My 2 cents.
I've got an Air with the i7, 8GB ram, and 256GB SSD. The only games I've played so far have been the BF4 beta, Planetside 2, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (best game IN THE WORLD). One possible explanation for my complaints could be that I'm running Windows 8.1. I'm wondering if I shouldn't've made that upgrade.
What I don't know if I should be concerned about is the performance on some modern games. I wasn't *too* disappointed with BF4, but, I was kinda hoping Planetside would fair better since it seemed to have worse visuals. Then again, I'm just getting back into playing PC games (I know it isn't the most appropriate hardware in the world to get readjusted to) so I may have higher expectations of this HD5000. Still, I was hoping for better given the i7 gives the integrated graphics a 15% boost (I think).
BF4, surprisingly for me, only got like 12-25 FPS on max resolution with everything else on low (averaged out around 20>). The draw distance was low too. When I dropped it to lower resolutions, the FPS didn't increase by much. Then again, it was a beta so things might not have been optimized. I was also running Windows 8 at the time.
Planetside 2, which I thought would've performed better than BF4, actually was worse in certain cases. I also just upgraded to Windows 8.1 when I installed. I had to cut the draw distance by half in order to get anything even remotely playable at the max resolution with everything else on low. It's still not all that fun to play with constant stuttering. Getting close to the action is guaranteed to drop the frame rate to unplayable levels. I'm forced to snipe to get any decent playability.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (SCCT). Yes, it's from 2005, but it's still freaking amazing! As I was expecting, I'm able to run everything on max and get some insane FPS. If I throw 8xAA into the mix, the frame rate drops substantially, but it's still highly playable if there's not too much going on in the environment. There's a ton of rain in the first level. If I go into the rain with full 8x AA, the frame rate goes between 20-25 FPS. If I go back inside the frame rate skyrockets. The perfect balance seems to be 2x AA with everything else maxed out.
Also, on any of the 3 games I've listed, the fans kick in immediately even when running SCCT on the lowest settings. Even then the keyboard under the WSAD keys gets pretty warm and the aluminum frame above the F1/F2 keys almost gets hot to the touch. Then again, I've got overly sensitive fingers.
Is this performance normal for the MBA with the i7, 8GB RAM, and 256 SSD (it's faster than the 128 so I figured it might play a part)? Based on what I've read from these forums, I was kinda hopeful to get playable frame rates at even the lowest settings.
