Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Is gaming "safe"

C

Cyber735

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 20, 2013
30
0
Hi,

So I've got a 2013 13" i5 8gb ram MacBook Air.

I've done some light gaming (civ5 - low settings) and I reach about 58C (136F) temperature with about 2200 rpm fanspeed.

When I try to ramp it up a bit (tf2 - high settings) I see a huge difference, around 65C/149 F with a fanspeed of over 5000 rpm.

(Temperatures taken from memory bank 1 which is always the hottest for me)

Anyway, I'm just wondering if this is bad for my Mac? I don't want to shorten it's life span or damage anything. Is it okay to do it for a prolonged time (2 - 3 hours?)

What temperatures/fanspeeds have you reached before? what's the max?

I know there's a lot of safeguards in place to prevent damage, but that doesn't necessarily it's good for the longterm health of your mac, right?

Oh and out of interest, what temp/fanspeed do you reach when just doing light tasks like web browsing. I'm at 29C/84F with 1183rpm. Is that normal?

Thanks,
 
It's safe. There are various arguments whether it affects battery health (due to excess heat transferring to the battery), but I would say that it is safe.

The individual components (CPU/GPU) are designed to handle up to around 120 ºC and the Macbook will first throttle the CPU and/or the GPU speed to stay within limits, and if that doesn't help it will effectively shut it self off if it's reaching critical temperatures.
 
While the community would agree the Air is not really a game machine, but u gotta do what u gotta do bro!

I mean EVERYTHING wear out, and the more u use it, technically it wears out faster. By how much nobody knows.

Enjoy life, don't worry about the little things.
 
Nahh, gaming's really unsafe, billions of people die from gaming and gaming related injuries every day.
 
Mrbobb said:
While the community would agree the Air is not really a game machine, but u gotta do what u gotta do bro!

I mean EVERYTHING wear out, and the more u use it, technically it wears out faster. By how much nobody knows.

Enjoy life, don't worry about the little things.
Click to expand...

Yeah I really needed the battery life & portability factor of an air for work. I'm by no means a hardcore gamer, but the air it's more than capable for most games on low - medium settings from what I've seen, so I'm pretty happy with it - a nice compromise.

----------
simsaladimbamba said:
If you are interested in temperatures and safe heat, read the following: Those Macs in their heat - a sine of over-heating? - a short story by Mister GGJstudios
Click to expand...


That's strange, the post states that mbas run at a minimum of 1800 rpm fanspeed. I'm guessing the 2013 model is now 1100 minimum or am I just lucky?
 
It depends which game you are playing. Russian roulette is very unsafe. Also some games with pretty girls that you don't know could be potentially unsafe.

As far as your MBA's temperature is concerned, don't worry about it. Computers are pretty smart these days. They won't go beyond their limit and break themselves.
 
You wont die but Macs just suck for gaming in general.

Check out the Steam forums under the Mac version. Nothing but complaints and issues.
 
handofendowment said:
I think the fans coming on is a little bit jarring. ; o ; If they were quiet I don't think I would mind as much.
Click to expand...


That's why people build game machines with liquid cooling.

Air = use a pairs of noise blocking headsets. They ALL say noise blocking but u want the ones that specify, 25-30+ db noise reduction.
 
Cyber735 said:
That's strange, the post states that mbas run at a minimum of 1800 rpm fanspeed. I'm guessing the 2013 model is now 1100 minimum or am I just lucky?
Click to expand...

Mine is currently running at 1198. I guess they changed it because the Haswell version runs cooler.

Certainly under normal use it's the coolest and quietest running computer I've ever owned.
 
NewbieCanada said:
Mine is currently running at 1198. I guess they changed it because the Haswell version runs cooler.

Certainly under normal use it's the coolest and quietest running computer I've ever owned.
Click to expand...

Yep, I've had mine for a week now (it's my first mac computer in my life) and fan went on only once for like 10 mins in this whole week and that's when I was editing some video in final cut pro. This is just fantastic you know. My Dell Latitude E4300 business notebook runs the fan using the calculator.
 
ZBoater said:
Computers are pretty smart these days. They won't go beyond their limit and break themselves.
Click to expand...

Case in point: I have an old (8 yr) Sony notebook whose fan died. I've been hoping the darned thing would overheat itself to death, but it just won't die. CPU knows it's overheating, so it slows down and cools itself off that way.

Don't worry. The MBA (and all other decent computers) is designed to function within various limits, and will ensure it stays within those limits. The limits might exceed the user's tolerance (say, temperature) but just because you touch it and say "OW!" doesn't mean it is suffering.
 
Stop your worrying and enjoy your machine. Intel has put safeguards in place, but there are so many other variables at play that it's just not worth it to worry about.

Purely hypothetical, but if the machine will last 11 years without gaming and only 9 with gaming, is it a big deal when you're only planning on keeping it for 3-4 years?

What happens when 6 months from now someone spills a drink on it and it has to be replaced anyway?

Apple fanboy said:
Can't they just respawn?:D
Click to expand...

If you die in the Matrix...
 
The best thing I have found in preserving the life of my electronics is never taking them out of the box. Seriously just thinking about the damage that electricity will do to electronics is not worth it. But what really sold me on never using my 1200 dollar macbook air was battery life. did you know the battery is only rated for 1000 charges before it will dip below 80 percent capacity! No thank you. Just purchase the machine and never use it and it will last forever. It also helps with resell value.
 
ZBoater said:
It may not be the ultimate gaming platform, but it plays most games well enough. A lot more than just chess and solitaire... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Like I said, if you like a hot iron on your lap, by all means go ahead. Not to mention, overall performance will drop once the thermal throttling kicks in. :rolleyes:

Just because it can doesn't mean it should. That's the hard cold truth about gaming on a MacBook Air.
 
jav6454 said:
I wouldn't even consider the MacBook Air for gaming purposes. Unless said games are chess, Solitaire and the likes.
Click to expand...

There's a difference between a "gaming computer" and a "computer that can play games".

No one here is arguing the Air is the former. The Air is definitely not great for people who play a lot of games, and anyone who buys an Air primarily as a gaming system will be sorely disappointed. But the Air is capable of running more than just the games you list.

Personally, I play Minecraft for 2-4 hours a week. It's the only time I've ever heard the fans kick in. But I get decent frame rates and the machine keeps up, so for ~1-2% of my total usage, it works. I'd wager it's a similar story with most people who inquire about the gaming abilities of the Air.
 
jav6454 said:
Like I said, if you like a hot iron on your lap, by all means go ahead. Not to mention, overall performance will drop once the thermal throttling kicks in. :rolleyes:

Just because it can doesn't mean it should. That's the hard cold truth about gaming on a MacBook Air.
Click to expand...

Ummm, ok. I don''t put my gaming desktop on my lap either. And several days of Civ5 gaming contradicts your performance statement.
 
No. The Air is one of the weakest full-laptops around.

If you're buying the Air for gaming you're going to have a bad time.

It's a great laptop no question, great for work. But gaming with Air, or gaming with Mac in general? Negative.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back