Windows gaming on a 16” MBP - Best setup?

[honcho]

I recently got myself a 16” MBP. I’m absolutely loving it. Now I want to do some light gaming. I mainly play Elder Scrolls Online which has Mac and PC versions, but the MacOS version has been problematic. As a result, I am planning to install Windows 10 to play it. I’m just not sure how I should do so. I have very little experience of Windows.

Is it best to install the game and OS on the internal drive using Boot Camp? Or can I install Windows on the intenal drive and the game on an external USB 3.0 SSD (Samsung T5)? I know that some people install Windows to an external drive, but the WinToUSB method I have found can apparently cause problems with updates.

I am just wondering how people have set up their machines for Windows gaming? Aby suggestions or advice would be much appreciated 🙂

 

[casperes1996]

You can install the game to an external drive no issue. Well, at least it works flawlessly with Steam games.

 

[leman]

Is it best to install the game and OS on the internal drive using Boot Camp? Or can I install Windows on the intenal drive and the game on an external USB 3.0 SSD (Samsung T5)? I know that some people install Windows to an external drive, but the WinToUSB method I have found can apparently cause problems with updates.

I don't think there is a best setup here. Putting everything on the internal SSD is certainly the simplest one. Using the external disk for the game library is probably the most flexible one. What I can't recommend is installing Windows itself on the external drive, it is just too wonky.

 

[Chronos___]

I played CSGO competitively (on my older MacBook) and would suggest to put both Windows and Steam + Games on the internal Drive (if you have enough space, because windows on its own can take a lot), since its the easiest solution and you just have to press a button while booting to get into windows.
Otherwise, you can easily put your games on an external drive - by using thunderbolt3 or USB type-C it should be fast enough and not bottleneck your system.

 

[honcho]

I don't think there is a best setup here. Putting everything on the internal SSD is certainly the simplest one. Using the external disk for the game library is probably the most flexible one. What I can't recommend is installing Windows itself on the external drive, it is just too wonky.

Thanks for the advice. That narrows my options. The benefit of all internal is not having to dangle a hard drive off a port. I’ll just have to work out what size partition I’ll need for Windows and a 85GB game. Only have a 1TB SSD in my MBP, so I’ll have to give it some thought.

I played CSGO competitively (on my older MacBook) and would suggest to put both Windows and Steam + Games on the internal Drive (if you have enough space, because windows on its own can take a lot), since its the easiest solution and you just have to press a button while booting to get into windows.
Otherwise, you can easily put your games on an external drive - by using thunderbolt3 or USB type-C it should be fast enough and not bottleneck your system.

Unfortunately, ESO doesn’t play nice with Steam. I think I’ll use Boot Camp on the internal drive and keep one game onboard as well. Thanks!

 

[nickf1]

Thanks for the advice. That narrows my options. The benefit of all internal is not having to dangle a hard drive off a port. I’ll just have to work out what size partition I’ll need for Windows and a 85GB game. Only have a 1TB SSD in my MBP, so I’ll have to give it some thought.

If you only want to install this one game locally, go with at least 256 GB for the partition. Also, note that Windows counts storage in base 8 and macOS in base 10, so a 256 GB partition in Windows is 275 GB in macOS BootCamp assistant (256*1024*1024*1024).
Whatever you do, don't leave macOS with less than 30GB of space or you'll run into issues (you can wipe out macOS completely if you wish, but if you want to use both, that's that minimum you should keep).

 

[honcho]

If you only want to install this one game locally, go with at least 256 GB for the partition. Also, note that Windows counts storage in base 8 and macOS in base 10, so a 256 GB partition in Windows is 275 GB in macOS BootCamp assistant (256*1024*1024*1024).
Whatever you do, don't leave macOS with less than 30GB of space or you'll run into issues (you can wipe out macOS completely if you wish, but if you want to use both, that's that minimum you should keep).

I appreciate the guidance. I’ll go for 275GB!