“On its own, the 2018 MacBook Air is a downright terrible gaming machine,” Jeff Benjamin writes for 9to5Mac. “Connected to my LG UltraWide 5K2K Display, the MacBook Air averages around 1-2 frames per second in Rocket League, and similarly abysmal scores in Unigine Heaven and Valley benchmarks.”
“That’s no fault of the MacBook Air, as it’s a thin and light portable laptop built around maximizing battery life,” Benjamin writes. “In other words, it was never intended to be a gaming machine.”
Benjamin writes, “But if you own a MacBook Air and are looking for ways to get more out of your laptop, then an eGPU setup within a Windows Boot Camp environment can go a long way towards making that a reality. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the step-by-step details.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, there are cheaper ways to get a Windows gaming rig, but this is certainly one way for MacBook Air users to get (a lot) more performance for gaming and other uses.
It is truly bizarre to choose to pay a premium for a thin Apple laptop, with all its intentionally designed-in limitations, and then try to run high performance Windows games with it.
If you need a laptop, great. We get it. But if you need a serious gaming computer, then save yourself the headache of dealing with Apple’s fashion-first computers and just get a proper gaming rig from a company that knows how to build real hardcore computers. Falcon NW is just one of many examples.
Well what if you already have a full blown MacBook Pro with that monitor as your primary work computer, like I do, but you’d like to game as well. Do you spend a couple grand or more on a gaming rig, or do you spend $1200 on a Razer Core eGPU chassis and a new nVidia RTX2080? That let you game like a fiend on your Mac?
And if you have other Macs around for different reasons, one or more of those could double as a gaming machine.
You’re right though. If you want the best possible gaming machine, build a PC.
This allows the Mac to share in the fun and come close to being respectable for gaming. Closer than ever before kind of.
A couple of grand on a gaming rig, which is also more versatile.
Want sli or crossfire later, you can add it.
TB3 doesn’t have the bandwidth for sli or crossfire.
eGPU is a joke.
Like sucking a ribeye through a straw.
With the bone no less….
What’s sad is that for a gamer, using a MBP is a joke and even a Mac at this stage is a joke.
I was so let down to watch a gamers review of the new top of the line MPB 13″ fall 2018 model I got for my daughter that basically said, its awful for gaming, NO graphics card option. Even the 15 inch blows. So she plays Sims. Now i knew the specs going into it, but after awhile you have to ask why stay loyal to Apple. For $1k Less, you can get the BEST Rated PC gaming version, an 17″ ASUS $1599.00 (yeah, remember great 17″ Screens?)
Fashion first. thats great. And we all know where Apple is with their Mac Pro. So just another market segment Apple refuses to embrace. You’d think Apple would make the outboard gear to be the BEST for gamers. Alas, no, Not even in the game. Geek coworker in my office plays only on PCs. If you bring up Apple to him his response,,, Apple is for girls.