intel HD 3000....is it decent for games??

[KPOM]

Hi,

Just would like to know when Apple plan to release the new macbook air in 2012.
Will it worse to wait for some time to get the new version?

No one but Apple knows for sure, but given today's announcements about the delays to the Ivy Bridge chip, I wouldn't be surprised if the new models don't come out until the summer (about the same time they came out last year) when Mountain Lion is released.

The HD 4000 in the Ivy Bridge chips will definitely have significantly better gaming graphics than the HD 3000 in the Sandy Bridge chips. If gaming is important to you and you want the portability of the MacBook Air, then waiting may well make sense.

 

[Sunsenista]

As i already now this it s a apple secret policy that they wont tell anything about release and so on on their products but i can wait until the product will come on the market
i just would like to know if with bootcamp or parrallel games like League of legend run smoothly or not...
I like very much DOTA game and for sure i will need a very portative computer for all my movement as i take bus be hotel and travel a lot for work

>Btw thanks for the advice

HD 4000 how much faster and better performance than the actual one ?

 

[Megalomaniac]

Anyone? Yay or nay? Is this correct?

I've played over 160 hours of Napoleon Total War and Empire: Total War via bootcamp on my i7 MBA and haven't had any issues with windows shutting down. The MBA does get hot (which is to be expected) but never to the point where I've noticed the FPS dropping.

Both games play quite smoothly on medium settings, here's a vid below (recorded with FRAPS which reduces the FPS quite a bit, the actual gameplay is alot smoother.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5WlRU5ZjOM&list=UU2nrcdM33cQ-ghZNiosStMw&index=2&feature=plcp

 

[DenniZ]

I have a MBA 11" 1.6 i5, with 4GB of ram, it runs the sims 3 at a stable 30FPS on low -medium settings.

 

[Mac32]

Buy an active cooling pad for your MBA. That will help against overheating. I use this every time I play computer games on my MacBookPro.

 

[JohnJohn777]

HD3000 Working Better With Windows 8 Bootcamp

I have read on many websites how the Intel HD3000 graphics card is not good for gaming. I am amazed that the maximum is 512mb if you have 8gb of ram. As you increase ram your vram should go up. There is a company call OWC which sells macs and ram for macs. I spoke to someone there who didnt even know that the more ram you put the higher your graphics memory gets. My mac mini came with 2gb ram and I had 288mb vram. I just upgraded one chip to 4gb for a total of 5gb and I have I believe 384mb. I cant check because I am on Windows 8 via bootcamp.

This brings me to my question. They claim the HD3000 cannot go over the 512mb and the guy at OWC didnt know that and they claim that the mac mini 2011 can actually be upgraded to 16gb of ram which they have tested. Does the vram go up past 512mb since 8gb ram gives you 512mb

I have had much experience with apples iphone. Apple hides the many abilities of their devices and as they increase the processor they unlock a little more. I know this because I jailbroke every one of my devices even my apple tv. On the apple tv 2 I could not use a keyboard but not with the latest update I can use it via bluetooth therefore the apple tv 2 always had bluetooth.

So now Im on Windows 8, and I checked with this command on command prompt - dxdiag - to find out my graphics cards max memory and I was shocked to see that it says - Approx total memory 1664mb - lol

Again apple seems to lock up a lot with their devices/products. I also downloaded a program CPU-Z which checks your computer, just to make sure its correct but that one has even more. lol

Under Memory- Size - 2108 Mbytes (mb)

I also can adjust settings to the graphics card on Windows 8 for Performance under 3d and my mac mini seems to be running Windows 8 even smooter, not that is was bad before the settings change.

I have installed a few games like Diablo, Deus Ex (wouldnt open on my mac for some reason) and other games. I am using my external hard drive to install the games which gives me 1.5 terabytes of memory.

My point is that mac is not giving you the best and that there must be a way, a hack that can unlock whatever is locked. I have heard that the Mac Mini 2012 has the HD4000 and a max of 768mb vram but when you upgrade to mavericks it jumped to 1024mb and I think if you increase ram it gets higher.

If anyone here knows about macs, I mean really knows, and can write programs or find ways to better the mac mini 2011 and up, would be great. I know apple is hiding stuff and restricting stuff which is bull. I would also suggest that you install Windows 8 via bootcamp and check dxdiag on the command prompt to see for yourself. Many people have been having problems with installing Windows via bootcamp so did I. There are ways to fix these issues. I also use refit which you can triple boot your mac. I am looking to install Kali-linux and dont know if I can yet but Im sure you can since Ubuntu/Linux works.

Please let me know if anyone can find a way to increase the vram on the HD3000 mac mini. I know for a fact its not restricted to 512mb. If not, people, just install Windows with bootcamp and play games that way if they dont work on mac. I just love the Mac OS, which is why I would rather increase it there.

One last thing is Bluestacks the Android player (for those who dont know) GenyMotion is better but I couldnt use Bluestacks on Mac Mini 2011 mavericks. I tried everything. I then did the bootcamp install of Windows and it worked flawlessly. I then used my mac os one day I decided to try Bluestacks again on there and the strangest thing happened, it worked. But it did not work great, it froze and didnt work great.

Anyways, I hope this helped someone and for those who know how to fix/hack the mac to improve the quality/performance, please email me.
jpmoneypicks@gmail.com
Let me know. Thanks

 

[JohnJohn777]

Mac Mini HD3000 better On Windows 8 bootcamp

No one but Apple knows for sure, but given today's announcements about the delays to the Ivy Bridge chip, I wouldn't be surprised if the new models don't come out until the summer (about the same time they came out last year) when Mountain Lion is released.

The HD 4000 in the Ivy Bridge chips will definitely have significantly better gaming graphics than the HD 3000 in the Sandy Bridge chips. If gaming is important to you and you want the portability of the MacBook Air, then waiting may well make sense.

Youre right but like I wrote below, the Mac Mini 2011 HD 3000 graphics card is running so much better on Windows 8 pro bootcamp. It says 1664mb memory when I check with the command dxdiag and with CPU-Z it says 2000mb. I thought this has too be a mistake until I installed The Elder Scrolls V, Assassins Creed IV and 3, Diablo, Deus Ex, Crysis 1 & 2. The Elders Scrolls V is a big on graphics and so is Assassins Creed and they run great. I believe that apple who loves to hide the abilities of all their products because they dont get better software wise, they upgrade processor, graphics etc and unlock may new feautures like in the iPhone which a jailbreak did what 7.1 does now back on 3.0. I think theres a way to hack the hd3000 on the mac side because if you can play any game on the same machine running windows on bootcamp you can do it, so why not on mac mini 2011. If anyone knows how to hack a mac or install drivers from windows maybe, let us know. I wish I did or knew why it works here and not on mac. Im using windows 8 more because of the gaming now.