Will my MacBook Air Run Steam Games Well?

[olive101]

I've been looking for a game to play, and I found Garden Paws on Steam and it's exactly what I've been looking for. However, I got a macbook air in 2016 for college, and I can't even play my childhood game of 10+ years anymore, (Roblox, lol), without the fans inside my computer going like crazy. Would a 3D game like Garden Paws be compatible with my computer? Or do I need to stick to games with simpler graphics. (I would've uploaded this to the Steam website but I don't want to spend $5 to post on there until I know I can play a game)

Game Requirements (Minimum):

• OS: OS X 10.9.3
  
• Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 9400 256MB
  
• Storage: 1 GB available space

Game Requirements (Recommended):

• OS: OS X 10.9.3
  
• Processor: Intel Core i5 or higher
  
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
  
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1GB
  
• Storage: 1 GB available space

My Mac Specs:

• Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5
  
• Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
  
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB

 

[Falhófnir]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the fans spinning up, they’re going to if you’re doing anything that makes the chip ‘work’ rather than idle - this is the computer behaving as it is designed to!

The bottleneck for the game you mention would be the graphics card, HD 6000 is a so-so integrated GPU (funnily enough still handily outperforms the HD 617 in the new retina Air so bear that in mind if you’re ever thinking of upgrading!) and the requirements recommend a dedicated 750M which, even though its considerably older will still push out frames a lot more effectively. With the minimum being the much weaker GeForce 9400 though it should run ok, just might have to turn the settings down a bit (medium should be ok?) and you’ll probably be ok running at native 1440x900 resolution though consider turning down to 1280x800 if you do experience any stutter.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

It should run okay. The Intel 6000 appear to be equivalent or a tad slower than the Geforce. But the minimum requirements are really low, so it can run for sure.

Your fans will run on high though, no doubt about that. You are running a CPU and GPU at high speed, in a very small enclosure.

 

[RedTomato]

I have a 2013 MBA which I use for work and a mini ITX PC with a gfx 1060 card which lives behind the TV. Sometimes I stream PC games via Steam Home Streaming to my MBA which lets me enjoy the benefits of the 1060 / PC game world on my MBA.

 

[olive101]

It should run okay. The Intel 6000 appear to be equivalent or a tad slower than the Geforce. But the minimum requirements are really low, so it can run for sure.

Your fans will run on high though, no doubt about that. You are running a CPU and GPU at high speed, in a very small enclosure.

Will there be damage to my laptop if they run too high for too long (Sorry if that's a dumb question lol), I'm just paranoid I am going to blow up my laptop LOL. Also, is there a program to monitor the temperature?
[doublepost=1546923782][/doublepost]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the fans spinning up, they’re going to if you’re doing anything that makes the chip ‘work’ rather than idle - this is the computer behaving as it is designed to!

The bottleneck for the game you mention would be the graphics card, HD 6000 is a so-so integrated GPU (funnily enough still handily outperforms the HD 617 in the new retina Air so bear that in mind if you’re ever thinking of upgrading!) and the requirements recommend a dedicated 750M which, even though its considerably older will still push out frames a lot more effectively. With the minimum being the much weaker GeForce 9400 though it should run ok, just might have to turn the settings down a bit (medium should be ok?) and you’ll probably be ok running at native 1440x900 resolution though consider turning down to 1280x800 if you do experience any stutter.

Thank you so much!

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Will there be damage to my laptop if they run too high for too long (Sorry if that's a dumb question lol), I'm just paranoid I am going to blow up my laptop LOL. Also, is there a program to monitor the temperature?

Your computer will be just fine, it is made for doing these things.

You can monitor temperatures with many applications.

 

[macintoshmac]

Since we are talking MacBook Air and games, can the Intel 6000 play Thief?

The website says HD 6000 not supported, but then goes on to list a minimum requirement of 1GB for graphics, whereas the HD 6000 has 1.5GB. I could not find the answer anywhere.

 

[Steve121178]

Even if it does play then it won't run very well at all as you'd have to have it running at a very low resolution & settings on low as the HD6000 isn't any good for gaming. So what's the point?

 

[macintoshmac]

Even if it does play then it won't run very well at all as you'd have to have it running at a very low resolution & settings on low as the HD6000 isn't any good for gaming. So what's the point?

As the only computer at the moment, and for just 15-20 minutes, till eventually I get myself a Windows box for gaming. I already run Deus Ex Human Revolution on it at 1024x768 playable. It is just about "some minutes" of gaming.

 

[- rob -]

The bottleneck for the game you mention would be the graphics card, HD 6000 is a so-so integrated GPU (funnily enough still handily outperforms the HD 617 in the new retina Air so bear that in mind if you’re ever thinking of upgrading!)

Since graphics performance on Steam gaming on the 2018 MBA is brought up here, I wanted to throw a light plug for my thread asking for forum feedback on the blackmagic eGPU with the MacBook Air.

I'm also specifically interested in improving performance on Steam games, such as DOTA 2. You can play Dota on the lowest settings just fine with the 2018 MBA. But I am curious what kind of improvements are possible w the blackmagic.