I have been playing Skyrim on my decent gaming machine since release and loving it...

I'm going to be away for a bit, and was thinking of trying to make Skyrim work on my 2011 top-spec MacBook Air:
- low-wattage dual core i7 @ 1.8 GHz (turbo boost to 2.8 GHz single core)
- 4 GB DDR 3 RAM
- Intel HD 3000, 384MB VRAM (latest gen intel integrated chip, not great but big improvement over previous generations)
- fast SSD storage
- Windows 7 Ultra (native boot via bootcamp)

I wonder if the game will play smoothly on low by virtue of the processor...

Anyone?

That is not top of the line.

First of all a dual core would be fine but your ghz is low. If you can go quad go for it. The onboard graphics is completely useless, really only good for watching 1080 movies.

Top-spec? That laptop is laughable. Why do Apple kids always think they can get their moneys worth out of their over priced paper weights. My Asus netbook runs faster than that hunk of junk.

It's the top-spec MacBook Air... No one said "top of the line"

Thanks for your generic response, but I have generic knowledge of my own.

>Laptops
>Macs
>Gaming

Pick one.

So Top-spec means near the top? Like the top what? 20?

wow the best asus laptop best buy has is like 1100$ and smokesssssssss that 2k mac away

Top-spec - MEANING: The top spec for the MacBook Air.

There is so much blind ignorance in your post. I'm not a "kid" (I'm 30). I was programming on Apple ][ in 1986 when I was 5 ... I have a PC gaming rig.

Your Asus might run faster (although not for under $1000) - but I wasn't looking for fast. I was looking for quick, light, thin, because I carry it around all day, every day. A 3lb powerful computer with a 7 hour battery...

It amazes me when I post to ask if anyone has tried the game on a similar laptop, and you take it as an opportunity to kick a dead horse. It amazes me how many people go on and on and on about Apple and how dumb their buyers are. But in truth, I'm likely wealthier than you, more successful than you, and I choose function, style and build quality over price. This laptop is the best I've ever owned, and I've owned at least a dozen PC laptops and a handful of Macs. People don't get all upset at BMW drivers because Chevys get you from A to B...

Take your blind hate elsewhere. Let me have my thread about performance. Thanks.

Damn, your not playing much on that thing. Looks like the consoles for you unless you can spring some money for a half decent 600-800 dollar gaming rig to play Skyrim. I know for a fact this is doable just take into account tax.

No matter how improved the latest gen Intel integrated chips are over previous generations they are still not anywhere near capable of gaming.

I think you'll get better results doing google searches for things like "How does Intel HD 3000 run Skyrim", since that's likely the real stumbling block.


From what I've seen over the last decade, asking Mac questions on PC-centric boards is just asking for all the petty little flamers to come out and say ignorant/mocking things. It's generally not worth it.

In what?

I have a gaming PC...

I bought this one because it's a very quick computer (read reviews if you care, it's REALLY quick, even while I run Windows 7 in a VM all day) and because I needed a computer that is:
- Light (3 lbs)
- Good battery (7 hours)
- Stylish - I carry it around all day, meeting with colleagues and students and clients and admin... I wear expensive jeans, too... Are they also a waste?
- Build quality - nothing comes close. Not even the MB-Air clone "Ultra books"
- Don't care about price - irrelevant to me assuming it delivers the points above

Does anyone have a reply to the actual topic question???

Jesus, give the guy a rest. He's not saying he has a top of the line gaming rig there, he's saying he has the highest spec Macbook Air there is.
Stop blindly bashing Apple and stereotyping him as a hipster.

Sadly, the Intel Graphics simply won't cut it.

I love it when people don't bother to read

It's better to build your own rig and cheaper. In fact I just built my first gaming PC and is running awesome so far!

Edit: Oops had a comprehension error lol didn't see the part where you already had one.

I had a response for you until people decided to freak out for no reason.

Luckily, I have a gaming PC (as I mentioned in the OP). The game is a thing of beauty on Ultra.

But I'm going to be on the road. And I want to know if I can get my fix or if I am going to have to load up something else to play until I get back.

I did play Rift and WoW very smoothly on Low on this thing... It's not hopeless.

That's top spec for mac? LOL! Another reason why I will always stick to PC.

Yea must be real meta knowing your the only one here not reading.

@Trubbles
I'm fairly confident when I say Skyrim won't run on that. The processor is simply too slow, it may be top of the line given it's size. But it's not actually top of the line for performance. The graphics card looks like it would run Skyrim on low setting, maybe a tad higher. As others have pointed out it's the processor. A second core and you would have likely been fine, but go ahead and try it if you really want.

Posts deleted. Platform bashing is going to get an unwelcome PM from a moderator.

I didn't say anything about Apple..I just talked about specs. I had the same GPU on a work PC..thing was horrible for autocad. The dual core 1.8ghz even with turbo will hurt since the game is CPU intensive. The SSD is really if you want it since this game loads on PCs in seconds even on a 7200 RPM regular spin hard drive. I think you can stand a chance with it if you can get more cores.

Weight can matter if you really do carry it a lot. Big different between almost 4 lbs and 9 lbs. Battery life is moot if regards to gaming. Plus most of the time it will be plugged in.

I am just confused by Top-Spec. Never heard it before. Also top of the line I haven't heard in a loonnnggg time.

Also note that 1200 gets you a Asus laptop that is quad core i7 and a NVIDIA GTX 560M with 8GB onboard ram. But the screen is 17" and thing weighs 9 lbs.

Fixed that for you.

I have not had good experiences with gaming performance in a VM. I've done it from my gaming rig just to test things out. Low resource games are fine - puzzle and platformers. Resource intensive games were not good. All in all, it was lackluster at best.

point everyone is trying to make is that you could have bought twice the laptop for hella lot less going pc and still look stylish while you wear your expensive jeans.