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Grand Theft Auto Series on the 2011 Macbook Air

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CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
In case you own a 2011 MBA and were hesitant in buying Grand Theft Auto, I bought all three from the Mac App Store to test it out.

I am using a 2011 Macbook Air 13'' i5.

Grand Theft Auto III
- Playable
- Lags a bit when driving vehicles

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Very playable
- No lag when driving vehicles

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Barely playable
- very choppy
- freezes for 2 seconds every now and then
*note: There are reports on the MAS via review that the game has problems on MBP and iMac's with better specs than my MBA, so it might be the app's fault.

Temperature, according to iStat Nano 3 menu item, goes up to 80 - 95 degrees in celsius when playing any GTA game on the MBA for about 10 - 20 minutes. I can hear my fans kicking in but it's nothing to worry about.

Computers were made to be used, no harm in testing the limit of your machine.
 
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jamesr19

macrumors 6502
Nov 7, 2009
251
0
thanks for this info!

I'm looking at getting san andreas because it is by far the best GTA available. I'm going to wait until they release a bug fix for it or drop the price on promotion (whichever is first). The GTA series is a great thing to hop onto when bored!
 
C

CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
jamesr19 said:
thanks for this info!

I'm looking at getting san andreas because it is by far the best GTA available. I'm going to wait until they release a bug fix for it or drop the price on promotion (whichever is first). The GTA series is a great thing to hop onto when bored!
Click to expand...

No problem. I've been looking around on this forum and google how GTA trilogy ran on MBA; but I found nothing. So I decided to take the plunge myself.

I hope in the next update for each GTA game; Rockstar can enable "play in a window" option.
 
I

iNeko

macrumors regular
May 13, 2007
222
0
England
On my 2011 i7 11", GTA III and VC are perfect, but San Andreas "hiccups" every 10 seconds or so. It did the same on my 2010 Air and does it on my 08 MBP, very odd. Annoying, but it doesn't hinder gameplay. :)
 
B

bill-p

macrumors 68030
Jul 23, 2011
2,889
1,550
It's most likely because of the Intel GPU.

2010 MBA 13" here, and there is no slow down whatsoever. The mentioned games run smooth at native resolution.
 
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iNeko

macrumors regular
May 13, 2007
222
0
England
I've had no issues with the intel GPU, it's played every game I've thrown at it except one (Two Worlds II) It even plays Assassin's Creed II better than my 9600gt equipped Pro does :) sure it's not "great" but it'll do!
 
C

CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
iNeko said:
I've had no issues with the intel GPU, it's played every game I've thrown at it except one (Two Worlds II) It even plays Assassin's Creed II better than my 9600gt equipped Pro does :) sure it's not "great" but it'll do!
Click to expand...

Just wondering... do you own Bioshock and Borderlands on your MBA too?
 
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iNeko

macrumors regular
May 13, 2007
222
0
England
Borderlands is perfect on here (I can't remember the settings off hand, but it's mostly medium-high, blur off (I can't stand it) at the 1366x768 native res) :) very playable. I don't have Bioshock though!
 
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CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
iNeko said:
Borderlands is perfect on here (I can't remember the settings off hand, but it's mostly medium-high, blur off (I can't stand it) at the 1366x768 native res) :) very playable. I don't have Bioshock though!
Click to expand...

Ah okay.. Thank you!
 
I

iNeko

macrumors regular
May 13, 2007
222
0
England
:) No problem, I have a few games on here and they're all playable.

Starcraft 2 I have on medium and it's nice (a solid 30fps+), Civ V is on medium (I've not played much though) and Portal 2, which I believe will run just fine on any machine on high. Let me know if you want any more info, I have other games on hand I can install and test for you!
 
C

CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
iNeko said:
:) No problem, I have a few games on here and they're all playable.

Starcraft 2 I have on medium and it's nice (a solid 30fps+), Civ V is on medium (I've not played much though) and Portal 2, which I believe will run just fine on any machine on high. Let me know if you want any more info, I have other games on hand I can install and test for you!
Click to expand...

You are too kind. That would be quite time consuming but thank you for your help!
 
theSeb

theSeb

macrumors 604
Aug 10, 2010
7,466
1,893
none
CardboardGiant said:
I heard it takes away all the charm that GTA: San Andreas had, so I'm not interested in it.
Click to expand...

:confused: The difference is night and day and GTA 4 is a much better game, unless you're a 14 year old gangsta-wannabe that dreams of doing drive-bys on a BMX.
 
J

JS77

macrumors regular
Jun 18, 2008
231
2
theSeb said:
:confused: The difference is night and day and GTA 4 is a much better game, unless you're a 14 year old gangsta-wannabe that dreams of doing drive-bys on a BMX.
Click to expand...

Nice generalization there... This comes down to personal taste and opinion. San Andreas is the best GTA of the series in my opinion. I found GTA IV to be a huge disappointment.
 
I

iNeko

macrumors regular
May 13, 2007
222
0
England
theSeb said:
:confused: The difference is night and day and GTA 4 is a much better game, unless you're a 14 year old gangsta-wannabe that dreams of doing drive-bys on a BMX.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I found San Andreas to be more "fun" overall. Then again, I felt that Saints Row 2 was more the GTA 4 I wanted :)
 
theSeb

theSeb

macrumors 604
Aug 10, 2010
7,466
1,893
none
iNeko said:
I dunno, I found San Andreas to be more "fun" overall. Then again, I felt that Saints Row 2 was more the GTA 4 I wanted :)
Click to expand...

I played SR2 for about 10 minutes. When I stole my first car the first thing I noticed was the physics, or the lack thereof. I wanted to enjoy it, but GTA4 killed it for me.
 
A

App Downloader

macrumors member
Feb 12, 2011
82
0
I have a 13" MacBook Air 2010 Intel Core 2 Duo with 2.13 GHz and 4GB Ram, and I play San Andreas on it quite often. It does lag the first 5 seconds of loading up a game, but then it's all good. :cool:
 
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solo118

macrumors 65816
May 16, 2011
1,316
170
Awesome info, thanks! Hopefully SA will work on my 11" i5 w/4gb ram. I wonder if you get a refund if it does not work well?
 
Hexiii

Hexiii

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2011
1,113
373
Prague, Czech Republic
CardboardGiant said:
lowest quality as possible.

You can't change the quality on GTA III, but you can change settings to low on GTA: San Andreas.
Click to expand...

Oh, sorry, I didn't say I meant the SA.

Btw, how is it possible that it runs really smooth with medium graphic settings on less powerful Windows laptop? Is that really that big difference in the game?
 
C

CardboardGiant

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
131
0
Hexiii said:
Oh, sorry, I didn't say I meant the SA.

Btw, how is it possible that it runs really smooth with medium graphic settings on less powerful Windows laptop? Is that really that big difference in the game?
Click to expand...

From what i've read, the GTA trilogy on Mac App Store is a cider port.

If you are using a windows laptop, you will download GTA San Andreas from Steam.

Check your windows laptop specifications with the minimum and recommended specifications on steam's GTA: SA page.
 
Hexiii

Hexiii

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2011
1,113
373
Prague, Czech Republic
CardboardGiant said:
From what i've read, the GTA trilogy on Mac App Store is a cider port.

If you are using a windows laptop, you will download GTA San Andreas from Steam.

Check your windows laptop specifications with the minimum and recommended specifications on steam's GTA: SA page.
Click to expand...

No, I mean it runs really good on it (I already have it installed), but the laptop has much worse specifications than the MBA 13", which runs it worse according to this thread.
 
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