Will Diablo III Run On An MBA?

[hkim1983]

Actually, diablo III plays very well on an MBA. I have a gaming desktop and also the MBA (core i5). Settings are dialled down, but honestly can't tell that much of a difference vs. the two. It works every well on the MBA. Yes, FPS is low, but it doesn't seem to matter for this type of game. At least it doesn't bother me (and in other games, the FPS being low really bugs me).

I disagree with this because I'm getting the feeling you're still on normal difficulty. At the very minimum, you want 30 fps consistent regardless of what's happening if you want to survive hell and higher. If you have a low vit character, even nightmare can be annoying if your frames drop below 20. You can forget about hardcore too.

That being said, the 2011 (and even 2010) MBA should be able to handle the game through boot camp in the worst case scenarios.

 

[thekev]

Haha, i need to upgrade from my 09 MBP to an Air.
Low FX checked, and all the settings off/low.
Worked great in beta, Act two runs at 10fps.

Edit: If these ******s released the Ivys when they should have...

Perhaps you have a short memory? Don't remember this last year? They were reportedly having fabrication problems this time. It was rumored last year on Ivy Bridge too. Sandy Bridge E had stepping issues, so it was pushed back further. You're better off with something made correctly than something rushed to market. Even if AMD was a huge competitor right now and they pushed a release, it wouldn't mean a perfect release. It could just be compromises to get something on the market.

 

[throAU]

The answer is that it will run slowly.

But, given that you've got an ULV notebook CPU and integrated graphics, running an OS not really focused on gaming, is this really any surprise?


Not meaning to be an ass about it, but the fact that it runs on that class of machine at all is pretty surprising.

 

[thatisme]

it runs just fine on a 2011 i5 Air (13"). I run high on all settings, with the exception of AA (off) and Shadows (off). I also checked low EFX. All this at full resolution runs smoothly, even on Nightmare setting in town and out of town. I will say that the frame rate does drop when you get those mob ambushes. with 20+ enemies. Bosses -- no problems with frame rate.

My current settings run better than having all settings on low. Go figure.

 

[iNeko]

DIII is running nicely on my Air. I get about 25-30fps at native resolution (1366x768) have everything on high except Shadows, V-Sync, and Anti-Aliasing. AA drops about 2fps, but chaotic areas will halve framerate. Shadows tank it to 5fps and V-Sync locks it to 20fps. If I drop to 720p res, it's pretty much a solid 30fps (but it's not as crisp as native)

Oddly enough, putting everything on low makes zero difference to my framerate (in some areas it's less!) In the beta, the physics setting was the one that made the largest dent for me, but in the retail it doesn't make any difference...

I have done the D3prefs.txt "trilinear filtering" thing though. To see if it helps you, go to ~/library/application support/blizzard/diablo III/ then in the "D3prefs.txt" file, look for "DisableTrilinearFiltering" and set it to "1" I'd also recommend limiting foreground fps to 50 and background to 5 That's my settings, anyway!

Edit! Just to add, the Mac dev team have said on the official DIII forums (here) that they're looking to "fix" the framerate issues on Mac OS, so I'm assuming we'll see a bit of a boost down the line!

 

[Stingray454]

I don't get why ppl say it won't run. I run it on my 1.6Ghz 11" 2010 Air. Yes, I set most settings to low, and I limited the framerate to 30 fps in the settings. The game is mostly fixed at 30fps (might drop below that now and then with lots going on, but never the stuttering I was expecting) and the computer doesn't even run that hot (about 70° celcius). It feels really smooth and is a joy to play - no problems at all so far. Maybe the 320M has better support than HD3000?

 

[scarred]

I disagree with this because I'm getting the feeling you're still on normal difficulty. At the very minimum, you want 30 fps consistent regardless of what's happening if you want to survive hell and higher. If you have a low vit character, even nightmare can be annoying if your frames drop below 20. You can forget about hardcore too.

That being said, the 2011 (and even 2010) MBA should be able to handle the game through boot camp in the worst case scenarios.

Ya, still normal (level 15). Hopefully by the time I get to nightmare the new MBA or MBP models will be out (and they will be worth buying).

 

[sundragon]

I have a MBA 2011 i7 - I have bootcamp to play other games and it seems to help the performance.

I haven't bought Diablo 3 yet.

Are you guys playing on Bootcamp or on OSX?

 

[Fandongo]

Perhaps you have a short memory? Don't remember this last year? They were reportedly having fabrication problems this time. It was rumored last year on Ivy Bridge too. Sandy Bridge E had stepping issues, so it was pushed back further. You're better off with something made correctly than something rushed to market. Even if AMD was a huge competitor right now and they pushed a release, it wouldn't mean a perfect release. It could just be compromises to get something on the market.

Yeah, but it's certainly frustrating to be a consumer itching to throw tons of money at people who won't update anything.

"Buy it when you need it."
I, and millions of others in Core 2 Duo land need an update.
Maybe if they didn't patent the vacuum tight lip trend so we could know what's actually going on (instead of pining to rumors)...
I'd bet the next update gets mass orders from studios and start-ups.
Battery life (though curbed by retina and size) and quicksync has massive implications for the media production world.
Of course, realtime editing makes everything else stupid.

But yeah i get it, don't release a sub-par product.
Hence the dissolution of Blizzard North and the original Diablo 3 back in '05.
and...maybe that was a good thing
=)

 

[iRCL]

I disagree with this because I'm getting the feeling you're still on normal difficulty. At the very minimum, you want 30 fps consistent regardless of what's happening if you want to survive hell and higher. If you have a low vit character, even nightmare can be annoying if your frames drop below 20. You can forget about hardcore too.

That being said, the 2011 (and even 2010) MBA should be able to handle the game through boot camp in the worst case scenarios.

Tell that to my lv40 HC character in NM on MBA i5 with 0 problems from framerate period

Diablo 2 ran at 25fps locked btw


Also ---- plug it in. It has a major impact on FPS because an unplugged MBA has the CPU stepping kick in

 

[thestickman]

I can play it with settings on low.

It's more fun on the iMac though.

 

[thekev]

Yeah, but it's certainly frustrating to be a consumer itching to throw tons of money at people who won't update anything.

"Buy it when you need it."
I, and millions of others in Core 2 Duo land need an update.
Maybe if they didn't patent the vacuum tight lip trend so we could know what's actually going on (instead of pining to rumors)...
I'd bet the next update gets mass orders from studios and start-ups.
Battery life (though curbed by retina and size) and quicksync has massive implications for the media production world.
Of course, realtime editing makes everything else stupid.

But yeah i get it, don't release a sub-par product.
Hence the dissolution of Blizzard North and the original Diablo 3 back in '05.
and...maybe that was a good thing
=)

I had no idea that they scrapped that initially, but yes I get that if you're on a core2 duo, you want to see the latest graphics card so that it will last some time. I just don't think Intel wants to go the route of the 2008 NVidia cards. It usually just annoys me a little when I know it's going to be a short refresh cycle and I have to buy anyway. Personally I'd rather upgrade with the next tock, but my machines are lagging too much.