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MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

today I played Flight Simulator X and Battlefield 3 for about 7 hours almost nonstop. Can this usage damage my MBA?
 
snapper64 said:
Sorry for the late reply. My fibre broadband has been down the past few days so I've had to use my much slower mobile connection to download the games.

I've just tested it and the results are good! My system is 13" MacBook Air i7 8GB 256GB running Windows 8. I've installed the latest Intel driver for the HD5000 and set everything to max performance.

Other than changing the resolution the in game settings for Hot Pursuit don't really affect performance to any significant degree so everything was on max. I tried running the game in and out of clamshell mode and didn't notice any performance change.

720p

Min: 26
Max: 42
Avg: 34

1080p

Min: 16
Max: 25
Avg: 20

Overall the game runs perfectly and looks good at 720p with all the graphics settings turned up
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Thanks for the reply!

How does it perform under OS X? You wrote you have windows 8 installed. Do you also have OS X and can you test it there?
 
fedecape said:
today I played Flight Simulator X and Battlefield 3 for about 7 hours almost nonstop. Can this usage damage my MBA?
Click to expand...

The computer is meant to be used, so enjoy it. That being said, I don't think that should damage your air at all. If it overheats it will tell you and shut down. The computer will get hot while playing, but the components in it are made for that. This is partially my opinion, but I think its safe to say that you should be fine.
 
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Hey everybody, I am considering a new macbook air, I read the whole thread, but I still have some questions. 1. Fan noise, some people already wrote sth about it, but isnt't there possibility to upload some video with normal/ heavy usage ( I found some on youtube, but they are usually older versions, or some problems). 2. I will be coding a lot (C/C++, Java,...) I know there is Xcode, but is it good enough/ is there sth better ( mainly for C/C++ ). 3. Heat- when gaming is it too high, unplayable ? Thanks !
 
Hi everyone! I am about to buy my MBA 13 on Haswell.
But I have one question, from time to time I love to play mmorpg games. Is there anybody who already played TERA online on new AIR ?
 
Mussi313 said:
Hey everybody, I am considering a new macbook air, I read the whole thread, but I still have some questions. 1. Fan noise, some people already wrote sth about it, but isnt't there possibility to upload some video with normal/ heavy usage ( I found some on youtube, but they are usually older versions, or some problems). 2. I will be coding a lot (C/C++, Java,...) I know there is Xcode, but is it good enough/ is there sth better ( mainly for C/C++ ). 3. Heat- when gaming is it too high, unplayable ? Thanks !
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Notebook Check covers noise and heat in their reviews of the MacBook Air.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review...-2013-1-7-GHz-256-GB-Subnotebook.97445.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-Mid-2013-MD760D-A-Subnotebook.96311.0.html

And Anandtech covers a few more relevant CPU performance benchmarks.

http://anandtech.com/show/7113/2013-macbook-air-core-i5-4250u-vs-core-i7-4650u
 

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Could anybody try wargame airland battle in either OSX or bootcamp? I love this game, and if the air can handle it I will sell my smsung series 7 ultra and pick one up
 
Hey guys, I'm trying to make a decision on a new computer and have a couple of questions, if you might happen to have an answer due to this being a thread about the graphics card on this machine.

I use a powerful desktop for most of my gaming and rendering needs, but I need a new laptop for school, where I will be doing a lot of work in Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, as well as Maya 3D. Currently I have an alienware m11x r2, and I was considering the 2013 macbook air 13' with 8gb of ram. Some of the software I run is Windows only, and I happen to like Windows quite a lot, as well as Mac (at least on the laptop side). I've got experience in both Windows, Mac and Linux, so none of this will be novel to me, it's more about functionality. I love the idea of the air for it's battery life and form factor, as well as price. My other option is the Dell XPS 13 FHD with an i7 and ips display for $1200 (before you hate, check it out, it's actually a pretty nice computer), and the Dell XPS 14.

I'm not looking for a computer that will game, or one that has loads of power, just something light and reasonably powerful that will run my school application and last me about two years, maybe three, in that line of use. What do you guys think of the Air for that. Does anyone have experience running Autodesk Maya on the Air or the hd5000 graphics? I'll take honest answers, tell it like it is, so I can finally make a decision. Thanks!
 
Dirt Bringer said:
Hey guys, I'm trying to make a decision on a new computer and have a couple of questions, if you might happen to have an answer due to this being a thread about the graphics card on this machine.

I use a powerful desktop for most of my gaming and rendering needs, but I need a new laptop for school, where I will be doing a lot of work in Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, as well as Maya 3D. Currently I have an alienware m11x r2, and I was considering the 2013 macbook air 13' with 8gb of ram. Some of the software I run is Windows only, and I happen to like Windows quite a lot, as well as Mac (at least on the laptop side). I've got experience in both Windows, Mac and Linux, so none of this will be novel to me, it's more about functionality. I love the idea of the air for it's battery life and form factor, as well as price. My other option is the Dell XPS 13 FHD with an i7 and ips display for $1200 (before you hate, check it out, it's actually a pretty nice computer), and the Dell XPS 14.

I'm not looking for a computer that will game, or one that has loads of power, just something light and reasonably powerful that will run my school application and last me about two years, maybe three, in that line of use. What do you guys think of the Air for that. Does anyone have experience running Autodesk Maya on the Air or the hd5000 graphics? I'll take honest answers, tell it like it is, so I can finally make a decision. Thanks!
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I can't answer your questions but I can give you some info about the Dells as I sell a lot of them.

The xps 13 is pretty nice, the only thing I did not get on with was the touchpad, once you use a mac touchpad it is hard to adjust to an unresponsive pad.

The xps 14 I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, the screen is terrible and although it has an nvidia 630 option it sounds like a jet engine if you try and use it.
 
A quick question for you gents who are running windows. How good are the drivers under OSX at this point? I heard that a lot of you are using the dedicated Intel driver instead of the bootcamp driver. How are the rest of the drivers included? I've heard in the past that bootcamp drivers are really terrible, is that still the case or just a pile of nonsense?
 
Gta v

I know GTA V for PC was not even announced, but we all know it is gonna happen.
Now, my question is: Do you think our 2013 Air will be able to run it ?

:D
 
Mussi313 said:
Hey everybody, I am considering a new macbook air, I read the whole thread, but I still have some questions. 1. Fan noise, some people already wrote sth about it, but isnt't there possibility to upload some video with normal/ heavy usage ( I found some on youtube, but they are usually older versions, or some problems). 2. I will be coding a lot (C/C++, Java,...) I know there is Xcode, but is it good enough/ is there sth better ( mainly for C/C++ ). 3. Heat- when gaming is it too high, unplayable ? Thanks !
Click to expand...

1. Fan is completely unnoticeable unless doing something very heavy e.g. gaming/compiling. Even then it is still quieter than other laptops imo.

2. Personally I use eclipse, and if you were to need to write in JAVA, then xCode wouldn't be enough, you'd need something else; like eclipse. IMO xCode is only useful for building iOS apps, applications for mac and nothing else really.

3. When i've run simcity for a while it certainly gets warm, but not hot, certainly cool enough to handle
 
Counter Strike: Global Offensive

I'm pretty impressed with the results. Seems the good code by the developer plays huge role there.

Macbook Air 11", Mid 2013, i7 1.7GHz, 8GB DDR3, 512GB SD, HD 5000

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

11" integrated display 1366x768 - 55-70 FPS
27" Apple Thunderbolt 2560x1440 - 30-50 FPS !!!!

Nice one.

Guess one of the best playable 'modern' games on new 2013 MBA with connected 1440p display.
 
Out of curiosity, what kind of windows partitions do you use?

A minimalist 32gb? or more at 64?

Can you run applications/games off an external drive using usb3 or thunderbolt?
 
While looking for some BF3 gameplay on the 2013 MBA, I found this video:


That's in the 40-50 fps range, with low settings, which still looks great..
 
has anybody updated the intel gfx drivers yet? I notice there was new drivers released with alleged performance increases and plenty of bug fixes
 
Hi guys! Anyone already tried to play TW: Rome 2 or Europa Universalis 4 on the latest Air? Any comments on playability? :)
 
Aegelward said:
Out of curiosity, what kind of windows partitions do you use?

A minimalist 32gb? or more at 64?

Can you run applications/games off an external drive using usb3 or thunderbolt?
Click to expand...

It depends on your game collection. My Steam library hovers around 80 or so titles, so I'm not installing bootcamp on my 256 GB MBA - I'll save that for when I get a new iMac so I can give 1 TB to windows.

And yes, you can. No problem in OS X and no problem under Windows; you can even do it with Steam - check out the Steam forums for documentation.
 
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