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Macbook Air 11'' gaming performance?
- Thread starter luffytubby
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I spent like 750 on a prebuilt from ibuypower.com that will run basically any game out today at 1920x1080 maxed settings.
It's hardly 1.8k. that's more for people who love to run 3dmark/furmark ect and post scores. Hell a 460gtx will max anything and it cost 200 bucks. Factor in another 500 for components (not including monitor/mouse/kb) and your set.
If you want a TOTAL PC with monitor KB/mouse prolly around 900-950, but that is max settings. You could get med/high for much less.
so on OSX natively, SC2 Ran great for me on my macbook air (see specs in sig)
In base i was getting around 70FPS, dropped to around 40 in battle with about 13 mutas and 40 or so zergling. Not bad considering it's OSX. In bootcamp I'm sure it would fly.
Impressive for sure.
I set everything low also FYI but I prefer FPS over looks.
In base i was getting around 70FPS, dropped to around 40 in battle with about 13 mutas and 40 or so zergling. Not bad considering it's OSX. In bootcamp I'm sure it would fly.
Impressive for sure.
I set everything low also FYI but I prefer FPS over looks.
I'm not interested in purchasing a 4GB 13" MBA for its gaming ability alone (just out to replace my late 2007 white MacBook), however, I'm hearing good things about the graphics performance on the device. When you say 'It runs well', do you mean that it runs at a reasonable frame rate on low-medium settings? Also, does it get very loud & hot? I'm a Left 4 Dead sorta guy, so if it were possible to play it when not at my desktop, that'd be a plus . Thanks!
. Thanks!
Has anyone tried WoW, Cataclysm and Steam games yet? I would love to see how those would run
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-11-Inch-2010-Subnotebook.41497.0.html
Gaming Performance
Thanks to the potent GeForce 320M, it is even possible to play several current games smoothly with the small Apple subnotebook using attractive graphics settings. For example Fifa 2011 worked without problems with high details. Even the demanding Battlefield: Bad Company 2 worked just about smoothly with minimal settings.
Compared to the bigger Apple notebooks with a GeForce 320M, the influence on the gaming benchmarks from the weaker CPU are noticeable. Thus the MBP13 for example reached 48 FPS in the Resident Evil 5 benchmark, which is clearly better than that of the small 11" MB Air. More details on the gaming performance of th 320M can be found on our graphics card webpage for the GeForce 320M.
low settings
Supreme Commander - FA Bench (2007): 21 fps
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 (2009): 27.4 fps
Resident Evil 5 (2009): 27.5 fps
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (2010) : 33 fps
Fifa 11 (2010): 98 fps
3dmark06 score: 3800
Thanks for the link. The website pretty much answered all my questions! Very impressive machines!
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Yeah, these puppies are quite a bit more powerful than the 9400m based MacBooks from a couple years ago (in games).
Yeah, these puppies are quite a bit more powerful than the 9400m based MacBooks from a couple years ago (in games).
I just got my Air today. 1.6/4gb. It's a very nice, snappy machine. However, I'm a dissapointed in the gaming performance. Mostly because people on the forums, obviously not gamers, are overstating the performance.
On Starcraft 2, native res, everything on low, you can expect around 22-25 frames per second. With everything on low except for shaders on medium (changes the way the game looks completely, much better), you should get around 14-20 frames per second. This is on the last level in the single player campaign. I used that for testing cause you start out with a lot of units and stuff going on in the screen.
Playing it at a non-native res might boost the frames per second a tiny bit, but it's unplayable. The screen is very nice at native res, but at ANY res that's not native, it becomes VERY blurry. So blurry that any text on the screen is near-unreadable. So... it's not recommended to use a non-native res.
World of Warcraft fares better, I didn't check actual FPS numbers yet, but it seems to run at around 25-30 fps with everything on "good", and I'd guess between 50 and 60 fps with everything on "fair" (low). It's perfectly playable, and much more enjoyable than Starcraft. (I found Starcraft to be playable, but not very enjoyable).
I hope Diablo 3 runs ok on this once it comes out, if not, I might ahve to upgrade earlier than I was planning to...
Besides that though, it's a very nice machine
On Starcraft 2, native res, everything on low, you can expect around 22-25 frames per second. With everything on low except for shaders on medium (changes the way the game looks completely, much better), you should get around 14-20 frames per second. This is on the last level in the single player campaign. I used that for testing cause you start out with a lot of units and stuff going on in the screen.
Playing it at a non-native res might boost the frames per second a tiny bit, but it's unplayable. The screen is very nice at native res, but at ANY res that's not native, it becomes VERY blurry. So blurry that any text on the screen is near-unreadable. So... it's not recommended to use a non-native res.
World of Warcraft fares better, I didn't check actual FPS numbers yet, but it seems to run at around 25-30 fps with everything on "good", and I'd guess between 50 and 60 fps with everything on "fair" (low). It's perfectly playable, and much more enjoyable than Starcraft. (I found Starcraft to be playable, but not very enjoyable).
I hope Diablo 3 runs ok on this once it comes out, if not, I might ahve to upgrade earlier than I was planning to...
Besides that though, it's a very nice machine
Anyone tried Left 4 Dead or the Half Life 2 suite yet? I used to run L4D on my old 2.2ghz MBP with the 128mb 8600m and it ran pretty good. That plus all the Popcap games on my Steam account is all I need
edit: lol derp. I should read a few pages back before I open my yap.
edit: lol derp. I should read a few pages back before I open my yap.
Got my stock MBA 11 (1.4/2GB/128) early April.
Here is what I discovered so far :
Gaming = good enough for the occasional travel gaming, games I've tried :
Quake 4 (Mac native) : native res, graphics settings on high
FPS between 26 - 40FPS
Halo : Combat Evolved : 1024x768, everything max
Erm... dunno how to check, but it is very very smooth (not surprising as this is an old game)
NFS Undergrounds (via Cider) : native res, medium settings
so so, 20-30FPS
Star Wars Republic Commando (via WINE) : 1024x768, everything max except bump mapping (need to be low else graphics corruption, wrapper issue)
30-55FPS depending on how much is going on onscreen.
The rest are parallels gaming via Windows XP (playing ancient games) which is pretty good
I've yet to try :
Bootcamp gaming, what I plan to try are :
Crysis Warhead
Crysis 2 for laughs
Aion
Street Fighter 4
All the above games will be runned though external HDD.
Will let you all know how it goes. However, overall, I'm very pleased with the MBA 11 for now. Get my work done, it's convenient (never shut down the MBA till now), and I get to do some random light gaming
Here is what I discovered so far :
Gaming = good enough for the occasional travel gaming, games I've tried :
Quake 4 (Mac native) : native res, graphics settings on high
FPS between 26 - 40FPS
Halo : Combat Evolved : 1024x768, everything max
Erm... dunno how to check, but it is very very smooth (not surprising as this is an old game)
NFS Undergrounds (via Cider) : native res, medium settings
so so, 20-30FPS
Star Wars Republic Commando (via WINE) : 1024x768, everything max except bump mapping (need to be low else graphics corruption, wrapper issue)
30-55FPS depending on how much is going on onscreen.
The rest are parallels gaming via Windows XP (playing ancient games) which is pretty good
I've yet to try :
Bootcamp gaming, what I plan to try are :
Crysis Warhead
Crysis 2 for laughs
Aion
Street Fighter 4
All the above games will be runned though external HDD.
Will let you all know how it goes. However, overall, I'm very pleased with the MBA 11 for now. Get my work done, it's convenient (never shut down the MBA till now), and I get to do some random light gaming
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If you have applied the update (1.2 iirc), you should be able to run natively and it removes the CD requirement. I found that it makes the perfect roadtrip game.
In the game's menu settings, disable the 30fps option under video and Halo should fly for you as it does on my 320m based MBP.
Crysis 2 runs between 15-17 fps @ "high" settings @ 1024x720 and 24-26 fps @ 800x480. I play everything off my external hd as well. I used fraps to get the fps. Btw- the "high" setting in Crysis 2 is the lowest default setting.
Can anyone tell me what resolution fills up the entire screen when starting with 1024 x ? When I use 1024 x 720, I get black bars on the side.
Im 99% sure it would be 768.
On another note, I run gta sa on full sometimes on a fully maxed 11" and it plays excellent!
Well... bootcamp is going to be taking a back seat for now.... as I don't have a super drive, it is just too much hassle to try the steps for installing using thumb drive
Maybe when I am less lazy I will give it a try
BTW, downloaded UT2004 Demo and gave it a run. 1024 x 768 when all max, I'm getting smooth game play... I'm guessing 25-35????
Maybe when I am less lazy I will give it a try
BTW, downloaded UT2004 Demo and gave it a run. 1024 x 768 when all max, I'm getting smooth game play... I'm guessing 25-35????
I'm pretty sure it's 576 for the 11 inch, and 1024, 640 for the 13 inch. Don't quote me on that tho
.Crysis 2 on MacBook Air 11 stock
Tried via Bootcamp on Windows 7 64 bit.
MacBook Air 11, 1.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 128G SSD (allocated for Bootcamp 30GB)
Crysis 2 on 800 x 600 resolution, High (Gamer settings).
Smooth at 28 - 15FPS depending on how much is going on onscreen.
In other words... I'm IMPRESSED
Tried via Bootcamp on Windows 7 64 bit.
MacBook Air 11, 1.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 128G SSD (allocated for Bootcamp 30GB)
Crysis 2 on 800 x 600 resolution, High (Gamer settings).
Smooth at 28 - 15FPS depending on how much is going on onscreen.
In other words... I'm IMPRESSED
Honestly, for gaming rig... must as well go high-end PC windows system. For casual gaming it would be fine
Assassin's Creed 2 on the Mac
I just bought this game off of Steam recently for $6. I have never played it before but it seems to play fairly well on OSX. I set my resolution to 1280 x 720 and everything on low and effects off. I am not sure if the keyboard and mouse control works that well since I only played about 30 minutes.
I just bought this game off of Steam recently for $6. I have never played it before but it seems to play fairly well on OSX. I set my resolution to 1280 x 720 and everything on low and effects off. I am not sure if the keyboard and mouse control works that well since I only played about 30 minutes.