Starcraft 2 - Will it run? megathread

[SilentPanda]

Okay so maybe not a mega thread... but instead of having a separate thread for each individual computer, would it be helpful if people posted:

Mac model - For instance "MacPro 1,1". You can get the model number by clicking on the Apple icon on your menu bar and then if you press "option" you'll find that "About This Mac..." changes to "System Profiler". On the first screen it should have your model listed next to Model Identifier.

Post your processor speed, RAM, graphics card, and screen resolution.

Post the OS you're running the game in (in case you're boot camping).

Post what SC2 defaults to when you start it. It will auto-set itself to what it determines is best.

Post if it runs well on those settings and any tweaks you had to do or if it still ran fine when you bumped it up.

Then when other people come to the thread they can just search for their model number. Maybe after a week or so we can change the thread into a guide.

Good luck out there! Just a few more hours till my workday is done... *twitch*

Mac Model:

Operating System:

Processor Speed:

RAM:

Video card:

Screen resolution:

Default settings:

Modifications to default settings:

Playability:

 

[iShater]

Great idea Panda!

 

[LagFighter]

Mac Model: 2010 MacBook Pro 15"

Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz Core i7

RAM: 4 GB

Video card: Nvidia Geforce 330M / 512 MB VRAM

Screen resolution: 1650x1050

Default settings: Medium

Modifications to default settings: Everything on Medium/Off

Playability: I would barely call it smooth; it probably runs at about 20-25 frames. Seems way below expectations for this computer. Will try on Boot Camp with Windows 7 later today.

 

[lpolarityl]

Playability: I would barely call it smooth; it probably runs at about 20-25 frames. Seems way below expectations for this computer. Will try on Boot Camp with Windows 7 later today.

It will run MUCH better in Boot Camp LagFighter. I have a MacBook i5 and the difference between OSX and Windows is HUGE performance wise. I'm not sure what the heck is wrong with the Nvidia drivers in 10.6.3 and 10.6.4, but there is definitely a need for a OSX Nvidia driver update. Boot Camp solved all my gaming issues, especially the issues with SC2 Beta and SC2.

 

[MowingDevil]

Mac Model: MacBook Pro 15"

Operating System: 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.53 Core 2 Duo

RAM: 4

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 9600m GT - 512mb VRAM

Screen resolution: default 1152 x 720

Default settings: as is / medium

Modifications to default settings: none so far

Playability: average at best

I've got to admit I'm surprisingly disappointed so far. Granted I could start tweaking settings which would probably help but should we have to? Why can this run fine on a comparable machine in Windows but have problems w/ OS X? The gameplay is reasonably fine but every now & then there's a bit of lag which is annoying...is this an NVIDIA driver issue? My machine meets all the system requirements fine yet it feels like its struggling to keep up.

 

[MrCooperS]

Mac Model: 2010 MacBook Pro 15"

Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz Core i7

RAM: 4 GB

Video card: Nvidia Geforce 330M / 512 MB VRAM

Screen resolution: 1650x1050

Default settings: Medium

Modifications to default settings: Everything on Medium/Off

Playability: I would barely call it smooth; it probably runs at about 20-25 frames. Seems way below expectations for this computer. Will try on Boot Camp with Windows 7 later today.

I'm playing with the exact same MacBook Pro and the same setting and I have to agree. Medium is the way to go. Plus, the video card gets heated up very quick. My CPU was running anywhere from 73 to 77.

 

[Courthold]

Mac Model: Mac Pro 3,1

Operating System: 10.6.3

Processor Speed: 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon

RAM: 4

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT - 512mb VRAM

Screen resolution: default 1920 x 1080

Default settings: high

Modifications to default settings: Lowered AA,shadows

Playability: Well, at the default 'high' settings there are noticeable slowdowns and a lot of jerkyness, especially when there's a lot happening on-screen. I wouldn't call it unplayable at these settings, but it's not smooth. Lowering the AA and shadows did help with this, I didn't really want to drop the res down as it started to look a little blurry.

 

[j0k3rb0yx]

SC2 doesn't run well on my macbook

Mac Model: 2008 Macbook - black one - 13.3'

Operating System: OS x 10.5.8

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: 2

Video card: Intel GMA X3100:

Screen resolution: not sure :\

Default settings: everything low

Modifications to default settings:

Playability: pretty bad. I have all the graphic settings set to low and it gets pretty laggy. Kind of sucks and I didn't want to get a new comp just for SC2 but I really like this game. Is there anyway to upgrade my graphics card? I'm pretty sure that's the culprit. Could I send my macbook into apple and have them upgrade it for me? Or would it be a better idea to get a cheap desktop, like a dell for a few hundred?

 

[pdpfilms]

Mac Model: Mac Pro 3,1

Operating System: 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2 x 3.0 GHz Quad-core Intel Xeon

RAM: 10GB

Video card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT - 512mb VRAM

Still tinkering with settings to find the best setup, but so far incredibly disappointed. The only way I've found to get smooth framerates is most everything on Low or off.

Is this the result of 10.6.4?

 

[floobie]

Mac Model: 2008 Macbook - black one - 13.3'

Operating System: OS x 10.5.8

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

RAM: 2

Video card: Intel GMA X3100:

Screen resolution: not sure :\

Default settings: everything low

Modifications to default settings:

Playability: pretty bad. I have all the graphic settings set to low and it gets pretty laggy. Kind of sucks and I didn't want to get a new comp just for SC2 but I really like this game. Is there anyway to upgrade my graphics card? I'm pretty sure that's the culprit. Could I send my macbook into apple and have them upgrade it for me? Or would it be a better idea to get a cheap desktop, like a dell for a few hundred?

The culprit is indeed the graphics card. The old integrated chips, pre-9400m were basically useless for even casual gaming.

Unfortunately, no, you can't upgrade it, or have Apple upgrade it. You'll either have to buy a new laptop, or as you said, a relatively modest desktop would be able to handle it, provided it has a dedicated graphics card. I'm not sure if I'd go that route, though, unless you actually plan on gaming more. And if that's the case, it would make sense to build it yourself and get a few decent components... probably $600-$700 all in, including peripherals. Buying a desktop for one game seems like sort of a waste, IMO.

I have a dedicated gaming desktop as well. And really, that's all I use it for. If my Macbook were more powerful, I would have absolutely no use for it. So... your call, really.

Edit: A general comment... looking at all these comments so far. Holy crap Apple needs to get 10.6.5 out like NOW. When a Mac Pro with 10 gigs of RAM can barely run Starcraft 2 on low, something is very, very wrong with the graphics drivers.

 

[MowingDevil]

Edit: A general comment... looking at all these comments so far. Holy crap Apple needs to get 10.6.5 out like NOW. When a Mac Pro with 10 gigs of RAM can barely run Starcraft 2 on low, something is very, very wrong with the graphics drivers.

Hopefully that would do the trick, or at least do a software upgrade that just updates the drivers. The more I think about this the more its annoying when the supposedly inferior Windows machines just dance along working fine as if its no big deal. Any semi-new Mac should be able to play a game like this w/o lowering all the settings to low, poor or off. My MacBook Pro is less than 2 years old and I loaded it up w/ a 7200 drive and maximum RAM.

 

[Stepint0sh]

Mac Model: Macbook Pro 5,3

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo

RAM: 4 GB RAM DDR3

Video card: 9600m GT 256 MB

Screen resolution: 1152x720

Default settings: Costum

Modifications to default settings: 3D effect instead of 2D effect everything to Low except: Terrain = Medium, Effects = Medium, PostProcessing = Medium, Models = High

Playability: Excellent (only smooth option for me to set it like this)

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Mac Model: Hackint0sh

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6.3

Processor Speed: 2.83 GHz Core 2 Quad

RAM: 8 GB DDR2

Video card: 9800 GT 512 MB

Screen resolution: 1680x1050

Default settings: High

Modifications to default settings: Everything to Ultra instead of High except Texture Quality because the graphics card requires 1 GB if i wanted Ultra. It will noticeably reduce in FPS if I switch to Ultra.

Playability: Super Excellent!!



To the one with the Mac Pro, did you set Texture Quality on low too? With 10.6.3 I have no problems with everything at Ultra except with the Texture Quality. But then again, I did not upgrade to 10.6.4 on my hackint0sh.

 

[pdpfilms]

To the one with the Mac Pro, did you set Texture Quality on low too? With 10.6.3 I have no problems with everything at Ultra except with the Texture Quality. But then again, I did not upgrade to 10.6.4 on my hackint0sh.

I'll try this. Texture qualities are ususally one of the last things I reduce, as they seem to have the most visual impact IMO.

 

[Magick]

Mac Model:

Operating System: OSX 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.8 Ghz C2D

RAM: 4GB

Video card: 9600M GT 512 MB

Screen resolution:1920x1200

Default settings:Medium

Modifications to default settings:None

Playability:Barely, around 12 fps on the first campaign mission even less on cut-scenes. I get 20-30 fps if I play on native (1440x1050) without external display.

 

[MowingDevil]

Is there a utility to find your FPS?

 

[Magick]

Ctrl+Alt+F while playing SC2

 

[TKEik683]

I have a Mac Pro dual 2.8 quads, 8800gt, 6gm ram.

I have to have the settings at medium and a resolution of 1600x1000 to have it be playable during campaign.

Later tonight I will go back and try a custom high setting with the higher native resolution of my monitors (1920x1200?)

Its frustrating for me because I had NO problems running it at high during the SC2 beta. I wonder if that was a slightly more optimized build or if that was prior to 10.6.4 (cant remember the time frame)...

Hopefully Blizzard will do some more fine tuning for the osx client.

Dave

 

[aidanpendragon]

Appreciate if someone with a new-model Mac Mini could throw stats up...I've been thinking about one as my new machine since hearing that integrated graphics now actually can run some games, but SC would kind of be a prerequisite. Thanks.

 

[MowingDevil]

Ctrl+Alt+F while playing SC2

Thanks! So what is a good number?

Mine is all over the place, I assume thats normal, jumping from 8 to 35 or so and all over the place...the majority seem to be around 21-25ish.

 

[SilentPanda]

Mac Model: MacPro 1,1

Operating System: OS X 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2xDual core 2ghz (4x2Ghz)

RAM: 7 GB

Video card: Radeon HD 3870

Screen resolution: 1920x1080

Default settings: Mostly High

Modifications to default settings: Fullscreen Windowed

Playability: A spot or two was laggy but I'm sure with some things lowered you'd have no lag. I normally play on my Windows 7 box that has 2x5870's sooooo I didn't play on the Mac side very long. If I didn't have a Windows box I'd be fine with it at the settings it had. Was ~30 FPS although sometimes it would drop to 20 for a second or two. As an aside, on my Windows box (60FPS on ultra) it drops about 10 FPS for a second or two also... usually when UI Overlay elements appear.

 

[Hans Brix]

Mac Model: Newest MBP 13"

Operating System: 10.6.4

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

RAM: 4 GB

Video card: 320m

Screen resolution: 1280x800

Default settings: As low as they can go

Modifications to default settings: N/A

Playability: I'm playing the game with the settings as low as possible. It's nice and smooth. I'll try tonight with medium after a restart.

 

[pdpfilms]

This is pretty bad. I switched my settings to high, resolution was 2560x1600. Things were going pretty well, cruising at about 20fps. But as soon as I finished the mission and hit the cutscene, it dropped to 1fps and wouldn't come back no matter what the setting. Exited out, and activity monitor reports plenty of headroom in both CPU and memory usage. Started back up again, and couldn't get more than 4fps with ALL SETTINGS ON LOW. On an 3.0ghz octo-core mac pro with 10gb RAM.

This is just silly. Apple, meet Blizzard. Blizzard, meet Apple. Now shake hands and make some effing driver updates.

 

[lpolarityl]

I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing how incredibly horrible SC2 runs in OSX. It doesn't make sense, the beta ran better.

 

[pdpfilms]

I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing how incredibly horrible SC2 runs in OSX. It doesn't make sense, the beta ran better.

Ditto. It's like paying $60 for a really really nice bottle of wine made out of titanium with no cork.

Or a high-powered drill that only runs at 1rpm.

Or a super rare book full of secrets with all the pages glued together.

 

[Xeocon]

Hey all,

I'm running:

Mac Model: Mac Pro 4.1

Operating System: OS X 10.6.3

Processor Speed: Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2.66ghz

RAM: 3GB

Video Card: Nvidia Geforce GT 120

Screen Resoltution: Hopefully 1920 x 1200?

Default settings: ?

Modification to default setting: Lowish?

Was wondering if I could get some help here. Thinking of picking up Starcraft 2 at lunch. I understand my video card is bad. Is there any chance of running smoothly at low detail settings but high resolution on my rig?

Thanks for any help!