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MacBook Air 13" (Late 2010) - Gaming Benchmark Thread!

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colinthejanitor

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 13, 2009
59
0
I don't know about everyone else, but I literally cannot wait to sink some gaming hours into this wonderful machine that up until recently I did not thing would game at all! :eek:

Although my Air is still on a conveyor belt somewhere with cool lasers and stuff I know there are some people out there with there machines in there hands ready to do some showing off ;), well here is where you can do it!

I will keep an updated list of games people have requested to see benchmarked here in this first post. All you have to do is pick a game (preferably one you already own) and benchmark it! You can add your benchmark to this thread and again i will direct link to your benchmark in this first post. Useful and awesome eh? Games can be mac or boot camp just so long as you let us know which you are trying out! I'll get us started on a list but request away.

Games awaiting benchmark:

- World of Warcraft
- Dragon Age
- Mass Effect 2
- Half Life 2
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Team Fortress 2
- Crysis
- GTA IV

Benchmarked Games

- Call Of Duty 4 - OSX - Thanks to theunits3
- Starcraft 2 - OSX - Thanks to theunits3
 
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colinthejanitor

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 13, 2009
59
0
vow said:
Waiting for SC2 results :D
Click to expand...

As I say, if these benchmarks are not filled by the time I get my Air (which should be in the first batch as i ordered as soon as they went on sale) then I will fill them myself! :)
 
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HagusofNWN

macrumors newbie
Feb 16, 2008
29
1
Virginia
colinthejanitor said:
I don't know about everyone else, but I literally cannot wait to sink some gaming hours into this wonderful machine that up until recently I did not thing would game at all! :eek:

----Snippet-----\

Games awaiting benchmark:

- Starcraft 2
- World of Warcraft
Click to expand...

Gaming and movies are downtime when I travel. So I'm very interested in the realities of this revision of the MBA.

I would like to add to the list:
1) Dragon Age
2) Mass Effect 2/Bootcamp
3) HL2 and COD have already been tested on the 11.6 and are working - would like to see comments running on the 13.3 - This is what I'm hoping will finally be my tipping point to get the MBA.
 
C

colinthejanitor

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 13, 2009
59
0
HagusofNWN said:
Gaming and movies are downtime when I travel. So I'm very interested in the realities of this revision of the MBA.

I would like to add to the list:
1) Dragon Age
2) Mass Effect 2/Bootcamp
3) HL2 and COD have already been tested on the 11.6 and are working - would like to see comments running on the 13.3 - This is what I'm hoping will finally be my tipping point to get the MBA.
Click to expand...

added to the list ;)
 
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bossxii

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,754
0
Kansas City
I gotta ask, are people actually buying MBA's to game on as a primary machine, or simply interested in casual gaming when traveling etc?
 
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Alcibar

macrumors newbie
Jan 18, 2010
12
2
Gaming

Casual gaming while business travel. Frequently I'll get stuck somewhere over the weekend and want to play a medium graphs intensive game - Civ 5 current obsession.
 
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bossxii

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,754
0
Kansas City
Alcibar said:
Casual gaming while business travel. Frequently I'll get stuck somewhere over the weekend and want to play a medium graphs intensive game - Civ 5 current obsession.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, that would make sense. I've not tried to game with a trackpad, but I guess those types of games (Civ 5) would be doable.
 
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hleewell

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2009
544
62
Sticky for Macbook Pro/Air 13/15/17 gaming benchmark

We should start a gaming benchmark for each model. Real life results, not some standardized tests that often do not speak the whole truth. We can use popular games like StarCraft, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Doom etc and the corresponding FPS for each Macbook model. This will give a more realistic report on the real processing power of our beloved laptops
 
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masterpace

macrumors regular
Mar 24, 2008
129
11
Montreal
w00tini said:
i dont recall which thread it was in, but someone posted yesterday that SC2 ran fine at native res with video settings at medium.

edit: found it https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11287605/
Click to expand...

That video just confirms what I thought about the great "casual" gaming potential of the new MBA. Sure, it won't game like an Alienware, but for the size and weight (especially the 11.6 one), it could prove to be a great work and entertainment device for that weekend at the hotel or that rainy day for your next caribbean vacation! I currently have the Alienware M11x. Although the GPU (335m) is more powerful, the new 11.6 MBA has the edge:

-Runs OSX natively
-Initial reviews show a much better lcd monitor on the MBA (the one on the M11x is borderline)
-Much nicer and sleeker design on the MBA
-Great multitouch trackpad on the MBA
-NAN SSD drive on the MBA
-Much lighter (2.3 lb vs 4.4 lb on the M11x)

I recall I've seen somewhere that the new 11.6 MBA (1.4 stock) achieves about 27 fps in Crysis at native resolution and medium settings. We know that the 320m GPU has good overclock potential. I would definitely test some safe overclocks (starting with a few percent overclocks) and monitor the MBA in Bootcamp. I'm just eager to get mine (CTO) and play a bit with it.
 
D

darksolusion

macrumors newbie
Oct 24, 2010
13
0
Make sure in your benchmarks you stat the OS!!!

please state if ur gaming benchmarks are based off OSX or Win7

cause i do know theres a performance difference between the 2.
also
+1 for wow
+1 for league of legends!
 
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efirmage

macrumors member
Apr 13, 2010
94
0
So want to see these benchmarks. Specifically SC2 and L4D2.

Also would love to see them on Bootcamp!

This is the ONLY thing that is holding me back from this being my next computer. If it can run Starcraft 2 on Medium w/o burning my hands off that's all I need.
 
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MrBobYu

macrumors newbie
Oct 24, 2010
11
0
efirmage said:
So want to see these benchmarks. Specifically SC2 and L4D2.

Also would love to see them on Bootcamp!

This is the ONLY thing that is holding me back from this being my next computer. If it can run Starcraft 2 on Medium w/o burning my hands off that's all I need.
Click to expand...

+1 for SC2
I'm really looking forward for a decent gameplay around 30fps + with medium settings during battle 30 units ~. I'm going to pay extra for the 1.6ghz + 4gb of ram for this game!! Am I crazy ?!?! Maybe lol:cool:

Oh it would be nice to have a video while u play on bnet like 2vs2 or 1vs1, just to see the fps. Also the heat issues if there is any if you play for 1 hour intensively :p. sure it isn't a gaming laptop but I'm going to play only that game only for a century so.
 
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bossxii

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
1,754
0
Kansas City
13"/2gig/256, installed wow trail account as I haven't played it in a year or so. It defaults the graphics to medium. Most setting on "good" I ran around Death Knell a bit with a mage and while the game runs smooth, showing 50 FPS in the starting area the fans were running pretty much non stop. However I'm amazed at how quite the fans are even at 6,400 RPM. This is a much improved heat system from sound standpoint from the Rev B I previously owned.

I don't have the ability to test how to handles groups or raids to see when your in a busy town or instance but the basics run just fine.
 
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