Highball
Which renderer to use
Highball can run each game through three different Direct3D translation layers. This is what the database knows for this title — empty rows are open questions, not failures.
| Renderer | Verdict | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| DXVKDirect3D 9-11 over Vulkan | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| DXMTDirect3D 11 over Metal | Untested | no report yet — send one |
| D3DMetalApple's Game Porting Toolkit | Untested | no report yet — send one |
No dated Highball run yet. When one lands it records the renderer, the engine build and the macOS version it was seen on — which is what stops a verdict quietly rotting. Send one.
Notes
Free to play on Steam, about 90 GB. Its launcher opens on Highball's default setup and, on a first start, asks for an ArenaNet display name to link to your Steam account before the game starts. Only the launcher was exercised here, so no frame rate was measured. AppleGamingWiki's Wine entry says to turn esync off. Highball uses msync, a different mechanism. If the game hangs, set the environment's Synchronization to None.
Provenance
AppleGamingWiki rates it Perfect through CrossOver and through Wine, with reports from an M2 Mac mini (Game Porting Toolkit with Whisky, 100 to 140 fps at low settings) and an M4 Max (CrossOver, 80 to 120 fps at 4K high). Measured here on an M4 with macOS 27.0 on 2026-10-01, engine x64-sikarugir10.0_6-r17 with DXMT and msync. The Steam copy's launcher renders, shows the game fully downloaded (Playable, Ready) and reaches the ArenaNet display-name step. The game itself was not started here.
Before installing anything, it is worth checking whether the game already ships a native Mac build.
Common questions
Does Guild Wars 2 work on Mac?
Guild Wars 2 has no native Mac build, but it is reported to run on Apple Silicon through Highball, a free open-source compatibility layer. This comes from community reports rather than a Highball test run, so treat it as a reasonable expectation rather than a guarantee.
Contribute a result
This page is generated from an open database. If you have run Guild Wars 2 on Apple Silicon, working or not, a report takes a minute and fills in the empty rows above. Send a report, or read how the data is put together.