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    Can Macbook Air handle gaming CS:S?

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Mr6860, Jan 11, 2011.

  1. Mr6860

    Mr6860 Newbie

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    Hey.
    I have heard Steam has made Counter-strike: Source cross platform to Mac now..wondering if gameplay/usage is possible on newerish-newer Macbook Airs?
    Assuming running 4GB ram stick, would an SSD drive make a difference?..and the game on lower-lowest res.
    ?
     
    Mr6860, Jan 11, 2011
    #1
  2. KimoT

    KimoT Are we not men?

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    The current models of the Air comfortably meet the specs on Steam's page. An SSD will make levels load faster, but has negligible impact on framerates in game.
     
    KimoT, Jan 11, 2011
    #2
  3. masterchef341

    masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook

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    i personally have some issues running games in os x due to the wonky mouse drivers, still haven't found a fix. usboverdrive, steermouse, etc. don't do it for me.

    the hardware can handle the game though. it will run at a fine frame rate.
     
    masterchef341, Jan 11, 2011
    #3
  4. jk6959

    jk6959 Notebook Consultant

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    Anything with a 9400m or better in it should handle CS:S absolutely fine.

    Steam games have low requirements on Windows so would only imagine marginal performance loss in OSX purely due to drivers. Again, any MBA with 9400m or 320m should run newer games like L4D fine as well.
     
    jk6959, Jan 11, 2011
    #4
  5. Mr6860

    Mr6860 Newbie

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    Sweet, thanks. CS/CSS is the only game I have ever played, constant, throughout the years on PC..I dont own so any console. So having this 'backup game' is a must in my laptop..(thus why i own a 6860fx-4gb ram/8800gts)
    So a Solid State drive does not give that much gain? I only play multiplayer so levels..campaign doesnt matter..I also wonder if 11" or 13" size would make a difference also, as i appreciate the 11" more..
     
    Mr6860, Jan 12, 2011
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  6. Akari

    Akari Notebook Evangelist

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    SSD's will only make your load screens faster, after that the only thing that really impacts performance is RAM (and most games use under 2GB, max 3GB of RAM).

    But, the SSD will make everything else faster, most notably boot-up time, and adds more reliability to your machine (they don't fail like mechanical drives) and could give it a longer life span (read/write endurance on an SSD is far greater than the expected life of a drive).

    The 13" model offers a faster processor, but not by much.
     
    Akari, Jan 12, 2011
    #6