Do you have both a gaming PC and a Mac? You might be pleased to learn that you can stream games from your PC to your Mac, over a local network. That way you can play anything on your Mac, even if there’s no native Mac version. Here’s how.

How to Stream Games From PC to Mac With Steam Remote Play

Steam Remote Play allows you to stream any game you own on Steam, as well as most non-Steam games, from a gaming-capable computer to any device that can run Steam or the Steam Link app. You can also play games remotely on devices that don’t support Steam or the Steam Link app with the Steam Link physical device if you can find it, because Valve stopped selling it a while ago.

Setting up Steam Remote Play is very straightforward. First, both the device you want to stream from and the one you want to stream games to must be logged to the same Steam account and connected to the same local network.

Before you start streaming games, you need to enable Steam Remote Play. To do this, click the “Steam” button and then click the “Settings” button.

Next, open the “Remote Play” menu and activate the “Enable Remote Play” toggle.

Now, you can open Steam on your Mac. Once you open Steam enable the “Show only ready to play” filter to see only games installed on your host PC and Mac, select the game you want to stream to your Mac, and then click the large green “Stream” button.

The game will launch on your PC, and the stream will start. Once you enter the game, you can change the resolution and options without issues, as if you were playing the game on your PC.

While default settings result in pretty good image quality, you can tweak advanced settings by going into the “Remote Play” menu and activating the “Enable Advanced Host Options” and “Enable Advanced Client Options” toggles.

There, you can tweak the quality of the stream, increase the maximum bandwidth used, or disable it altogether (useful if you’ve got a high-end router), and more.

One handy option found in the “Advanced Host Options” menu, if you want to stream games to a MacBook, is “Change desktop resolution to match streaming client.” Enabling it will automatically adjust the stream’s resolution to match your MacBook’s resolution. If both the PC and the Mac are connected to the same monitor, if you’ve got a Mac Mini for example, you don’t have to enable it.

Steam Remote Play Pros and Cons

In general, Steam Remote Play is a great local game streaming solution for most people. The stream quality is pretty solid even with default settings, and it can get excellent if you increase or disable the bandwidth limit.

Latency isn’t that bad, especially if you play games with a controller. That said, input latency will be noticeable in fast-paced games played with a mouse and keyboard. Also, Steam Remote Play isn’t the most stable local streaming solution. I’ve noticed occasional stutters no matter which device I am streaming to.

I strongly recommend connecting both the host and client device—or at least the host computer—to your router via an Ethernet cable for the best experience regarding stability and latency. Still, there’s a good chance you’ll never completely get rid of stuttering.

If you don’t want to use cables, make sure to have at least a Wi-Fi 5 router. For the best wireless experience, however, I recommend at least a decent Wi-Fi 6 router.

How to Stream Games From PC to Mac With Moonlight and Sunshine

Another way to stream games from a PC to a Mac is with two apps called Moonlight and Sunshine. This combo offers lower latency and (somewhat) better image quality but isn’t as simple to set up as Steam Remote Play. Another advantage is that you can use said combo as a remote desktop solution. It’s not great for remote desktop purposes, but it’s useful in a pinch.

To start streaming games from your PC to your Mac with Moonlight and Sunshine, you first need to install Sunshine on your PC. Visit the Sunshine homepage, scroll down until you see the large download header, and click the “Latest” button.

This will lead you to the Sunshine GitHub download page. If your PC runs Windows, download the “sunshine-windows-installer.exe” file, run it, and install Sunshine. If you encounter the warning shown below while trying to install Sunshine, click the “More Info” button.

Then click the “Run Anyway” button and proceed with the installation.

Once you finish installing Sunshine, the app should automatically launch. Locate its icon in the system tray, right-click it, and click the “Open Sunshine” button.

This will open the Sunshine Web UI page in your web browser, where you can type in your username and password. Make sure to remember those or save them in your password manager of choice because you’ll need to enter them each time you open Sunshine’s Web UI. Once you enter your username and password, click the “Login” button.

This will open a new login window where you should enter the aforementioned username and password.

If your browser warns you about a potential security risk, click the “Advanced” button and then click “Accept the Risk and Continue.”

Sunshine’s default options are fine; you don’t need to tweak them. If you do want to change settings, I recommend watching this handy tutorial video from the MikeTheTech YouTube channel. It explains all the options found in Sunshine’s Web UI and what changing them does.

Now you can install Moonlight, a local game streaming client app, on your Mac. To do this, visit Moonlight’s GitHub downloads page, download the “macOS (Universal)” file and install it.

Once you’ve got Moonlight installed on your Mac, open the app, and if Sunshine is running on your PC, you should see a large icon showing a locked PC, like below.

Click the icon, and you’ll see a four-digit PIN you need to type into Sunshine.

Memorize the PIN, go to your PC, open Sunshine’s Web UI, navigate to the “PIN” tab, and enter the PIN as well as the device name, which is the name of your PC, as shown in Moonlight. In my case, the name is “17ThDimension.” Enter both the PIN and the hostname and click “send.”

If you’ve entered the correct PIN and hostname, the PC icon should become unshackled, and the lock icon should not show anymore, like below.

Now, you can click the PC icon, and you should be greeted with two icons: “Desktop,” and “Steam.”

The first will lead you to your PC’s desktop, and the second will open Steam. Personally, I always jump right to the desktop because I always have a bunch of non-Steam games installed on my PC. But if you only own Steam games, you can simply open Steam.

You can configure Moonlight to your liking by clicking the gear icon.

Once you access Moonlight options, you can tweak resolution, increase bandwidth, force hardware video decoder and select a specific video codec, enable HDR, unlock bandwidth (by default, the max bandwidth is limited to 150Mb/s), and more.

If your PC and Mac are hooked to the same monitor, select the “Native” resolution option, and you’ll have no issues with the stream’s resolution and aspect ratio.

On the other hand, if you use different monitors for your PC and Mac, or want to stream games to a MacBook, you should install the Virtual Display Driver and configure it to match the resolution and refresh rate of your MacBook’s display so that the stream doesn’t get stretched or include black borders in case the monitor and your MacBook’s display have different aspect ratios.

I recommend watching MikeTheTech’s video on installing the Virtual Display Driver to learn how to configure the virtual display to your liking.

Once you configure it, simply project the Windows desktop onto the virtual display (Project > Second Screen Only) after you launch the stream, and remember to reactivate the primary monitor (Project > PC Screen Only) before exiting Moonlight. Otherwise, the desktop will be projected onto the virtual display, and you’ll have to reopen Moonlight on your Mac to switch back to the primary monitor.

Moonlight and Sunshine Pros and Cons

For starters, installing and configuring this combo requires more time and isn’t as simple as enabling Steam Remote Play. Also, you might encounter aspect ratio issues if your PC and Mac aren’t hooked to the same monitor and the two displays have different aspect ratios.

On the flip side, Moonlight and Sunshine offer lower input latency than Steam Remote Play, especially if both the client and the host device are connected to the local network via cable. You’ll get the best experience when both the client and the host are wired into the router. For optimal experience, ensure that at least the host PC is connected to the router via an Ethernet cable.

The image quality can be better with the Moonlight and Sunshine combo, especially if you’ve got a capable Wi-Fi 6 or better router and disable the max bandwidth limit. That said, you will notice color banding in dark areas, which isn’t as pronounced when using Steam Remote Play.

Another advantage of this combo is that you can use it as a remote desktop solution, whereas Steam Remote Play can only be used to stream games.

All in all, Moonlight and Sunshine can offer lower latency and better image quality, but they’re more complicated to set up and do not automatically adjust the resolution and aspect ratio to match the client machine.

Need Virtual Display Support? Try Apollo

While Sunshine and Virtual Display Driver are a pretty good combo for people with separate displays for their PC and Mac, there’s another solution that automates the whole procedure.

Apollo is a Sunshine fork that includes the Virtual Display Driver by default and automatically creates a virtual display that matches your MacBook’s (or any other device you use to stream games from your PC) resolution and refresh rate. In other words, with Apollo, you don’t have to install and configure the Virtual Display Driver or manually project the desktop to the virtual display every time you launch Moonlight.

The installation and configuration procedure is the same as with Sunshine, with the only difference being that Apollo automatically installs the Virtual Display Driver, so you don’t have to install it separately.

Personally, I prefer Apollo because it automatically switches to the virtual display after I start the stream and because it dynamically adjusts the resolution and refresh rate of the virtual display to match the device I’m streaming to. For instance, when I stream games to my ASUS ROG Ally, Apollo adjusts the virtual display to 1080p@120Hz, and when I stream games to my Deck, it reconfigures the display to 800p@60Hz.

That said, Apollo suffers from certain teething pains. For example, the app will sometimes forget to automatically project the desktop to the secondary (virtual) display once you launch the stream, or will switch to the virtual display but run games on the primary screen. These bugs rarely occur, but they are present.

If you don’t mind manually switching to the secondary screen each time you launch the stream, use the Sunshine and Virtual Display Driver combo. But if you’d like to automate things, install Apollo.

Did you know that you can enjoy Steam Remote Play on your TV even if it doesn’t support Steam Link? You aren’t limited to streaming games from a PC to your Mac. You can play Steam games remotely on your phone, tablet, Windows gaming handheld, streaming handheld, Nintendo Switch, and more.