In the market for a new Mac and wanted something more on the go and give me that WoW fix now and then.
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I question why people use Macs in general.
They purposely make them obtuse and incompatible so you have to buy only their brand
Though they do get more and more compatible
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I have a hard time calling anything on a Mac a good idea but Blizz does support the M-series chips so it should work.
WoW is very playable on Macs, especially new ones. They last longer too. Go ahead and get one!
Edited to add that they have great re-sell value if you want to trade it in for a newer one later on.
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The M1 is supposed to be able to run wow rather well, and I’d imagine the M2 will run it even better.
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I run it on a macbook air and it runs very well. However, the air does not have a fan. So it will get hot if you have it on a bed or other surface like that.
If you can spring for it, get a pro with the fan. I still love my air but the fan can help if you are going to be playing a lot of wow.
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I play on an M1 Mac Mini. It plays reasonably well. Better than my old Windows machine. Plus all my applications are compatible with their Windows versions.
With the Macbook Air, you would also want the M1 or new M2 processor. There are two caveats with the Air though. It does not have any active cooling (i.e. fans) and when it gets hot it will throttle the CPU. So over time, you may see performance drop in the game. With the release of the M2 processor for the Air and Macbook Pro 13", you might see some resell deals for the M1 machines. Might even get a good deal on the M1 MacBook Pro 13". The M2 has more GPU Cores than the M1 and supports up to 24 GB of RAM so that is a bonus but is also costs $200 more new.
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With Windows you don’t really own the machine. Microsoft has no concept of the computer being yours once you have bought it.
I have a couple but my main machine is a Mac. If anything I’d go to Linux before I made a Windows machine my main computer.
As for running WOW, my guess is that having a good network connection, a good graphics card and having SSB storage would have more of an impact than the CPU and OS itself. After all, computer games are very I/O bound, not CPU bound.
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Sit it on top of an upside down metal pot. The metal works like a heat sink to draw heat out of the body. Not a perfect fix but it does help mitigate heat problems somewhat.
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You should be able to play wow on a MacBook air…
Would never touch one personally tho…cant stand that company and their anti right to repair
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As opposed to Apple, well-known bastion they are for their customers “owning” their products?
What a bizarre point.
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And they’re so easy to repair and upgrade…oh wait
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Yes you can. Better to get an mmo mouse (make sure it’s Mac compatible) and an external keyboard. But yes, I’ve done it on a 10 yr old max air.
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I understand some of the anti-apple comments here, I don’t like some of what they do either. But the OP asked if he could play on a macbook air, and yes he can.
Say what you will about Apple, the M chips are killer. WOW aside, my macbook air has massive battery life and runs very cool for regular usage such as email, browsing, other apps, etc.
It is a good laptop. For those who don’t like macos, Linux is on the way but not yet fully baked for it. So you can opt for Linux at some point and get rid of macos.
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You’d probably need the regular MacBook. Which used to be the Pro. Unless they changed it again.
Oh boy… OP should run for the hills, they said “mac” on GD.
The M1 Air should run it fine, especially if you’re willing to turn settings down a little. Its GPU is in the ballpark of a GTX 1050 or 1650 which isn’t herculean but pretty solid for an ultra-low-power integrated GPU. It hasn’t been benchmarked yet but the new M2 Air reportedly has a 35% stronger GPU, so it should be closer in performance to a GTX 1070 or 1080.
As others said it’ll get warm and maybe throttle. The M1 has to run at full blast for at least 10 minutes to throttle though, and I don’t think WoW is going to do that unless you’re sitting in the middle of an Isle of Conquest team battle for that long or something. WoW doesn’t usually keep the CPU pegged for extended periods.
The vitriol that gets put on display whenever macs come up is beyond ridiculous though, especially when the other brands that these individuals will happily buy have many of the same problems. It’s like those guys who get near-religious about their preferred truck manufacturer. I say this sitting next to a custom built gaming rig.
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You get two thumbs up for this!
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I think it’s because none of these people has used an M chip Mac. They are thinking of the old, slower Intel chips. The M chips are very fast and run the game well for a laptop that isn’t designed for gaming.
After using an M chip Mac, I’ll never go back to an Intel based computer. Too hot, too slow and not enough battery life from those things. ARM is where it’s at now for me.
I’m just waiting for Linux to be fully baked so I can run that, but I’ve heard GREAT things about the speed of Linux, and that was before they even got working on the GPU drivers. Everything was running off the CPU and it was blazingly fast.
Edit: I forgot to say that I get 60FPS on the default settings, but I’ve also tuned them by turning some stuff up and still get 60 FPS. Not bad for a laptop that doesn’t even have a fan.
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i always thought macs were only for fancy graphic designers that probably drive a minicooper.
idk why
I love playing WoW on a Mac. Far superior performance to a PC.
However, my Air is old, and the last iteration that ran on it was Legion.
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