Some Macbook Air gaming questions

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Hello,

I am currently a Windows 8 user, have used Windows back to 95 and have built my own gaming desktops. My current (only) pc is an HP 17 inch laptop with win8 64 bit.

I am interested in a Macbook Air 13 for the long battery life and the magsafe connector. My current laptop is a couple years old and the battery lasts about an hour so it needs to be plugged in frequently and I am concerned that the kids will snap off the power connector when they climb up and down on me. It would be nice to not need to keep the Air plugged in and if it needed to be, to not worry about the connector snapping off.

I have never used OSX but I have played with it at best buy and have used Ubuntu also, so I feel the transition will be ok for me.

Part of the drive to try Mac is that my wife is getting an Ipad and we are both getting iphones so I feel as though the integration would be better than using win8 Another reason is the desire to try OSX.

My current laptop is a dual core pentium p6100 2 ghz with intel hd graphics. I can play Wow and many of the source games (hl2, l4d, portal, etc) with lower settings.

I was wondering if anyone has an idea of how much faster those games would run with the hd 5000 vs my older integrated?
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
The new MacBook Air with the Intel Haswell chipset and Intel HD 5000 should be able to run those games you mentioned as well as or better than your older Dell. However, if you order a 13" MacBook Air, make sure you max out the memory as it can not be upgraded later on. Also, a large enough Flash Drive should likewise be ordered. I personally would not buy an Air with anything less than a 256 GB Flash Drive installed. With those upgrades, you're looking at spending $1500 + for the new 13" Air.
 
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The new MacBook Air with the Intel Haswell chipset and Intel HD 5000 should be able to run those games you mentioned as well as or better than your older Dell. However, if you order a 13" MacBook Air, make sure you max out the memory as it can not be upgraded later on. Also, a large enough Flash Drive should likewise be ordered. I personally would not buy an Air with anything less than a 256 GB Flash Drive installed. With those upgrades, you're looking at spending $1500 + for the new 13" Air.

Agreed on those upgrades if I get an Air. I may just wait and see what the new macbook pro 15's bring, if they have Haswell and then with Mavericks, the battery life will be better. I don't need an ultraportable, and the 15 is still a bit smaller and lighter than my current laptop. Better dedicated graphics would also be nice, just balking a bit at the cost, but man that Retina screen is nice. I know it won't likely have the guts to run games at native Retina resolutions, but that would be nice for other things.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
The new MacBook Pro line will definitely have the Haswell chipset along with the Intel HD 5000 GPU. The 15" models will likely have dual GPUs; in other words, the HD 5000 and a discrete GPU with its own VRAM. But... the 15" models, both Retina and Standard screens are $2000 + machines. Keep in mind that the Retina models can not be upgraded with more memory.
 

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