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MacBook Air 2013 Gaming Performance (Intel HD 5000)

We're not talking 15 to 30 or 30 to 60, but rather a difference of only ~3.9fps. Can you really say that you would be able to tell that difference? And more importantly, would that difference make a gaming experience noticably more enjoyable?
 
A great improvement over 3000 and 4000, but it still sucks. Barely playable for heavy games as I can see. MacBook Pro Retina with GT 650M can run Battlefield 3 on high settings just fine (though on ultra a bit laggy). But it doesn't matter anyway, one shouldn't get an MBA for heavy gaming.
 
I to would love to get some numbers on GW2. That's my latest addiction. :D
If I can avoid always taking my giant tank sized sager when I work nights. Ill pick up one of the new airs in a heartbeat.
 
modalsaliency said:
Anyone have impressions on GW2 yet, in either bootcamp or the osx wrap?
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mesogreat said:
I to would love to get some numbers on GW2. That's my latest addiction. :D
If I can avoid always taking my giant tank sized sager when I work nights. Ill pick up one of the new airs in a heartbeat.
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GW2 recently became a new addiction for me as well. When I get mine on Tuesday/Wednesday i'll post some benchmarks and thoughts.

Ill do testing under Windows 7 Bootcamp and also under the OSX Cider port.
 
lazerboyz said:
About 20-30% increase in performance..? I don't know if I should go with the air or wait it out for the infinity.
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The improvement of Iris 5100 over the HD 4000 is about 70-90% according to gaming tests done by Intel.

The 28W not only allows the iGPU to sustain the higher Turbo frequencies, but the CPU is faster too. The CPU runs at Base frequency of 2.8GHz for the Core i7 4558U.

That's basically equal to Ivy Bridge 35W Core i7 that's in the Macbook Pro 13-inch.

I'd reckon the advantage over the HD 5000 for the Iris 5100 will vary from 25-50%.

The i5-4250U is running at 200-1000Mhz. i.e. when thermal temperatures allow, it can go up to 1000Mhz, but if it doesn't allow, it can be much less than 1000Mhz.
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It runs nowhere near the top frequency. Notebookcheck says its at 600MHz, while I believe its not that low, its probably pretty low, around 800MHz or so. The HD 4000 in the 17W chips were ~1GHz. Intel mentioned using GT3 to get around 30% gains in performance back at Intel Developers Forum.

The GT3(40EU) in the 15W 4th Gen Core parts use the extra EUs for best performance/watt, rather than pure performance gains. They use 2x EUs with lower frequency and voltage to achieve peak perf/watt. The peak 1-1.1GHz probably won't happen unless you are doing something not very demanding on the EU.
 
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Great video find! The base model unsurprisingly runs quite playable and smooth for the most part at normal settings. There are some brief hesitations here and there, but hardly enough to make the gaming experience on the Air any less desirable.
 
G-Force said:
What about Counter-Strike: GO on the 13"? I'm really interested in that.
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Judging by the system requirements, it'll run very well most likely.
The 2012 model ran about 30-50 fps on native resolution maxed out. So I belive this might run somewhere between 35 to 70.

Check out youtube for a video of 2012 air playing CS:GO
 
I'm interested in upgrading from the 2011 Air to the 2013.

Is the jump in gaming performance fairly substantial?

Also, perhaps more importantly, what are the gaming temperatures like?

My 2011 i5 jumps straight to 90-95 degrees C (6500 RPM Fan) which is needless to say, noisy and hot to touch.

Is the 2013 model any better?
 
lukekarts said:
I'm interested in upgrading from the 2011 Air to the 2013.

Is the jump in gaming performance fairly substantial?

Also, perhaps more importantly, what are the gaming temperatures like?

My 2011 i5 jumps straight to 90-95 degrees C (6500 RPM Fan) which is needless to say, noisy and hot to touch.

Is the 2013 model any better?
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Not sure of exact temperatures but they are low compared to the MacBook Pros. Never gets too hot to touch the case, whereas my last MacBook Pro could scramble and egg.

Compared to the 2011? Well I have a 11" 2011 and gave up on any gaming at all, now I'm playing Farcry 3 and Bioshock Infinite on medium...

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lienso said:
I highly recommend to install new Intel drivers for HD videocards -- https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22842
Tried them yesterday and got +8 fps in Dishonored (on my Acer Aspire S3 with HD4000 video)
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^^^

Also, turn on all the in-driver forced options like vsync and anisotropic filtering, and turn them off in game. Via. the driver they have almost no performance hit.
 
I just ran the built-in benchmark tool for Tomb Raider on the default normal settings and averaged 25 FPS. I'm sure if I tweaked it some, I would get closer to 30-35. Not bad for on the go gaming.
 
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