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Game slower on boot camp than on OS X

R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Hello!

I play Starcraft II on my OSX, which works fine on low graphics. At the start of the game there is always a small lag. The only problem I encounter is that when I'm in a later stage of the game in a teamplay, my MacBook Pro can't handle it anymore and it starts lagging a lot, which makes the game unplayable.

I'am aware that my laptop is getting old (MacBook Pro '15 late 2008) and the best option is to simply buy a new game PC. But that is not an option for a poor student like me. :)

So what I'm trying to do is the following:
I've heard that games run smoother on windows, so I installed Windows 7 with boot camp on my laptop.

Everything goes fine and everything works, but for some reason Starcraft II is have random FPS drop in the beginning of the game. This makes the game completly unplayable on Windows. It looks like my computer is out of memory or somethings?

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Did I forgot an important windows update?

Greetings,
RTD
 
S

Silverrune

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2011
177
0
RTD said:
Hello!

I play Starcraft II on my OSX, which works fine on low graphics. At the start of the game there is always a small lag. The only problem I encounter is that when I'm in a later stage of the game in a teamplay, my MacBook Pro can't handle it anymore and it starts lagging a lot, which makes the game unplayable.

I'am aware that my laptop is getting old (MacBook Pro '15 late 2008) and the best option is to simply buy a new game PC. But that is not an option for a poor student like me. :)

So what I'm trying to do is the following:
I've heard that games run smoother on windows, so I installed Windows 7 with boot camp on my laptop.

Everything goes fine and everything works, but for some reason Starcraft II is have random FPS drop in the beginning of the game. This makes the game completly unplayable on Windows. It looks like my computer is out of memory or somethings?

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Did I forgot an important windows update?

Greetings,
RTD
Click to expand...

Generally graphics settings are automatically turned down on a mac port, you should turn down the graphics on the Windows version of the game and see if that helps, where did you install windows? External drive? Optical drive replacement?
 
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Silverrune said:
Generally graphics settings are automatically turned down on a mac port, you should turn down the graphics on the Windows version of the game and see if that helps, where did you install windows? External drive? Optical drive replacement?
Click to expand...

Windows is a partition (70gb) of my internal drive.

I forgot to mention that all the settings are on low on the windows version, the same as at the Mac version.
 
S

Silverrune

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2011
177
0
RTD said:
Windows is a partition (70gb) of my internal drive.

I forgot to mention that all the settings are on low on the windows version, the same as at the Mac version.
Click to expand...

Best guess is something is hogging usage in the background.
 
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Silverrune said:
Best guess is something is hogging usage in the background.
Click to expand...

You mean that something could draining memory on the background?

It has been a long time since I did some trouble fixing on a windows system. What are my best options to check if 'something is hogging usage in the background'?
 
S

Silverrune

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2011
177
0
RTD said:
You mean that something could draining memory on the background?

It has been a long time since I did some trouble fixing on a windows system. What are my best options to check if 'something is hogging usage in the background'?
Click to expand...

If you gimme a minute, I can check what I use.
Edit: I use an app called Rainmeter which is a sort of overlay for windows 7, there are various little "Widgets" that allow you to see certain things on your desktop, I have mine setup to also see processes and CPU/RAM usage. As well as wifi signal and weather; gotta have that ;)
If something is hogging RAM/CPU it will show up on the side with a percent of how much it's using.
 
Last edited:
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Silverrune said:
If you gimme a minute, I can check what I use.
Edit: I use an app called Rainmeter which is a sort of overlay for windows 7, there are various little "Widgets" that allow you to see certain things on your desktop, I have mine setup to also see processes and CPU/RAM usage. As well as wifi signal and weather; gotta have that ;)
If something is hogging RAM/CPU it will show up on the side with a percent of how much it's using.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Do you recommend using the program when playing the game, (and check with alt+tab) or also check it without anything running yet?

I will of course report my findings!
 
S

Silverrune

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2011
177
0
RTD said:
Thanks! Do you recommend using the program when playing the game, (and check with alt+tab) or also check it without anything running yet?

I will of course report my findings!
Click to expand...

Both, just to see what happens.
 
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Silverrune said:
Both, just to see what happens.
Click to expand...

Hello,

I'm sorry for my late response, but I was busy with my college the past days.

Anyhow,
I did some testing: Play the game while checking the CPU, RAM and SWAP usages. (I'm not sure what SWAP is...)

The moments the game freezes there are no crazy peeks in usage at all three of the above.

Average useage with nothing running on the computer:
CPU: 10%
RAM: 25%
SWAP: 15%

Average useage while playing the game. There is no change when the game has the fps drop. (at least, that is what it looks like to me):
CPU: 65%
RAM: 65%
SWAP: 30%

So I guess the problems isn't found there. I have to clue what it could be...

Greetings,
RTD
 
Quad5Ny

Quad5Ny

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2009
984
22
New York, USA
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
Quad5Ny said:

Note: Watch out for the "Bing Bar" thing in the DirectX installer, make sure to uncheck that box.
Click to expand...

I just reinstalled windows 7 to have a clean install. I'm currently reinstalling Starcraft II.
 
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
So I did a fresh install of Windows 7 + the game and updated DirectX and the Nvidia driver.

I still have the same problem. The game gets really slow and I get a message that I should "lower the graphics to improve gameplay". The problem is: it is already at it lowest. (even lower than the game on OSX)

RTD
 
R

RTD

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2010
15
0
I still didn't found the solution while searching the internet.

Does someone have some suggestions what it could be?
 
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