Thanks, great work. I am surprised how well the 13" MBA compares to the 13" MBP. The 11" MBA just doesn't make much sense to me when you can buy a 13" MBA for $1400. That is what I'll be saving up for.
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Macbook Air 11'' gaming performance?
- Thread starter luffytubby
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Thanks, great work. I am surprised how well the 13" MBA compares to the 13" MBP. The 11" MBA just doesn't make much sense to me when you can buy a 13" MBA for $1400. That is what I'll be saving up for.
Were those tests done in Mac OS X or Windows? If they were done in Mac OS X, then I am definitely getting the 11" base model with maybe a jump up in SSD storage.
Most people will not buy a dedicated computer for gaming. So knowing whether your primary computer can run a game casually is fine to ask. A dedicated machine built for gaming can cost upwards of $2k...not everyone wants to spend the money to play games casually.
I may have a great setup at home for gaming...but I've been on trips where I would like to blow some evening hours playing a game. When one of the Warcraft expansions came out, I was visiting my inlaws. I took my macbook to Starbucks while my wife did whatever with her family and enjoyed the rush to 70 with my guild mates.
So there's two reasons why someone would want to run games on their new shiny macbook air.
Still sound retarded?
Jeez.. That would be one hell of a system. Most peoples dedicated gaming systems probably cost half that.
I'm with you on the wanting to know about gaming performance on the MBA though, it looks like a nice little machine for impromptu LAN parties and MMOs etc...
Yeah I don't know where the 2k gaming machine costs. Like Eidorian said, AMD gaming boxes can cost ~$600.
It could well be perfectly acceptable for WoW. No, not at ultimate settings, obviously, but playable. On my older MacBook Pro (same rez as new 13" MBA), I play with low to medium-ish settings, at full LCD resolution, and it looks good and works fine (using the Cataclysm engine). Dalaran is laggy as hell, but away from Dalaran I generally get between 20-30 fps while testing (including 5-man dungeons), although I capped the frame rate at 20 to keep the heat down.
Now the new MacBook Airs have a 320M GPU, which is significantly better than the crappier 9400M in my machine (48 processing pipelines vs. 16, for starters). So it should run WoW just fine for casual gaming. Obviously the Air is not for hardcore gaming, but to come out and flat out say you can't use it for games, is ridiculous.
Now the new MacBook Airs have a 320M GPU, which is significantly better than the crappier 9400M in my machine (48 processing pipelines vs. 16, for starters). So it should run WoW just fine for casual gaming. Obviously the Air is not for hardcore gaming, but to come out and flat out say you can't use it for games, is ridiculous.
Sure. You can use a ruberband to tie them together, balance a game dvd on top of it, kickback with a beer and enjoy yourself.
I'm not going to sit around and price good setups. The desire to know if you can run certain games on a portable is valid. I imagine the only ones that will argue with that are folks that have no money concerns (either great job with lots of disposal income or kids sucking the money teet of their parents).
From the barefeats.com tests, it's curious how the 2.4 GHz 13" MBA is bested (by about 12%) by the lowly 1.4 GHz 11" MBA in World of Warcraft. All I can think of is the resolution makes the difference, but that seems like a lot.
Another thing I'm curious about from those of you with the new MacBook Airs is how hot and how loud does it get while gaming? On my 2009 15" MacBook Pro, WoW causes the machine to get scorching hot and super, super loud as the fans crank to maximum, and this is with lowish settings and the frame rate capped at 25 fps. Would be nice to have something that runs a little cooler.
EDIT: I see now that the 2.4 GHz is actually a MacBook Pro. Which is even weirder. So I'm thinking the hard drive on the MBP must account for the slowdown.
Another thing I'm curious about from those of you with the new MacBook Airs is how hot and how loud does it get while gaming? On my 2009 15" MacBook Pro, WoW causes the machine to get scorching hot and super, super loud as the fans crank to maximum, and this is with lowish settings and the frame rate capped at 25 fps. Would be nice to have something that runs a little cooler.
EDIT: I see now that the 2.4 GHz is actually a MacBook Pro. Which is even weirder. So I'm thinking the hard drive on the MBP must account for the slowdown.
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Resolution on new airs is better then previous so technically game would be more intense. In terms of how loud it gets the fans really **** a brick and it's the only time I've ever heard them and heard them loud, it also warms up. However in non-games the machine runs silent and cold.
Love the discussion ("Are you mad!? Playing games at anything less than full-on power is totally ca-ray-zee!").
But it'd be nice if people reported here on actual MBA 11" gaming experiences with actual games, rather than endlessly debating specs and theoretical results. The machine has been out long enough now for reports from reality to start trickling in.
Thank you in advance!
But it'd be nice if people reported here on actual MBA 11" gaming experiences with actual games, rather than endlessly debating specs and theoretical results. The machine has been out long enough now for reports from reality to start trickling in.
Thank you in advance!
To me the thickness doesn't make it that much more portable, the 11" is just so tiny that it makes it a different class than the 13".
But anyway, I'm surprised the 11 can get 45 fps in Portal on high settings. No AA and Source runs on basically anything but still kinda cool.
11,air stock plays fps modern games fine!!!
i just downloaded a demo of halo reach and it plays very well on my stock air 11,i also played a demo of amnesia from steam and it played that great too,it games very well,the settings on the vid for halo were on medium full,[no aa of course]runs it at full res[1367x766]and been playing right now for bout hour at least,bit warm but no probs,i use smc fan control,the fans arent even humming,because the native screen res is low,and the gpu takes most of the power off of the cpu,it games great for its size,even with 2 gig ram,no kidding,ive also heard cod demo plays too,from review i read somewhere,so now u know,its a ripper i reckon,it kills it,i love the bugger,but i might return and go for 1.6 and 4 ram,this week if funds permit.in bcamp it would put a bit more strain on it,but games that are native to mac,run better than win bcamp,generally i find,i rekon it could almost play anything,maybe not a full specs,but certainly decent and playable.if u r thinking of gaming on it ,go for it,but mac native games r better .
i just downloaded a demo of halo reach and it plays very well on my stock air 11,i also played a demo of amnesia from steam and it played that great too,it games very well,the settings on the vid for halo were on medium full,[no aa of course]runs it at full res[1367x766]and been playing right now for bout hour at least,bit warm but no probs,i use smc fan control,the fans arent even humming,because the native screen res is low,and the gpu takes most of the power off of the cpu,it games great for its size,even with 2 gig ram,no kidding,ive also heard cod demo plays too,from review i read somewhere,so now u know,its a ripper i reckon,it kills it,i love the bugger,but i might return and go for 1.6 and 4 ram,this week if funds permit.in bcamp it would put a bit more strain on it,but games that are native to mac,run better than win bcamp,generally i find,i rekon it could almost play anything,maybe not a full specs,but certainly decent and playable.if u r thinking of gaming on it ,go for it,but mac native games r better .
Wait wait wait what? A demo of Halo Reach? That seems unlikely.
Your post was also one giant running sentence.. Eek.I cant figure out the motivations for such a peculiar post.
The 11 inch will likely end up infuriating you because of the intensive tasks you will subject it to. Get the 13 inch Air, you wont regret it...
What on that list was intensive? As far as I am concerned that list could be done by an iPad if I could hook a mouse and keyboard up to it. The gaming part doesn't have to be, but I would like it to achieve 60-90 FPS, which I know it can.
I went to the Apple store, installed Steam and CS:S in Mac OS X, and I was getting 60-140 FPS. I know that number will go up 20-30% in Windows. If the 1.4Ghz 11.6" model can achieve that kind of FPS, then I know it will be able to add overlays to videos and join them together. I know it will be able to import/export videos and photos. I know nothing in my list was intensive.
List what the MacBook Air 11.6" couldn't do on my list. I don't care how long the rendering of videos takes, it's better than any Windows program I would use.
Just to let the very, very small amount of people who may care, Virtual Grand Prix 3 (vgp3.com) runs well on the base model 11.6 MBA. Even with mid to high settings it still runs fairly well. The texture cut-off is best at 512X512 though due to the smaller amount of VRAM. But still fun for me to be able to play the game on this model of the Air when I am on the road.
Okay, this little 11" Air is sick!. I just installed Mass Effect 2 through Steam where I left off from playing it on my Alienware M11x and the game plays flawlessy and actually looks better on my MBA screen than my M11x! I have to say I am impressed! My only concern is how long can I play without worrying something in my motherboard will begin to fry?? It doesn't seem hot after 30 minutes, but I am nervous playing too long on this machine.
. I just installed Mass Effect 2 through Steam where I left off from playing it on my Alienware M11x and the game plays flawlessy and actually looks better on my MBA screen than my M11x! I have to say I am impressed! My only concern is how long can I play without worrying something in my motherboard will begin to fry?? It doesn't seem hot after 30 minutes, but I am nervous playing too long on this machine.
Just because you think it isn't don't mean that its true.
it has enough CPU power, it has enough ram, it has a decent GPU ( a hell of allot better GPU then any intel crap GPU).
just because you would have to down the settings doesn't mean you will have any less of a gaming experience. personally i have seen videos of a mini ( same GPU in a Air just with a tad bit slower CPU speeds then the mini but the same CPU none the less) play games smoothly
Jeez.. That would be one hell of a system. Most peoples dedicated gaming systems probably cost half that.
I'm with you on the wanting to know about gaming performance on the MBA though, it looks like a nice little machine for impromptu LAN parties and MMOs etc...
A pre built dedicated gaming machine can run from $900 - $1.8k.
but yeah if you build your own you could spend half that. but some people do not want to build their own system.
Hmm, I think after reading the barefeats tests I'll keep my current machine and not replace it with an 11" air! Considering in those tests my machine is over twice as powerful!