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Counter Strike:GO on MBA ... anyone?
- Thread starter Sid-R
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I have a 2012 mba with 8 gig.. i get about 15 mins before steam crashes
it also gets hot in the upper left corner..
O use wsad to walk around and it gets hot under the w
semi disappointing from my experience..
it also gets hot in the upper left corner..
O use wsad to walk around and it gets hot under the w
semi disappointing from my experience..
use headphones? Even without them the sound never bothered me, and it shouldn't be so hot it hurts to use.
Fan/Heat
For those of you (with 2011 or 2012 models) how's the fan speed/noise and temperature of your CPU when you're playing CS: Go?
I currently own the 2011 13" MBA base model, and am considering either spending ~$500 on a windows laptop to play games on, or selling this one to get the 2012 13" MBA 1.8ghz 8gb model.
Games I'll be playing are CS:Go, Dota 2, and world of warcraft.
I don't need high settings (30 FPS is fine for me in any game) but if my fan speed & temperature are both gonna be on the fritz on the MBA i think i'll go with a windows laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246494 i got the lenovo z580 w/dedicated nvidia gt 630m for ~$530 after rebate, but it hasn't shipped yet so I still have the option to cancel it if I decide to go for the 2012 13" MBA w/8gb ram.
For those of you (with 2011 or 2012 models) how's the fan speed/noise and temperature of your CPU when you're playing CS: Go?
I currently own the 2011 13" MBA base model, and am considering either spending ~$500 on a windows laptop to play games on, or selling this one to get the 2012 13" MBA 1.8ghz 8gb model.
Games I'll be playing are CS:Go, Dota 2, and world of warcraft.
I don't need high settings (30 FPS is fine for me in any game) but if my fan speed & temperature are both gonna be on the fritz on the MBA i think i'll go with a windows laptop.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246494 i got the lenovo z580 w/dedicated nvidia gt 630m for ~$530 after rebate, but it hasn't shipped yet so I still have the option to cancel it if I decide to go for the 2012 13" MBA w/8gb ram.
I have a 2012 11'' ultimate and I'm wondering about heat and fan speeds too. Stats on boot camp and OSX would be appreciated.
Temp and fan speed are fine.
You have to understand that its programmed to not use the fan. It would rather have the temp at 90c and low fan speed than 60c and high fan speed. People tend to put too much emphasis on this. The air does more than fine in those regards.
You have to understand that its programmed to not use the fan. It would rather have the temp at 90c and low fan speed than 60c and high fan speed. People tend to put too much emphasis on this. The air does more than fine in those regards.
Part of the problem is people like to be more active in their cooling, because in the past it was more important. Older chipsets, and especially desktop chipsets, run much cooler. That is, if my Q6600 (socket 775 core 2 quad) ran at 90C I would be very stressed about it. 90C for the air's mobile i5 is nothing.
Ultimately you have to keep in mind that if your computer is running too hot, and at max fan speed it will shut down if it gets too hot, to prevent damage, not because it is damaged. I have never experienced that with my MBA (and not because I don't stress it), and last experienced this problem on an old, dusty, poorly designed acer (when acer was much worse than it is now).
A lot of this depends on ambient temperature obviously. If the room temp is 40C, you'll run hotter than a room that is 20C.
Some people manually monitor the fans because bootcamp doesn't handle them properly (or so I hear), or because they're used to having to do so on poorly designed old products.
Ahhh I see. Thanks for the info!
For games that are available on both OS x and Windows, do you know if the general consensus is that people prefer to play them on windows instead of OS x? I've been trying to do a lot of research lately and seems like a lot of people are playing their games through bootcamp.
Also I'm also coming to the conclusion that everyone who says they play their games just fine with 30-40 FPS on whatever settings, also have their fans going at 6000rpm to keep their CPU's at ~70C, they just don't mention the latter part because it doesn't bother them and it's expected.
So if I were to play the games I want, the MBA can handle all of them (2011 or 2012 models) but I should expect the fans to be spinning near max speed and the temperature to be anywhere from 70-90C, and not be surprised. Correct?
The windows vs OSX issue is largely availability. Few games are available on OSX when compared to windows. Performance is typically better under windows, but I've seen odd outliers mentioned where the OpenGL mac port runs smoother.
My experience with gaming has been the following. It will get hot occasionally, and it will turn the fans up to compensate. The fans really aren't too loud. If you've ever used a high end graphics card in a desktop, the fans are quieter than that at full speed. The sound from the fans has never been an issue while gaming. While it does get a little loud, if you're playing with the volume above half or so it shouldn't detract that much. I use headphones 95% of the time I'm playing something and have no problem with it.
The heat shouldn't bug you because most games require a proper mouse in order to play, which pretty much mandates a table or desk to be used. Even with it on my lap it is never hot enough to burn me.
Finally, you have to understand the competition and what your alternative is. Assuming you want to be able to game on the go the other laptops you may consider suffer the same problems. Even high end gaming laptops get quite warm and can be loud. Having said that, this isn't a gaming laptop. It is wonderful and capable, but if you want to play AAA titles on it from today and new releases for the next 5 years it may not be the best purchase. New consoles are just around the corner, which means that gaming requirements are about to skyrocket. Most games now are just ports of console games, which run quite dated and relatively slow hardware. Once the new consoles are released you can count on more demanding games.
I have the stock 2011 13" macbook air and it ran smooth at first.
I went ahead and lowered all the settings, resolution was already at 1280x800.
After several rounds it got pretty laggy.
The last round of the second game I played was really bad, not playable at all.
This is on OSX 10.8.1, I guess I'll download it again tonight while I sleep on bootcamp and hopefully that will be better.
I went ahead and lowered all the settings, resolution was already at 1280x800.
After several rounds it got pretty laggy.
The last round of the second game I played was really bad, not playable at all.
This is on OSX 10.8.1, I guess I'll download it again tonight while I sleep on bootcamp and hopefully that will be better.
I tried it on Windows 7 and it worked fine, just a little lag here and there, but no problems after 2 full games.
How am I supposed to underclock the CPU?
Its only 1.7, unless you mean disabling the turbo boost or something.
I am not familiar with any CPU speed stepping applications for OSX.
Really wish I know how to update the HD 4000 drivers in Windows. Updated ones from Intel are not willing to install.
https://github.com/nanoant/DisableTurboBoost.kext
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1387883/
Not sure if it really did anything, I don't know how to tell.
But I did get results from Terminal.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1387883/
Not sure if it really did anything, I don't know how to tell.
But I did get results from Terminal.
CS:GO is junk. They're selling the same game from 15 years ago.
It's interesting to contrast all the innovation, updates, and changes that have happened in older games like Tribes: Ascend and Team Fortress. CS is the same as ever, which feels quite outdated now.
Bought it, and stopped playing it after a couple of days. It's the same spray-and-pray crap.
It's interesting to contrast all the innovation, updates, and changes that have happened in older games like Tribes: Ascend and Team Fortress. CS is the same as ever, which feels quite outdated now.
Bought it, and stopped playing it after a couple of days. It's the same spray-and-pray crap.
Yes it's the same thing from the past but cs still has the best weapon handling i've ever seen in an fps game. Wish every fps game has a feel like CS:GO.
If you guys want to play a fast fps game with just a little download. Try begone. It works well in the air =)
** If you are using clamshell mode to play your games, the fans will spin a lot and you will have a heat problem , use something to put in the bottom of the air ( just don't block the air vents though ) , could be a flat notebook or something that would elevate the air like 0.25 inches etc. This will help with the heat problem I think.
** If you are using clamshell mode to play your games, the fans will spin a lot and you will have a heat problem , use something to put in the bottom of the air ( just don't block the air vents though ) , could be a flat notebook or something that would elevate the air like 0.25 inches etc. This will help with the heat problem I think.