Best playable games for 2012 Air?

[danistyping]

So I have the 13" 2ghz i7, 8gb RAM, 256SSD MBA. I'm wondering what popular games run well? I know some games tax the graphics card too much and get choppy. I have a Steam account so I'm hoping there's a few on there.

[Technarchy]

Originally Posted by danistyping

So I have the 13" 2ghz i7, 8gb RAM, 256SSD MBA. I'm wondering what popular games run well? I know some games tax the graphics card too much and get choppy. I have a Steam account so I'm hoping there's a few on there.

Team Fortress runs buttery smooth, as does Counter Strike GO.

Diablo 3 ran well too.

Fans kick in to keep things cool, but performance was sound.

Mine is a standard 13" 2012 MBA

[fretdevil]

Give Bastion a try.

Using a trackpad is a little frustrating, use a mouse.

Cheers

[l0gikb0mb]

None that are 3D from my experience.

All games made the fans go extremely loud and the MBA hot to the touch. All with poor FPS. It's not a gaming machine, 2D side scrollers and others (like Bastion) are fine.

[Wokis]

Originally Posted by l0gikb0mb

None that are 3D from my experience.

All games made the fans go extremely loud and the MBA hot to the touch. All with poor FPS. It's not a gaming machine, 2D side scrollers and others (like Bastion) are fine.

I disagree. Fans are there for a reason and the machine has no problem being hot. If ut gets too hot it will take action by itself.

Been playing vindictus (windows, bootcamp) on medium and WoW (osx) on custom medium/high. No problems there. I did also try some batman arkham asylym (the osx port) on medium settings and it played just fine.

[Robyr]

Originally Posted by l0gikb0mb

None that are 3D from my experience.

All games made the fans go extremely loud and the MBA hot to the touch. All with poor FPS. It's not a gaming machine, 2D side scrollers and others (like Bastion) are fine.

You just can't resist giving wrong/misguided/baseless "information", can you?

[Raggsokk]

Portal 2 works well, and would be the best in my opinion. Also Half life 2 (and episodes).

Bastion would be better for a decent experience on a 13" jet plane airbook though.

[l0gikb0mb]

Originally Posted by Robyr

You just can't resist giving wrong/misguided/baseless "information", can you?

Actually my information is more accurate than lies spread on the forum. Maybe all you've had in your life are MacBooks, but they do not run the games well at all. I have a gaming desktop and even simpler 3D games run awful on the Air.

Of course, my definition of 'running well' includes >=30 FPS.

If your definition is 15 FPS, then sure.

[Technarchy]

Originally Posted by l0gikb0mb

Actually my information is more accurate than lies spread on the forum. Maybe all you've had in your life are MacBooks, but they do not run the games well at all. I have a gaming desktop and even simpler 3D games run awful on the Air.

Of course, my definition of 'running well' includes >=30 FPS.

If your definition is 15 FPS, then sure.

Hmm...



Like I said, TF2 runs great.

[Robyr]

Originally Posted by l0gikb0mb

]Maybe all you've had in your life are MacBooks, but they do not run the games well at all.

Hey, pal, heres a tip: you're idea of what a powerful computer is or isn't is an opinion, and you've shown over and over you don't have any time for accurate depictions.

You can't just call me a fanboy (btw: the Air is my second Mac, and I have over 10 years in systems engineering and have owned machines that could light you on fire from 100ft away) and act like that dismisses anything.

[MacLappy]

I did complete diabolo 3 inferno mode on the MacBook Air 2012 11", had it connected to a 30" external display. The game was very playable at lower settings. Was for the most parts quite enjoyable. 😃

[Violet1337]

Originally Posted by danistyping

So I have the 13" 2ghz i7, 8gb RAM, 256SSD MBA. I'm wondering what popular games run well? I know some games tax the graphics card too much and get choppy. I have a Steam account so I'm hoping there's a few on there.

I noticed that you're MBA has 8GB of RAM, just wondering whether that's too much for your usage or is it good enough? I'm just not sure whether to get the 4GB or 8GB.

[Boomhowler]

Counter Strike : Global offensive works decently if you run it without the phat:est presets on textures etc.

League of Legends (using iLol from boompje.net) is also fun.

[danistyping]

Originally Posted by Violet1337

I noticed that you're MBA has 8GB of RAM, just wondering whether that's too much for your usage or is it good enough? I'm just not sure whether to get the 4GB or 8GB.

The 8GB comes in handy when I'm running a lot of apps or apps that use a lot of memory. If all you do is surf the net and play music, 4GB will get you by for many years. 8GB will future proof you if you do any more than basic use.

From what I understand, 4GB vs 8GB does not affect games/graphics. A recent firmware update made it so that both models use 512mb RAM for the video card.

[Violet1337]

Originally Posted by danistyping

The 8GB comes in handy when I'm running a lot of apps or apps that use a lot of memory. If all you do is surf the net and play music, 4GB will get you by for many years. 8GB will future proof you if you do any more than basic use.

From what I understand, 4GB vs 8GB does not affect games/graphics. A recent firmware update made it so that both models use 512mb RAM for the video card.

Ahh, I see. Thank you very much! ^^

[Acronyc]

I tried out a lot of games on my recently gifted 2010 11" MBA and was always surprised at how well the little computer gamed. I'd imagine the 2012 will do just as good if not better as the HD4000 should be better than the 320M. Some games I spent some time on over two+ years were:

1. Mass Effect 2 (Bootcamp, played through this completely on the MBA)
2. Portal
3. Portal 2
4. The Walking Dead
5. Bastion
6. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Bootcamp)
7. Dead Island (Bootcamp)
8. Braid
9. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Bootcamp)
10. Starcraft II

Most of the above are on Steam and I would imagine they would run great on your machine. My MBA had 4GB of RAM and all of the above played fine, which for me was 25+ FPS in the most taxing games (ME2, Dead Island, and SCII). The MBA is a great little computer and if you have reasonable expectations it can smoothly play a lot of great games.

Edit: Let me add Legend of Grimrock. I haven't played this much (hoping to in the future) but tried it out when I still had my MBA and it played great. If you are into old school dungeon crawlers definitely give it a try! It's on GOG or Steam.

Have fun!

[petsk]

During the last month I've been playing Battlefield 1942 in Parallels Desktop.

11" i5 with 8GB ram, connected to a 27" ACD... Fans run as crazy but who cares

[Stingray454]

I run World of Warcraft on my Air from time to time. Works great! I get anywhere from 30-100 fps depending on what I'm doing (can of course go lower during very intense 25man+ fights, but usually not). I have set the fps limiter to 30 fps (type "/console maxfps 30" in the game), this keeps the computer at about 75-80 degrees, which is perfectly fine.

I've also tried Diablo 3, Tales of Money Island, Baldur's Gate (through Wineskin) and a few others, never had a problem or noticed bad performance (<30 fps) in any of them.

[Project538]

Can anybody offer up some info on how Minecraft runs? I'm in the market for a new computer, and the Air is one of the ones I'm considering. Obviously "ability to run Minecraft" is relatively low on the priority list since the computer is primarily for school use, but it'd still be good to know. Thanks in advance!

[thoughtmecca]

I run Minecraft fine on a mid-2011 MacBook Air 11", without any real lag - it keeps a nice framerate, though the fans are cranked for the duration of playing.

I even ran around in the Westeroscraft server the other day, and it didn't have any problems.

[njp]

Originally Posted by Project538

Can anybody offer up some info on how Minecraft runs? I'm in the market for a new computer, and the Air is one of the ones I'm considering. Obviously "ability to run Minecraft" is relatively low on the priority list since the computer is primarily for school use, but it'd still be good to know. Thanks in advance!

Not well - about 25fps, fans go crazy as with presumably most games. It feels sluggish and isn't fun. It'll probably do if you have nothing else, but quite seriously: The MB Air is not a computer for games. (And yes, I love my Macbook Air and think it's the coolest most awesome notebook I ever owned.)

[Project538]

Originally Posted by njp

Not well - about 25fps, fans go crazy as with presumably most games. It feels sluggish and isn't fun. It'll probably do if you have nothing else, but quite seriously: The MB Air is not a computer for games. (And yes, I love my Macbook Air and think it's the coolest most awesome notebook I ever owned.)

Well, considering I currently play Minecraft on a 2006 C2D iMac, I can't imagine it getting much worse. I'm not looking into buying a laptop for games. I'm looking for a laptop for schoolwork that can run Minecraft on the side. Thanks for the heads up that it doesn't work too well. Would I be any better off with the 13 inch cMBP? Those are really the two computers that I'm looking at. Can't afford any of the more expensive ones...

[Closus]

Originally Posted by njp

Not well - about 25fps, fans go crazy as with presumably most games. It feels sluggish and isn't fun. It'll probably do if you have nothing else, but quite seriously: The MB Air is not a computer for games. (And yes, I love my Macbook Air and think it's the coolest most awesome notebook I ever owned.)

I don't know if there's something wrong with your Air, but mine (2012 model with 8GB RAM) runs at 50+ FPS on max settings, connected to a 1080p external display. And frame rates don't drop below 30 on servers.

Of course the Air isn't made for gaming, the fans REALLY crank up, but as far as Minecraft is concerned it's perfecly fine.
Wouldn't want to play Skyrim on it though

Cheers

[Azza123]

Call of Duty 4 runs fantastically.

[GoPro]

Originally Posted by njp

Not well - about 25fps, fans go crazy as with presumably most games. It feels sluggish and isn't fun. It'll probably do if you have nothing else, but quite seriously: The MB Air is not a computer for games. (And yes, I love my Macbook Air and think it's the coolest most awesome notebook I ever owned.)

This is bullcrap, mine runs minecraft at minimum 50fps and averages 55fps