[Sharjah]

Don't know much about specs of a mac, but curious how to make my mac run faster, and if it can run any games?

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB

[Clutch]

If you want to speed it up, upgrade the hard drive to an SSD and upgrade the RAM.

[tehcj]

If you want to speed it up, upgrade the hard drive to an SSD and upgrade the RAM.

This is correct, and really the most you could do to "speed" things up.
BUT that intel graphics chip isn't very strong and is going to struggle with most newer games. It's sorta a trial and error thing with each game.

[orangeblackbird]

I'd say, don't get your hopes up.

If you want to run games on a Mac, Bootcamp is a must. Windows runs games much much better (plus, a lot of games on Steam aren't available for macOS).

Then for sure upgrade to an SSD and turn up that RAM to 11. Check out OWC for parts to upgrade.

I'm not sure if your system supports it, but if you have the cash and can run High Sierra, you could buy an external GPU.

[rsx]

Mac just isn't optimized to run games, at least steam games. You're gonna have a hard time doing it even with a good macbook.

[Cylow]

You would need to upgrade your processor and get a better graphics card. Would be better if you were to buy a PC that's for gamin instead.

[Yellowbanana844]

Good processor but everything else about that Mac would need to be upgraded , macs are usually More optimised for editing videos and photos, using Photoshop etc