Can you play MineCraft on the MacBook Air?

[saintforlife]

My 10 year old nephew wants to get an MBA. Among other things that kids his age do on a computer, he wants to use his Air for gaming, mainly MineCraft.

Will the Air be able to handle MineCraft or will the game tax the machine too much and cause the fans to kick in all the time? Will the MacBook Pro be a better machine for his use case?

 

[MarvinHC]

My 10 year old nephew wants to get an MBA. Among other things that kids his age do on a computer, he wants to use his Air for gaming, mainly MineCraft.

Will the Air be able to handle MineCraft or will the game tax the machine too much and cause the fans to kick in all the time? Will the MacBook Pro be a better machine for his use case?

MineCraft is not very 'taxing', no worries there (it runs on an iPad2 with no issues!)

 

[saintforlife]

MineCraft is not very 'taxing', no worries there (it runs on an iPad2 with no issues!)

Thanks for the reply. My only concern is the fan noise on the MBA. Obviously that isn't a problem on the iPad #

 

[pollaxe]

I've played it on my MBA 2011 many times. The fans really do kick in on it, though.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You'll not be doing any 3D gaming on the MBA without the fans kicking in, really.

 

[x3n0n1c]

Thanks for the reply. My only concern is the fan noise on the MBA. Obviously that isn't a problem on the iPad #

The macbook air has a very limited cooling system. Tax the system at all and the chips will get hot.

All ultra-books are like this, there just isn't room for beefy cooling inside.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Thanks for the reply. My only concern is the fan noise on the MBA. Obviously that isn't a problem on the iPad ��

When my son's friends come over, they use my wife's late 2010 MBA to play Minecraft with him (he uses my late '08 MBP). While the fans crank up to full blast (and will stay cranked for a couple minutes after you close Minecraft, so let them do their job!), it hasn't caused any troubles with the machine.

 

[caligomez]

My daughters play Minecraft on our Macs. One uses my wife's 2012 11" MBA, and the other uses my 15" 2011 MBP. Both are i7's. I can assure that no matter if you use an MBA or an MBP, the fans are going to be on and kicking at all times. It seems to be unavoidable.

Just make sure he plays on a cool surface (that doesn't trap the heat) and that the ventilation ports are open, and the there will be no significant heat build up in the MBA. It'll be fine.. as the most I have seen my wife's MBA go up in temp is around the 150 to 160 degree Fahrenheit range.

BTW, they have connected the same MBA to the Thunderbolt Display, and temperature doesn't seem to be affected much more than normal play on the computer screen.