MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

[lazerboyz]

I just did a little video for Dota 2
http://youtu.be/0LqnHzre6jA

Thanks. You're a champ. On 900 resolution, its sits at about 50 fps, but when things get intense, it drops to 20+.

On high settings, it sits on the average of 30-40+. i might just wait for the hd5100 to be safe. so close to getting the air though haha.

 

[vajqo]

Can anyone please run GW2 on bootcamp with external 1080p display on minimum details?

 

[sofakng]

Are there any definitive benchmarks for heat and fan noise for the i5 versus i7?

I have the 11" and 13" i7 MBAs and after about 60 seconds of playing any game, the fan gets incredibly loud and the bottom gets almost too hot to touch. (I don't have any exact temperatures though)

 

[kaellar]

http://anandtech.com/show/7085/the-2013-macbook-air-review-13inch/4
oh.. my.. god..
I thought, it's WAAAY better than this.

 

[ekoba]

http://anandtech.com/show/7085/the-2013-macbook-air-review-13inch/4
oh.. my.. god..
I thought, it's WAAAY better than this.

unfortunately, results made with i5 1.3 Ghz
and we can see that a lot of results are CPU limited...

 

[Eidorian]

unfortunately, results made with i5 1.3 Ghz
and we can see that a lot of results are CPU limited...

Thermal limited.

 

[sofakng]

So... if the CPU is being thermally limited even at i5 clock speeds (1.3 GHz), then wouldn't the i7 be throttled a lot faster and have the extra speed wasted?

 

[wermy]

Thermal limited.

That makes no sense. You're saying the i5 is somehow thermal limited, otherwise it would have done better on the benchmarks? I suppose you could overclock if thermal limits weren't an issue, but... That doesn't apply here.

Edit: This is why 1-2 word responses are irritating - nobody knows what you were getting at.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

A lot of the GPU benchmarks seem to contradict Anandtech benchmarks, for example, Bioshock infinite benchmarks for them seems to run a lot slower and lower graphics compared to the results shown here. Same with Tomb Raider.

 

[lowercasej]

Just ran Minecraft under OS X at 1400x900, all video settings set to max (furthest draw distance, advanced open gl, "fancy" graphics, all particules etc. etc. everything max basically) and got 30-50fps. That includes in mines, in villages, on the tops of hills looking out over the world and during combat.

Not FPS drops visible to the human eye.

This is fullscreen and with Safari running in the background. 13" 4GB i5.

Enabling "Advanced OpenGL" typically hurts performance for modern computers...it only really helps on much older machines - disable it and re-run your tests, and I think you'll see a higher average framerate (Also, don't enable VSync of course)

 

[Eidorian]

That makes no sense. You're saying the i5 is somehow thermal limited, otherwise it would have done better on the benchmarks? I suppose you could overclock if thermal limits weren't an issue, but... That doesn't apply here.

Edit: This is why 1-2 word responses are irritating - nobody knows what you were getting at.

It is in Anandtech's article on the page that I linked. Even the inferior HD 4400 on the Acer notebook can keep pace with 20 EU vs. 40 EU on the HD 5000. They're both ULT processors. I hope you read the article.

 

[mentaluproar]

How does the Intel HD 5000 compare to the Radeon HD 6630M used in my 2011 mini? I know my mini can probably beat this on the CPU side, but on the GPU side, I'm not really sure.

 

[Eidorian]

And here is Anandtech again. This is probably the best Intel can pull off at 22nm and 15W. Cooling matters a lot here.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7072/intel-hd-5000-vs-hd-4000-vs-hd-4400

 

[mayuka]

how does the intel hd 5000 compare to the radeon hd 6630m used in my 2011 mini? I know my can probably beat this one, but on the gpu side, i'm not really sure.

+1

 

[hadleydb]

I'll have better Star Trek Online "long duration" comments Saturday afternoon after I'm at a coffee shop for a couple hours while my SUV gets worked on.

TigerG,

Did you have a chance for more testing on STO? I'm really looking forward to your results.

Thank you!

 

[milhouse994]

I installed Civ V on my 2013 MBA 13"/i7/8GB/512GB yesterday.

So far it's running great. Admittedly I am new to Civ, so I don't have much to compare it to, but no noticeable slow down or frame rate drop. I'm running it at highest res, and whatever the default video settings are.

 

[Leikocyte]

I installed Civ V on my 2013 MBA 13"/i7/8GB/512GB yesterday.

So far Civ V s running great. Admittedly I am new to Civ, so I don't have much to compare it to, but no noticeable slow down or frame rate drop. I'm running it at highest res, and whatever the default video settings are.

Thanks for the input, although I'm more interested in the i5 performance. But at this point I don't think the FPS would be that much different between i5 and i7. For the CPU intensive games, loading time will be longer on the i5 but that's OK with me.

I wonder if you can do a more detailed test to see exactly what highest settings are acceptable. Or better connect the Air to an external display for better resolutions. just hoping out loud here!

 

[JimboJ]

Hi there,

I've run Civ5 on my MBA 2013/i5/4gb Ram (13 inch) without any issues.

Tested it on a medium size map at 1440x900 with mostly medium details (some on high, nothing on low) and it run very fluid. Was the Steam Mac version.

Other game I've tested (unfortunately never ran Fraps to see fps):

Trine 1 - fine on highest settings
Trine 2 - fine on high (not very high)
FTL - fine of course, nothing demanding anyway
Diablo III - fine on med to high
Dark Souls - very choppy, same with DSfix. Very unfortunate cause you can't really play with any settings
Torchlight 1 - fine on high settings within the city, got a little choppy in the first dungeon but still "ok"


All games ran on the native resolution of the display. "Fine" for me means that it runs very fluid so I'd say at least 30 fps.
The MBA was connected to the PSU during the tests.

 

[MxDaviD]

Could someone tell me how does MBA
i5/4gb/128gb compares(gaming and performance) to imac 21.5 mid 2011 i5(2.5ghz)/ 8gb/500gb/6750M 512mb.

Thank you!

 

[Leikocyte]

Hi there,

I've run Civ5 on my MBA 2013/i5/4gb Ram (13 inch) without any issues.

Tested it on a medium size map at 1440x900 with mostly medium details (some on high, nothing on low) and it run very fluid. Was the Steam Mac version.

Other game I've tested (unfortunately never ran Fraps to see fps):

Trine 1 - fine on highest settings
Trine 2 - fine on high (not very high)
FTL - fine of course, nothing demanding anyway
Diablo III - fine on med to high
Dark Souls - very choppy, same with DSfix. Very unfortunate cause you can't really play with any settings
Torchlight 1 - fine on high settings within the city, got a little choppy in the first dungeon but still "ok"


All games ran on the native resolution of the display. "Fine" for me means that it runs very fluid so I'd say at least 30 fps.
The MBA was connected to the PSU during the tests.

Great! Thanks a lot. This is really helpful.
By the way, I know the MBA will heat up when gaming. But does it affect the palm rest?

 

[crossi81]

Parallels 8 + Windows 8 + DX games = no.

I tested Skyrim, Batman AA and a few others, no way, unplayable even at low. Just to let you know.

 

[JimboJ]

Great! Thanks a lot. This is really helpful.
By the way, I know the MBA will heat up when gaming. But does it affect the palm rest?

Not really, the palm rest will stay pretty cool. But the upper left of the keyboard (near the display hinge) will get quite hot. And of course the fans will kick in an be kinda loud although not annoying.

 

[Leikocyte]

Not really, the palm rest will stay pretty cool. But the upper left of the keyboard (near the display hinge) will get quite hot. And of course the fans will kick in an be kinda loud although not annoying.

As far as the palm rest stays cool I'm cool.
I was in Apple store yesterday and ran CPU stress tests on a i5/4/256, noticed the hinge was heating up but that's about it. The back was relatively warm but nothing excessive. I'm not counting on playing games with the MBA on my lap anyways (you know, it being a laptop all that... ).

As for the fan, I'm already expecting it be spin at full speed when gaming. What's important is that it is dead silent when doing light tasks. I can wait to dump my old Dell, which heats up to 70 degrees C idle and is basically a vacuum cleaner in my room...

The new MBA is looking sexier by the day! I'll make the move in a week or two, hoping that Apple is still planning on doing a Back to School promo this year.

----------

Parallels 8 + Windows 8 + DX games = no.

I tested Skyrim, Batman AA and a few others, no way, unplayable even at low. Just to let you know.

I really can't help myself.

...duh?

Virtualization and heavy duty gaming don't mix. But if someday the technology comes and we'll be able to utilize full hardware with virtual machine that would be really cool!

 

[crossi81]

Actually, I'm a noob
I forgot to install Parallels Tools... I'm going to record a video, but Skyrim is now far smoother, definitely playable.

 

[redhat84]

Actually, I'm a noob
I forgot to install Parallels Tools... I'm going to record a video, but Skyrim is now far smoother, definitely playable.

Srsly dude, you'll not experience much performance using a virtual machine. Try bootcamp