How to Optimize Your Mac for Video Editing and Gaming

Getting a Mac ready for video editing or a game comes down to four things: leave room on the startup disk, clear the render and cache files your editing apps build up, quit the apps you are not using, and keep macOS and the app itself up to date. None of this adds power the hardware does not have, but it removes the common reasons a session stutters or an export fails for lack of space.

1. Keep free space on the startup disk

When memory runs short, macOS moves some of it to the startup disk. Editing apps also write render files, previews and caches as you work, and games download large updates. All of that needs free space, so a disk that is nearly full is the first thing to fix.

1. Open System Settings, then General, then Storage, and wait for the bar to finish calculating.
2. Click the i button beside Documents and look at the Large Files tab. Old exports and screen recordings often sit here.
3. Move finished projects and source footage to an external drive. For editing from that drive, a fast SSD on a fast port is worth having.
4. Empty the Trash. Nothing is freed until you do.

2. Clear render files and media caches

Editing apps keep generated files so playback is smooth. They can be rebuilt, so they are safe to remove for projects you are not actively working on. Together they often take tens of gigabytes.

Final Cut Pro:

1. Select the library in the sidebar.
2. Choose File, then Delete Generated Library Files.
3. Tick Delete Render Files and choose unused only or all. You can also remove optimised and proxy media if you still have the original files.

Adobe Premiere Pro:

1. Choose Premiere Pro, then Settings, then Media Cache.
2. Click Delete beside the option to remove media cache files, and choose whether to remove unused files or all of them.

Other editors have a similar command, usually in their settings or under a cache or render menu. Use the app's own command where there is one, so the project stays consistent.

3. Quit what you are not using

1. Before a long export or a game, quit other apps with Command-Q. Chat apps, music players and browsers with many tabs all hold memory and use some processor time.
2. Open Activity Monitor and click the Memory tab. The Memory Pressure graph at the bottom shows the state: green is fine, yellow and red mean the Mac is short of memory and something should be closed.
3. Click the CPU tab and sort by % CPU to see whether anything else is busy.
4. In System Settings, General, Login Items, remove apps you do not need opening at login.

4. Use Game Mode

Game Mode is part of macOS Sonoma and later on Macs with Apple Silicon. It turns on by itself when a game goes full screen, gives the game priority on the processor and graphics, and lowers the delay for wireless controllers and AirPods. There is nothing to set up: play the game in full screen, and a Game Mode item appears in the menu bar while it is active.

5. Power, heat and updates

• Plug a laptop in for long renders and games.
• Work on a hard, flat surface so heat can escape. A Mac that gets too hot slows itself down to protect its parts.
• Check System Settings, General, Software Update, and keep the editing app or game updated too.

What MacPrune does about it

MacPrune helps with the first and third steps. It frees disk space and shows what is busy. It does not make a Mac render or play faster, and we do not claim it does.

• The Disk page maps the disk with every folder as a tile sized by its space, so a large media cache or an old project folder is easy to spot. It is for looking only.
• Large Files lists files above a size you set, biggest first, which suits video work well.
• The Clean page scans for caches, logs, old downloads and more. What you choose moves to the Trash, and space is freed when the Trash is emptied.
• The Monitor page shows live CPU, GPU and memory use and the apps using the most, and lets you quit them before a session.

Where to go next

For the disk, read how to free up Mac storage and what to do when storage is full but nothing looks deletable. If heat is the limit, see how to cool down a hot Mac. MacPrune is free to download from the home page.