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MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

Got my Macbook Air 2013 (base model 11") a few weeks ago, and testing my games on OS X, none of them ran in a playable fashion. I installed windows 8.1, and all of them work great except one. Dungeon Defenders. I've edited the config file for lower settings, tried game booster, power plans, the whole nine yards. I don't know if anyone else has better experience, but would like to know if so!

My Library (Small): Team Fortress 2, Sanctum, Sanctum 2, Garrys Mod, Left 4 Dead 2, Dungeon Defenders, Super Hexagon, Dota 2.
 
Hey guys, sorry if this has already been covered, I'm not sure where to post as i can't find much information about it, but basically Ive got a i7, 8GB 13" macbook air and every time i run games such as minecraft or RCT3 my cpu usage is up over 100% i know those games are CPU intensive but is that normal for gaming? also the fans are quite loud is it ok to play the games for hours or will this cause damage to my mac in the future?
Again apologies if this has been covered before ( which I'm guessing it has lol ) i just can't find the answers I'm looking for

Cheers
 
DrewCam said:
Hey guys, sorry if this has already been covered, I'm not sure where to post as i can't find much information about it, but basically Ive got a i7, 8GB 13" macbook air and every time i run games such as minecraft or RCT3 my cpu usage is up over 100% i know those games are CPU intensive but is that normal for gaming? also the fans are quite loud is it ok to play the games for hours or will this cause damage to my mac in the future?
Again apologies if this has been covered before ( which I'm guessing it has lol ) i just can't find the answers I'm looking for

Cheers
Click to expand...

Yeah it's normal. It just means that more than 1 core is being used. Your max is actually 200%.
 
I have a mid 2013 13" Air i5 4gb 256 ssd and I'm running Rome Total War II on medium just fine, load times are quick, no crashing or anything. I'm running parallels 9 and windows 8.1
 
45-60 on low...native resolution

no fan

very enjoyable experience

as far as i remember, on high, the fan came on...so kept it on low
 
Mirai 11 said:
i'm curious to see how Tomb Raider runs if anyone's bought it? :)
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I bought it the other day. It was sorta pricey but I couldn't resist. Going to start playing or at least test it soon and I'll post how it performs thereafter. I have a 2013 i7 MBA with 8 gigs of RAM.

EDIT: It runs great! It clearly is a very well-made port. Strangely, when you open the game, it informs you that your Mac is not supported. But my MBA runs it at fairly high settings, with some frame drop, but playable, I don't generally mind that. If you set your graphics to low, it's completely smooth. So I completely recommend getting it, at least if you have a higher spec 2013 MBA like I do.

EDIT 2: Having beaten the game, I can say that i'd recommend playing it on low settings to ensure consistently good framerates on a 2013 MBA.
 
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MBA 13" and Dota2

Hallo everybody, I'm a newcomer down here.
I've been looking into this forum for a while but don't find a clear solution.
My question is simple, is in the title.
Will a MBA 13" run a Dota2, with or w/o Parallel9?
The model I'm looking to is basic, I've just put an 8GB ram in it:
1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage
Thank you
:confused:
 
CryEngine 3 SDK Test

Hey guys! use been reading this forum for a while now and I've got to say that its really helped me out. Just thought id share that i downloade the cry engine 3 free sdk under windows 8.1 in boot camp. When i go to run around or shoot, at medium settings at 1280 by 720 i get 25 to 30 fps. Keep in mind that this is the unoprtimized sdk, that developers should youse to make non commercial games. Crysis 3 also runs well at 1280 by 720 on medium, getting around 30 fps at most times:cool:
 
Ok I was reading the fps in minecraft and 30-60 wao my MacBook pro is rolling 700-800 but it's boosted.
I Brock the record today by getting almost 980 fps. Is this a world record or is just ****ing sick
 
triixxez said:
Ok I was reading the fps in minecraft and 30-60 wao my MacBook pro is rolling 700-800 but it's boosted.
I Brock the record today by getting almost 980 fps. Is this a world record or is just ****ing sick
Click to expand...

bs, a 4 way ski titan arrengment gets 300 fps max, and your telling me that you're 650m gets better performance?:rolleyes:
 
inquiring said:
Hallo everybody, I'm a newcomer down here.
I've been looking into this forum for a while but don't find a clear solution.
My question is simple, is in the title.
Will a MBA 13" run a Dota2, with or w/o Parallel9?
The model I'm looking to is basic, I've just put an 8GB ram in it:
1.3GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz
8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
128GB Flash Storage
Thank you
:confused:
Click to expand...

Of course it will run Dota 2! you don't need Windows to play, OS X version is perfectly optimized

I've played Dota 2, LoL, StarCraft II and WoW with 0 problems
 
So I played the Elder Scrolls Online on my Macbook Air 11" 1.7Ghz i7 w/ 8GB RAM on Mac OS X 10.9

It is decent on medium graphics with 1280x756 resolution. It could use some tuning by the devs. But don't expect this game to run with a good frame rate beyond medium settings, although it does run better than Skyrim. I was getting about 40-50 fps. To put it into perspective I get 20-30 fps on Diablo 3 with the setting max, including resolution.

A lot of the elements in the game require the internet obviously. Albeit, I did notice some of the graphics elements such as fires also need a good internet connection. Tight/laggy wifi might make your experience suffer a bit.

The game does have a minimum installation of 30GB. But my client is only 21GB.

In review, the Macbook Air 11" 2013 model is capable of running ESO and I fully enjoyed what I played. Although you may want to consider a better machine as your primary, the MBA is a good choose for its portability.
 
fedecape said:
Of course it will run Dota 2! you don't need Windows to play, OS X version is perfectly optimized

I've played Dota 2, LoL, StarCraft II and WoW with 0 problems
Click to expand...

Any tricks/tips to make the gaming performance even almost enjoyable?
I've played Dota 2 with OS X and boot camp and my macbook air i5/4gb/128 sounds like a turbo jet engine.
I know this machine is not made for hardcore gaming but does the loud fan sound/temperature damage it bad?
 
Miizka said:
Any tricks/tips to make the gaming performance even almost enjoyable?
I've played Dota 2 with OS X and boot camp and my macbook air i5/4gb/128 sounds like a turbo jet engine.
I know this machine is not made for hardcore gaming but does the loud fan sound/temperature damage it bad?
Click to expand...
The computer itself won't get damaged. From my experience, after playing the same game a few times the fan stops coming on, and the computer gets cooler. Any one know why?
 
Luka Peradze said:
The computer itself won't get damaged. From my experience, after playing the same game a few times the fan stops coming on, and the computer gets cooler. Any one know why?
Click to expand...

Computers like to cache data already created. But I doubt your seeing this happening on most games. Usually games render assets when needed, therefore using major resources.

Use the activity monitor to check your CPU usage!

Its a very small computer doing very intense gaming, so your going to get a lot of heat. As long as you don't cover the fan with a blanket or something than you most likely won't break your computer. I game very frequently and have a great time! I haven't had any heat or fan troubles. Yes you can hear it, but usually I have head phones on or the volume is maxed out!

I have a i7 with 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD...
 
Miizka said:
Any tricks/tips to make the gaming performance even almost enjoyable?
I've played Dota 2 with OS X and boot camp and my macbook air i5/4gb/128 sounds like a turbo jet engine.
I know this machine is not made for hardcore gaming but does the loud fan sound/temperature damage it bad?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't pay attention to the fans. I just don't care. The computer will shut down if it gets too hot, and so far it never happened to me.
You can also lower the graphics, you'll get more fps and reduce the cpu/gpu demand.
 
fedecape said:
To be honest, I don't pay attention to the fans. I just don't care. The computer will shut down if it gets too hot, and so far it never happened to me.
You can also lower the graphics, you'll get more fps and reduce the cpu/gpu demand.
Click to expand...

I don't mind the fans, just worried about the machine itself. I tried to put everything on lowest possible (that looked like ****) to minimize the fans but it didn't help, guess I'll have to live with it.
 
This is a good point, I've always worried about when the fans would be going at a fast speed for a long period of time.
Playing Arkham City on Steam Mac was one time, and I had to switch it off, first time that I was worried that I may be damaging the Macbook.
Silly I know, but with the heat and the loud noise, it makes you think.
 
I just got my 2013 11" i7 8gb ram 128ssd. Love it. Fans go on full blast within 10 minutes of starting a game. Tried civ 5, diablo 3, borderlands 2, and minecraft. Haven't had the balls to play longer than ten minutes, I keep telling myself I'm just getting the computer set up and keep putting more games to play on it instead of playing the ones I have.

This is the same issue I had when I first got my 2011 Mac mini. I love that little computer, but the fans would get sooo loud when I would play SWTOR. I would play that for hours at a time with no issue other than the loud fans. That computer is still going strong. It's one thing to tell yourself that the fans are just doing what they are supposed to be doing, it's another thing entirely to believe it!

By the way, all of those games did play well for the 10 minutes. Borderlands 2 looked rough, but played ok.
 
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Don't worry about the heat...

I've been using a MacBook Air to play Counter-Strike competitively since the model with Intel HD 3000. I've used them in clamshell mode most of the time I game, and I play at least 2-4 hours a night in clamshell and a few times a week without clamshell mode. I use ThrottleStop so the processor runs at 100% all of the time. I've not had an issue with any of the MBAs I've owned in three years or so.
 
Anyone want to comment the 2010 Macbook Air/Macbook/MacMini (with Nvidia 320m) versus HD 5000 ?

The benchmarks I have seen is still not what I expected from a 3 generation newer Mac.
 
HarCees said:
Anyone want to comment the 2010 Macbook Air/Macbook/MacMini (with Nvidia 320m) versus HD 5000 ?

The benchmarks I have seen is still not what I expected from a 3 generation newer Mac.
Click to expand...

My late 2010 MBA 13" base model gets roughly the same framerate in Minecraft as my late '08 MBP with the 9600 enabled. I don't have an HD 5000 to test against.
 
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