Help? Mid 2013 MBA 1.3ghzi5 vs 1.7ghzi7 CASUAL/light gaming

[tpark]

I am looking to purchase a new 13inch macbook air. Note that I have my own build for heavy gaming, however I will be traveling a lot the next 8 months and need a laptop, that hopefully can handle CASUAL gaming. I am also aware that games graphical performance depend primariliy on dedicated graphics cards.

I'm already sold on getting a macbook, primarily because of "mission control" and it's premium build quality (in my opinion).

When I say casual gaming, I mean low-medium settings with decent frames per second. I really am looking to only have 1-2 games on this computer, to use when I have unusual free time.

There are plenty of accounts and videos of people playing games on their macbook airs. Games I don't really play lol. I've done extensive searching in seeking to answer my questions.

1) Can the 1.3i5 with turbo boost of 2.6 run a game like Company of Heroes, who's recommended settings ask for a 3.0ghz intel pentium? I would like 30+ FPS, and am content with low graphic settings.

2)If so, would the 1.7ghzi7 with 3.3ghz turboboost give a greater than 15% performance increase running this game or games of similar requirements? Or allow to run at higher graphical settings with 30+ FPS?

All help is much appreciated.

 

[vmem]

I hope you're aware that you're stuck with integrated graphics. so your main limitation will be inte's HD4600 GPU.

I'd say you'll be able to run most games on the lowest settings. but when you do, except crap battery life (maybe 2 hours?)

 

[tpark]

I hope you're aware that you're stuck with integrated graphics. so your main limitation will be inte's HD4600 GPU.

I'd say you'll be able to run most games on the lowest settings. but when you do, except crap battery life (maybe 2 hours?)

I'm aware of this too, yes thank you. The updated haswell processors in this MBA's have the new Intel HD 5000 integrated gpu, and boast significant graphical performance increases.

 

[tpark]

So would there be a graphical performance increase by having the 1.7ghzi7? It's a matter of $140 lol

 

[vmem]

ahh, crystalwell. you should read this review:

http/www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested/2

I know that was for Iris pro 5200, but it should give you an idea of the performance of HD5000, which is: it's a big improvement over what Intel had in the past, but nothing ground breaking.

I honestly haven't seen Company of Heroes in benchmarks in a long time. given that it's a fairly dated game, you should be able to run it on medium. the games in the current benchmark sets are some of the most graphically intensive games currently on the market.

In short, I would say just about all games are playable on the new MBA (except crysis 3 lol).

 

[tpark]

ahh, crystalwell. you should read this review:

http/www.anandtech.com/show/6993/intel-iris-pro-5200-graphics-review-core-i74950hq-tested/2

I know that was for Iris pro 5200, but it should give you an idea of the performance of HD5000, which is: it's a big improvement over what Intel had in the past, but nothing ground breaking.

I honestly haven't seen Company of Heroes in benchmarks in a long time. given that it's a fairly dated game, you should be able to run it on medium. the games in the current benchmark sets are some of the most graphically intensive games currently on the market.

In short, I would say just about all games are playable on the new MBA (except crysis 3 lol).

Lol ok thank you! Very helpful, but my base question remains unanswered. Would noteworthy graphical performance increase arise from upgrading to the 1.7ghzi7?

 

[vmem]

Lol ok thank you! Very helpful, but my base question remains unanswered. Would noteworthy graphical performance increase arise from upgrading to the 1.7ghzi7?

Ahh, somehow I lost my self talking/typing... anyway, the short answer is no. all the chips in the new MBA has the same integrated HD5000, because the chips with better graphics craw too much power.

 

[tpark]

Lol ok thank you! Very helpful, but my base question remains unanswered. Would noteworthy graphical performance increase arise from upgrading to the 1.7ghzi7?

Ahh, somehow I lost my self talking/typing... anyway, the short answer is no. all the chips in the new MBA has the same integrated HD5000, because the chips with better graphics craw too much power.

Ok thank you, does your answer include consideration of turbo boost speeds?? Or do they even play a role in this?