Anyone daring to try Skyrim on the MBA?

[vintagejoel]

Forcing V-sync off via Nvidia control panel increases FPS considerably (beyond 30 FPS) but also causes tearing.

Okay, this is a stupid question and I will try to find the answer myself again in a moment but I thought I'd ask... how do you do this in the nvidia control panel? I am not seeing any real options there.

I'm running Win 7.


Found it. That was too easy. I guess that's why I missed it.

 

[416049]

Interested to know if anyone is daring enough to load it on and try it on friday, severely doubt it'll even run, but would be great if it ran on low settings even! Would love it to but not holding out for it, any ideas, I know the intel hd 3000 is crap for gaming and all, but on my MBA I can run Oblivion pretty well.

it works okay on low graphics 800*600 and Standard aspect ratio on my MBP with 8gb ram, not the best but better than expected so I think it would be the same for the air, oh and my fan speed always turns to 6000rpm sadly.

 

[Wossox]

Windows 32bit or 64bit?

I just installed a windows 7 64 partition through bootcamp on my 2011 13¨ and I'm planning on getting skyrim soon. Now, I've been hearing about some compatibility issues with the 64 bit version of windows. And it seems from this thread that people are getting very different frame rates. Has anyone successfully tried playing skyrim in the 64bit version on intels gpu? and you who can run it in native res, what windows are you using?

 

[vintagejoel]

I just installed a windows 7 64 partition through bootcamp on my 2011 13¨ and I'm planning on getting skyrim soon. Now, I've been hearing about some compatibility issues with the 64 bit version of windows. And it seems from this thread that people are getting very different frame rates. Has anyone successfully tried playing skyrim in the 64bit version on intels gpu? and you who can run it in native res, what windows are you using?

I'm playing on Win 7 64 bit with a maxed late 2010 mba. I use gamebooster and the skyrim nexus better performance mod (though I'm not sure that really makes a difference). I play on low settings with 1400 * 900 resolution and get about 22-33. It fluctuates at times and drops below that but not for long. I am now about 20 hours into it and think it is very playable.

 

[Maven1975]

I'm playing on Win 7 64 bit with a maxed late 2010 mba. I use gamebooster and the skyrim nexus better performance mod (though I'm not sure that really makes a difference). I play on low settings with 1400 * 900 resolution and get about 22-33. It fluctuates at times and drops below that but not for long. I am now about 20 hours into it and think it is very playable.

Have you over clocked the 320m or CPU?

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Runs smoothly on my base 2010 11" (1.4Ghz, 320M, 2GB) in bootcamp.
Stock drivers, no OC.

Getting 30 FPS outdoors and more inside. Settings at low and textures on medium.
No AA, no FFAX.

Forcing V-sync off via Nvidia control panel increases FPS considerably (beyond 30 FPS) but also causes tearing.

I'm really blown away by how well this plays considering that Fallout NV chugged.

Xbox 360 controller is a must imo.

Force AA and Anstro off too.

 

[vintagejoel]

Have you over clocked the 320m or CPU?

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No. Now I have two stupid questions.

1. How do you do this? To what level?

2. Is this safe to do for long periods of time?

I suppose that is three stupid questions.


I tried to quote you but it doesn't seem to be working for me atm.

 

[Maven1975]

Here ya go..

I have had zero issues. I bet you see 5-10 FPS increase. We shall see...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/904300/

 

[fs454]

I'm playing Skyrim at medium settings with high texture quality. AA/AF off. 1366x768 on my 2010 11" MBA ultimate. Windows 7 x64 with the dx3d9.dll switch tweak.


It looks incredible, nearly comparable to console quality and never drops below 30fps, and I'm constantly in awe of what the C2D and 320m are capable of.

 

[ddong]

I think i'm gonna order an Air and i'm playing Skyrim but i don't want to bother with boot camp, i want to stay in OSX! So would someone please try Skyrim under Parallels? Hope a kind guy will!

 

[kjid]

I think i'm gonna order an Air and i'm playing Skyrim but i don't want to bother with boot camp, i want to stay in OSX! So would someone please try Skyrim under Parallels? Hope a kind guy will!

there's a ciderskin version of skyrim, works great on my imac on lion but somewhat lags (but is playable) on my mba (20110) at very low resolution

 

[ddong]

Wouldn't it be better on Parallels?

 

[kjid]

No, parallels allow you to run an other operating system inside your current, so you actually run two OS's at once.

 

[Eruvian]

Sorry to revive an old thread but I am having real problems running Skyrim on my 2011 Macbook Air, and many people here seem to have it running great and I would like to know how your are doing it, or if I am missing something obvious.

I have a 2011 MBA 13" with i5 processor and the integrated HD3000 graphics. I have Bootcamp/Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit, with all the latest Windows Updates. I also updated the Intel Graphics Drivers (direct from Intel website).

Skyrim runs really bad, with max estimated 10 FPS at the lowest settings, and graphics at 1280x720 (tried varying this without much difference). It is really laggy.

How are you guys getting 30 fps at medium settings?

Do you all have the MBA with the dedicated 320 graphics chip?
Are you running stuff like Gameboost?
Are you doing any kind of optimizations to Skyrim? Adjusting .ini-files? If so, exactly what? Or is there a webpage I can read about Skyrim optimizations?
Any Skyrim mods? Which ones?

One thing I noticed: My fans are not spinning at all. I installed the Intel Turbo Boost Monitor, and the CPU is not turbo boosting, it is sitting at 1.7 Ghz all the time. Is this right? I did play Wow under OS/X and the fans where spinning like crazy so I was expecting the same for Skyrim under Windows.

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[Eruvian]

Well, just an update to my last question: the problem resolved itself after I installed Mountain Lion (and I would guess actually the update that enabled Powernap).

And I guessed right: the problem was related to Turbo Boost. My MBA was just not turbo boosting in Windows.

Now after this update the MBA is Turbo Boosting, and Skyrim runs much better. I now have a mostly steady 30 FPS, playing in low settings with a few options adjusted (High textures, and a few view distances increased).

And the fans run like crazy when I play, which is what I expected.

I also installed the FPS Limiter mod, found here: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/34/ (I don´t know how important this mod is now, I installed this before the Mountain Lion update, and have not removed it since)