M1 MacBook Air -- Review + VOD & Settings for ~60FPS

Okay. Here is my short review of SL on an M1 MacBook Air w/ 8c GPU + 16GB:

I usually play on a 16" MBP with an eGPU that has a 5700XT in it. I usually play at 4K native resolution on a LG C9 OLED (77") around a 7-8 setting. It runs the game at a pretty smooth 60 FPS or so.

I can get similar gameplay on this MacBook Air, albeit at a lower resolution or a bit of compromise on the graphical settings. The M1 is literally blowing my mind the last few days – how can an ultralight with no fan do this?! There are tons of reviews online about it, but you can ask me anything about WoW + M1 and I’ll respond/test things out for you.

For the more visually-minded, I just streamed about an hour or so of the SL intro quest line. You can see me play with the WoW settings in-game about 10-20 minutes into the stream when I get to the Maw and what/how it looked there. I streamed at 1440x900 and 30FPS in OBS on the MBA – when the stream is not running, you can expect 10-20% performance boost over what you see on my channel (see my settings below).

Here is a link to my stream/VOD: twitch.tv/arzentv ! Enjoy. :slight_smile:

Edit: Screenshots from my settings for ~60FPS when I’m not streaming: https://imgur.com/a/pQGUlc9

UPDATE BELOW FOR NEW SETTINGS WHILE QUESTING IN SL. :smile:

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Streaming on macOS while playing? That’s intriguing.

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How’s the heat, does it get too hot, and how long are you playing for at a time?

Do you notice noticeable decrease in performance during extended use?

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Today, I was playing on my lap with a blanket resting on my legs. Not exactly a good way to keep it cool, but it never got warmer than a piece of toast that’s been out of the toaster for a minute or two and ready to eat.

I haven’t noticed any throttling at all. I played for almost two hours earlier while streaming and didn’t notice any difference.

I just got done questing in Bastion a bit, with the additional effects in that area I noticed that 5 was too much for 60 FPS, so I dropped the settings to a 3, upped the texture resolution to High and set the resolution to 100%. It looked great and played smoothly, even in combat against multiple mobs.

Keep in mind that these are the first generation of desktop chips.

Have you tried using an external monitor for full 1920x1080 resolution?

The M1 Air absolutely throttles. It’s just not that big of a deal when it does.

I have the M1 Air (8-core GPU, 8GB) and you can hit ~18W on the CPU+GPU+Memory for a few minutes. Longer term it will throttle to 7-8W, maybe a bit more if you are in a lower ambient temperature or have some airflow on the device.

Performance at 8W is about 75% of the performance you get at 16W.

So, I’ve been playing around a bit more tonight with WoW Classic on the M1 MacBook Air. I’m plugged into my external display (LG 77" C9).

I adjusted the TV to enable “HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color” and “Instant Game Response” and I set the HDMI port to be a PC (in the input menu, you set the icon to PC).

On my MBA, I plugged in a Satechi Slim Hub with HDMI/Ethernet/PD – the hub is supposed to only get 4K/30Hz, but with the above settings on the TV, I can set it to 60Hz ( I have no idea why… maybe it is using a different protocol?). I have an HDMI cable (4K UHD rated) + Ethernet and power plugged into the hub.

I forced the MBA to use 1080P + 120Hz. I can get a steady 120 FPS+ on Setting 7 in SW with people around.

Here are some screenshots with my settings: https://imgur.com/gallery/xxX0B0s

Just tried the same settings on Retail.

I can get between 115-120 FPS on Setting 3 and drops to 80-95 FPS on Setting 4. People around in Revendth. Dropping down to Setting 1 or 2 doesn’t make a difference in FPS for me, so I’d suggest that spot for 1080P/120Hz.

Both of the above setups had Safari open with 13 tabs and Battle.net app open (which is actually a huge resource hog on the M1).

Also, one more thing…

On the internal display, I’ve found the best performance is at a 3 Setting with some manual adjustments + 2880x1800 resolution. I can usually maintain 60FPS while questing with this setting – even in Ardenweald (which was notably more stressful for the M1).

I prefer to run at the 2880x1800 with lower settings instead of a lower resolution (e.g. 50% or 1440x900) and higher settings. It just looks much nicer and feels better to play.

Here are some screenshots of my preferred settings: https://imgur.com/gallery/CoKCGzW

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