MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

[akhobbes]

Did anyone own the 2010 MBA prior to the 2013?

Is the Intel 5000 any better in comparison? The old dedicated 320M absolutely burns the 4000 chip in real gaming scenarios, complex scenes went from relatively smooth on the 320M to unplayable on the 4000 ('12 MBA). I think the '11 MBA would be as solid downgrade from the '10. The benchmark results are a bit deceiving I found, either that or I looked at the numbers too casually and assumed they told the whole story.

I wouldn't want to get a 2013 and discover it's still not decently better than the 320M. Anyone who has / had both that can comment? Wish they stuck with the dedicated chips, would make the current model way more enticing.

I have the 320M (and am currently selling on eBay) as well as a recently purchased 2013 Core i5 1.3Ghz with Turbo Boost and the Intel HD 5000. I don't have the Cinebench scores in front of me, but from what I recall the CPU and OpenGL scores were significantly better by at least 25%. The CPU test of the Core i5 seemed to finish in about half the time of the Intel C2D.

I do recall the average frame rate for Tomb Raider via the benchmark options:

MBA 2010 with 320M: 18.5
MBA 2013 HD 5000: 22.5

That's all I've tested so far...

 

[Jyby]

I've seen much better performance with my Macbook air 11" 2013 compared to the Macbook Pro 2010 320m

I think it mainly has to do with the CPU, not the GPU...

In my experience the MBP 2010 model ran D3 on low and my MBA 2013 ran D3 on max (at 30 frames): https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18155417#post18155417

The Macbook air 2013 is pretty good at playing many games.

Some are better than others. Here is ESO running on my MBA 2013. Settings on medium, ~40fps.

 

[DrewCam]

Whats your typical temp while gaming? i was playing games with cpu usage around 100% however when i downloaded Istat it told me that my cpu temp in Celsius was 70 degrees is this bad for gaming? after letting it cool its gradually reduced but i was in shock just how hot it got. I do use a fan whilst playing games but i was under the impression if it was to hot the mac would just shut down which has never happened.

 

[blesscheese]

I have the 320M (and am currently selling on eBay) as well as a recently purchased 2013 Core i5 1.3Ghz with Turbo Boost and the Intel HD 5000. I don't have the Cinebench scores in front of me, but from what I recall the CPU and OpenGL scores were significantly better by at least 25%. The CPU test of the Core i5 seemed to finish in about half the time of the Intel C2D.

I do recall the average frame rate for Tomb Raider via the benchmark options:

MBA 2010 with 320M: 18.5
MBA 2013 HD 5000: 22.5

That's all I've tested so far...

That's pretty much what I was expecting. I've been following MBA's for a while, wondering about when to upgrade.

The 320m was a great chip for the MBA. The 2011 MBA with just Intel HD 3000 graphics was a step backward. The next year (2012) with the HD4000 was pretty much even with the 320m, as I recall, and now the 2013 with the HD5000 has pulled ahead.

So, not 3 years better, but now the HD5000 is worth upgrading to.

 

[litaibo]

rust

rust runs well with 30-50 fps. got air with i5 4gb. here are the f1 console commands for best performance.

grass.on False
grass.forceredraw False
grass.displacement False
grass.disp_trail_seconds 0
grass.shadowcast False
grass.shadowreceive False
gfx.ssaa False
gfx.bloom False
gfx.grain False
gfx.ssao False
gfx.shafts False
gfx.tonemap False
render.level 0.1

have fun!

 

[Twe Foju]

I've seen much better performance with my Macbook air 11" 2013 compared to the Macbook Pro 2010 320m

I think it mainly has to do with the CPU, not the GPU...

In my experience the MBP 2010 model ran D3 on low and my MBA 2013 ran D3 on max (at 30 frames): https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18155417#post18155417

The Macbook air 2013 is pretty good at playing many games.

Some are better than others. Here is ESO running on my MBA 2013. Settings on medium, ~40fps.

Image

ok question, when you are playing ESO on your MBA, isnt there a graphic glitch? such as the only bottom left box to be moving, with the rest of the screen freezed?

 

[LUIGg23]

Just a short question to those who own a Macbook Air 2013 that use it for casual gaming. How long does the Air last until it gets uncomfortably hot?

 

[Jyby]

ok question, when you are playing ESO on your MBA, isnt there a graphic glitch? such as the only bottom left box to be moving, with the rest of the screen freezed?

The graphics glitch is from upgrading to 10.9.2. We'll just have to wait for 10.9.3 to come out

 

[Aylan]

Just a short question to those who own a Macbook Air 2013 that use it for casual gaming. How long does the Air last until it gets uncomfortably hot?

Once the Air gets going, it gets hot but never uncomfortably so. I'd say most people get bothered by the fan. The Air chugs along quite well though. Diablo 3, and SimCity under BootCamp run quite well on the MBA.

 

[Iperzampem0]

Hi guys, just to point out I've been able to succesfully play the "Thief" game on Windows 8.1 with the latest Intel graphics driver!

1280x720 resolution with all the settings to low/normal (depending) and Texture to Medium. You can get 20-30 fps so it's quite playable.

I didn't like that much the plot of the story but the graphics is quite great and the genre is "different"

Just my 2 cents..

 

[thebrobrah]

Once the Air gets going, it gets hot but never uncomfortably so. I'd say most people get bothered by the fan. The Air chugs along quite well though. Diablo 3, and SimCity under BootCamp run quite well on the MBA.

just out of curiosity, why would you play d3 by bootcamp?

 

[Aylan]

just out of curiosity, why would you play d3 by bootcamp?

Perhaps I did not use a proper oxford comma or proper sentence structure but I meant to imply that D3, and SC2013 run well on the MBA, but I only run SC2013 in BC. D3 works quite well under OS X, while SC2013 is almost unplayable in OS X.

 

[fedecape]

rust runs well with 30-50 fps. got air with i5 4gb. here are the f1 console commands for best performance.

grass.on False
grass.forceredraw False
grass.displacement False
grass.disp_trail_seconds 0
grass.shadowcast False
grass.shadowreceive False
gfx.ssaa False
gfx.bloom False
gfx.grain False
gfx.ssao False
gfx.shafts False
gfx.tonemap False
render.level 0.1

have fun!

30-50 FPS? what resolution ?

----------

Has anybody tried X-PLANE 10???

FSX is a great simulator but it is so poorly optimized, plus it only runs on Windows.

 

[zvandiver]

Has anyone tried the app store version on a Macbook Air with the 1.5GHz CPU? The system requirements listed by Aspyr have 2.2GHz listed.

 

[Jyby]

Note to the reader: The i7 outperforms the i5 model. Make sure you get the 8GB ram or you'll kick yourself.

 

[Mekmek]

AMB for NBA 2k

Hi All,
I am considering getting an air mac book, bit if anyone knows if that sweet machine can run NBA 2k14 ? I tried 2k13 on my friends air mac 2012, it didnt work well, fan was super loud, no sound etc. If I can run those sport games I will buy that nice laptop first thing in the morning.

 

[Jyby]

Hi All,
I am considering getting an air mac book, bit if anyone knows if that sweet machine can run NBA 2k14 ? I tried 2k13 on my friends air mac 2012, it didnt work well, fan was super loud, no sound etc. If I can run those sport games I will buy that nice laptop first thing in the morning.

Well there is a significant speed bump from the 2012 to the 2014.

You might get away with running 2k13 decently. I can certainly try one of the two on my machine. If I try it out I'll post a result by the end of the week.

You might be better off buying a more capable machine for the long run. I generally play older games on my machine, except for blizzard games since those are highly optimized for different types of computers.

 

[Mekmek]

Well there is a significant speed bump from the 2012 to the 2014.

You might get away with running 2k13 decently. I can certainly try one of the two on my machine. If I try it out I'll post a result by the end of the week.

You might be better off buying a more capable machine for the long run. I generally play older games on my machine, except for blizzard games since those are highly optimized for different types of computers.

Thank you. I really like the size and looks of amb, but if i cant run those games sometimes, when i need a break, then other machine will have to be the choice. Like lenovo yoga pro maybe

 

[Jyby]

Thank you. I really like the size and looks of amb, but if i cant run those games sometimes, when i need a break, then other machine will have to be the choice. Like lenovo yoga pro maybe

Macbook Air has an Intel HD 5000
Whereas the Yoga has an Intel HD 4400

MBA > Yoga. Games look better on screen with resolutions that computer can drive. If you have an ultra resolution screen running a game on something low it will look ugly.

If all else fails you can play 2k10 and 2k11 on Onlive (if you have a good connection). I love Onlive because it greatly expands the MBA to games it wouldn't normally be able to play.


EDIT: Just Cause 2

 

[Mekmek]

Macbook Air has an Intel HD 5000
Whereas the Yoga has an Intel HD 4400

MBA > Yoga. Games look better on screen with resolutions that computer can drive. If you have an ultra resolution screen running a game on something low it will look ugly.

If all else fails you can play 2k10 and 2k11 on Onlive (if you have a good connection). I love Onlive because it greatly expands the MBA to games it wouldn't normally be able to play.


EDIT: Just Cause 2
Image

Does your Airbook makes loud fan noise when you play the game ? I am thinking to get base model, eventually i might upgrade to 8 gb ram

 

[Jyby]

Does your Airbook makes loud fan noise when you play the game ? I am thinking to get base model, eventually i might upgrade to 8 gb ram

Generally yes. But if you play with the volume up or use headphones you won't really care.

If you want your games to look and play amazing you'll need a gaming machine.

If you want to play starcraft on medium/low. Diablo 3 on medium/high and counterstrike than a MBA is awesome!

But you'll decide.

 

[Jyby]

Does your Airbook makes loud fan noise when you play the game ? I am thinking to get base model, eventually i might upgrade to 8 gb ram

You can only upgrade at purchase. The ram is soldered to the board.

 

[feuxfollets]

Has anyone tried Dark Souls II on this? I know the GPU doesn't meet the minimum requirements, but I'm wondering if it's still playable at low settings.

Dark Souls I with DSFix ran very smoothly with FPS unlocked, and Dark Souls II presumably is better optimized for the PC, so I'm still hopeful.

 

[Jyby]

This will be interesting: https://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/28/apple-updated-macbook-airs/

 

[thebrobrah]

^ no it wont..

incrementally small, non upgrade

definately not for someone with a 2013 haswell model