11.6" MBA & Call of Duty 4

[MrXiro]

Unless you're running bootcamp, I wouldn't agree with you. Even more so if you happen to be running 10.6.7 on OSX, as it's already been reported to be a known issue with decreased graphic performance. And again, I'll disagree even more if you have your Air plugged into an external display.

Don't underestimate the Air for gaming, especially at native resolution. The proof of it's pretty exceptional gaming capabilities are well documented all over these forums.

I've never read any report... not saying none exist... i just didn't read any. I literally put on Portal 2on my 64gb MBA just to see... it runs like crap, even when set to the lowest setting about an hour before I posted that... and then I deleted it.

It's a great little machine and I'm sure it's satisfactory for most... but I won't ever be playing games on it again. Bought it for web browsing email and to write. That's all it's going to be for.

 

[Icaras]

I've never read any report... not saying none exist... i just didn't read any. I literally put on Portal 2on my 64gb MBA just to see... it runs like crap, even when set to the lowest setting about an hour before I posted that... and then I deleted it.

It's a great little machine and I'm sure it's satisfactory for most... but I won't ever be playing games on it again. Bought it for web browsing email and to write. That's all it's going to be for.

Again, are you running it natively on OSX with 10.6.7? Because the latest update is known to cause pretty bad graphics performance. It's so bad, even just the original Left 4 Dead runs like **** on my 2010 27" i5.

Now run it on Windows 7 under bootcamp with updated graphic drivers, and then you might see what I'm talking about. I showed a buddy of mine who is a big PC gaming rig guy, just how big of a difference performance was between OSX and Windows 7 and he agreed, it was almost like a night and day performance. It's that bad.

You shouldn't totally rule out the Air as a modest gaming platform, just soley on OSX alone. I think it's unfair because you would be amazed at the difference it makes.

 

[MrXiro]

Again, are you running it natively on OSX with 10.6.7? Because the latest update is known to cause pretty bad graphics performance. It's so bad, even just the original Left 4 Dead runs like **** on my 2010 27" i5.

Now run it on Windows 7 under bootcamp with updated graphic drivers, and then you might see what I'm talking about. I showed a buddy of mine who is a big PC gaming rig guy, just how big of a difference performance was between OSX and Windows 7 and he agreed, it was almost like a night and day performance. It's that bad.

You shouldn't totally rule out the Air as a modest gaming platform, just soley on OSX alone. I think it's unfair because you would be amazed at the difference it makes.

Yes I'm running the MBA on 10.6.7. Portal 2 runs just fine on my 2010 iMac i3. I tried L4D on the MBA too... was worse than Portal 2 oddly enough.

I don't have a copy Windows 7 and 60gb is too small for me to be willing to partition it to install a 2nd OS anyway. Was never going to keep this as any sort of gaming machine anyway. Just wanted to see how well it worked.

Maybe 10.6.8 will be better... doubt it. But we'll see I guess.

 

[Icaras]

Yes I'm running the MBA on 10.6.7. Portal 2 runs just fine on my 2010 iMac i3. I tried L4D on the MBA too... was worse than Portal 2 oddly enough.

I don't have a copy Windows 7 and 60gb is too small for me to be willing to partition it to install a 2nd OS anyway. Was never going to keep this as any sort of gaming machine anyway. Just wanted to see how well it worked.

Maybe 10.6.8 will be better... doubt it. But we'll see I guess.

Check this thread out about the effect of 10.6.7 on gaming performance:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1124748/

A similar thing popped up during 10.6.4 release, and Valve even issued a warning to Mac users then.

I would say try again when 10.6.8 comes out, assuming and hoping Apple addresses these issues in the next update. Gaming performance has a lot to do with your OS, and optimization of the graphics drivers. Hardware is just a part of it. And unfortuntely, Apple screwed something up on the latest one.

 

[2IS]

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All i said was mw2 runs smoothly.

I'm going to get a copy of black ops and test it on my own Air. I'll update this thread if necessary.

Out of curiosity, OS? Drivers?

Windows 7 under bootcamp, unsure of the driver version. Doesn't matter, the Air simply doesn't possess the processing power required to run Blops adequately.

 

[TheMacBookPro]

Windows 7 under bootcamp, unsure of the driver version. Doesn't matter, the Air simply doesn't possess the processing power required to run Blops adequately.

I have to say I'm surprised since Black Ops's graphics haven't dramatically changed from MW2, which, as you will find reported by several users, runs extremely smoothly.

 

[2IS]

I have to say I'm surprised since Black Ops's graphics haven't dramatically changed from MW2, which, as you will find reported by several users, runs extremely smoothly.

I know MW2 runs well enough, I own that game also. That's the difference between Infinity Ward making a game vs Treyarch.