That's expected.
You should be thankful that your computer is loud. That means it's working to cool everything so it doesn't overheat.
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MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)
- Thread starter Yixian
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That's expected.
You should be thankful that your computer is loud. That means it's working to cool everything so it doesn't overheat.
no i dont actually...
it runs perfectly with no fans coming on, regular temperatures...
its a very light game..
i put settings on low FYI..
What settings is this? I played Civ V on my PC and temperatures rose to around 65 degrees C. I'm not sure what settings I used but still, FPS was very good, nowhere near stupid and annoying..
It performs well even on high settings, and that is the problem - the FPS being too high and uncapped. A Macbook gets pretty hot easily and with the GPU crunching hundreds of FPS it's even worse.
It will run well even on higher settings, but no way it's gonna stay quiet and cool. As I said, Civ5 is one f*ed up game and overheats like the hell itself.
It doesn't get better by lowering the settings - you get better FPS but the GPU is still going on full throttle.
Play it on Windows and use a fps limiting SW.
I have a base model 2014 Air and it plays Civ V just fine. Base settings (mixture of low and medium settings) and 1440x900 fullscreen. The fan always runs audibly but only runs full steam part of the time. The computer gets noticeably warm but not hot or uncomfortable. The game plays very smoothly, no problems.
Alien Isolation
MacBook Pro Retina 2014 13" Iris HD5100.
1440x900.
High.
Shadows Medium.
26-30fps.
Very Playable. Drops to 20-22 fps in big open spaces. Goes up to 34 in close spaces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjycpG2gNfY&spfreload=10
MacBook Pro Retina 2014 13" Iris HD5100.
1440x900.
High.
Shadows Medium.
26-30fps.
Very Playable. Drops to 20-22 fps in big open spaces. Goes up to 34 in close spaces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjycpG2gNfY&spfreload=10
Lol what? "Be thankful your computer is loud". Some computers can cool the internals without being too loud. I recently switched to Mac and love it, but please lay off the fanboy comments. "be thankful your computer is loud" lol. Would you say the same thing about a windows laptop?
Sorry, the point I was trying to get across is that the fan serves a purpose. There are many people on this forum who think the rumored "fanless MacBook" will be exactly the same as a current MacBook, only silent, because it doesn't have a fan. As if the fan doesn't do anything except generate annoying noise.
Certainly some computers can run very quietly under load, but I don't see how the MBA could be one of them. There space inside the laptop for a heatsink and fan is extremely limited. The MBA is still quieter than most PC laptops in my experience though, probably because of Apple's innovative design of venting towards the screen.
i installed Win8.1 through bootcamp. in the beginning everything was fine - 60+fps. but now in game fps drop to 15-20fps due to overheating. at the temperature 70-75 but before that the maximum temperature was 95-100. why the temperature threshold dropped to 70?
You might not be looking at all the temperatures. The fan speed depends on the temperatures of several different components.
For example, if I'm using an optical drive and an external hard drive at the same time (e.g., ripping a DVD), my MBA fan will spin up to 4000-5000 RPM even though the CPU temperature is only around 55-60C.
Apparently there's some other sensor somewhere that indicates that the fan needs to spin up to keep different electronics cool.
SimCity OSX vs Bootcamp on MBA Mid 2013 128GB i5-4250U
I have tried Simcity on both OSX and Bootcamped Windows 8.1. On OSX, the performance suffers. I have to turn shadows off, and all other settings to low, and only runs on 1024 x 768. You can't even change the graphic settings in-game. It feels like the game is running on an emulator on OSX. So, if you wanna purchase SimCity just for MacOSX, nahh.
However, on Bootcamp, the game runs smoothly on 1280 x 720, with all the settings on low and shadows off. After using Game Booster and Throttlestop, I managed to get the lighting (which makes the game looks better), to Medium, keeping shadows at low and AA on and FRAPS gives out about 30fps on idle, and a playable FPS during building and motion blur. I can even put a tone to the city, and its much playable than in OSX.
Next, going to test Cities XXL, Sims 4.
Awesome thread guys.
Honestly, if you wanna AAA-game on the MBA, just Bootcamp it. Otherwise, it wastes precious SSD space.
I have tried Simcity on both OSX and Bootcamped Windows 8.1. On OSX, the performance suffers. I have to turn shadows off, and all other settings to low, and only runs on 1024 x 768. You can't even change the graphic settings in-game. It feels like the game is running on an emulator on OSX. So, if you wanna purchase SimCity just for MacOSX, nahh.
However, on Bootcamp, the game runs smoothly on 1280 x 720, with all the settings on low and shadows off. After using Game Booster and Throttlestop, I managed to get the lighting (which makes the game looks better), to Medium, keeping shadows at low and AA on and FRAPS gives out about 30fps on idle, and a playable FPS during building and motion blur. I can even put a tone to the city, and its much playable than in OSX.
Next, going to test Cities XXL, Sims 4.
Awesome thread guys.
Honestly, if you wanna AAA-game on the MBA, just Bootcamp it. Otherwise, it wastes precious SSD space.
@skolhustick: you're right and I've always said that Windows is the right choice for gaming even on our little Airs
But I'd like to ask you if you've set some values on ThrottleStop or you have just "activated the switch to ON"!? Thanks
But I'd like to ask you if you've set some values on ThrottleStop or you have just "activated the switch to ON"!? Thanks
I'm really hoping that Apple adopt Vulkan (the next generation of OGL) for OS X, it does a lot of low level API stuff that improves performance significantly even on Intel Integrated graphics.
Valve did a demo of a machine running a demo of DOTA powered by Source 2 and Vulkan, and it was getting a very smooth frame rate with dozens of entities on screen, using Intel graphics (though they did not reveal which model, hopefully it was one of our little HD5000s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hth4u65zfc
Valve did a demo of a machine running a demo of DOTA powered by Source 2 and Vulkan, and it was getting a very smooth frame rate with dozens of entities on screen, using Intel graphics (though they did not reveal which model, hopefully it was one of our little HD5000s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hth4u65zfc
@skolhustick: you're right and I've always said that Windows is the right choice for gaming even on our little Airs
But I'd like to ask you if you've set some values on ThrottleStop or you have just "activated the switch to ON"!? Thanks
Sorry for the late rep, but Throttle Stop made no much difference to be honest, nothing noticeable, probably just a little bit of placebo. The setiings would be checked Clock Modulation (100%), Chipset Clock Mod(100%), and Set Multiplier (63T), checked BD PROCHOT, EIST, and C1E.
Sims 4, Cities XXL, and Cities Skylines.
I have tested Sims 4, on my Bootcamped MBA 2013, on the default graphic settings I get a very playable 30fps, and everything runs smooth. So, my soft verdict (forgot to log my tech verdict), its PLAYABLE!
Cities XXL is also playable with about 30fps jumping up and down, graphics around Medium.
Cities Skylines, well where do I begin. Its playable, not like 10 fps or what, for some reason my FRAPS wont overlay the game, so I am not sure what the fps for reals. I ran the game on 720p, and used all low setting except details which I set to medium, and walah, its playable. But as soon as I turn another graphic option, like shadow or texture, its sort of laggy. Not so much playable, especially when your city is like huge. However, my suggestion, turn on the AA, which surprisingly didn't pull down the fps at all, and use Medium on Details. Verdict, playable if you are just there for the game, which btw, is SimCity made perfect. ;D
I will be testing Civ5 soon, but I am a busy Mayor now.
I have tested Sims 4, on my Bootcamped MBA 2013, on the default graphic settings I get a very playable 30fps, and everything runs smooth. So, my soft verdict (forgot to log my tech verdict), its PLAYABLE!
Cities XXL is also playable with about 30fps jumping up and down, graphics around Medium.
Cities Skylines, well where do I begin. Its playable, not like 10 fps or what, for some reason my FRAPS wont overlay the game, so I am not sure what the fps for reals. I ran the game on 720p, and used all low setting except details which I set to medium, and walah, its playable. But as soon as I turn another graphic option, like shadow or texture, its sort of laggy. Not so much playable, especially when your city is like huge. However, my suggestion, turn on the AA, which surprisingly didn't pull down the fps at all, and use Medium on Details. Verdict, playable if you are just there for the game, which btw, is SimCity made perfect.
;D I will be testing Civ5 soon, but I am a busy Mayor now.
Hi all,
Looks like this thread is morphing a bit into a mac gaming thread
I'm in the market for a new mac laptop. I used to play WoW on my late 2011 MBP. It ran pretty well during the wrath ages (and kinda in mists). Now days it runs very very hot. Poor thing can barely handle YouTube.
If I want to do light gaming on the new system, can the Macbook Air handle it? I'm thinking maybe Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, maybe get back into WoW. Or would it be better to get a rMBP.
Looks like this thread is morphing a bit into a mac gaming thread
I'm in the market for a new mac laptop. I used to play WoW on my late 2011 MBP. It ran pretty well during the wrath ages (and kinda in mists). Now days it runs very very hot. Poor thing can barely handle YouTube.
If I want to do light gaming on the new system, can the Macbook Air handle it? I'm thinking maybe Starcraft 2, Hearthstone, maybe get back into WoW. Or would it be better to get a rMBP.
Great news!
Hello guys,
I'm happy to say, for people like me that enjoyed the "AC saga", that Assassin's Creed Rogue runs PRETTY WELL on the 2013 Macbook Air with the good Intel HD 5000 (on Windows 8.1 with latest April Intel drivers)
You all know that all the Assassin's Creed games are very heavy on system requirements, but this one has been natively optimized for the desktop Intel Graphics HD 4600 and 5500, so this may be the real deal as to why it runs very well on ours!
Settings are all on low, except for native 1440x900 resolution and the graphics is still so good.
You may actually want to pump some textures up and other things and it would be still playable, but I prefer to have less FPS drops and native resolution over better overall graphics but with stuttering.
I would say it runs at 25-30 fps, so it's pretty enjoyable!
Go try yourself if you want.
Hello guys,
I'm happy to say, for people like me that enjoyed the "AC saga", that Assassin's Creed Rogue runs PRETTY WELL on the 2013 Macbook Air with the good Intel HD 5000 (on Windows 8.1 with latest April Intel drivers)
You all know that all the Assassin's Creed games are very heavy on system requirements, but this one has been natively optimized for the desktop Intel Graphics HD 4600 and 5500, so this may be the real deal as to why it runs very well on ours!
Settings are all on low, except for native 1440x900 resolution and the graphics is still so good.
You may actually want to pump some textures up and other things and it would be still playable, but I prefer to have less FPS drops and native resolution over better overall graphics but with stuttering.
I would say it runs at 25-30 fps, so it's pretty enjoyable!
Go try yourself if you want.