MBA 2010 vs 2013 gaming performance (GPU)

Has anyone owned both of these, preferably in 13"?

I'm wondering how you found the gaming performance, particularly framerates in detailed scenes @ high resolution between the two.

Please only comment if you have actually played the same game/s on both computers, as the benchmarks are not a good indication in my experience.

I have a 2010 (320M) and a 2012 (HD4000), the 320M absolutely demolishes the Intel rubbish. It's pretty disappointing and I'm wondering if the HD5000 is more of the same junk.

LOL.. Yea the HD4000 is great emm err for 2D

The HD5000 is a huge leap forward from the 4000, which isnt saying much as the HD5k is still slower then low end ATI or NV alternative. The HD4k is what I got in my L2012 Mac Mini, which struggles sometimes on Diablo III in med settings. The HD5k will only offer about 10 frames per second faster. The Iris Pro HD5200 is on par or slightly behind only a frame or two then ATI or NV offerings. But depends on the games also and how much vram they use.

I just don't understand why Intel want put some real balls into their integrated GPUs. Just add 1GB of on board ram next to the CPU chip and bam half the slowness fixed. I love my mac mini, but sometimes I really wished I could jam a cheap $35 dollar nvidia card into the **** thing..

Now Apple has been working closely with Intel on the Iris Pro graphics, even with the HD5k series not being bread winners. I am still interested on how the next generation will turn out. If the next series HD5500 or 6k (I think it will be HD5500) stays on path with current performance gains, they could be the next performance leaders. Personally I don't think Apple would be backing them so much on this if they didn't expect good things to eventually come from it.

My next expected upgrade will be the Late 2015 or early 2016 model of Mac Mini. The 2014 model should be the next refresh of the Mac Mini, somewhere about mid to late july I suspect. Somewhat about the same for the Mac Book Air also if I am not mistaken. I would like to get 3 years from this one, then the 2015 model should be a nice upgrade for me.

Thanks for that. When you say a huge leap forward (5k vs 4k), what difference are we talking in terms of FPS in a detailed scene that's starting to slideshow?

I'm mostly curious how the HD5000 compares to the 320M in the old MBA specifically. Basically if there were no scenario where the 320M still won out (considering it's in a notebook 3 years older) then that would be reasonable. However I suspect even that may be too much to ask.

Dropping the dedicated GPU was a big mistake on the MBA in my book. The 320M is a separate chip whereas the HD4k/5k are on the CPU die, so apart from the performance being inferior, it's also contributing to the CPU temperature and likely aiding in thermal downclocking. I found the HD4000 equipped MBA ran significantly hotter under load than the nVidia version.

zaibatsu said:

Thanks for that. When you say a huge leap forward (5k vs 4k), what difference are we talking in terms of FPS in a detailed scene that's starting to slideshow?

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Depending on the setting and the game expect about, HD4k (12FPS). HD5200 (20FPS), Everyone else (28FPS).. Be happy if it performs better..

If you want detailed comparisons. Then your best best is to go over to Anandtech and check out Anands detailed database of video cards and comparisons.

I personally sold my gaming PC to buy a new camera, so I went from dual nVidia 560Ti's in SLI to the iGPU HD4000 on my Mac Mini.. Its like getting kicked in the balls..