0 |
Mac Games Run In Opengl 1
MacBook
Run 3
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, 2017) | Intel HD Graphics 615 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016) | Intel HD Graphics 515 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015) | Intel HD Graphics 5300 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook (Mid 2010) | NVIDIA GeForce 320M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook (Early 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
Mac Games Run In Opengl Download
MacBook Air
Mac Games Run In Opengl 1
Model | GPU | OpenGL | OpenCL |
|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019) | Intel UHD Graphics 617 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
| MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018) | Intel UHD Graphics 617 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (13-inch, 2016) | Intel HD Graphics 6000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015) | Intel HD Graphics 6000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015) | Intel HD Graphics 6000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) | Intel HD Graphics 5000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2013) | Intel HD Graphics 5000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (Mid 2012) | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 4.1 | 1.2 |
MacBook Air (Mid 2011) | Intel HD Graphics 3000 | 3.3 | — |
MacBook Air (Late 2010) | NVIDIA GeForce 320M | 3.3 | 1.0 |
MacBook Air (Mid 2009) | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | 3.3 | 1.0 |