MacBook Air 2016 release date, specs and features rumors: Specs designed for gamers

Apple's current 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air notebooksApple

Apple has not given out any official information about the upcoming MacBook Air 2016 although a recent report from MNRDaily stated that the device's specs are designed specifically for gamers. This comes as a big surprise as Macs are primarily known for office and business use and not for video games. 

According to the report, it is likely that the MacBook Air 2016 will make use of the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 graphics card. The GTX 950 has a new feature called Gamestream Co-Op which allows a player to load a game on their unit and then allow other players to play the game via streaming, essentially turning their MacBook Air 2016 into a gaming server. 

The report also points out that the GTX 950 was designed with MoBA and MMO players in mind. However, the GPU is designed for "mild to mid gaming use" and not really for heavy gaming which requires a lot of RAM and customization. Heavy gaming also requires overclocking and units should be able to withstand long hours of gameplay. 

Further implying that the MacBook Air 2016 is for gamers is its inclusion of Force Touch and the Skylake-U processor. According to MacRumors, these processors will help deliver 10 percent faster CPU performance and up to 34 percent faster Intel HD graphics performance. 

The report from MNRDaily does point out that despite these specs, it will still be a tight challenge for Apple to sway gamers over to the MacBook Air 2016 from PC. A PC is far easier to customize, even with third-party components, and more games are instantly compatible with a PC than they are for a Mac.

This hurdle can be resolved via a program known as Boot Camp, which allows PC games to run on Mac devices. However this can still resort to issues like lower framerates.