Civ 5 & MBA 11", 13", or no dice?

[klover]

Considering that later in the game it runs like crap on my Windows gaming machine (8GB RAM, quad core 2.66GHz overclocked to 3.2, dual GTX 460s in SLI)... I really doubt it's going to be any fun playing it on a MBA.

I've come to terms with having to play Civ 5 on my maxed out machine and now use my 11" Air for occasional WoW and Starcraft 2.

Runs like crap on that rig? Something's wrong.

I'm running a quad core Phenom II + single GTX 460 + 4GB DDR3 and I play it smoothly with every single setting at max. Played two games from start to finish without a single hiccup, missing/slow-to-load texture, etc.

I'm grabbing a MBA 11" base and hoping to some gaming at my in-laws over the holiday (will definitely need some alone time...).

 

[alexjohnson]

Hmm, running PC version of CivV on an MBA 13" ultimate under Win7 64 bootcamp, it crashes all the time. Closes and jumps back to the desktop. Can't really do anything with the GPU drivers either as getting them for the 320M seems v difficult, Apple have their own for bootcamp but I guess don't update them as often as Nvidia. Speed was OK under bootcamp though I can see it getting slow but not unusable towards the end of the game (haven't made it there yet due to the crashes).

Will try via Steam the Mac version now.

I thought Boot Camp didn't support 64-bit? You might want to check the "optional installs" area in Windows Update, which is where I found the Nvidia drivers for 32-bit XP. Boot camp is playable on my 11" ultimate but really very sluggish on the Mac, which is a pity. It does technically work however. Also, saved games are cross-platform but not (currently) sync'd through Steam.

 

[ABG]

I got my MBA 13" ultimate yesterday and just tried the Steam Mac version on it a hour or so ago. Settings all on lowest possible and although its very early days it seems quite good.

I suspect it'll become unplayable as the game develops (it does on the i7 iMac!)

 

[HelsinkiMac]

Wow, the OSX version is waaaay slower than the PC version, and at much lower graphics detail too. The performance under bootcamp was fine, and the graphics pretty nice. But the PC version is still crashing on me all the time (I need to play it again to see if the patch from yesterday has fixed this).

Interested in what graphics options people are using on 13" and even 11" Airs to get decent performance - are you running at lower than native resolution (when I find the rearranged menu bars take up a pretty large proportion of the screen space)? And 'lowest' or 'off' for pretty much everything? I've been running at 1440x900 on a 13" ultimate with all but a few options set to their lowest and it runs frustratingly slowly, scrolling between 'units requiring orders' is incredibly jerky and slow, menus are v slow scrolling etc. Will try everything on low and at a lower resolution. As part of this, should playing on an external vs the laptops screen make a difference? I'm using an old LG 1280 x 1024 17" most of the time which is overall a v similar number of pixels than the 1440x900 Air screen. But the OSX version is still v slow on the air screen at full native resolution.

By the way, Win7 64 is fine on the new airs:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1846

 

[Eric H]

Just got a new top o' the line 11" Air (1.8 i7, 256g HD, 4g RAM, 10.7) and it runs.

Haven't actually made it to a late game yet, so can't comment on the real gameplay needs, but I know it would not run at all on my first gen tricked out 11" (upgraded processor I can't remember, 128g HD, 2g RAM, 10.6).

 

[ZBoater]

Just got a new top o' the line 11" Air (1.8 i7, 256g HD, 4g RAM, 10.7) and it runs.

Haven't actually made it to a late game yet, so can't comment on the real gameplay needs, but I know it would not run at all on my first gen tricked out 11" (upgraded processor I can't remember, 128g HD, 2g RAM, 10.6).

Good to know. I am an ooooooold Civ fan, and wouldn't mind playing it again. I see that and COD4 say they don't support integrated graphics cards. So I guess they need to update that?

 

[nph]

How does it look on the relatively small screen? Hard toget a good oveview?

 

[chelseamm]

Eric H - curious to know if you have played into the later stages of the game and how the performance was...