MacBook Air

I want one, but will it run SL? From what I've seen so far, it doesn't have a graphics processing unit (GPU), that is, a graphics card. Hmmmm....

I certainly wouldn't rush out to get one until there's a spec that can be ascertained to run SL or not.

But, regardless of that, it does look sweet!

It has the same video card as the Macbook (not MacBook Pro), an Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory.


I would expect it to be a very poor choice for Second Life.

From the system requirements page: The following cards are NOT compatible with Second Life: ... Intel chipsets less than a 945 including Intel Extreme.

At one point, they used to say that ALL graphics chipsets that said Intel were not supported.

While SL may be able to run marginally in Intel graphics hardware, it is not what LL supports or designs for.

It's unfortunate that Apple are still hobbling along with the Intel integrated graphics chips for their laptops, there are better integrated/laptop designed cards out there. I expect that if a MacBook can run SL then a MacBook Air can too, but you can't rely on it to always work or to perform that well.

I am however very tempted to get one at some point if the price drops or a more cut-down (less RAM, smaller solid-state HD) ever becomes available, or the manufacturing becomes cheaper.

Also you would need to get the peripheral to attach the MacBook Air to a wired network, since it is designed to run only on wifi, which SL doesn't play well with.

My take on whether or not the MacBook Air will run SL:

http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2008/01/will-the-macboo.html

??

SL plays just fine with home wifi. It is wide area wireless such as Verizon that it struggles with.

I tend to slightly disagree, based on the following.

I'm a live musician in SL, and run a MBP into a D-Link wireless router using Airport. In normal circumstances, everything is fine running Wi-Fi. However, while I'm performing, the audience started noticing small glitches in the music... little drop-outs and so on... specifically due to the way that the packets are delivered to the Wi-Fi device.

Once I went back to a wired connection, the drop-outs stopped immediately, and have been fine since.

So, while SL can run over Wi-Fi without a problem, those of us that INPUT a lot of data do run into problems.

Great comments.

Yep, I was disappointed to see that Apple did not shoehorn a better GPU into the Air--a major drawback in a machine from the reputed premier producer of graphically-oriented computers. Perhaps in its next incarnation.

I've had no problems with SL and 802.11g connectivity--unless I'm running around a combat sim!

Rik--enjoyed your blog and website. Nice design!

I run my G5 on a wireless network since otherwise I'd need a 20m ethernet cable to my modem downstairs, it runs great. But I'm using an Airport Express base-station, very reliable and no trouble at all with SL.

Wireless connectivity with the MacBook Air shouldn't be a problem.

20m cable? max length on Ethernet is 100m. It's MUCH faster, safer, and your credit cards don't end up carved into the face of the Three Gorges Dam...

check this thread: /164/2a/221173/1.html


Klang,
Read all through this thread, which outlines the problems associated with the 3100 macbooks. At the end of the thread is a link to an article on a hack for the problems with the 965 and 3100 chipsets.

Don't know the quality of the fix. I DO know my experience. I bought one of the 3100 macbooks in Dec, and took it back 10 days later cause it absolutely would not run SL. I wound up getting a new Dell with a Nvidia card and a ton of ram and haven't looked back.

I may have occasion to visit this hack, since I also run SL sometimes on my work PC. They are getting ready to "upgrade" my machine (that has a Raytheon card) and one of the two options (apparently not mine to choose) is an HP with the 3100 chipset, so...I'll post my results if that happens.

Anyway, consider the above carefully, since I did everything I could think of, took it back to the store, tried to run SL with Apple tech expert, etc.

Good Luck,
Danaeah

It's perfectly easy to encrypt a wireless network, I'm using one of Apple's Airport Express base-stations and it copes with encrypted 802.11g traffic with no slow-down quite happily. I'm not running a 20m cable up my stairs or trying to route it up through my ceilings =S

there is nothing wrong with wireless and SL... I've used Wireless and a Mac exclusively with SL for 2 years with no issues at all. Saying that wired is 100MBPs and faster is a load, cuz your internet connection is what is slowing it down. If you have a 6MBPs internet connection, you aren't gonna get higher than roughly 6 anyways, no matter how fast your LAN is. Or was someone saying that 100 meters of cable is faster than 20 meters of cable and ... what?

I'm running 802.11g currently with a Linksys router (have used a couple of dlinks in the past with no issues), on a 10MBPs internet connection. I get a full 54MBPs G connection to the router, and SL runs great.