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MacBook Air 2013: light gaming and study - Which configuration?

M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
Tanax said:
Of course it is your choice and it might be the completely correct choice based on your usage. But considering the rMBP also gets the $100 price drop that the 2013 Air got, a rMBP 13" i5/8/128 would be $1399 and an Air 13" i5/8/128 would be $1199 so it's only $200 difference.

For that difference you'll get a better processor, better graphics (if they go with the Iris Pro), better screen and, if Apple doesn't make it thinner, slightly less or same battery life as the Air even with the better processor and better screen due to more battery-space.

As said, your choice and the Air might fit you better but I will definitely wait and see what the rMBP update brings!
Click to expand...

That is an option, if I would have the money and if this price drop would actually happen, which I don't expect.

I don't even know if the 13" pro will be getting Iris. The 13" never got a proportionally better graphics card than the Air, just a higher clock speed CPU.

On top of that is the fact that I want to get the MBA in the BTS and before my year starts. But that's just my inpatiency lol :)
 
T

tbolt11

macrumors member
Jun 20, 2013
90
0
going with the i7 gives you a slight bump in the GPU, despite people saying otherwise above.
 
T

Tanax

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2011
1,018
335
Stockholm, Sweden
MrGrutty said:
That is an option, if I would have the money and if this price drop would actually happen, which I don't expect.

I don't even know if the 13" pro will be getting Iris. The 13" never got a proportionally better graphics card than the Air, just a higher clock speed CPU.

On top of that is the fact that I want to get the MBA in the BTS and before my year starts. But that's just my inpatiency lol :)
Click to expand...

Why don't you expect the price drop? No one expected it for the Air but it happened nontheless.

And the thing with the Iris is that it's included in the "higher clocked CPUs" and since you said the Pro gets the better CPU's, Iris might be included in it.

But of course you're right, it's only speculations. We'll see once it's released I guess :) Enjoy your Air!
 
M

Mezmorizor

macrumors member
Jul 1, 2013
33
1
I would go with 4GB in your situation. 4GB is way more RAM than most people here give it credit for. 8GB is really nice, but the extra hard drive space is more important for a bootcamp machine imo.


tbolt11 said:
going with the i7 gives you a slight bump in the GPU, despite people saying otherwise above.
Click to expand...

That's not true,they have the same GPU, and the i5 is more than powerful enough for any gaming that integrated graphics can do.
 
P

Psychj0e

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2010
180
0
People telling you that you need 8GB of ram really have no clue. Go look on Steam, no game has a recommended level of 8GB ram, because most games are coded with 32bit operating system in mind, so the max they can use is 3.2. 8GB of ram is probably a good idea if you want to play maybe two or three games at once, but seriously on a MBA? You're never ever gonna have a game that requires 8gb of ram where the HD5000 is going to be able to run it.


4GB of ram is sufficent for your needs. Save the extra money and either get a CPU bump, or a nice case ;)
 
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M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
Psychj0e said:
People telling you that you need 8GB of ram really have no clue. Go look on Steam, no game has a recommended level of 8GB ram, because most games are coded with 32bit operating system in mind, so the max they can use is 3.2. 8GB of ram is probably a good idea if you want to play maybe two or three games at once, but seriously on a MBA? You're never ever gonna have a game that requires 8gb of ram.


4GB of ram is sufficent for you needs. Save the extra money and either get a CPU bump, or a nice case ;)
Click to expand...

lol you're right. 8GB is nice, but more for multitasking and heavy software. not games which will run on integrated graphics!

Mezmorizor said:
I would go with 4GB in your situation. 4GB is way more RAM than most people here give it credit for. 8GB is really nice, but the extra hard drive space is more important for a bootcamp machine imo.
Click to expand...

You guys really rock! :D

Think I'm going for the i5/4/256 then. :cool:
 
A

alexrmc92

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2013
218
0
I use my 2013 MBA to do unity game development and to play a few games. I average around 70-90 fps in WoW using fair settings, 40 fps on good settings. Unity has yet to give me any issues in the editor or when running the games. I am actually fairly impressed with the graphic performance of the HD5000. From what i've read the MBA features the GT3 chip, which is the second best of the lineup.

I have the i5/4/256
 
M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
alexrmc92 said:
I use my 2013 MBA to do unity game development and to play a few games. I average around 70-90 fps in WoW using fair settings, 40 fps on good settings. Unity has yet to give me any issues in the editor or when running the games. I am actually fairly impressed with the graphic performance of the HD5000. From what i've read the MBA features the GT3 chip, which is the second best of the lineup.

I have the i5/4/256
Click to expand...

That sounds more like it! Do you maybe have tried other games as well? I'm actually more interested in the games who run barely, just to find the limits of this little guy.

In any case, thanks to you!
 
K

keatre

macrumors newbie
Jun 14, 2013
24
0
Psychj0e said:
People telling you that you need 8GB of ram really have no clue. Go look on Steam, no game has a recommended level of 8GB ram, because most games are coded with 32bit operating system in mind, so the max they can use is 3.2. 8GB of ram is probably a good idea if you want to play maybe two or three games at once, but seriously on a MBA? You're never ever gonna have a game that requires 8gb of ram where the HD5000 is going to be able to run it.
Click to expand...

I would like to politely disagree. While I understand your point, I'll provide a counterpoint.

Most games are coded for 32-bit systems, however - the OS these days are hogging RAM as much as they can. OSX is a great example. It will use all available RAM as much as it can to offer a better experience. But we're talking about gaming, so lets say Windows.

Windows 8 requires atleast 1 GB for a minimal install on a 32-bit version. I don't understand the point of purchasing a 32-bit version of an OS these days, but if you do, then yes - buy the 4GB. But! If you purchase a 64-bit version of Windows, you're cutting yourself short. Whilst Steam games are limited to around 3GB physical memory, OS's are not.

Take this as an example, load up Windows 64-bit, and delete your pagefile. Load up Assassin's Creed III and put on some aggressive settings - I'm betting you'll see some poor performance. Games (and programs) use more than 4GB, but they use it from the windows pagefile, which is slower than loading it straight from the Memory controller. In the case of the MBA with a crazy fast SSD, maybe its a moot point (I'm betting memory is still faster, though) - but if you have a 64-bit OS, I don't understand why you would not want 8GB.

Also keep in mind, AC3 will use ALL available RAM up to the ~3.2GB. So when you load up an intense scene, and the 4 programs you have in Windows scheduled to run (Dropbox, VirusScan, whatever) attempt to fire off, it has to dedicate resources to that.

tl;dr - 32-bit version of Windows? 4GB. 64-bit? More RAM will probably help with random stutters in games or general performance, but won't raise your fps if that's what you're after. But - get the 8GB - in 6 months you'll be glad you did.
 
M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
Hi all. Anandtech just released a highly detailed comparison of the i5 and i7 options in the MacBook Air.

Click here for the article.

One thing that caught my eye was this in the final words of the article:

GPU performance seemed roughly unchanged compared to the Core i5 option.
Click to expand...

This for me means I'm sticking with the i5. I will do the RAM upgrade. Don't know for sure if I want to spend the money on the 256 storage upgrade, but I'm afraid I have no choice, concidering I want to bootcamp for the non-mac games...
 
P

Psychj0e

macrumors regular
Jun 5, 2010
180
0
keatre said:
I would like to politely disagree. While I understand your point, I'll provide a counterpoint.

Most games are coded for 32-bit systems, however - the OS these days are hogging RAM as much as they can. OSX is a great example. It will use all available RAM as much as it can to offer a better experience. But we're talking about gaming, so lets say Windows.

Windows 8 requires atleast 1 GB for a minimal install on a 32-bit version. I don't understand the point of purchasing a 32-bit version of an OS these days, but if you do, then yes - buy the 4GB. But! If you purchase a 64-bit version of Windows, you're cutting yourself short. Whilst Steam games are limited to around 3GB physical memory, OS's are not.

Take this as an example, load up Windows 64-bit, and delete your pagefile. Load up Assassin's Creed III and put on some aggressive settings - I'm betting you'll see some poor performance. Games (and programs) use more than 4GB, but they use it from the windows pagefile, which is slower than loading it straight from the Memory controller. In the case of the MBA with a crazy fast SSD, maybe its a moot point (I'm betting memory is still faster, though) - but if you have a 64-bit OS, I don't understand why you would not want 8GB.

Also keep in mind, AC3 will use ALL available RAM up to the ~3.2GB. So when you load up an intense scene, and the 4 programs you have in Windows scheduled to run (Dropbox, VirusScan, whatever) attempt to fire off, it has to dedicate resources to that.

tl;dr - 32-bit version of Windows? 4GB. 64-bit? More RAM will probably help with random stutters in games or general performance, but won't raise your fps if that's what you're after. But - get the 8GB - in 6 months you'll be glad you did.
Click to expand...

What kind of gamer would keep DropBox, antiVirus etc running whilst playing? :/
 
A

alexrmc92

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2013
218
0
MrGrutty said:
Hi all. Anandtech just released a highly detailed comparison of the i5 and i7 options in the MacBook Air.

Click here for the article.

One thing that caught my eye was this in the final words of the article:



This for me means I'm sticking with the i5. I will do the RAM upgrade. Don't know for sure if I want to spend the money on the 256 storage upgrade, but I'm afraid I have no choice, concidering I want to bootcamp for the non-mac games...
Click to expand...

The i5 and the i7 both have the exact same graphics chip (gt3), this is why i went with the i5. It would be nice if the i7 featured the gt3e, but maybe they will save that for the MBP.

the 256 and 512 samsung storage is quite a bit faster than the 128 sandisk storage. Now keep in mind the 128 sandisk drive is still much much faster than any ssd we have seen in a MBA so far.


As far as games COD BO2 maintains just under 40 fps on default settings, some minor slowdowns occur, but it's rare. Team Fortress runs in the 50 fps region. I've also played the FFXIV ARR beta on windows and stayed around 35 fps. Again these are all on defaults, performance goes down fast when increasing settings.

WoW slows down to a crawl on good settings, i believe this to be a bug with the game itself. On good settings, player and other NPC shaders don't display properly and once the laptop gets hot it slows down to under 20 fps. I expect blizzard to patch this soon.

Name a few games and ill try them out and let you know how they play.


Also, battery life tanks when using windows 7. It's current power management cant touch mac power management. I get about 5 hours of battery life in windows, the fan is constantly on (although blowing very lightly) and the laptop idles hotter. Maybe this is an issue with Intel's drivers? not sure.
 
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M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
alexrmc92 said:
The i5 and the i7 both have the exact same graphics chip (gt3), this is why i went with the i5. It would be nice if the i7 featured the gt3e, but maybe they will save that for the MBP.

the 256 and 512 samsung storage is quite a bit faster than the 128 sandisk storage. Now keep in mind the 128 sandisk drive is still much much faster than any ssd we have seen in a MBA so far.


As far as games COD BO2 maintains just under 40 fps on default settings, some minor slowdowns occur, but it's rare. Team Fortress runs in the 50 fps region. I've also played the FFXIV ARR beta on windows and stayed around 35 fps. Again these are all on defaults, performance goes down fast when increasing settings.

WoW slows down to a crawl on good settings, i believe this to be a bug with the game itself. On good settings, player and other NPC shaders don't display properly and once the laptop gets hot it slows down to under 20 fps. I expect blizzard to patch this soon.

Name a few games and ill try them out and let you know how they play.


Also, battery life tanks when using windows 7. It's current power management cant touch mac power management. I get about 5 hours of battery life in windows, the fan is constantly on (although blowing very lightly) and the laptop idles hotter. Maybe this is an issue with Intel's drivers? not sure.
Click to expand...

Okay. I've looked in my steam library and came with this list. Of course I don't expect you to play every one of them, but yeah... ;)

  • Bastion
  • GTA IV
  • Hotline Miami
  • Mark of the Ninja
  • Oil Rush
  • Psychonauts
  • Rochard
  • Civ V (I did think this title has always worked on older MBA's)
  • Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
  • Torchlight II
  • Tropico
  • The Walking Dead

Of course, alphabetically. Lol :p

Don't know if you own any of these titles. A lot of them were in Humble Bundles and do have a mac version!

Edit: Origin games!
  • SimCity
  • NFS Most Wanted
  • Shift 2 Unleashed
 
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fedecape

fedecape

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2011
414
32
Miami, FL
MrGrutty said:
Okay. I've looked in my steam library and came with this list. Of course I don't expect you to play every one of them, but yeah... ;)

  • Bastion
  • GTA IV
  • Hotline Miami
  • Mark of the Ninja
  • Oil Rush
  • Psychonauts
  • Rochard
  • Civ V (I did think this title has always worked on older MBA's)
  • Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
  • Torchlight II
  • Tropico
  • The Walking Dead

Of course, alphabetically. Lol :p

Don't know if you own any of these titles. A lot of them were in Humble Bundles and do have a mac version!

Edit: Origin games!
  • SimCity
  • NFS Most Wanted
  • Shift 2 Unleashed
Click to expand...

Can we run GTA IV? OMG!
 
M

MrGrutty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2013
24
0
fedecape said:
Can we run GTA IV? OMG!
Click to expand...

lol these are requests :p

----------
wermy said:
I don't think so... GTA4 and Torchlight 2 don't show up under the mac side of Steam, anyway.
Click to expand...

That's true, but if it runs on the windows side (bootcamp). You can say the computer can run it. And since I'm very likely to bootcamp and play windows games, they are requests!
 
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