iMac - Poor performance in SC2

[freshe]

My current spec is latest:

i5 3.1GHz
4 GB Ram
HD6970m 1GB
1TB Hdd

Running StarCraft 2 on max resolution makes the game impossible to play. Running it on HD res with all the details 1 notch from the best (high or ultra) again makes that game impossible to play. Even when I drop all the details to Medium and HD res game still does some slideshow especialy just before animating all the explosions.

Not sure what's the story here, poor GPU, not enough RAM ?

That's a good reason for me to return that imac tbh. Not that I am a mad gamer but on the other hand SC2 is not some kind of Crysis type of stuff.

 

[Metal Dice]

Hmm, that definitely doesn't seem right.
Your iMac should be able to run the game at maximum settings.
Take a look at this link: Notebookcheck 6970M
Granted, the results on the linked webpage were observed when the game was played with a 1920x1080 resolution. However, your higher resolution choice shouldn't be making the game unplayable, and especially not when the settings are at medium.

 

[freshe]

Hmm, that definitely doesn't seem right.
Your iMac should be able to run the game at maximum settings.
Take a look at this link: Notebookcheck 6970M
Granted, the results on the linked webpage were observed when the game was played with a 1920x1080 resolution. However, your higher resolution choice shouldn't be making the game unplayable, and especially not when the settings are at medium.

Well maybe I exagerated a bit. But when I attack a unit it seems like the animation of another units death or the whole weapon fight with all the blasts stops the game for a second or two and then it keeps on going. But it will happen very often and it's in anyway smooth gameplay...

 

[ivoruest]

You may have a drivers problem or a bad installation of your game. Try reinstalling the game. That machine should be able to run it with no problems whatsoever.

What version of OS X are you running? Also recommend updating your game if its not the latest version.

 

[sukai]

You may have a drivers problem or a bad installation of your game. Try reinstalling the game. That machine should be able to run it with no problems whatsoever.

What version of OS X are you running? Also recommend updating your game if its not the latest version.

agreed, i had run this game on my 2010? Early 2011, don't recall, mbp but the point is that it ran smooth. There must be sometbing wrong with either the game or your mac.

 

[freshe]

agreed, i had run this game on my 2010? Early 2011, don't recall, mbp but the point is that it ran smooth. There must be sometbing wrong with either the game or your mac.

It's a fresh installation of Lion with full update. Game has been downloaded from Blizz servers and also up to date. Can't see any reason it's not running great.

My only thing I would suspect more as a guess really is maybe the SMC Fan Control affects the gameplay ? I have my preset on quiet/cool so the temp is around 32-36 C but I often forget to bump it up before I launch the game. So it's on wrong preset for the heat generated. Could that be it ?

 

[Entopia7]

there is a performance FAQ on the official Starcraft 2 forums:

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/4079877928

I was having issues with a relatively fresh SCII installation, and following these steps fixed my issues.

 

[DeF46]

You will almost always have better performance from booting and running the game in Windows. It's worth installing Boot Camp just for that.

 

[freshe]

Run the game in Boot Camp already. Yes, install Windows if you're semi-serious about gaming.

You see I'm not. I got WoW, SC2, D3 they all have OS version so I would expect them to run good on an imac like this. Who wouldn't tbh ? I didn't get imac to have windows on it, but maybe I should give in to that bootcamp thingy and win7 instalation.

 

[jterp7]

You see I'm not. I got WoW, SC2, D3 they all have OS version so I would expect them to run good on an imac like this. Who wouldn't tbh ? I didn't get imac to have windows on it, but maybe I should give in to that bootcamp thingy and win7 instalation.

games tend to run better on windows still...even blizzard games where the gap is closing but still exists.

 

[forty2j]

HD6970m 1GB

max resolution

This is the primary problem. The 27" has too many pixels in native resolution for 1 GB of VRAM. There's no easy way to upgrade it 2 GB (as was available in BTO), but it will make a world of difference in this particular case.

SC2 is also incredibly demanding, and performance in OS X tends to suffer a bit compared to Windows due to insufficient OpenGL hardware acceleration in the GPUs/video drivers. Personally I'm really hoping (but not necessarily expecting) that this gets sorted with this generation and the Nvidia cards.

 

[jterp7]

Well maybe I exagerated a bit. But when I attack a unit it seems like the animation of another units death or the whole weapon fight with all the blasts stops the game for a second or two and then it keeps on going. But it will happen very often and it's in anyway smooth gameplay...

1080p should still look good on the TB display while giving you reasonable fps.

 

[DJJAZZYJET]

Update your drivers

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

On the right hand side click on the link under 'Automatically Detect And Install'

This will get the latest catalyst drivers for your graphics card and improve performance, AMD claims about a 25% boost but it should run everything better. You can even slightly over clock the GPU using the and catalyst utility, which allows more memory bandwidth and slightly higher clock speeds which will increase your FPS, but I suggest using SMC Fan Control in Mac OSX to rev up your fans to maximum and then booting in windows to play games, that way your mac won't melt when playing games.

 

[SHates]

Just do what I do and play it like the pros do with everything set to low.

 

[leadfeather89]

Just do what I do and play it like the pros do with everything set to low.

I was just going to say this.

Have fun trying to snipe a HT with a ghost in a 200/200 battle, or landing those key EMPS against infestor balls, or grabbing that ghost with a Neural parasite.

Much easier to see things on the lowest settings.