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thepolarbear

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 10, 2014
2
0
I have a 2014 Air with the i5 and 4gigs, I'm looking to see if the game is worth buying to use on my current system. So what does everyone's performance look like on the 2013/2014 Airs?
 
I haven't played Guild Wars 2 on the Macbook Air yet, but the minimum requirements specify at least a 2.0GHz processor or better. However, this may be balance by the Air's HD Graphics 5000 GPU since Guild Wars 2 only requires a HD 3000 GPU or better.

My best suggestion is to find someone you know who plays Guild Wars 2 and ask if you can test the game on your Macbook Air. I would normally say to just buy the game and see if it works, but $30 - $50 is a little steep for a game that may or may not work on your Mac.

Additionally, Guild Wars 2 will sometimes have free trials where you can play for 7 days free of charge. You can keep track of when the game has a free trial available via their newsletter (https://register.guildwars2.com/trial/newsletter) so this is what I would suggest if you don't know anyone who plays and are able to wait to play.

Hope this is helpful. Sorry, I don't know the exact results!

Happy Gaming! :apple:
 
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I think it would be too demanding it being a cider wrapper for an enjoyable experience on the air. I havent installed it on the air just seen the stress it puts on my imac.
 
After seeing a few vids on youtube, it doesn't run well on OS X.

From what I've experience, this is not true. :D

If you were to Google “Guild Wars 2 Mac Beta” you would find a lot of complaints on forums in regards to performance. Oftentimes, you’ll also see posts from Arenanet Staff stating the game is currently in beta and they apologize for the inconvenience. However, I rarely encountered issues in performance while playing Guild Wars 2. Granted, I am playing on a higher-end iMac, so my guess is that it’s less the Guild Wars 2 Mac client and more the hardware within the Mac itself.

On my iMac I can run Guild Wars 2 on max settings at 80 FPS, with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. This makes the game look absolutely incredible, so I highly recommend playing Guild Wars 2 on a higher-end Mac model (likewise with PC).

While playing Guild Wars 2, I only ever witness stuttering when I first load the game, which is to be expected since I'm on a fairly basic internet connection. What’s most important is that when I’m actually playing the game, no matter how many players are on the screen at once, I rarely experience lag.
 
As others have pointed it, the "Mac client" is really just the windows version in a Cider wrapper and has been in perpetual "beta" status for several years with no updates. On a Mac Pro with an NVIDIA 680GTX I barely get 10-15 fps with low settings. In Windows/bootcamp on the same machine I am able to to get 30-60 fps at 1920x1200 on max settings. It's a very fun game and IMO one of the better MMOs out there, but unless you're planning on bootcamp I can't recommend this game for Mac.

Not directly related, if you're just looking for something new I may suggest Elder Scrolls Online. I bring it up because it borrows a lot of ideas from GW2 and the developer has given Macs the first-class citizen treatment by developing a true native OSX client that works great.
 
As others have pointed it, the "Mac client" is really just the windows version in a Cider wrapper and has been in perpetual "beta" status for several years with no updates. On a Mac Pro with an NVIDIA 680GTX I barely get 10-15 fps with low settings. In Windows/bootcamp on the same machine I am able to to get 30-60 fps at 1920x1200 on max settings. It's a very fun game and IMO one of the better MMOs out there, but unless you're planning on bootcamp I can't recommend this game for Mac.

Not directly related, if you're just looking for something new I may suggest Elder Scrolls Online. I bring it up because it borrows a lot of ideas from GW2 and the developer has given Macs the first-class citizen treatment by developing a true native OSX client that works great.

thats pretty piss poor for a 680 gtx which isnt even a mobile gpu. My imac with 675mx mobile gpu played at 2560x1440 all at medium settings at 50fps in OSX.
 
As others have pointed it, the "Mac client" is really just the windows version in a Cider wrapper and has been in perpetual "beta" status for several years with no updates. On a Mac Pro with an NVIDIA 680GTX I barely get 10-15 fps with low settings. In Windows/bootcamp on the same machine I am able to to get 30-60 fps at 1920x1200 on max settings. It's a very fun game and IMO one of the better MMOs out there, but unless you're planning on bootcamp I can't recommend this game for Mac.

Not directly related, if you're just looking for something new I may suggest Elder Scrolls Online. I bring it up because it borrows a lot of ideas from GW2 and the developer has given Macs the first-class citizen treatment by developing a true native OSX client that works great.

That's really weird since I'm also using a 2GB nVidia card and the Mac client performs tremendously well even on max settings. I can't explain why you would experience such issues on your MacBook Pro, though, the difference could be that I'm using a 27" iMac...not sure.

Anyway, ESO is a great suggestion! :cool: I agree that the game is very similar to GW2, though it have that dreaded monthly subscription, which I can never justify. :p Outside of that, I definitely suggest this game as well. In fact, Zenimax actually stated that they would have a free-to-play model in the future so there's definitely that to look forward to if Guild Wars 2 doesn't work!
 
From my more than 2 years of playing Guildwars 2 on my MBA 2010 and now MBA 2013, I can honestly say it plays well. You may have to sacrifice the graphics in order to play flawlessly.

Right now, I am able to play on highly populated maps on Medium Setting with only a slight drop in FPS every now and then. Overall, its playable. But ofcourse, if you are able to Bootcamp Windows, I think you can push the graphics to go on High and be tolerable to play.

I can say playing on my MBA 2013 is a far better option than my other setup (MBP 2008 on Windows 7).

Cheers! :)
 
2nd, on the Mac Client being not very optimized game runs very smooth on my older rMBP 2012 /w Windows 7. I tired it again on Yosemite and it still runs like crap, I haven't remember the last time Anet updated the Mac Client which is still in "beta."
 
2nd, on the Mac Client being not very optimized game runs very smooth on my older rMBP 2012 /w Windows 7. I tired it again on Yosemite and it still runs like crap, I haven't remember the last time Anet updated the Mac Client which is still in "beta."

Bootcamp still seems to be the answer for game-challenged Macs. ;)
 
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