Macbook Air 2015

mattgbrowneub17_ESO · July 2015

My 2011 macbook pro is officially beyond repair. Have been playing ESO since launch on it, though literally on minimum. I'm not super concerned with graphics and was wondering how this game would perform on a brand new macbook air. Budget is an issue so being able to score a laptop for under $900 is important.

Any input from the community about game performance on this comp would be greatly appreciated:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-macbook-air-latest-model-13-3-display-intel-core-i5-4gb-memory-128gb-flash-storage-silver/1581921.p?id=1219056464137&skuId=1581921

Thanks all

KhajitFurTrader · July 2015

My take: the MacBook Air 13.3" will perform even more poorly than your old MacBook Pro. Due to its smaller form factor, its thermal budget is lower, so it will be able to go over the base clocks for only short periods of time and throttle earlier. It's base clocks aren't very high to begin with, and 1.6 GHz in a CPU is low, even by today's standards for laptops. On comparable graphics performance, ESO will profit more from a faster CPU.

The default 4 GB RAM are limiting, as the GPU will take its share of it as well, leaving even less for the OS and apps. As with all newer models, RAM can't be added/upgraded anymore, since it has become a BTO only option.

Have you given a thought about acquiring a refurbished MacBook Pro? With better performance and features off the board, most are within or less than 10% over your budget.

chris.dillman · July 2015

mattgbrowneub17_ESO,

The new MBAs have a 6000 GPU in them.

The 5200 was about as fast as the 650m in the gen 1 15" Mac book pro retinas.

The 6000 is probably at least as fast as that if not faster.

GPU wise the new MBP should be faster then the old MBP from 2011
It also has more video ram etc.

It can probably runs ESO on medium at around 30 FPS at the default screen resolution.

Some places let you return laptops for a limited time.
Ask about that.

Seedier · July 2015

I'll be honest - i'd be really jealous if a MB Air ran 'medium' at 30 fps - i have a 2014 MBP retina with 16 Gb RAM and nVidia GT750M 2Gb graphics card and i'll normally get 30-40 fps on default 'medium' settings. Unless there's some kind of mystery optimisation that can be performed!

mattgbrowneub17_ESO · July 2015

Hi all,

Thx for responses. I did in fact get a MBAir the other day (with a 15 day return policy just in case :P)

On minimum, fps is 45-60 in vet dungeon.

Low I'm doing well, got about 20 fps on hardmode warrior in hel-ra , where as on my former comp the warrior fight would take me below 10 fps for the whole fight, on minimum settings

I will probably consistently play on low, however I've played a few vet dungeons with settings on medium and consistently get 17-30 fps depending on what's going on. Its kind of mind blowing going from minimum to medium, things actually look cool, lol. Can't even imagine what ultra settings with smooth fps must look like.

Trensharo · July 2015

EDIT: Should have read thorough the thread.

I'd have gotten a Windows Laptop and gotten a lot better gaming performance out of it. Mac Laptops are notorious for heating and throttling issues. They are not built for gaming, but for Productivity and Pro Apps.

I have a Dell Windows Laptop that cost < $800 - late 2013 Model - with an AMD A-10 APU and Radeon iGPU that play the game with much more FPS at 768p and I cannot imaging it would lose much going up to 900p, which IIRC, is what the MBA uses (1400*900).

A lot of this has to do with:

- 8GB RAM
- CPU can run at virtual Max Turbo Speed for hours at a time due to better heat dissipation and a stronger fan/exhaust
- Windows/DirectX