What games can I play on a 11" MBA (early 2015)?

[Appurushido]

Have a dedicated windows rig for gaming, but purchased a new (and first ever Mac computer) 11" MBA (early 2015) which I use for business related work. I'm on a plane quite often, so the 11" was the ideal size for traveling and getting through customs.

Question is... what games can I look forward to playing? Nothing extreme I'm sure, due to what's under the hood. What can I play at a decent level with low-medium settings? International flights are long, and iOS games don't cut it anymore. Thanks!

Base model specs: i5/HD Intel 6000/4GB/128GB SSD.

 

[AndreUK]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how well your 11" MBA performs. I have a mid-2012 11" MBA (i7/HD Intel 4000/8GB/256GB SSD) which I purchased for exactly the same reasons as yourself.

I would head over to Steam or GOG and check out the Mac sections of their libraries. They have a decent number of games, and if you ever come across a game that is Windows only then there is often a "windows wrapper" (check out the Porting Team) available so you can play it on your Mac. I tend to stick to more indie based titles, e.g. "Braid", "Kentucky Route Zero" (which are often less GPU demanding than AAA titles), although it does handle Diablo 3 pretty well. Because I'm not pushing as many pixels on the 11" MBA I'm often surprised how high I can crank up the details (e.g. native res 1366x768 usually running mid to high settings).

One thing I do notice though, and it's a bit game dependant, is that the MBA tends to get quite hot after a bit, and in some cases you get a bit of slowdown when the CPU starts throttling. So make sure you don't cover the vents and try and keep a decent air-flow around it. I always tend to plug mine in when gaming, but even when you don't you may get a 2-3 hours out of it. I'm not even close to having any storage capacity issues yet (but I am lucky as have the 256GB SSD).

I carry my 11" MBA around with me every day. It's a fantastic piece of kit.
Cheers.

 

[Appurushido]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised just how well your 11" MBA performs. I have a mid-2012 11" MBA (i7/HD Intel 4000/8GB/256GB SSD) which I purchased for exactly the same reasons as yourself.

I would head over to Steam or GOG and check out the Mac sections of their libraries. They have a decent number of games, and if you ever come across a game that is Windows only then there is often a "windows wrapper" (check out the Porting Team) available so you can play it on your Mac. I tend to stick to more indie based titles, e.g. "Braid", "Kentucky Route Zero" (which are often less GPU demanding than AAA titles), although it does handle Diablo 3 pretty well. Because I'm not pushing as many pixels on the 11" MBA I'm often surprised how high I can crank up the details (e.g. native res 1366x768 usually running mid to high settings).

One thing I do notice though, and it's a bit game dependant, is that the MBA tends to get quite hot after a bit, and in some cases you get a bit of slowdown when the CPU starts throttling. So make sure you don't cover the vents and try and keep a decent air-flow around it. I always tend to plug mine in when gaming, but even when you don't you may get a 2-3 hours out of it. I'm not even close to having any storage capacity issues yet (but I am lucky as have the 256GB SSD).

I carry my 11" MBA around with me every day. It's a fantastic piece of kit.
Cheers.

Thanks for the input. I was able to play Diablo III at default settings, and some of he other Blizzard games. I did pick up Fez on the steam sale. That was probably my favorite sleeper game of all time. I'll probably pick up a few more. Glad to know I am able to play some recent games on an 11" Air. I'm definitely loving my MBA.

 

[malman89]

With the incredibly dated low resolution of the MBA, you'll be able to play some pretty new games, although at lower settings. Games released in the past couple of years (or older) should be no problem. One pro to not having an HD screen like an XPS 13 or other recent Ultrabooks.

 

[Appurushido]

Surprisingly, I'm quite ok with gaming on the 11" resolution. Most of the games I play on it are not text dependent. If I come across that, I usually just connect it to my 24" monitor on a windowed screen. But then again, I also have a windows gaming rig. My mba is my light gaming on the go.