Which MacBook is right for me?

Ash2025 wrote:

Can someone let me know if the MacBook Air is suitable for gaming?

It would probably depend on what sort of games you were planning to play.

Apple Silicon Macs have several levels of processor chips within each generation. As you go up the line from the base chip, to a Pro chip, to a Max chip, you get more of various hardware units, including more GPU cores. For a high-end 3D "first-person-shooter" game, or for something like the X Plane flight simulator, having the extra GPU cores in the high-end chips could translate into better performance.

I would guess that the Sims 4 would run well even on a Mac with a plain M3 chip and the base GPU.

It looks like The Sims 4 is not sold in the App Store, but is available on the Steam platform.

All of the current models of Macs are very speedy.

Typing and browsing and typical planning are lightweight. Games can push hardware a little harder.

If you have specific apps that you plan to use, check which have system recommendations, and what those recommendations are. e.g. Microsoft 365 apps, Adobe Creative Cloud, that game, etc.

At its simplest, you get to choose whether you want portability and lower-end prices (Air) or want higher-end features and higher-end costs (Pro).

https://www.apple.com/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M2,MacBook-Pro-16-M3,MacBook-Pro-14-M3

Whatever you pick, I wouldn’t go below 16 GB memory, and more storage than you think you need. Neither of these can be increased over the life of the Mac.

As an alternative approach, an iPad can do all of what you’ve asked for, except for the particular game. You might want to look at an iPad for mobile and a Mac mini or iMac at a desk for instance. Desktops tend to be cheaper than portable computers for equivalent capabilities, so you might even finish at around the same total cost for both.

Budget for a hard disk drive sufficient for your Time Machine backups, too. That’s probably a four- to six-terabyte hard disk, depending on how much internal storage and how deep you want your backups. Or for a NAS, if you have a budget for that, and want wireless backups.

The main reason NOT to get the MacBook Air is if you have needs that require real responsiveness.

The MacBook Air does not have a cooling fan, so if you push it hard, it will be forced to throttle back to stay cool enough. That could wreck your game-play.

I see that you mentioned programming.

If you plan on using two external displays, note that

• Mac notebooks with plain M2 chips only support one external display.
• Mac notebooks with plain M3 chips only support two external displays when their lids are closed. There may be fewer Retina scaling options available for a second 4K display than for the first one.

If you will be running a development environment on the Mac itself, be sure to take that into consideration when you decide how much RAM to get.

Ash2025 wrote:

Hi,

Looking for some advice re a new MacBook please, as my trusty 2017 MacBook Pro has finally given up the ghost.

I use my MacBook for work (typing/planning/browsing) but also for playing the Sims 4 sometimes. I will continue to use the new ones for both of these things. The Air is obviously significantly cheaper than the Pro but I’m willing to pay more if it’s going to be beneficial in the long run.

Can someone let me know if the MacBook Air is suitable for gaming? Should I just bite the bullet and buy the Pro? I’m reading very mixed things online.

Thank you very much in advance!

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