Mac Book Air 11" 2011 Gaming performance boosts?

Hi,

I've got a 2011 model MBA with the 1.6Gz i5 and 4gb RAM. I have a Windows 7 32bit bootcamp partition that I currently use for light gaming. I play battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer at low settings and depending on the map/number of players, I usually get a playable 20-30ish fps.

However, with the release of Battlefield 3 beta, I realize that I need a little boost. Frame rates are ~10fps, so its pretty bad. I'd like to get an extra 10fps at least so that It will be playable. Ive tried gamebooster3 to no avail. Additionally, my "system" tells me that there is 4gb RAM installed but 2.16 useable (32bit vs 64 bit?).

I'm wondering if installing 64bit will allow me to use my full 4gb RAM and if somehow over clocking (is it possible?) the i5 processor and adding an external cooling unit will get me to where BF 3 is playable. Please share your input.

 

you will not get 4 gb of ram as the GPU shares the ram with the system. if the game needs 1 gb of frame buffer the system loses that gig, plus the OS and other eats some as extra overhead.

depending on drivers etc you ay be able to get 1-3 fps but I rather doubt 10+
as the Air uses an ULV CPU which is substancially slower on the GPU than a full volt i5

 

So, switching from 32-bit to 64 bit won't help me at all?

 

it will allow you to use past the 3.25 GB of RAM so yes it may help give a small improvement but not the 10 FPS

 

and since games are 32 bit, it wont improve anything in there either

 

There is no trick, and no boost. If you are running native res, try 800*600,

Battlefield 3 is not a light game, our MBAs are nowhere near the min spec.

 

how about overclock?

 

overclock what?

 

You are not going to be able to run BF3 since its not a "light" game. Sadly.

 

Thanks for the opinions, but BFBC2 runs fairly well, to my surprise. Is there no way to squeeze out more performance to run BF3?

I've read that a 64-bit OS will recognize 3.16GB of my ram instead of the current 2.16GB. Will this be enough of an improvement?

 

It's easy enough to try. Below is the link to a Windows 7 64 Bit SP1 ISO. You can use it for 30 days with out activating it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

 

no one gave you the opinion about how BFBC2 will run. You seem to have already gotten it to about 20 fps.

The BF3 beta is totally different beast. There's really nothing you can do. I would wait for the retail release, maybe you can squeeze out 15 frames/sec with driver and game improvements. It's sort of a long shot. You're below the minimum requirements for both games, but you're further outside of spec for BF3. It makes sense that performance will be lower. Compound that with the fact that the game isn't finished and the graphics drivers from ATI and nVidia aren't ready (much less intel).

 

Ram isn't really that important for gaming. 4gb is sort of a "maximum" on any performance boost for games. 4gb of ram is kind of the most ram you need for anything except maybe some really heavy duty photoshopping. 2gb (and its more like 3gb) to 4gb isn't really going to boost that much performance. You aren't being bottlenecked by ram at all. It is probably GPU then CPU which are holding you back. Ram is definitely not going to give you a massive FPS boost.

To be honest if you want to game you got the completely wrong computer. The MBA is probably one of the worst things you could get for $1K for "gaming purposes". It is meant to serve an entirely different purpose (be light and portable and impossibly thin). If you wanted a gaming 11" the M11x would be a much, much better choice at a similar price point (but larger form factor).

If you wanted a mac and wanted to game the 15" 2.2K and the 17" are pretty much the only options for running at "good settings", but even the 13" would run BF3 a lot better I would assume.

Be careful with overclocking, the MBA already gets hot an overclocked MBA might run into heat issues.

 

A lot of people underestimate the impact of CPU on gaming.
I can have extra 10fps in almost any game when turbo boosting my quad core CPU. I wouldnt try that on air11 though.

 

A) that would be relevant in cases where the game is not optimized for quad core processors. unfortunately, the mba is on a dual core i5, so that isn't much help for the situation

B) even if the processor increased it's clock speed by 10%, you would see some type of improvement less than 10%. Let's say 5% (that's being generous). Now we move from 10 fps to 10.5 fps. If you turbo boost 40% faster and you get a 15-20% performance boost in game, and you were already at 40 frames per second, that's totally different than trying to overclock by a few percentage points, starting from 10 fps. You're not gonna get anywhere.

 

actually for the igpus that both intel and amd have, its a matter of bandwidth and amount, so I got more fps with the upgrade to 8gb, for one I got more ram, thus raising the use of igpu ram from 256mb to 512mb, for 2 if I had the 1600mhz ram I could raise it even higher.

However I dont know how much he could get in terms of improvements.

 

I am not good with numbers but i thought its boosted from sub 2k to around 3Ghz+? All in all i can say for sure that boosting with throttlestop did a massive 10 fps boost from 20 to steady 30. Basically went from unplayable to totally fine.

 

I disagree. Try pairing a GTX 580 with say a low end i3. You will max out most FPS games. The only game you will have trouble with is maybe Starcraft 2 (because SC2 probably drains the CPU more then most modern games in a 4 v 4 200 unit battle). You could probably even go with a previous generation i3, or a high end Core 2 Duo and get good levels of performance coupled with the GTX 580.

Now buy a $1K hexcore intel chip and pair it with a GTS 430 or something. You will not be maxing any games. And you spent twice as much.

Now boosting the CPU will give you more FPS. But most people are GPU bottlenecked these days, not CPU. And the people who are CPU bottlenecked are probably not gaming.

Turbo boost is a little different its just there so your processor is used more efficiently for games that aren't optimized for 4 cores (which is quite a lot). Turbo boost also isn't really over clocking or anything like that.

 

You disagree that a lot of people underestimate impact of CPU on gaming? And how does your post prove that point? I see no contradictions there.

"CPU got impact on gaming" statement doesnt mean that "gpu doesnt have bigger impact on gaming".

 

turbo boost turns off two cores in your quad core cpu, and runs the other two cores faster (it would be too much heat if all the cores were running faster)

this decreases your total potential processing performance if the program you're running is threaded evenly for 4+ cpus, but increases performance if it is designed to be run as a single thread or as 2 threads.

our friend here is using a dual core cpu. turboboost is not going to help him with BF3.

 

I feel like most people overestimate CPU impact on gaming. This has nothing to do with the impact that the CPU has on gaming, but rather with the perception of people.

I believe people tend to think they need to get an extremely fast CPU for game performance, when in fact pretty much any choice is fine.

 

1st question: Does anyone here play Team Fortress 2 on MBA 2011 13" (either i5 or i7?) Is it playable at native resolution?

I'm comparing the MBA 13 with MBP 15 6750M. The MBA wins with its portability, but I also want to play some games (TF2, SC2, Portal 2, DOTA2, and hopefully BF3). If the MBA can play TF2 and DOTA2 at native solution then I will purchase it and save money for a deskop system, however i doubt it will be the case.

2nd question: is the MBP 15 6750 capable of playing those games above at 1080p high settings?

The 15" MBP is worth considering because of its upgradeability (room for additional RAM and hard disk). Windows laptops are out of question because I have to do some developments that require nix-like system.

 

cant use Linux, AIX, Solaris etc. for development purposes? or are you looking to make " i " apps which do restrict you to OSX

IMO no it cant. to run 1080 and high detail the 6750 is pushing it as it is. past 1080 depending on the detail you want I would say you want a 6800 or 6900 GPU especially with BF3

 

The MBP doesn't even have a 1080p screen. For gaming on a 15" you probably won't notice that much of a difference between a 1080p and a 900p like the MBP. SC2 looks better on my screen then my friends gaming laptop because even though his screen is 1080p and he runs it on ultra his screen isn't as high quality in other areas.

You can run Starcraft 2 on Ultra, you can pretty much max TF2 (in OSX). I know I happily run SC2 on Ultra at 900p. If you wanted 1080p (external monitor) you can definitely breeze through it on high, and maybe push it on Ultra if you are willing to accept lower FPS. Your gaming performance is helped however by the lower resolution screen. I also run TF2 pretty much maxed out as well. The processor in the MBP 15 is better then the one in a lot of gaming laptops and SC2 is processor dependent (compared to an FPS) so you are pretty well set for Starcraft 2. Your GPU is weaker then a typical gaming laptop, BUT the game doesn't require as much GPU horsepower as other games.

The only game that is iffy is Battlefield 3. BF3 looks like a game that demands a lot. At 900p I don't know what settings you can run that with. If you want to play BF3 at 1080p on high you probably won't make it. At 900p you have a better chance. As far as DOTA 2 they haven't released the requirements for OSX, but looking at Windows your below the minimum specs with the MBA and you should run it well with the MBP 15 I'm guessing.

However if you have the cash, the MBA + Gaming desktop means you would have portability + high powered gaming when your at home.

 

I'm coming from Linux background, so yes it's possible to do my work in Linux, but I also plan to learn iOS development. Another reason is that gaming on linux still has a long way to go. Although gaming on Mac is still limited but there are some native titles already (most of my games mentioned above have Mac port.) I don't like the idea of rebooting to Windows just to play games: more system to maintain.

I don't expect the 6750 to run BF3 at 1080 high/ultra, but maybe at MBP's native resolution?

Sorry I wasn't clear. 1080p is of course for an external monitor.

It's nice to know that TF2 and SC2 run smooth. That's two most important games for me. BF3 is only nice to have.

With the MBA I only require it to runt TF2. I can play TF2 on my old MBP 13 2011 (may it rests in peace) so I wonder if the MBA with the same graphics card but a weaker CPU can run it.

Should be ideal if this rule doesn't hold true: "For computing happiness you should possess no more than one computer"

3rd question: with the MBP 13 2011, it's too hot to place it on my lap, even during casual browsing. Is it still the same with 15" model?

 

upgrading 2 computers and synchronizing documents / emails / mp3s etc etc between them must be a HUGE PAIN.

My choice is in the sig — portable and rather powerful to do some gaming.
I am still looking for a good deal on used mba or ipad though — want a pocket web browsing machine

 

Drop Box and a wireless external hard drive makes that a lot simpler.

As far as heat goes, mine is fine, but you can install SMC fan control and graphics card status if you want to control heat. Switch to the integrated GPU and turn SMC to 6000 RPM and you should be fine on heat unless you decide to play games on high settings.

Heat also has to do with the ambient temperatures, so if you are operating the computer in a 90+ degree environment its going to run at 90 + degrees on your lap.

 

I work as a designer and neither is a solution.
Drop Box doesnt like huge files and external hard drive isnt fun to carry around + it doesnt store mails / texts / bookmarks / histories / anything that happens to you during the day.

 

No, the extra 1GB RAM won't help much at all. Frame rates mainly depend on your GPU, and as a poster said above the MBA doesn't meet anywhere near the min. spec. for BC3. You can't expect a netbook to run a game like that.

 

File Server + VPN capability = access to anything you need anywhere in the world. I also have important folders in my file server syncing to DropBox, etc. in case my internet connection at home drops out and I'm not at home and need something quickly.

 

also extremly handy when your laptop bag gets stolen too

 

You can get chrome/firefox add ons that do that.

If your mail is synced via POP3 you can forward it to two different computers.

Put whatever music you really like on the MBA (it doesn't have much space anyways) and put the rest on an external. I would assume you would have to do something like this anyways with an MBA and its limited space.

Have your computer sync with the external whenever you bring it home.

 

I prefer IMAP to sync over multiple computers & devices vs. POP3

 

Yea, you were right. The extra 1GB that I got from 64bit only helped marginally. Is there any way to Overclock the Intel HD3000?

 

Switch to games that run well.

Portal 2 runs great - at high settings!

 

if you overclock by 10%, you will get less than a 10% increase in performance. Let's be generous and say 10%.

That would push you from 10 frames per second to 11 frames. Or from 15 to 16.5.

worth the hassle?

 

There's really nothing you can do with the Intel HD 3000. BF3 requires at the bare minimum an ATi Radeon 3870/nVidia GeForce 8800GT or better, and the recommended cards are an ATI Radeon 6950/nVidia GeForce GTX 560 or better. While these are desktop cards, they should give you an idea just how taxing BF3 will be on the Intel GPU.

Again, you can't expect your netbook to play that game. Either look for less demanding games (Portal 2 is amazing, btw), or buy a better computer (since the MBA isn't upgradeable in any sense of the word).

 

Is there any way to make a DIY eGPU using thunderbolt and a desktop video card?

 

Nobody has done it yet. you could possibly wait it out, however. Or perhaps find a friend with a CpE major to build one for you

 

its possible and we are waiting for it, there are several vendors interested on that, they said that they were waiting for the cheaper controllers that were launched last month

Im waiting as well

 

Sorta on topic, but has anyone tried it on the MBA 2010? It had a better GPU which may help a bit. 320M (I think?) most likely also had much better drivers than Intels

 

Geforce 320M has about the same power as the Intel HD 3000.

 

It's still a bit faster, but on the MBA, limited by the CULV C2D more than the MBP13 was.

 

But you can't OC a HD3000

With a 320m you can

 

The 320m is significantly better than the hd 3000 in windows in my testing, but not nearly enough so to get a playable result in BF3. It was marginal in Bad Company 2 as well. I'm not sure if you would even expect better overall performance out of BF3 on the 2010, because it really wants a quad core, and your bringing a very modest dual core CPU to the table with the 2010.

No doubt the 320m is significantly faster. The graphics card isn't the only factor in performance, though.

If you could do a comparison with an i5 processor and the hd3000 vs the 320m, you'd get results that are significantly different than the way it is with these machines: (i5 + hd3000 vs. core 2 duo + 320m)

 

C2d Culv ^^