I got the 11" MBA 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM model.....I didn't buy it for games but for school mainly. Can I play any games on it that run pretty well? I'm talking about games like Rollercoaster Tycoon or stuff like that. I'm not expecting games like Call of Duty or anything really new to work. Thanks.
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11" Macbook $999 Config - Games?
- Thread starter brolfsen
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Ouch dude your picking the worst Mac to play games on 
Try if you dare, but I would just use a more powerful Mac for stuff like that, such as a MacBook Pro or an iMac (you do have a second computer, don't you?)
Try if you dare, but I would just use a more powerful Mac for stuff like that, such as a MacBook Pro or an iMac (you do have a second computer, don't you?)
Yes, games like roller coaster tycoon will work super fine on your Air, you might be surprise, but COD MW2 actually works on High settings too on the Air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKlUIQjvM4
but the newer games like the Crysis2.. um it works but on the all low settings
so yes, you can game on your Air, especially if your games are the sims genre
Yea, I have a nice Desktop I can play other games on but I just wanted to load a few games to pass time while I'm at school.
I've heard you can play games on the "Ultimate" MBAs but you can even run newer games on the one with only 2GB RAM?
I've heard you can play games on the "Ultimate" MBAs but you can even run newer games on the one with only 2GB RAM?
I have the base 11 with OS x 10.6.5 and Starcraft plays well on med in the single player. I haven't tried anything else.
Cheers,
yes you can, even with 2gb
i assume that since you say in your 1st post that you didn't buy this for gaming right? and you have the desktop to play the big games ( AC2, Crysis2 etc )
so light gaming is 1000% perfect in MBA, as i have shown on my previous post, even COD MW2 with High settings works like charm on a 1.4GHz and 2gb RAM Air
He already bought the machine. No need to convince him that something else is better- he asked whether or not games would work on his Air not whether or not a Pro is better.
FWIW I have the 2011 2.7 13 Pro and it plays most GPU intensive games worse than my 1.6/4 Air because of the crappy HD3000.
OP- gaming should be fine. I can play Portal (1) and CODMW2 on medium/high settings flawlessly on my Air. Yours should be as good- the extra 200MHz doesn't really make much difference. The extra RAM might, but shouldn't make too much difference.
Watch your available space though- with only 64GB to play with you'll run out of space quickly if you plan on installing many games.
Unless, of course, you're only going to play Angry Birds and Flight Control HD- those'll be fine obviously
That is NOT the base 11, stated by the YouTuber. That is the 4GB 1.6 which is I believe $1199, not $999.
I have the $999, and I'm sure Solitaire will run just fine. I see you already bought a machine but just FYI.
The $1199 spec keeps the stock model's 1.4/2GB spec but replaces the 64GB SSD with a 128GB. The 1.4->1.6 upgrade costs an additional $100 and the 2GB->4GB upgrade costs another $100 (ie Ultimate 11" Air costs $1399).
The spec of the Air in the YouTube video is identical to the base model (1.4/2), but has a 128GB SSD.
Don't underestimate the power of the $999 Air.
It can't even run VMWare competently compared to the Pro. Believe me, I know all about the 11".
In any event, the $999 Air which is 2GB is not going to be a gaming beast. At 4GB, it'll get by. But the 2GB? Forget it.
VMware need ram for its function. Most games won't be memory constrained. The GPU is usually the biggest limiting factor. The 11" MBA works ok as a highly portable gaming platform.
Cheers,
VMWare and Parallels requires RAM to function as it is effectively running two OSes at the same time. Games OTOH are more about CPU/GPU (mostly GPU)'s power.
If you look at the YouTube video you quoted and read through the comments you'll see that that Air is the base model terms of specs (1.4GHz/2GB RAM). The only difference between that YouTuber's Air and OP's Air is that the YouTuber has more storage (128GB v 64GB), which makes absolutely no difference in terms of system performance.
CODMW2 is running smoothly at High settings on that user's Air so yeah... I don't think you know as much about the 11" Air (and game requirements) as you think you do.
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How did you configure your VM Guest ? If I run a 128MB Linux VM to do some command-line stuff, I can run it off a 1 GB Host machine without much worry.
With 2 GB of RAM, you could run a 512MB Windows XP guest with 8 MB of video RAM without much impact on performance, I did it for the longest time and still use that VM (though now I allocate 1 GB of RAM to it and 32 MB of video RAM on my 4 GB Air).
Of course if you just go with the defaults and don't understand how to configure a guest properly to fit inside the host's hardware, you won't be able to run VMware "competently", but the problem isn't VMware or the hardware then
.Let's face it, VMware isn't anything new. I had their free VMware Workstation version 2.x something up and running on my Pentium 2 with 192 MB of RAM back in the days, running both Linux and Windows at the same time...
Ouch dude your picking the worst Mac to play games on
Try if you dare, but I would just use a more powerful Mac for stuff like that, such as a MacBook Pro or an iMac (you do have a second computer, don't you?)
You guys do realise that currently, the MBP 13" is teh worst Mac for gaming right, not the 11" Air ? The 320M+C2D makes for a superior gaming experience over the SB + Intel 3000HD combo.
I thought that we realised in the 90s that the 3D accelerator (now known as the GPU) was the most important factor in 3D graphics gaming, not the CPU. I still remember my friends investing in PPros 200 with crap Matrox Mystiques thinking they would run games better than my Pentium 100 with a Diamond Monster 3D... all were left crying over their wasted money. Ah.. the good old days.
You should truly read the description again
and thanks "TheMacBookPro" for answering that
Fraps?
anyway
i just noticed that the 320M on the 13inch are actually faster in terms of the memory than that of the 11inch
the 13inch 320 use 1064 MHz and the 11inch use 532MHz
so yeah, probably 13 runs better game fps due to that
umm..
my reference was from notebookcheck
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-Inch-2010-Subnotebook.41497.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-Inch-2010-Subnotebook.40961.0.html
look at the Performance section, and click on the 1st Image which shows the Nvidia Card
the 11 inch one shows it's 532 and the 13 one is 1064
unless i got it wrong, but yeah, there you go
my reference was from notebookcheck
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-Inch-2010-Subnotebook.41497.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-Inch-2010-Subnotebook.40961.0.html
look at the Performance section, and click on the 1st Image which shows the Nvidia Card
the 11 inch one shows it's 532 and the 13 one is 1064
unless i got it wrong, but yeah, there you go
Notebook check has it wrong. The only difference between both is that the Front Side Bus runs at different speeds. The 11" has an 800 mhz FSB, the 13" a 1066 mhz FSB. Memory speeds are the same and the IGP uses system memory, not dedicated memory, so it runs at the same speed.
How did you configure your VM Guest ? If I run a 128MB Linux VM to do some command-line stuff, I can run it off a 1 GB Host machine without much worry.
With 2 GB of RAM, you could run a 512MB Windows XP guest with 8 MB of video RAM without much impact on performance, I did it for the longest time and still use that VM (though now I allocate 1 GB of RAM to it and 32 MB of video RAM on my 4 GB Air).
Of course if you just go with the defaults and don't understand how to configure a guest properly to fit inside the host's hardware, you won't be able to run VMware "competently", but the problem isn't VMware or the hardware then
Let's face it, VMware isn't anything new. I had their free VMware Workstation version 2.x something up and running on my Pentium 2 with 192 MB of RAM back in the days, running both Linux and Windows at the same time...
You guys do realise that currently, the MBP 13" is teh worst Mac for gaming right, not the 11" Air ? The 320M+C2D makes for a superior gaming experience over the SB + Intel 3000HD combo.
I thought that we realised in the 90s that the 3D accelerator (now known as the GPU) was the most important factor in 3D graphics gaming, not the CPU. I still remember my friends investing in PPros 200 with crap Matrox Mystiques thinking they would run games better than my Pentium 100 with a Diamond Monster 3D... all were left crying over their wasted money. Ah.. the good old days.
You should truly read the description again
and thanks "TheMacBookPro" for answering that
Blah Blah Blah. Try running ONE Windows 7 VM in a base model Air and come back to me. Does it work? Sure. But I bet you any of the Pros will blow it out of the water with the same amount of RAM allocated to it. That's what I'm talking about. It's not about CAN it game, but SHOULD it game. My answer is no. Get a Pro for power.
Look, I know you guys love your little bastard Air and that's fine, but here's reality check dude.
GPU matters - yes.
Drive TYPE matters - yes.
RAM matters - YES.
Capacity matters - YES.
It all frickin matters when gaming. Why? School:
GPU is obvious. It's not just about the type of card but your front cache as well as how it interacts with the CPU. Doesn't matter if you have a stronger card if the cache is low nor does it matter if you have a stronger card if the CPU can't keep up with the crap. You might be able to start the game up and play a while but you're not going on a 4 hour binge I guarantee you.
Drive type matters because of read/write which DOES happen when gaming. A SSD will blow a regular HDD out of the water in that regard. So the Air has that, sure.
RAM matters because - UH OH - PAGING. Gaming isn't a free ride, the crap will take up RAM. The more RAM, the less paging. The less paging, the better performance, SSD or not.
Capacity matters because for those so less inclined about how SSDs work, the lower your free space, your SSD performance goes in the crapper. Between cache and paging, yes, a 128GB SSD is going to be better in the long run than a 64GB one especially since roughly 20 of those GB's aren't even accessible off the jump.
If you want to game GET THE MACHINE THAT IS BUILT TO DO IT. Hell, at least Ultimatize the bastard and stop being cheap.
Dude
i get your point..
the OP ask if he can game with his Base Model, and he was only referring to playing games such as Roller Coaster Tycoon or maybe the likes
he didn't say that he would play something heavy or via Bootcamp, and all we're trying to show him is that, yes he can play games such as the RC Tycoon just fine
as simple as that
i get your point..
the OP ask if he can game with his Base Model, and he was only referring to playing games such as Roller Coaster Tycoon or maybe the likes
he didn't say that he would play something heavy or via Bootcamp, and all we're trying to show him is that, yes he can play games such as the RC Tycoon just fine
as simple as that