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MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

Rtw2

RTW2 on a Macbook Air?

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?


Not even Napoleon Total War runs smooth enough.
Only Medieval 2 and RTW1 runs O.K.

RTW 2 is a very buggy game, not optimized at all. Even on high-end PCs (like GTX 760) it is forcing them to get on their knees.
I run it in a GTX 780, i7-4770k 16Gb RAM and it still isnt enough sometimes.
 
jredubr said:
RTW2 on a Macbook Air?

ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FREAKING MIND?


Not even Napoleon Total War runs smooth enough.
Only Medieval 2 and RTW1 runs O.K.

RTW 2 is a very buggy game, not optimized at all. Even on high-end PCs (like GTX 760) it is forcing them to get on their knees.
I run it in a GTX 780, i7-4770k 16Gb RAM and it still isnt enough sometimes.
Click to expand...
A guy can hope, can't he? ;) It sounds like RTW 2 could use some fixes anyway.

I'm trying to get a sense of how much of an impact the likely loss of a DGPU in the new rMBP will be. It seems the current model of the Air is holding up okay for a number of games, so my worries are a bit less atm. I'm mostly into strategy games, which usually require a bit less computer power. Apart from RTW 2 then, apparently. :)
 
You can try older strategy games for sure with Bootcamp!
I still play AoE 2, AoM, Knights and Merchants, TotalA...
Maybe even Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes might run reasonably well.
Strategy games are a very good genre as they don't lose the fun factor as FPS and other genres due to obsolete graphics engine...


I do play WC3 and StarCraft II with great results.

Anything beyond that, including World in Conflict will be a disappointment.
 
Just upgraded to Mavericks GM, noticing huge gains in League of Legends.

Playing on Mountain Lion:

1280x800
Character Detail - High
Shadow - Off
Effects - Medium
Environment - Low
FPS - 35–65

On Mavericks:
1440x900
Character Detail - Very High
Shadows - Medium
Effects - High
Environment - High
FPS – 40–80
:eek::eek:
 
Wait, what? What is Mavericks doing to increase gaming performance? :confused:
 
jbyun04 said:
Just upgraded to Mavericks GM, noticing huge gains in League of Legends.

Playing on Mountain Lion:

1280x800
Character Detail - High
Shadow - Off
Effects - Medium
Environment - Low
FPS - 35–65

On Mavericks:
1440x900
Character Detail - Very High
Shadows - Medium
Effects - High
Environment - High
FPS – 40–80
:eek::eek:
Click to expand...

That's a nice jump.
 
did anyone check the ammount of vram that air '13 is having at the mavericks since from what i have read all the version get a boost of it's vram (the HD4000 goes to 1gb vram etc etc)
 
NMF said:
Nice. That should help alleviate some of the need for bootcamping games, yeah?
Click to expand...

For games that support it, yeah.

Tried WoW on ML, had to set most settings to low-mid to get it run smoothly, and even then it's a bit choppy when there's a critter on screen.

Now that I've installed Mavericks on my MBA, I should re-install WoW and sees how it performs, unless someone with similar specced MBA (specs in sig) to wants to install it and report it?

edit: played couple of games, Hearthstone seems smoother, and I can now use higher settings in Diablo 3 and maintain 50+ fps.
 
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Idarzoid said:
...and I can now use higher settings in Diablo 3 and maintain 50+ fps.
Click to expand...

This is highly relevant to my interests. What type of settings are we talking here, and have you tested in multiplayer with Wizards and Witch Doctors?

Being able to play the D3 expansion on my MBA (in OS X) would be ace.
 
Idarzoid said:
For games that support it, yeah.

Tried WoW on ML, had to set most settings to low-mid to get it run smoothly, and even then it's a bit choppy when there's a critter on screen.

Now that I've installed Mavericks on my MBA, I should re-install WoW and sees how it performs, unless someone with similar specced MBA (specs in sig) to wants to install it and report it?

edit: played couple of games, Hearthstone seems smoother, and I can now use higher settings in Diablo 3 and maintain 50+ fps.
Click to expand...

at the moment i play hearthstone at low settings cause i feel at medium has some frame loss and my macbook get a bit hotter then usual ('13 - 8gb ram - i5)
 
NMF said:
This is highly relevant to my interests. What type of settings are we talking here, and have you tested in multiplayer with Wizards and Witch Doctors?

Being able to play the D3 expansion on my MBA (in OS X) would be ace.
Click to expand...
I don't have my MBA with me right now, before I was running with almost everything set to low and with Low FX ticked, now it's with texture set to high, don't remember what other settings I used but I left shadows on low, AA is still turned off though, that hurts FPS.

Haven't played multiplayer yet, I'll test more when I get the time to.

paularas said:
at the moment i play hearthstone at low settings cause i feel at medium has some frame loss and my macbook get a bit hotter then usual ('13 - 8gb ram - i5)
Click to expand...
Lack of vsync on Hearthstone makes it feel a bit choppy, the tearing is a bit noticeable, but other than that, it's not bad.

I haven't really noticed if my MBA ran any hotter than before, it's always going to get warm when you're gaming or running any CPU/GPU heavy programs.
 
Wow I literally visited this thread to see if anyone had experienced gains from Mavericks, sounds exciting. I'm playing Fez right now and the game is very playable, but there's juuust a bit of stutter on some levels when you do the 3d shift. If the above reports are anything to go by that minor annoyance may be gone soon. Fez is a weird game, it looks like it could run on an SNES but it has quite high relative requirements.

Wonder if the Open GL upgrade will benefit older Intel HD Graphics in the same way, or if this upgrade will primarily optimise the HD 5000?
 
Just bought my MBA!

Hey guys, I just purchased a refurbished MBA 11" 2013:
1.7 GHz i7
8GB RAM
512GB SSD
Intel HD 5000 w/ 1GB shared memory

For 1608$! That means I saved 300$!! Woot woot :apple:

Here are the games I plan to play: Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Minecraft, and The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind

I'm going to college for Software Engineering and I need a computer that I can set up and move around quickly. I also don't want to carry around a machine that weighs a ton, since I carry textbooks to class as well. I also plan to do some simple iOS development. The most intense thing I will do on this machine is probable Diablo 3.

This is replacing my Macbook Pro 13" 2010:
2.66GHz Core2Duo
4GB RAM
320GB 5400rpm HD
nVidia 320m w/ 256MB shared memory

I will share the Mac OS X version FPS/specs for Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 next weekend! Stay tuned!
 
Just got an invite for the Hearthstone beta, the new Blizzard game. The game runs perfectly on my machine.

I have an i5 with 128GB SSD and 8GB ram. I tested it on high settings at 1440x900, and everything is smooth, no lag at all.

The game isn't very graphically intense but its nice to know it will run well in the future.
 
Dookieman said:
Just got an invite for the Hearthstone beta, the new Blizzard game. The game runs perfectly on my machine.

I have an i5 with 128GB SSD and 8GB ram. I tested it on high settings at 1440x900, and everything is smooth, no lag at all.

The game isn't very graphically intense but its nice to know it will run well in the future.
Click to expand...

how is it possible on the same machine with the same setup (8gb ram) not to be able to run it at high. are you sure you don't play at 10 fps? : p
 
paularas said:
how is it possible on the same machine with the same setup (8gb ram) not to be able to run it at high. are you sure you don't play at 10 fps? : p
Click to expand...

I have no idea. Are you running Mavericks? I've only played the game with 10.9 and it works great.
 
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hey guys...would anyone be able to comment on borderlands 1

yes...borderlands 1...not 2 on hd5000 air?

fan noise/temps are important as well. :cool:
 
Dookieman said:
I have no idea. Are you running Mavericks? I've only played the game with 10.9 and it works great.
Click to expand...

mavericks ofc, just not clean install. update over mountain lion. but dont think that, this makes a differenece

the problem is that i don't have any programme to count my fps. yes, it plays on high also but the whole air goes kinda hot. imagine that i started the game with the rpm being at 6500 and during the game the temps were 70-75oC all the time
 
Last edited:
paularas said:
mavericks ofc, just not clean install. update over mountain lion. but dont think that, this makes a differenece

the problem is that i don't have any programme to count my fps. yes, it plays on high also but the whole air goes kinda hot. imagine that i started the game with the rpm being at 6500 and during the game the temps were 70-75oC all the time
Click to expand...

Well I don't know what the difference is with mine, but it runs smooth on High. I don't have a "FPS" because I'm not sure how to have one appear in game. Yes it gets warm, but I would expect it too, I don't count that as a negative and not running smooth.

I don't know what this forum has against a laptop getting warm or "hot". One would expect it while running a new game since its much more intensive than a movie or browser. 'Hot' gets thrown around as a measure of poor performance when it's actually quite normal. If the machine is ever in danger of damaging itself, it will automatically shut down. So in my opinion it's a nil point.
 
My experience so far!

I just got my Macbook Air today and I'm loving it. I still plan on making a video this weekend. I've got an 11" 2013 with i7, 8GB, 512GB.

Here are a few screenshots:

These are the setting Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 set too:
u7g1ib5.png

OXWYG1M.png


After a few hours of gaming:
FyohkdE.png


My Starcraft 2 experience has been great! I actually was able to fight some epic battles in 3v3 without any lag.

Diablo 3 is insane on this little guy!

So far this Macbook air is a charmer.

Ask me to run some stuff for you, I'll try it out!

Edit: Here is a game I played not to long ago
9gPvYBB.jpg
 
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gonna try LOL finally

we will see if mavericks does anything

have d3 as well..but its painful to play that haha:cool:
 
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