Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Very Quick gaming question
- Thread starter kain125
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Very well. My uMBP with a Nvidia 9400m plays it smoothly on medium settings. The new IGP will be at least as good, so no worries for you.
A quick search will tell you it's not going to be very good. Just look around; they're rumored to have a ULV graphics card, similar to the HD3000 but at a lower clock.
For gaming, the last generation will probably be better.
For gaming, the last generation will probably be better.
not very well at all... my current MBP doesnt even run it that great... its ok... but at a low res on low settings... unless something is seriously up with my install of snow leopard...
Half life 2 works fine but tf2 and css run quite bad in osx for me on the mbp.. they run MUCH better in windows. But even the 9600 in my mbp struggles... so yeah the macbook air isnt going to run it "fine" but probably "playable"
Half life 2 works fine but tf2 and css run quite bad in osx for me on the mbp.. they run MUCH better in windows. But even the 9600 in my mbp struggles... so yeah the macbook air isnt going to run it "fine" but probably "playable"
This has been discussed in other forum topics. The typical fps rates for the new integrated graphics chip have *not* been as good as the fps rates for the Nvidia 9400 (previous gen MBA) or the 320 (current).
I would guess (but can't promise) that in a year or so, there will be an updated driver released for the integrated graphics, that will raise the performance at least somewhat. But....no guarentees. (So much for the cpu "upgrade").
compare the two ...if gaming,i would buy the current model asap.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-320M.28701.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-3000.37948.0.html
I wouldnt buy ASAP....lol
I would wait to see what comes out....and then decide.
If thats the graphic then you cant wait for miracles....but you can get a current MBA for less money when the new comes out....
Don't really see the point of view of apple....the MBA was almost reaching perfection and now they go back to being a cool notebook that is just lighter than the others.
Might as well keep the hype and dont release anything until Christmas...that would make a lot of "angry birds" out here
I would wait to see what comes out....and then decide.
If thats the graphic then you cant wait for miracles....but you can get a current MBA for less money when the new comes out....
Don't really see the point of view of apple....the MBA was almost reaching perfection and now they go back to being a cool notebook that is just lighter than the others.
Might as well keep the hype and dont release anything until Christmas...that would make a lot of "angry birds" out here
Wait for the new MBAs... it'll be worth it.
The current MBA runs TF2 fairly well, but its not spectacular. It runs well with lower settings. If you're really serious about playing many hours of TF2 - get a PC with a decent video card and play it. If you want a light machine with good battery life that has just enough power to occasionally play TF2 - the MBA is the only choice.
One of the things Apple is selling with the Macbook Air is this "gaming" ability - which leads me to believe that they're not going to just stick everybody with an Intel 3000. If they DO release it with the Intel 3000, I would recommend you pick up a refurbished MBA (same warranty and everything) from the Apple store. You'll save a bunch of money, and they'll be even cheaper once the new ones come out.
I've typically found the refurbs cheaper than the used ones on craigslist with a lamer warranty.
The current MBA runs TF2 fairly well, but its not spectacular. It runs well with lower settings. If you're really serious about playing many hours of TF2 - get a PC with a decent video card and play it. If you want a light machine with good battery life that has just enough power to occasionally play TF2 - the MBA is the only choice.
One of the things Apple is selling with the Macbook Air is this "gaming" ability - which leads me to believe that they're not going to just stick everybody with an Intel 3000. If they DO release it with the Intel 3000, I would recommend you pick up a refurbished MBA (same warranty and everything) from the Apple store. You'll save a bunch of money, and they'll be even cheaper once the new ones come out.
I've typically found the refurbs cheaper than the used ones on craigslist with a lamer warranty.
They are going to stick a ULV HD3000 in the machine. What else would they put in there? Logically it wouldn't make sense to put something better than what's in the baseline pro and they aren't putting last gen's chips in there because they aren't implementing those graphics cards anymore.
They "could" just give us something good, but that would mess with the MBP sales. That's why they won't.
That's true. They have to be careful not to overpower the MBA too much or else it will draw sales away from the more expensive MBP, and also impact battery life.
I think though that if they want to maintain this rep of being able to run popular games at a decent FPS, they'll need something more powerful than the Intel card.
There is also a chance that the Intel card provides a dramatic efficiency boost and Apple may sacrifice the gaming feature to get another 2-3 hours of battery out of the machine.
Either way, it will be interesting to see what comes out this week. I'm planning on buying a second MBA. If they have the Intel chip, I'll buy another refurb.
Last edited:
Sadly, none of those things you stated will come true. It will have about the same battery life with the ulv chip inside that gives subpar graphics performance. I'm hoping they give us an option to have a better graphics chip but I doubt it will happen ...
Apple has NEVER been about "gaming", unless you consider casual games as gaming (such as Angry Birds). I highly doubt the MacBook Air will have anything better than the MacBook Pro GPU (Intel 3000), which is not very adequate for games.
To answer your question TC, you will most likely be able to "run" Team Fortress on low settings, but whether its playable or not is another question entirely. The old MacBook Pro with the nVidia 9400GT struggles to run the game. If you're looking for casual play, it should suffice. But I wouldn't look for anything more than that.
Last edited:
You should really read more
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1178594/
Here's a link to some real world results.
http://www.techyalert.com/2011/02/25/macbook-pro-2010-vs-macbook-pro-2011/
Same here. You really should read around before you throw out statements of which you think are true. Just read a few pages... or the whole thing, heck it will only do you some good at this point.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1178594/
Not when you have to pay over 1.5 grand for a separate graphics card. You can pay a grand right now and get a laptop with a separate graphics card and so much more. With Macs, you have to buy at least a 15 inch upgraded to get discrete graphics.
They have never cared about gaming. Hence everyone running Bootcamp and Windows 7 to actually PLAY video games at a decent rate and setting.
Last edited:
Not everyone. The vast majority, maybe. But there's a fair share of users of Steam on OS X, OnLive on OS X, etc. and it's growing.
Also, with HD 3000, some games run better in OS X than Windows...
None of them are relevant benchmarks.
Yes, they can be used to provide estimates, but nothing concrete.
Until someone has the new Airs in their hands ready to test, then its pretty much a guessing game.
I for one am keen to see how EVE performs on the HD3000.
It doesn't have to be brilliant but it does need to be able to load, and allow me to fly from one area to another on low settings. If the hd3000 can do that, I'll buy it at launch.
I think it would be funny in a sad way if it performs poorly compared to the c2d mba. As you can see, they used that and portal as benchmarks for their system, and for the next iteration to be lower would be sad.
I'd guess that when Apple can (e.g. having the 320M on board) they more than gladly show the gaming capabilities, just to emphasize versatility. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming MBA pages on Apple.com is all about the CPU with a just small note on the "energy efficient, HD capable" GPU.
Daddy needs new Taranises (pl. ?)!
I'm not a gamer but have obviously read about the new 2011 graphics card not being as good as the current 2010 model.
1) How do people know whats going to be inside since there hasn't been any hard evidence other than Lion/Air releasing together?
2)I don't game, so these graphics probably won't effect me...but will this effect movies? I.E. how good they look?
1) How do people know whats going to be inside since there hasn't been any hard evidence other than Lion/Air releasing together?
2)I don't game, so these graphics probably won't effect me...but will this effect movies? I.E. how good they look?
There's obvious gaming through Steam, however not all games are on that. Most games only come out for Windows but for the few that are on both systems, people get better results (vastly better I might add) while playing in Bootcamp.
"Some games run better..." What games might those be?
Obviously. The point is that the new Air will probably have a ULV HD3000 in it. Judging by that you can assume performance will be the same or less than what's given.
Go read the "HD3000 in the new Air" thread floating around here.
It will be all about the CPU; that and how integrated touch is to bring the MBA and iPad closer together. The launchpad thing and full screen apps + instant saves and resume all put emphasis on this. The next gen air's graphics card will be worse than the 320 (or the same, hopefully) and we'll get a SNB processor, hopefully 4 gigs baseline RAM (although that would be a stretch), and hopefully a backlit keyboard.
I don't' think NVIDIA and Apple are close together anymore? This is one of those guesstimates that I read somewhere but I haven't read an article or anything. If you read the "3000 in the Air, really?" thread here somewhere people give reasons as to why they won't have the 320 in the next version.
2) No. My 07 black macbook with a X3100 (couldn't run Portal 1 on it / 128 megs of integrated memory) ran 1080p videos flawlessly. I constantly had multiple browsers open (~15 windows), iTunes, Excel, Word, and played 720p video without it ever going over 30 percent CPU or no lag at all. Most of the work was done by the RAM (4 gigs) but the graphics card handled everything but gaming quite well.
I did a little bit of photo editing (mostly touching up pictures of me and my GF) and although it would take maybe 2-3 seconds for the effect to take place, I did a lot of light editing on that machine. The only reason I got rid of it is because of the horrid graphics card (gamer) and I want something with a longer battery life (college student).
I'd guess that when Apple can (e.g. having the 320M on board) they more than gladly show the gaming capabilities, just to emphasize versatility. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming MBA pages on Apple.com is all about the CPU with a just small note on the "energy efficient, HD capable" GPU.
Daddy needs new Taranises (pl. ?)!
I can make Ishkurs!