2020 M1 MacBook Air gaming review: 50+ games tested

25 Comments

1. 

   Rasmus Englund on April 23, 2015 at 8:46 pm

   I have to say I’m impressed by the results!
   When I use my Macbook it sometimes gets really warm. When I play Don’t Starve.
   But that’s the 11″ MacBook though.

   Anyways, great to hear!

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:27 pm

     Don’t Starve, great game!

     Yeah an 11-inch Macbook is a whole different story…. But glad to hear that it can play some Don’t Starve anyway.

     Reply
2. 

   MrUNIMOG on April 23, 2015 at 9:57 pm

   Shouldn’t the Intel HD 5300 be more comparable to the old Intel HD 4000 than the HD 5000 Grahics? At least that’s what I’ve read before.
   But your in-game benchmarks tell a different story, so probably it depends on the use case. Anyway, impressive results for a device devoted to portability this much!

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:26 pm

     I think you’re the only one that really got the message 😉

     Results are great for ultra portable, low powered machines. Not PC-towers dedicated to gaming!

     On that HD5300 thing, I would be very interested to read about that if you can find some benchmarks…

     Reply
3. 

   jmmx on April 24, 2015 at 4:30 am

   I assume your labels on the graphs should read “Early 2015 rMB 12″”and NOT “rMBP”

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:25 pm

     You are correct sir, I missed that one….

     Reply
4. 

   jmmx on April 24, 2015 at 4:33 am

   Also…. “Generally speaking, anything around 15-25 frames per second is considered bad. ”

   Is that (1) “bad= not good” or (20 “bad= bad-ass”. Meaning these days is ambiguous – especially considering that all results were 25fps or under. So is your MB Air bad? or bad?

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:24 pm

     LOL didn’t expect this question 😉

     Bad = not good.

     Hardcore gamers will tell you that you need 60 FPS, or at least 30 FPS worst case. A Macbook Air isn’t for hardcore gamers so to me 30 FPS is more than sufficient for casual gamers.

     Reply
5. 

   N#R#S© on April 24, 2015 at 12:13 pm

   i’m an Apple user but honestly “decent” gaming is impossible with MBA or MB12 these lappy aren’t designed for gaming so it’s normal 🙂
   only MacBook with a good dedicated nVidia gpu are pretty designed for playing “hard” games like those!
   I’ve a MacBook but sincerely i play only with my iMac 27 + GeForce GTX = SUPERB gaming machine! 😀

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:23 pm

     I can’t argue with your conclusion there! It will always be better to game on a desktop with a great GFX card than on a low-powered laptop!
     That said, you can game on a Macbook Air. I have done so with Dirt 3 and Beyond Earth and recorded it for you. Medium settings on 720p is not optimum, but is sure as hell plenty for casual gamers…

     Reply
6. 

   Joel Gordon on April 24, 2015 at 11:26 pm

   I’ve got my MacBook Pro 13″ dual-booted with the Windows 10 Tech Preview, and can have it run Planetside 2 at mid graphics settings at a constant 30 fps, and I can get 60+ from older games like Far Cry 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2.

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   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:21 pm

     I guess it all depends on what graphics card you’ve got there too. But again, the purpose of the article is to remove the self-imposed limitation that you have to give up gaming if you get a Macbook.
     It won’t be at the highest settings, but if you really wanted that, you wouldn’t get an ultra portable Macbook in the first place right?

     Reply
7. 

   Derek Bump on April 24, 2015 at 11:31 pm

   I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with the premise of this article. 20-25 FPS at 800p is pretty terrible and results in a sub-par gaming experience. Even dropping the overall quality to Low would still be akin to watching a Hollywood Blockbuster on an iPhone 3GS… sure, it works, but it looks awful.

   20-25 FPS is not a sign of playability. Not even remotely.

   However, I am curious about how those games benchmark when running on Windows 8 in Boot Camp. It’s always been my experience that games run better in Boot Camp, and I’d love to see if that’s true in this case.

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   • 

     Joel Gordon on April 25, 2015 at 12:49 am

     I have to agree, I put the graphics settings on Planetside 2 to high settings, and got about 20 fps. It looked really good, but was pretty much unplayable.

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     • 

       Márton Sári on October 25, 2015 at 1:02 pm

       How you feel during gaming is determined mainly by the gaming physics, not the texture details or even resolution. These are factors you get used to in minutes. With high quality graphics games, it’s satisfying for me to switch every setting to the highest value, just to get a taste of the state-of-the-art graphics, then switch everything to the lowest to play the game. It’s the same experience.

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       • 

         Mac Gamer Ric on October 26, 2015 at 10:41 am

         Good point there. It’s better to have a smooth experience with lower graphics than the opposite. That’s especially true for some genres more than others. In any case, a Macbook that can deliver decent fps is an accomplishment by itself.

         Reply
   • 

     Mac Gamer Ric on May 13, 2015 at 2:18 pm

     If what you want is to run a game in full HD, maxed out setting, on a big screen, then yeah, everything I said here is not relevant for you.
     That said, some people have ultra portable computers because they need to travel a lot and such, and the purpose of this article is to let them know that they can play some games too. Not on the highest settings, but still.
     Also, keep in mind that 20 FPS from benchmark doesn’t sound like much but when normally playing the game, it runs more than ok. You can check for example my Dirt 3 video. It runs and looks amazingly good when you consider that it’s running on a Macbook Air.

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     • 

       Derek Bump on May 14, 2015 at 3:30 pm

       It’s not that I want to run my games on the biggest screen at the highest quality. I simply want to enjoy the story that the game is trying to tell, and as such, I am approaching this from an enjoyment point of view.

       For me, this means a minimum of 30 FPS during the most difficult renderings on a Medium or Medium-ish setting at native resolution. I’ve gamed on numerous Macs (Mac Pro, iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro) over the last 7 years and that’s the minimum benchmark that works for me.

       However, everyone is different and overall enjoyment is subjective. So I guess I would have to revise my initial comment and say that 20-25 FPS may be OK for some gamers, but for this gamer it isn’t.

       That being said, I am still quite confident that you could squeeze out an extra 5-10 FPS by simply running these games in Windows 8 via Boot Camp on the same Macs. If you have the same machines, I would love to see another benchmark under that scenario. I’m sure other readers would too.

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     • 

       Nirvanes on June 29, 2015 at 4:12 am

       😐 30fps is the bare minimum. 24fps is for movies. Below that it’s just terrible… wth are you saying…
       The new macbook is not for decent gaming. But the retina Macbook Pro handles modern games pretty well.

       Reply
8. 

   Abi Palmer-Greenwood on February 28, 2016 at 9:32 pm

   So does anyone have any suggestions on games that can be played on the Early 2015 12-inch Retina MacBook: 1.1 GHz Intel Core M, 8 GB RAM, SSD Intel HD Graphics 5300? I wanted to get Lord of the Rings or Assassins Creed or something like that, I’m not big on guns or cars, more strategy, I don’t mind fighting, bow, swords etc. All help welcome! I’m struggling!!!

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9. 

   Aseasia on October 3, 2016 at 4:17 pm

   Console entry level so impressive!

   Reply
10. 

    Sean Kumar Sinha on October 3, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    At first I was like “Damn, those are low frame rates.” Then I realized that you only tested at 720P, to top it all off.

    Better stick to that puzzle game with the Apple logo.

    Reply
11. 

    Balázs Gál on October 3, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    Until the point of “However, if gaming is your priority, a New MacBook is not your best option (and neither my MacBook Air by the way). These are ultra-portable machines, made to be efficient and light, not fast and powerful.” it was all good and actually sensible for the mindless apple fans, but at “If you want power, go for an iMac or a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro” I just lost it, are you seriously recommending a Macbook for gaming, it’s like “Hey dude, I heard you like fast cars that are also worth the money in the long run and can do so much more then just go fast, sound good? Well here’s a Bentley, it’s not fast, but it’s definitely overpriced and we’ll talk you into buying it for no reason if you come into the shop.

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12. 

    Zach on November 6, 2016 at 4:34 am

    I have a macbook air 13 inch mid 2013, 1.3 GHz core i5 and 8 GB 1600 MHz. Would love to know if it could play the new Civ VI effectively.

    Reply
13. 

    shaan on July 7, 2022 at 6:27 pm

    can we play golf with friends on macbook air m1 chip 2021 model?

    Reply