I'm planning to get a new laptop but I'm slightly concerned about how well sc2 can run on the 13" 2.5 Ghz Macbook Retina display and 13" Macbook Air.

I mainly want to know whether either of the two can run sc2 on medium settings without lag. Anybody with those models playing sc2?

Liman

Serbia681 Posts

April 14 2013 11:30 GMT

Dunno about that laptop,but i woudnt recommend playing any RTS game on 13`` screen.

Saumure

France404 Posts

April 14 2013 12:21 GMT

I have tried to run sc2 on a 13" laptop that costed around 500€ (intel i5 processor and 6gb ram running win7), so it should be equivalent to a macbook air.
The only think you can do is monobattle and other arcade maps, since you dont really have a minimap. Also, it gets really really hot.
edit: I have to use low settings

noeljones

Australia119 Posts

April 14 2013 12:34 GMT

i would not recommend it at all
does not work well for me

iViNtaGe

United States254 Posts

April 14 2013 13:54 GMT

Keep in mind that a $500 laptop with an i5 will be faster than a i5 Macbook air because the processor is undervolted in the air, which is significant when using the IGP. It may be able to pull it off but it will get warm. I have a last gen Zenbook (pretty similar) the gets a little warm when watching youtube videos and streams yet alone running sc2. An MBP would be the safest choice if you need a Mac because it has better cooling and a standard voltage processor.

Unless the 13" Retina has dedicated graphics like the 15", It's unlikely that you can run any games at the native resolution

Ropid

Germany3557 Posts

April 14 2013 14:38 GMT

I think it doesn't have dedicated graphics, or Apple would mention it. It only says GT 650M for the 15" Retina MBP on this page: http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

Paradisee

United States37 Posts

April 14 2013 16:00 GMT

It has "Intel HD 4000". It will run low fine but team games may lag a little bit and it will also get pretty hot as others have stated

eParadox

Canada132 Posts

April 14 2013 19:25 GMT

I have a macbook air retina and it barely runs LoL at 40 on low, so I won't expect it to run well on SC2.

mk.ultra

United States54 Posts

April 14 2013 19:50 GMT

Macs, lol.

User was warned for this post

Ilvy

Germany2445 Posts

April 14 2013 19:58 GMT

#10

Ilvy

Germany2445 Posts

April 14 2013 20:00 GMT

#11

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/6248285316

Cyro

United Kingdom20322 Posts

April 14 2013 20:02 GMT

#12

He tests sc2 with like three units on screen, lol

[F_]aths

Germany3947 Posts

April 14 2013 20:21 GMT

#13

On April 14 2013 19:37 justanother wrote:
I'm planning to get a new laptop but I'm slightly concerned about how well sc2 can run on the 13" 2.5 Ghz Macbook Retina display and 13" Macbook Air.

I mainly want to know whether either of the two can run sc2 on medium settings without lag. Anybody with those models playing sc2?

Remember that you can run SC2 in lower resolutions and that you can install Windows to run SC2 in Windows. While SC2 does have native Mac support through OpenGL, Windows drivers for games are usually faster than Mac drivers for professional OpenGL use.

TheFish7

United States2824 Posts

April 14 2013 21:46 GMT

#14

Thats a Macbook Pro in the video, not a Macbook/Macbook Air. I have a Macbook Air and it does not run games well.

YouthSC

United Kingdom355 Posts

April 14 2013 22:32 GMT

#15

I have a Macbook Pro 15" with i7, and while it runs sc2 well, it's not something amazing, and it reaches 90 degrees without a problem.

I wouldnt expect sc2 to be runnable in a macbook air, let alone a 13" one.

Cyro

United Kingdom20322 Posts

April 14 2013 22:50 GMT

#16

It will run probably, just not really well at all. I'd expect FPS minimums below 15 with physics off, effects/reflections down etc in 1v1, and much worse in team games. You can't judge performance by the start of the game or some random custom game - I see 450fps on some parts of some maps with this system but still have fps around 20-25 in certain types of 1v1 max fights, some ulv mobile CPU won't match that

justanother

43 Posts

April 15 2013 02:16 GMT

#17

Hmm thanks for the replies, still undecided between the air and retina Macbook. I'm mainly using it for school so if the difference in performance between the two models isn't big for starcraft 2, I think I'll just get the air and save for a desktop.

I did some research and it seems like the 13" retina Macbook is still quite limited in its performance. Can someone enlighten me about how the Ghz thing really works? Since the 13" macbook air is 1.8 ghz and the 13" retina is 2.5ghz.

Cyro

United Kingdom20322 Posts

April 15 2013 02:37 GMT

#18

With the same CPU architecture (etc if they are both third gen i5's) then clock speed (ghz) is a pretty direct measure of performance, if it's twice as high then you have pretty much twice as much performance.

Turbo boost makes it tricky to compare on mobile systems though (because clock speed jumps around a lot, and there's different limits for clock speed depending on how many cores the system thinks are active - as well as it being thermally and power constained)

You also can't really compare clock speeds cross-architecture, as 4ghz on a third gen i5 is about 50% higher performing than 4ghz on a Piledriver CPU (fx)

ETisME

12621 Posts

April 15 2013 03:17 GMT

#19

biggest problem with macbook air is the extremely poor cooling performance. You can't really game on it even if the system spec was better.
My sis has a macbook air and it gets really hot after a 30mins LoL game and she played on a table.

If you are planning to do more than just documents editing, internet browsing, watching movies/music, then macbook air imo is not worth it

Cyro

United Kingdom20322 Posts

April 15 2013 03:27 GMT

#20

It's supposed to get hot, just not to the point of being uncomfortable or where the components can't operate correctly, which is sadly probably the reality for the majority of laptops when put under high stress