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MacBook Air 13" (Late 2010) - Gaming Benchmark Thread!

can't find the right thread for this

I just rented Secretariat from the iTunes store, showed it to my sister and brother-in-law on my new 13" 128GB/4GB MBA through their HD TV, and it stuttered.
Not badly, but visibly.

Anyone else had this problem, or have a suggestion for me as to what to do about it?
Thanks, and sorry if this shouldn't be in this thread.
 
Was it streaming or downloaded? I've never had this happen with any movie.

Steven in VA said:
I just rented Secretariat from the iTunes store, showed it to my sister and brother-in-law on my new 13" 128GB/4GB MBA through their HD TV, and it stuttered.
Not badly, but visibly.

Anyone else had this problem, or have a suggestion for me as to what to do about it?
Thanks, and sorry if this shouldn't be in this thread.
Click to expand...
 
FAsnakes said:
ok, i've read through the entire thread and figured i'd add my contribution - i've been busy trying my best to break this thing..

So i'm running an 11" ultimate -

  • Call of Duty 4 Modern Warefare - (COD4 is well documented and works just fine using decent settings.)
  • Need for Speed Most Wanted - (This game plays just fine under high settings. I've played this game at length for hours at a time without issue)
  • Need for Speed Pro Street - (This game plays just fine under medium settings.)
  • Command and Conquer 3 - (This game plays just fine under low settings.)
  • Assassins Creed - (This game plays just fine under low settings. I've had limited time with this game..)
  • Sims 3 - (This game plays just fine under low settings. Played for hours)
  • Starcraft 2 - (This game plays just fine under low settings. I've had limited time with this game..)

I still have Civilization 3 left to test. .
If requested i could certainly test FPS, fan speed / heat - if requested.

This little machine can do everything!
I'll see if i can get my hands on any other games and post up..
Click to expand...

thank you, keep us posted on any other games which played well on MBA 11"
 
hey guys,

i've a huge problem with my macbook air late 2010.
13" 1,86 ghz and 4 GB Ram.

I just reinstalled it yesterday. It's completely new installed.

So I tried to play a Valve Game - Portal.

I read this thread and you guys played L4D2 and SC2 and so on.
So I installed Steam and Portal on my mba.
But it's horrible. No chance to play. Settings:

- Resolution native, but 1024x768 is not better
- every option i turned to low

But the game still has about 10 frames per second, absolutely unplayable.
Sound ist stuttering, too =(

Where could be the Problem?
 
Last edited:
major7 said:
Are you running on 10.6.6 or 10.6.7?
Click to expand...

10.6.7, all Updates are installed

//edit: oh, seems that there is a huge problem with 10.6.7 in 3D-performance. Damn. I have no backup -.-
I hope apple will fix that soon =(
 
yeah....it seems that 10.6.7 made gaming experience worse....a solution from Apple will hardly come as they don't see this as a problem....u can go back to 10.6.6 or sit and wait.

I'm on 10.6.7 and im going back to 10.6.6...im just waiting for an external drive to back things up.


i have portal on my steam account but i dont have it installed to compare with your results. I also have KF with 20 fps and CS source with 40 but dont know if its lower than 10.6.6 as i dont have info to compare.

I'm also on a 13"ultimate...seems to be the most affected.
 
I'm not going to reinstall my macbook again, i bought a mac and not a windows machine:rolleyes:

I phoned apple and explained the issue, but apple only adviced to use support of valve, of parallels etc....:rolleyes:
 
I'ts your call....Apple's response is very clear: Not our fault; let them adapt their games to our software.... the only problem is that we don't know if Apple messed with "something" as it was working fine before...
Remember that they had to release a fix for iTunes....was iTunes fault as well? what if iTunes wasn't Apple's software?

So, we can't expect thing to get better just because they should....sad but true.
 
Bought mine a few weeks ago and left it at 10.6.5

Not going to update it at all. Starcraft2 works ok native at 10.6.5 so there I shall stay.

Cheers,
 
panzer06 said:
Bought mine a few weeks ago and left it at 10.6.5

Not going to update it at all. Starcraft2 works ok native at 10.6.5 so there I shall stay.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Applying the updates is a good idea 'cause it fixes security problems and stability issues.

If you apply each incremental patch manually (do not use the combo updates), you won't have any problems.

But, then again, it's your call. If you decide to update, be sure to do a backup with Time Machine as you can revert the update if you need to.

References:

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12343483/

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/12359754/
 
major7 said:
GreyMatta....you only tried that on one game....doesn't mean it will work. altough i'm not saying it won't...:D
Click to expand...

only trying to help :) you don't have to try it

I'm happy now on 10.6.7 with full if not slightly better performance, only took an hour or so to do including backing up my data etc. I would rather spend an hour doing that than waiting for 10.6.8 or another fix from Apple

IMHO its not Blizzards or Valves fault cause performance is great on 10.6.6 and below and its also only appears to be if you have used a combo update from the software update app.
 
All people with the performance "bug". Can you test something for me?

I think since i've installed 10.6.7 my dock is a bit stuttering und not smooth. When I move the mouse over the icons, they "morph" bigger and after that, they go smaller, just normal. But in this process, "morphing" the icons i think the mac is a bit stuttering from low graphic performance. Furthermore i click on "programms" in the dockbar and the overview of my programms open. This is the moment where i think it's stuttering, too. Drawing the frame and let the icons appear, this stutters on my macbook air 1,86 Ghz 4gb Ram =(

Can you proof that please?

I'm going crazy...
 
Cyv said:
10.6.7, all Updates are installed

//edit: oh, seems that there is a huge problem with 10.6.7 in 3D-performance. Damn. I have no backup -.-
I hope apple will fix that soon =(
Click to expand...

reinstall the os from the boot drive and dont update OTA until the patch is out
 
My Macbook Air Test

Went to Apple and downloaded a WoW zip file and played it on the new 13" macbook air. I am lucky enough to know someone who works there, so he grabbed a high end model out of the back to see if it would work. It played beautifully. Even grabbed a few addons and boosted some of the high end graphics for it. Its such a pretty machine!
 
hows gaming on Lion? i find that with lion, playing L4D2 on my 2010 macbook air kinda stutters... i have to turn all settings to the absolute lowest to be able to play
 
GT-R said:
hows gaming on Lion? i find that with lion, playing L4D2 on my 2010 macbook air kinda stutters... i have to turn all settings to the absolute lowest to be able to play
Click to expand...

Were you able to play it before on higher settings with Snow Leopard? I'd like to see prior SL benchmarks next to Lion benchmarks for the same game and see what effect Lion has.

I'm still running Snow Leopard after rolling back from a Lion installation but I never tested lion with games.
 
A quick update on this thread for 2015.

Amnesia and SOMA are both playable on the lowest settings (resolution included).

All Blizzard games are pretty much playable. Heroes of the Storms seems to be the more demanding one, only able to have it on the lowest resolution but Starcraft2, WoW, Diablo 3 and Hearthstone are no problem.
 
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