Re: Sims 4 on MacBook
@hybridace101
No. MacBook Airs are less powerful than MacBook Pros and are not designed for any kind of gaming because of this.
Forum Discussion
25 Replies
The Macbook Air that I'm eyeing has an Intel i7 chip of 1.2 GHz (4-core), Intel Iris Plus graphics, and 16 GB 3733MHz LPDDR4X memory. On the other hand, the Macbook Pro that I have in mind is an Intel i5 chip of 1.4GHz (4-core), Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645, and 8GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 memory.
My existing Macbook Pro has an Intel i5 chip of 2.7 GHz (2-core), Intel Iris Graphics 6100, and 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3. It took almost 5 minutes to load a game. FPS is less than 30, sometimes in single digits. I tried this on a Macbook Air with the same specs to what I am eyeing and it can go up to 60 FPS.
Question is how would the Macbook Pro describe above likely perform?
- @hybridace101
Both Macs are not designed for gaming because they have integrated low spec. Intel chips. An iMac with AMD or 16" MBP is much better suited, although there are currently issues with the graphics drivers in the 16".
When you did your test did you load the game in the exact same environment, on the same OS build? The same save, same settings, same packs installed, same processes, background tasks and apps running in the background? That would be the only way to get a true comparison.
The MacBook Air will throttle power to avoid overheating thus eventually causing lag in-game. Too much heat over time can also damage hardware.
The 13" MacBook Pro has dual fans to help with better cooling and is not as thin as the MBA so heat will dissipate more effectively.
I cannot recommend either but if I had to choose, I would go with the MacBook Pro. I recognise I won't be getting the best experience possible. That's out of the question for this time.
Interesting take on MacBook Pro. My question though: will having 1/2 the RAM size and a change from i7 (MBA) to i5 (MBP) have an impact on gameplay, especially how long it takes to load the game and whether there is a bit of choppiness, i.e. the difference of when you click on something to the time the computer actually does what you command it?
Yes, the settings were almost as identical as I could make them.
- @hybridace101
The fans and cooling are a significant factor in OS throttling. The MBA will get hotter quicker and not cool down as quickly as it only has one fan. When this happens the game will lag (what you are referring to as choppiness). You are unlikely to notice a difference in the CPU between the two because the MBA will start trying to cool itself quicker than the MBP, therefore throttling, therefore lagging. 16GB RAM would be preferable, 8GB is considered low nowadays. The speed of the RAM is faster in the MBA but again, I doubt you will even notice this in performance.
Can you bump up the CPU and RAM in the MBP? I see on Apple's site that will be around $500 without any discounts you may be eligible for. So let me get this straight: the MBA with an i7 (and 16 GB RAM) may be faster on paper than the MBP with i5 (and 8 GB RAM) but that could be negated by the lack of a second fan in the former?
@hybridace101
Is it faster by performance for graphically intense apps, like the Sims 4? You would need to do some googling and look up comparisons and benchmarks. MBAs are built for long battery life and mobile lifestyles with simple usage for work and college. Never gaming in any form.
My point is that even though the CPU in the MBA is an i7, the MBA is not capable of utilising it to its full potential for gaming because it will get too hot and the Mac will go into damage limitation mode and throttle the power. This is a really informative article - https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/mac/2020-macbook-air-problems-3788127/- @hybridace101
Using the Apple store online for costs, the MBA you have specified is $1,649. For $150 more I would get the 13" MBP with 2.0 GHz i5 and 16GB RAM. Smashing article. One other observation: the MBA i7 says only Intel Iris Plus Graphics but no other numbers right after it. The i5 MBP say Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645. Can one get more specific about the former's graphics card when trying to go through the benchmarks?
- @hybridace101
Yeah, I thought it was a great article too 🙂
MBA - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-1060NG7+%40+1.20GHz&id=3727
MBP - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-8257U+%40+1.40GHz&id=3605
Side by side comparison - https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i5-8257U-vs-Intel-i7-1060NG7/3605vs3727 Might buying an external fan pad help a bit?
- @hybridace101
The first seems to be a hardware component in place of thermal paste, forget it.
Yes a fan will help but ultimately the MBA is ridiculously thin for portability. It's not going to compensate for weak graphics and it will still get very hot. So the mid-level MBP (1.4 Ghz with 8 GB of RAM and Intel Iris Plus) has a better chance if sorting out the heat problems?
I managed to get the 2.0 GHz MBP, the sort of high-end of the 13-inch line. Does it do a better job at sorting the heat out compared to the entry-level 13-inch MBP?
Any side-by-side comparisons between MBP 2020 high-end and either the MBA 2020 or MBP 2020 entry-level? What do I need to enter to get an appropriate comparison on the website you shared?
- @hybridace101
That website compares CPUs and GPUs. In your case the GPU is integrated into the CPU so you look up the CPU. Find out the specific CPUs in the model Mac you are looking at (everymac.com is a good source) then look them up on that site and add for comparison. Interesting that my old 2015 MBP has a higher Max TDP value (23W) than the lower-end MBP 2020 (15W) and MBA 2020 (10W). Though the higher-end MBP 2020 has a value of 28W.
- @hybridace101
Yes, because technology advances. Maybe they have managed to get the same, or better, performance using less power. This may be a stupid question, but for my reference, how do you think TS4 would perform on iMac (non-pro) machines, especially the low-end and mid-range ones? Are they more durable against the heating issues that plague the lower-end MBPs and MBA?
- @hybridace101
Yep, definitely. All computers get hot when running intense apps, you can't get away from that. The better the graphics card, the less hard work it has to do so the less heat it produces. iMacs aren't squished into portable thin cases so can cool down more efficiently. You get more for your money too.
Choose one with AMD graphics but NOT the Vega GPU. If you find one within your price range post a link and I'll take a look. I presume the Mac mini suffers the same problems as the MBA i7? How would it perform vis-a-vis my existing MBP 4-core? I am talking about the higher-end MM with six cores.
As you have probably heard, Apple has released new MacBooks with the M1 chip. Given that they feature up to 16 cores and their claims to be power efficient, would you recommend this in the future for TS4?
- @hybridace101
No one knows how the new ARM equipped Macs are going to perform yet although I'm hoping people will start posting comments when they start shipping this week (I have the bog standard entry level MBA on order) 🙂 I've had the privilege of testing the game on an M1 MacMini. It is fairly quiet, not as heat generating, and functions. But there seems to be a catch (and maybe this is due to the nature of a MacMini requiring the user to source the other accessories): the FPS seems capped to correspond to the refresh rate the monitor is capable of if the game is to run without crashing. I've switched Vertical Sync on as advised on another forum to prevent crashing. But one thing I did not anticipate is that since I am using a TV monitor (as large as a standard PC monitor) capable of only 60 Hz refresh, I won't be able to go north of 60 FPS. Even weird is that if I attempt playing at full screen 1080p, the refresh rate drops to 24 Hz on the M1 Mac mini. My Intel-based MBP has a 60 Hz refresh rate too but does not crash without Vertical Sync on and sometimes the game performs north of 100 FPS.
Is this what should be expected when Vertical Sync is on and if we use the game on an external monitor (especially a TV one)?
I have also tried The Sims 4 on an MacBook Air with M1 and tried a side-by-side comparison with my mid-2020 13-inch MacBook Pro (high-end with four ports) by having identical graphics settings (including Retina display on but Laptop Mode off) and making my Sims do almost exactly the same tasks. After 10 minutes in each, I noticed that the MBP battery life dropped by 8% and was usually playing around 35-50 FPS (it did go occasionally to 60 but not too often). Meanwhile the MBA M1 battery for some reason rose by 1 point (86 to 87% though I think there might have been an error in the battery's reading of the percents). Also, the FPS of the MBA M1 has gone smoother, much less lag and stayed close to 60 most of the time.
Is this what was expected?
