MacBook Air Gaming

[miles01110]

Thanks so much for the replies guys, do u think she should just get a desktop then? She's got her heart set on a laptop, so u think she would have a better chance of running it on the MacBook pro?

As others have stated, Sims 3 will run fine on a MBA. I haven't played it in a while so there might be a point in which you'll notice a slowdown, but that shouldn't take precedence over buying a laptop when she wants the portability.

The argument about "hardcore" gaming is somewhat academic, and really has no relation to the situation you originally asked about. An MBA will be fine.

 

[cluthz]

Keep in mind that the MBA will get quite hot while gaming.

Also yusukeaoki, why are you still talking about CPU speed?
CPU speed has next to nothing to say for gaming with less than top end graphics cards today.

If still doesn't believe me, check here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-upgrade,1928-8.html

If you see the difference in Crysis with a 9800GTX:
From 2.4GHz C2D to 3.2GHz --> 3 FPS!!
With a slower 7950GT 1 fps difference.

Why? Because the GPU is the bottleneck.

The 9800GTX is actually faster than the 6750M, it's almost as fast as the 6970m.

My lowly Core 2 Duo with GTX 285 will actually shame the iMac with 6970m in many games.

 

[hsouris]

Perfomance-wise there should be no problem running Sims 3 on the MBA.

The problem comes from the fans. Within minutes the fans are almost definately gonna kick in and it's a question of whether you are ready to deal with the noise.

As far as the temperature is concerned I believe there is no difference between MBA and MBP for gaming. Both will run hot.

 

[zzz99]

MBA 2011 11" 128GB 4GB RAM

Steam - CS:Soruce, l4d both are running perfectly with med. setting

My girlfriend is stuck deciding which MacBook Air model she wants to get. All she mainly wants it for is emailing, her accounts and playing the Sims 3 (high settings). Which model would be best suited for these tasks?

Many thanks!

 

[Hackfix21]

As I just posted in a different thread, in my experience the issue with gaming on my Airbook is not so much performance (I count myself as a casual gaming who isn't too fussy about low graphics detail or needing FPS above 60), but definitely the fan. It's loud on the MBA when you're gaming. I'm definitely sticking to games on my iMac for that reason alone.

 

[orfeas0]

Still low FPS.
Not really recommended fro pure gaming.
For Sims, yes the emulator makes the lag.
But if its just mail and Sims why not just buy a windows machine?
Or just simply put bootcamp on mac and play it on there?

For serious gamer, laptop would not be the best choice.
I would rather play Crysis on iMac rather than MBP nor MBA due to the heavy load.
MBA isnt made for gaming.
Its only for portability.

With that logic noone should buy a macbook air...
"Just mail and sims", but what about the portability of the macbook air? And the snappiness of Lion compared to windows (especially windows with an hdd)?

As I just posted in a different thread, in my experience the issue with gaming on my Airbook is not so much performance (I count myself as a casual gaming who isn't too fussy about low graphics detail or needing FPS above 60), but definitely the fan. It's loud on the MBA when you're gaming. I'm definitely sticking to games on my iMac for that reason alone.

All laptops have loud fans, it's not specific to macbook airs.
And I mean it: ALL laptops. It's normal, tbh... It gets hot, it speeds up the fans. You may think the MBA is loud, but imagine a laptop with a dedicated gpu and a non-ULV cpu. It gets a lot hotter and requires either faster or more fans = louder.