MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

[jrswizzle]

Still having server latency issues - I think it's my wifi connection. For some reason, I've been getting terrible speeds from my Extreme + SB6121.....pay for 30 MBPS from TWC and normally I can get near that, however last night I was struggling to get 2....

 

[Raytheon117]

I doubt the MBA can run BF3 decently.

Yeah, with my i5/8GB/128GB SSD, I've only been able to see 12-20 FPS in BF3 on a 64 man server in Operation Metro with resolutions of 1280x800, 1440x900, etc, all lowest settings. Medium and High seem to show the same results. I have no idea how the larger maps fare either. This is on Windows 8 Pro Build 9200 x64. Haven't tried singleplayer

Crysis 3 also has about the same performance for me as well. 1280x800, lowest settings, 10-25 FPS. Usually it stays around 15FPS in my case. Multiplayer for me is 10-15 FPS.

 

[Stulys]

Amazed

Since I used this forum to decide on my purchase, I think it's fair to give my test results. I'm a first time Mac user after 20 years of Windows. I wanted portability and a bit of gaming. Quality is not SO important for me since my age is catching up and to be honest, I prefer older games much more then the new releases All games are tested in MAC ONLY, so no bootcamp and medium settings, when possible shadows off. I wan't able to find the FPS in every game, sry for that.

Doom 3: perfect running
Diablo 3: 50-60 fps in single player, 40 average in party. With ugly combo like CM wiz drops below 20 fps but no impact on gameplay
WOW: same as Diablo, in raids frames can drop below 20 but doesn't affect my playing, since I'm a healer I would notice any delay very fast!
Max Payne 3: No FPS but seems to be fluent, played about 30 minutes.
Total war Rome: No issue at all.
Tycoon rollercoaster: No issue at all.
Splinter cell Conviction: No issue at all
CS GO: No issue at all
TF2: No issue at all
Stronghold 3: No issue at all
L4D2: No issue at all.
The witcher: No issue at all
The witcher 2: Unable to play, even at low settings not doable.

Yes , most games will give a loud spinning fan, and it's get a bit hot in the left corner. Games don't slow down though and the Air doesn't get hotter even after hours of play. The noise doesn't bother me, but is noticed by my fellow players on Skype , even with Headphones on. They don't complain tho, they just hear it.

In short, I didn't buy this Computer for gaming but was hoping on business trips to do SOME relaxing. I was impressed what this machine can handle. Since I don't do HEAVY gaming this AIR was even cheaper then my last 5 gaming laptops with dedicated mid range graphics (last was GT650M) and I don't see any difference.

My spec is I7, 8Gb, 256 SSD, 13,3 inch

I hope this helps the people like the other posters helped me.

 

[ZBoater]

Another old timer Windows lifer!!! Welcome! I was starting to feel all alone here...

I love your game selection. I'm enjoying Jedi Knight II at full resolution on a TB display with all the graphics options on high. It's awesome!

 

[Yggbert]

You're living on another planet if you think that the priority of an ultrabook is to run quiet when hardcore gaming.

Not once have I ever been distracted by the fans either with or without headphones, if they sound loud in the video then it must be something to do with the mic.

I never said it was a priority, I'm just disappointed they still get this loud.

 

[Stealth777]

Thank You

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

I did that on my macbook air 13" with the HD5000 and it found an update.
The update however, did not effect gaming performance and actually hurt all my benchmark performance.

Well, I'm trying the update since I couldn't get my system to run far cry at all. Lots of weird glitches after lowering all sorts of settings.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Confusius]

Could anyone try Max Payne 3 and Dolphin at all?

Somebody managed to get Max Payne 3 to work, but on my 13/i7/8gb/256gb MBA the Mac steam version just doesn't launch at all. Borderlands 2, native resolution and a mix of high and medium settings is no problem at all.

 

[Mirai 11]

Somebody managed to get Max Payne 3 to work, but on my 13/i7/8gb/256gb MBA the Mac steam version just doesn't launch at all. Borderlands 2, native resolution and a mix of high and medium settings is no problem at all.

Thanks for the reply
My wallet has taken a beating in the last couple days due to the steam sale, I'm holding out whether to see if Max Payne 3 or Tomb Raider will drop any lower.
Hopefully when the Air replies I can see how they all run and finally contribute to this thread

 

[Stulys]

Somebody managed to get Max Payne 3 to work, but on my 13/i7/8gb/256gb MBA the Mac steam version just doesn't launch at all. Borderlands 2, native resolution and a mix of high and medium settings is no problem at all.

Strange, I also used my MAC steam version of Max Payne 3, and it works perfectly. I even tried again after your post to make sure.

 

[Aegelward]

A game i'm quite fond of - NS2 is getting an OS X port quite soon so i was hoping that someone could test how it runs on the HD5000.

So please, if you have it give it a whirl.

Though i'm not sure if i'll go for the Air or the Haswell rMBP as of yet... having a few numbers will help me make my mind up

 

[Stealth777]

Slow FPS in Far Cry 3

Setup -

1. Fraps
2. i5,256g,2013 Air
3. Almost all low settings in Far Cry 3
4. VSync Off
5. PostFxQuality - false
6. Shadow - Low
7. 1280x800
8. 52g bootcamp partition

Only getting around 18-24 fps pretty much just walking. Is anyone else able to get higher than this? I have installed the updated Intel drivers and all windows 8 updates.

Kind of disappointing..

 

[Confusius]

Strange, I also used my MAC steam version of Max Payne 3, and it works perfectly. I even tried again after your post to make sure.

Restarting Steam and rebooting the Air didn't help. It's indeed a little odd, since I don't get any error messages: the launch button doesn't seem to do anything, but when I try to quit Steam I get an error message saying I can't quit while Max Payne 3 is running (and have to force quit). I should look at activity monitor I suppose.

 

[Mirai 11]

Restarting Steam and rebooting the Air didn't help. It's indeed a little odd, since I don't get any error messages: the launch button doesn't seem to do anything, but when I try to quit Steam I get an error message saying I can't quit while Max Payne 3 is running (and have to force quit). I should look at activity monitor I suppose.

This reminds me of when I had trouble with Garry's Mod.
I just deleted it and re-downloaded it, and it worked.

 

[irDigital0l]

So I might download Steam and some Steam games, should I download them on an external HDD?

 

[Confusius]

This reminds me of when I had trouble with Garry's Mod.
I just deleted it and re-downloaded it, and it worked.

Sounds like a plan. Good thing data plans are unlimited nowadays. Here goes another 32GB (my wife will wonder why Netflix is so slow).

UPDATE: re-downloaded, still doesn't work. No matter. I have a few other Mac games on Steam to get through (and had already played MP3 on bootcamp anyway on my previous, slower Mac).

About the external HDD and Steam, people have done this sort of thing in the past. Just copy your question into Google and you'll be directed to a number of forums on how to do it.

 

[larry918]

I have the i5/8gb model - 13.3 inch. Just tested Lego Batman 2 on lowest settings, and very playable. Fans heated up a few minutes into the game, but surprisingly, the machine wasn't too hot. Only mildly warm. Will test NBA Jam later

 

[Mirai 11]

Probably the final request before it arrives in a week, but
Sonic Generations, it ran alright on my 13 Inch Macbook Pro (2011 model), but when things got too fast in a stage, it would stutter terribly.
Wondering how improved it is on the HD 5000?

 

[Explafire]

I talked to an apple specialist, and my good friend who is an IT. They both confirmed that WOW is okay to play on the macbook air 2013, but if possible keep it on a flat surface and elevate the back with something so the fans have proper air flow. I'm pretty sure you can play other demanding games on the macbook air. The internals will be fine. Hope this helps the WOW people, i've also only tried playing WOW on the Air but i've recently purchased Civilization V, so i'll try to run that as well.

Again I hope this helps guys, this forum is great, and has a lot of helpful information.

 

[driver733]

Could anyone please test "Company of Heroes 2" and "Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor" ? On i7, if possible, but on i5 is ok too. Thanks in advance.

 

[Le-Lapin-Noir]

All tests done in bootcamp Windows 8 Pro with a Macbook Air 13" / i7 / 8b / 128ssd

Passmark Performance Test 8 (3D graphics test penalized due to lack of 1080p display)
CPU – 4569
2D GPU – 643
3D GPU– 730
RAM – 2264
Disk – 5227

3D Mark 06 Professional v1.1.0 Standard settings
Total Score – 6706
SM2.0 Score – 2230
HDR/SM3.0 Score – 2925
CPU Score – 3492
(Scores range from 5900-6100 after upgrading intel drivers)

3D Mark 11 Professional v1.0.2. Standard “performance” setting
Total Score – P1164
Graphics Score – 1061
Physics Score – 3435
Combined Score – 922

(Major Artifacting on last test, hard to even see what was going on. After running test multiple times under different Windows 8 and Intel performance settings, and even upgraded drivers, I was never able to get this score again, other scores ranged from P1011-P1045)

Could I talk you into running the FFXIV benchmark for me? I'm debating whether to buy one or not.

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/index.html

 

[mattdo93]

Just installed Batman: Arkham City from the Mac App Store and played. I ran the built-in benchmark test and it gave me an average of 25 FPS and a maximum of 32 FPS.

Native resolution, Detail is on low, and I kept the tweaks default (Shadow, Dynamic Lighting, etc.) It occasionally hiccups when I'm playing but for the most part, it runs well. I'm impressed

I have the base model 13' MBA too (i5/4/128). I notice that even with no other applications open (except Activity Monitor), it still starts to have Page Outs after about an hour. Is this normal?

 

[bhags8]

do you guys play with your air plugged in? I just got my first air today and played SC2 and my computer is at 15% battery after 3.5 hours. Ive never had a mac so Im not sure what Im supposed to do.. I think I installed like 30% of the game and then started playing it. I played on Low or Medium, dont remember.

 

[mattdo93]

do you guys play with your air plugged in? I just got my first air today and played SC2 and my computer is at 15% battery after 3.5 hours. Ive never had a mac so Im not sure what Im supposed to do.. I think I installed like 30% of the game and then started playing it. I played on Low or Medium, dont remember.

Yeah I like to play with it plugged in, but not while it's charging.

 

[bhags8]

Yeah I like to play with it plugged in, but not while it's charging.

So you charge it 100% then start playing without unplugging it?

 

[mattdo93]

So you charge it 100% then start playing without unplugging it?

Yep. That's just me though. I don't like playing intense games while charging cause it's like, charging and draining at the same time.. Maybe laptops these days can handle it fine but I just don't like doing that to my main machine. To each his own.