Civilization 5 on Mac: How to Play & Benchmarks

While most Civ fans are busy playing Civilization 6 and its latest expansion, thousands of gamers with older machines continue to enjoy the still-popular Civilization 5 on Mac.

Believe it or not, Civilization 5 remains an extremely popular game, almost as popular as the latest Civilization game, at least according to Steam Charts. How can that be possible? How can a game from 2010 be as popular as one of the best strategy games currently available?

Can you play Civilization 5 on Mac?

You can absolutely play Civilization 5 on your Mac, including Intel and Apple Silicon Models. Even if the official system requirements don’t mention M1 or M2 Macs, our benchmarks confirm the game runs fine on Apple Silicon Macs.

It is worth noting that the game still uses the aging OpenGL graphics API, but this isn’t entirely surprising as the game was released many years ago, and developers seldom update their back catalog (unless a game-breaking issue appears).

It would be unfair not to mention the great job Aspyr did on Civilization 5’s Mac version. Aspyr is one of the two porting companies with the most experience, and it shows. Civ 5 has an excellent Mac version that runs smoothly and with virtually no bugs.

Art	Game	Genre	64-bit?	64-bit	API	M1 Support
	Civilization 5	Strategy	Yes		Metal	Rosetta

Civ 5 on Mac: Everything you need to know

Civilization 5 was a good game from Day 1. But that didn’t prevent Firaxis, the game’s developer, from releasing several expansions that further improved the game, sometimes drastically. Brave New World, the second and final expansion, included new civilizations, new Wonders, and new units and buildings to play with.

But more importantly, it vastly improved trade, culture, and diplomacy, making Civ 5 a much better game.

I completely agree with Gaming Excellence‘s review:

It’s very hard to describe a Civilization game in great detail without starting to ramble. If you take nothing else from this review, know that Civilization V is more inviting, fun, and engrossing than any lengthy description can truly convey.

On top of that, Brave New World was a game-changer because it solved the one weakness Civ 5 had: a stall end-game. Normally, when you would get to the final stage of a game, all you could do was wait and see if the strategy you chose early on would work.

Civilization 5 on macOS

Without going too much into the details, introducing trade routes (which also propagate religion!), all-new tourism-related mechanics, a revamped role of city-states, and more, make Civ 5 infinitely more fun.

Civ 5 Mac requirements

These are the game’s official Mac requirements:

How to play Civilization 5 on Mac

As mentioned before, Civilization 5 runs natively on macOS, and that includes Intel-based Macs and M1/M2 Macs.

The game does require Rosetta 2 to run on Apple Silicon Macs. But Rosetta 2 works so seamlessly (it installs automatically the first time it detects an Intel-based app), and it integrates so well with macOS that the experience is virtually the same as running a native Apple Silicon Mac.

This means Civilization 5 can run on macOS without requiring any third-party software. Therefore, we won’t waste your time talking about Parallels, Crossover (both excellent tools, but only useful for Windows-exclusive games…), or Streaming services.

Can you play Civ 5 on Mac? M1 and Intel Benchmarks

These are the Civilization 5 M1 benchmarks we have gathered so far:

As a reminder, this is how we describe the different levels of performance:

• Below 20 FPS: Unplayable: Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns.
• 20-30 FPS: Borderline: Can be OK in slow-paced games. Still, not optimal.
• 30-45 FPS: Playable: Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this).
• 45-60 FPS: Smooth: Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters.
• 60+ FPS: Very Smooth: For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.

Intel Mac benchmarks

We previously tested the game on these Intel Macs:

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016): 2.0 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, Intel Iris Graphics 540 (1.5GB)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2013): 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, Intel Iris 5100 (1.5GB)

These are the settings we used to run Civilization 5’s internal benchmark :

• 1280×800 resolution
• Quality settings: Medium (except Texture Quality set to High)
• Vsync: Off

Using our in-house benchmarking tool, we ran the game on every Mac using the same settings.

The Results: Finally, a Civilization everyone can enjoy!

Of all of our Mac Performance Reviews, this is one of the most straightforward. Can your Mac run it? Unless you have a Mac from 2010 or older, you should be fine running Civilization 5 on Mac.

I know some of you may be thinking, “duh, turn-based strategy games can even run on a potato.”  But just take a look at the newer Civilization 6. Granted, it’s a good-looking game, but for a turn-based game, it’s extremely demanding.

Can you play Civilization 5 on a MacBook Pro?

Civilization 5 is a forgiving game that can easily run on a MacBook Pro, including older Intel models such as the 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro with integrated graphics.

Every single one of our MacBook Pros ran Civ 5 with ease. Even the 2013 model did fine, running the game at a comfortable 62.8 Frames per second. If you have a MacBook from at least 2013, you can be certain you’ll be able to run Civ 5 without a problem.

But what if you have an even older machine? Based on the official system requirements, Civ 5 supports MacBooks with Intel HD 4000 graphics. The only models that featured those graphics were the 2012 models, meaning owners of MacBooks from 2012 should be safe too.

In any case, we always recommend staying on the safe side and making sure your machine meets the minimum system requirements before buying this game. One last alternative for those with Macs that cannot meet these requirements is to try Civilization Revolution, a capable mobile/PC alternative.

Download Civilization 5 for Mac

You can download Civilization 5 on Steam.