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Should I Get an M3 MacBook Air for Gaming? I Don't Want To Spend A Bunch On A Pro MacBook.
- Thread starter Verander
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Probably not, unless your games are built specifically for Mac and aren't too intensive, or if you're using a game streaming service. Otherwise, you'll be sinking just as much money into an Air as you might into a Pro.
Personally, I did buy a 13" M2 MacBook Air for gaming when traveling, and I play some fairly intensive games on it. It works great. But I also got it build to order with 8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 24GB Memory, 1TB SSD. So it's beefy and expensive for a MBA.
Personally, I did buy a 13" M2 MacBook Air for gaming when traveling, and I play some fairly intensive games on it. It works great. But I also got it build to order with 8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 24GB Memory, 1TB SSD. So it's beefy and expensive for a MBA.
I haven't had my M3 Macbook Air long enough to dig into much gaming-wise, but I've been gaming on my M1 Mac Mini with 16GB ram for three years and it has been just fine (titles include the three reboot Tomb Raider games, Descenders, Myst series, Obduction, Gris, and I also run Steam via VMWare Fusion/Windows 11).
I did max my ram on the Macbook Air, though, just for some future-proofing. You might need to run some intensive games on lower settings, but I've found that using medium graphics settings I don't really lose much.
I did max my ram on the Macbook Air, though, just for some future-proofing. You might need to run some intensive games on lower settings, but I've found that using medium graphics settings I don't really lose much.
I've done some casual gaming on my M1 MacBook Air (the most taxing ones are Stray and Football Manager 24 Touch), and that's basically the only thing that makes my Air warm to the touch. So the M-chips are amazing, and even without active cooling they work quite well.
That said, if gaming (and game developing) is a main purpose for the Mac I'd probably rather go for a MacBook Pro. The "baby" 14" with the regular M3 chip in it is not that much more expensive than a similarly spec'ed Air, and will give you active cooling, a better screen, better sound and more ports.
That said, if gaming (and game developing) is a main purpose for the Mac I'd probably rather go for a MacBook Pro. The "baby" 14" with the regular M3 chip in it is not that much more expensive than a similarly spec'ed Air, and will give you active cooling, a better screen, better sound and more ports.
Are you making games or playing games? Unreal and Unity are game engines and support for Mac doesn’t mean games made with them will be Mac compatible… that still requires the developer to put in some work. That said, Apple’s efforts to bridge Windows gaming on Mac does make a difference. Also, which games you mean when you say “gaming”…
Windows is the way to go for gaming, unless you want only a handful of games that work for Mac. For the same price of a MacBook Air you can get some decent spec laptops for gaming. This one is $1699 CDN
www.newegg.com
So you can go with a Mac for gaming and have a limited number of games you can actually play, and if you want more games you have to then make a Windows VM and run your games through a VM and even lowers specs or get a computer for what you want to do that will play any game and have access to THOUSANDS of games that all work. I have a gaming PC for those urges, everything else I use prefer being on a Mac.
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU 8 GB GDDR6
- Intel Core i9-13900H
- 32GB Memory 1 TB NVMe SSD
- 15.6'' 2560 x 1440 Anti-Glare Wide View Angle 165 Hz 2.5 ms DCI-P3 100%
- 14.13" x 10.20" x 1.06" 5.07 lbs.
- 1 x HDMI 2.1 (8K@60Hz, 4K@120Hz)
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C w/ DP 1.4 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1 x USB 2.0
MSI Pulse15 15.6" QHD 165Hz Gaming Laptop Intel® Core™ i9-13900H RTX 4070 32GB DDR5 1TB NVMe SSD Win11 64 bit - Newegg.com
Buy MSI Pulse 15 - 15.6" 165 Hz - Intel Core i9 13th Gen 13900H (2.60GHz) - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU - 32 GB DDR5 - 1 TB NVMe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit - Gaming Laptop (Pulse 15 B13VGK-287US ) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!
So you can go with a Mac for gaming and have a limited number of games you can actually play, and if you want more games you have to then make a Windows VM and run your games through a VM and even lowers specs or get a computer for what you want to do that will play any game and have access to THOUSANDS of games that all work. I have a gaming PC for those urges, everything else I use prefer being on a Mac.