2013 Macbook Air vs 15-inch rMBP for gaming

[bem809]

I currently own the 15-inch rMBP. Picked up and played around with one of the new 13-inch MBA's the other day and I can't shake the increased portability and battery life. Now I'm thinking of trading in my rMBP for a 2013 MBA.

I'm just curious about the differences in gaming performance. While the rMBP has the NVIDIA GT650M, I'm wondering if the drastically lower pixel density on the MBA combined with the new Intel HD 5000 GPU will give it comparable gaming performance against the 15-inch rMBP. Has anyone been able to compare the two side-by-side in terms of gaming performance?

If the difference isn't that drastic, I'm definitely making the switch.

 

[mattferg]

I currently own the 15-inch rMBP. Picked up and played around with one of the new 13-inch MBA's the other day and I can't shake the increased portability and battery life. Now I'm thinking of trading in my rMBP for a 2013 MBA.

I'm just curious about the differences in gaming performance. While the rMBP has the NVIDIA GT650M, I'm wondering if the drastically lower pixel density on the MBA combined with the new Intel HD 5000 GPU will give it comparable gaming performance against the 15-inch rMBP. Has anyone been able to compare the two side-by-side in terms of gaming performance?

If the difference isn't that drastic, I'm definitely making the switch.

Considering most of the games you'll be running on the rMBP won't actually be running at the retina resolution... the 15 is much better for gaming, and if that's what you use the laptop for, stick with the 15.

 

[Persian-apple]

WELL WELL I SHOULD DISAGREE YOU!
AT FIRST YOU WERE RIGHT MACBOOK PRO RETINA IS A REAL POWER HOUSE WITH ITS HIGHLY OVER CLOCKED GT 650M!

but about the resolution some games like elder scrolls v and a famous game Call of juarez gunslinger if you use native RESOLUTION! then it wont fit the screen!!

yeah native res DOESNT fit the screen because it is not supported by this game
hoghest resolution is 1366x768 resolution for them but lots of games like max payne 3 i can play it on very high setting and native resolution at 45FPS it didnt stutter and wont!

YESSS RMBP IS BETTER THAN ALIEN WARE M14X !!!M14X HAS DOUBLE GPUZ 650M AND GTX660

a list of my games(update your drivers to 306.14 or 314.20 or 320.18 BETA DRIVERS else your games will crash like bat man arkhamcity)

1 batman arkham city
2 far cry 3
3 battle field 2-3
4 CALL OF DUTY MW1-2-3
4 BLACK OPS II
5 TOMB RAIDER 2013
6 call of juarez gunslinger
7 Spec ops : The Line
8 dead space 1 2 3
9 harley quinns revenge (also knows as arkham city iii(3))
10 crysis 3(this doesnt perform extremly will it is an exception!low setting it is PLAYABLE)

11 crysis 2 (perfect)
12 strong hold legends
13 crysis warhead(crysis 1)


these game run at 1920x1200(heavy games)
else they run on native! PERFECTTT max payne 3 native res (it is a verry heavy game!)




soooooo....... buy itt mbpr is fantastic

 

[luisito]

I currently own the 15-inch rMBP. Picked up and played around with one of the new 13-inch MBA's the other day and I can't shake the increased portability and battery life. Now I'm thinking of trading in my rMBP for a 2013 MBA.

Has anyone been able to compare the two side-by-side in terms of gaming performance?

If the difference isn't that drastic, I'm definitely making the switch.

May want to look into the link I provided, you own a 15 rMBP so you know how it works, simply compare it to what people say about the MBA, i'm sure you can..

Read: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1594690/

 

[sonicrobby]

Depends on the type of gamer you are and what games you play. If you need high settings, then stick with the rMBP. If you play lower end games, or can deal with lower settings, then you could consider the MBA. check out the link luisito attached above. I think its pretty helpful. And browse around google or youtube to see how your favorite games perform on the new air.

 

[cirus]

I currently own the 15-inch rMBP. Picked up and played around with one of the new 13-inch MBA's the other day and I can't shake the increased portability and battery life. Now I'm thinking of trading in my rMBP for a 2013 MBA.

I'm just curious about the differences in gaming performance. While the rMBP has the NVIDIA GT650M, I'm wondering if the drastically lower pixel density on the MBA combined with the new Intel HD 5000 GPU will give it comparable gaming performance against the 15-inch rMBP. Has anyone been able to compare the two side-by-side in terms of gaming performance?

If the difference isn't that drastic, I'm definitely making the switch.

The mba 2013 on the HD 5000 probably runs games as well as the HD 4000 on your 15 inch rmbp. (ie HD 5000 is ~20-25% faster than the old ULV HD 4000 in the 2012 mba from the anandtech article; the SV quad HD 4000 is about 20-40% faster than the ULV HD 4000). So using the igp on your 15 inch rmbp, is that sufficient for your gaming experience?

But you are probably looking at a reduction in gaming performance by a factor of 3.