Upgrade MBA 2013 to MBP 2014 - Gaming WoW

[UT66]

Hey,

i own a MBA 13'' from 2013 with a 128GB SSD.
Because i need more free space, maybe i'm going to buy a new one or going for the "new" MBP 2014 also in 13'' with Intel Iris.

Better Display, larger SSD and faster CPU.

I use my MBA not only for business purpose, i also play some casual World of Warcraft. Questing, some PVP and LFR.
It's going very well.

BUT when i play the new Warlords of Draenor Beta, with new textures and HD Models, the fan is getting very loud and the MBA ist getting really really hot :-/


Now my question(s) ;-)

Someone owns a MBP 2014 with the Iris chipset and plays WoW and/or the WoD Beta.
How do you enjoy the performance in those games? Playing in Retina max resolution? Is the MBP also getting hot and the fan spins fast and noisy?

Thanks in advance ;-)

 

[PressureDrop]

I have a rMBP 13" late 2013 (2.8GHz i7/8 GB/256GB). Playing WoW on it surprised me because of the capabilities of the Intel Iris. I don`t like to hear the fans of the notebook and so I use a 1680x1050 resolution with settings set to "good". When the rMBP is connected to my Thunderbolt Display I use a 1920x1200 resolution with settings set to "good". I always reduce the frames to 35fps. The fans are almost quite.

Its also possible to use the full resolution of the Thunderbolt Display but then you have to set the settings to "low" to let the fans quite.

I wonder how WoD will run on it.

Forgot to say that shadows are low and SSAO is off/disabled.

 

[UT66]

Thanks for your reply. That sounds really good

Are you able to test the WoD beta and give me some more infos?
Or maybe someone else ;-)

 

[PressureDrop]

Unfortunately I don't have beta access to WoD, but you can give me your account informations and I could test it for you

It would be great if someone could share her/his experiences with WoD on a rMBP 13.

 

[Uggbits]

I'm using the early 2013 15" rmbp with a 650m (which has slightly longer gaming legs than the Iris) and I still have my frustrations with WoW, or gaming in general on it.

Fluidity is an issue. The computer can spit out very high fps, even on high or ultra settings, however if you try to do a 360* movement in game, it stutters and hitches until the rotation stops. The result is a very up and down gaming experience with moments of high fps, followed by moments that feel like very low fps.

In contrast my desktop, with a 3770k (about a 25% performance gap) and a gtx460 (again about a 25% performance gap) has none of these issues at higher settings, despite slower drives and similar ram.

It's just something to be aware of and think about, as the computer is capable of those high numbers you see in reviews, but don't bank on it being a constant experience. Laptops have tighter thermal constraints that can lead to throttling. I have no doubt the framerate and fluidity would improve on Windows, but I'm not really interested in installing a partition on a work laptop that can run the game natively.

If gaming is an afterthought, by all means the 15" laptops are fantastic all around computers. In my case it can hang with my desktop for short bursts of intensive processing before throttling begins to creep in. Where the issues seem to occur is when every component is being pushed, but again, that's just my experience with the one game I have on here. Happy hunting!

 

[librarian]

With WoD expansion they have switched to deferred rendering system and increased the default minimum settings. This means a mild to sensible fps drop, and an overall quality decrease (only fxaa will be supported) on my gtx 680mx iMac the beta is unable to run at a stable 40- 50 fps ( on same areas in live pandaria 90+ fps), looks like crap (everything is foggy and blurred), I can only expect pitful performance on anything lesser. Fan go full blast in a minute, while In live pandaria it stay at default speed and never kicks in.
Under windows there is no sensible performance loss, fan stay quiet, but it still look equally nasty.
Sharp, clean visuals? Strong silhouette contrast and Vivid colors? Forget it, all gone soon.

 

[nexus4life]

I have been in since the WoD Alpha and have to say that unfortunately the performance as of yet is not as good as it is currently in MoP. However, I am aware of many changes being made. I just bought a 2014 MBP (Stock 13") about a month ago now and can average ~35 fps on Ultra in most areas (as opposed to 45fps on MoP and general smoothness). The computer does get very hot, and thus the fans do begin spinning loudly. I'm sure if you toned the graphics down a bit, it'd be better, but I don't typically skimp out on graphics settings unless I absolutely have to (meaning under 30 fps)

Also- as much as I hate to say it, Windows will give you better performance than the Mac client for WoW in particular.

 

[Angriff]

Keep in mind that performance in beta will not be reflective of actual performance when the game goes live. Optimization is the last step at the end of development. Even the MoP beta ran relatively poorly before being optimized at the very end/GM builds.