Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Reao

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2008
85
0
I have a new macbook pro with a 2.4i7 and a 6770m video card. It came with Lion on it when I got it. Its runs grate and plays all of my os X games just fine. I play wow a lot on it and my other big game is Starcraft 2. Wow runs fine on max graphics but Starcraft gets really choppy after about 10m if of playing with any video card settings. any one have a fix or any idea way it does this on only Starcraft? when I play on high setting it will be at 50FPS and and then it will drop to 2FPS then comes right back. it makes it really hard to play like this and any help would be grate.
 
not sure if this is going to help but starcraft 2 is heavily dependant on CPU not GPU... maybe your computer is getting too warm?
 
Have only played multi player. I did not have this happen with my old macbook pro on the same internet. I don't think its getting to hot. My friends laptop with the 6750m gets hotter and his does not get all choppy like that.
 
not sure if this is going to help but starcraft 2 is heavily dependant on CPU not GPU... maybe your computer is getting too warm?

Not the case. SC2 does rely in GPU a lot too. Depending on your graphics settings. And single/multiplayer does matter cause SP supposedly is totally offline apart from phoning home every so often so it can update your achievements and check to see if you used any cheats.
 
When I tried to play SC2 on my MBP 15 the game would start to hang for a split second whenever anything big happened on screen such as units engaging each other. It made playing the game near impossible.

I installed Windows 7 on bootcamp and SC2 is flawless in that, no such problem and I'm more than happy with the performance. That's just my experience but it may be worth a try if you can.
 
When I tried to play SC2 on my MBP 15 the game would start to hang for a split second whenever anything big happened on screen such as units engaging each other. It made playing the game near impossible.

I installed Windows 7 on bootcamp and SC2 is flawless in that, no such problem and I'm more than happy with the performance. That's just my experience but it may be worth a try if you can.

We are thinking it is something with heat we see frames drop in all games now that we are watching when closer. Going to try windows on it to see if it is a os thing but I think there is something up with the hardware.
 
i said it was a heat problem and the op corrected me saying it wasn't, then says it might be, now you say it's a heat problem.

*glares at both of you* ;p
 
i said it was a heat problem and the op corrected me saying it wasn't, then says it might be, now you say it's a heat problem.

*glares at both of you* ;p

Did not think it was until we ran it for a day with a cooling bad under it and it was not quite as bad.
 
Not the case. SC2 does rely in GPU a lot too.
'A bit', not a lot. You require only an entry-level desktop GPU to run the game at peak framerates.

SC2 is classified under the "CPU Bound" category for a good reason, as with most RTS games. Once there are a lot of units in play (which will happen a bit into the game) - its the CPU that will be put under stress to keep up to date with all the events and objects in the game. You'll see reviewers often benching SC2 battles when testing CPUs for this reason. (Using a replay or pre-saved battle)

WoW too is under the "CPU Bound" category due to the heavy amounts of combatlog parsing required in when multiple players are gathered.
 
Looks like you might be suffering the same problem that I have been having since October 2011. But don't fear, I have managed to get a bit of a work around.

Here is a link to the lengthy Blizzard support ticket so you can have a read and see if it is the same as your issue.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/ticket/thread/20587916

Basically after everything that I tried, nothing worked. I then thought I would try one more time dropping the graphics settings back to low even though I knew that my computer was running things just fine on High settings.

My computer is iMac 27" i7 3.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 2GB 6970 ATI etc.

Hope this helps.

Xcreet
 
Looks like you might be suffering the same problem that I have been having since October 2011. But don't fear, I have managed to get a bit of a work around.

Here is a link to the lengthy Blizzard support ticket so you can have a read and see if it is the same as your issue.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/ticket/thread/20587916

Basically after everything that I tried, nothing worked. I then thought I would try one more time dropping the graphics settings back to low even though I knew that my computer was running things just fine on High settings.

My computer is iMac 27" i7 3.4GHz, 4GB RAM, 2GB 6970 ATI etc.

Hope this helps.

Xcreet

it said the ticket was unavailable. do you think it is hardware or software. the computer is only a moth old.
 
I think the issue was with the 4gb of RAM, since the game is so CPU intense, more memory may solve the lag.
 
'A bit', not a lot. You require only an entry-level desktop GPU to run the game at peak framerates.

SC2 is classified under the "CPU Bound" category for a good reason, as with most RTS games. Once there are a lot of units in play (which will happen a bit into the game) - its the CPU that will be put under stress to keep up to date with all the events and objects in the game. You'll see reviewers often benching SC2 battles when testing CPUs for this reason. (Using a replay or pre-saved battle)

WoW too is under the "CPU Bound" category due to the heavy amounts of combatlog parsing required in when multiple players are gathered.

I would disagree.
With WoW on medium settings my old X1600 ATI gpu (in my old iMac) was getting a solid 30 fps during heavy raids in cataclysm and wrath. But in Starcraft 2 on total minimum settings I was getting 5 fps. But if there was a lot of Zerg creep around the fps shrunk to 2-3. Totally unplayable.

But on my current "AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB" I have to v-sync high-ultra settings. Cause 100+ fps in SC2 and 200 fps (the WoW cap) is pointless. Cause the screen won't display them.
 
But in Starcraft 2 on total minimum settings I was getting 5 fps.
Congratulations, you discovered that performance requirements can differ from title to title. Starcrafts base GPU requirements are higher, but both games will get 'capped' by CPU performance far more often than GPU in common setups.
I have to v-sync high-ultra settings
Yep, and you'll find the GPU is idling like mad in basically all situations - while the CPU is under significantly more stress.
 
Starcraft 2 hardly comes close to using all the juice of the 2.8 i7 I have in this iMac. But if I had to choose what was more taxed by the game the gpu or the cpu, I'd probably say the cpu by a small margin.

I see your points. Blizzard games have never been HD masterpieces. But that's cause they want a wide playing audience. But my point still stands. That SC2 does use the GPU a lot. But you don't feel it with a modern gpu. Cause it handles it with extreme ease.
 
My understanding of the problem is it has to do with patch 1.4. I've been playing Starcraft 2 on a Mac ever since the game came out, and in the beginning it was great. Sure, most of that was playing on my Macbook, but once I got a top-line iMac, this game gave me an orgasm with its beautiful graphics and everything else that's wonderful about it. It really is different switching from a 13.3" screen to a 27"...

...then patch 1.4 came out. And things just... changed. I wouldn't say the game performs worse across-the-board, patch 1.4 just seems to have limited processing power or whatever during intense moments... that means severe framerate drops during the most crucial moments of battles.

And once again I'll re-emphasize that all these changes coincided with my download of patch 1.4, which is a bad, bad patch for Mac users! :mad:
 
AHAHHA! FUNNY!!!! This is something I get too. It's not an FPS problem, in multiplayer SC2 i get ridiculous lag whereas in CoD or Borderlands I'm absolutely fine with ping as high maybe as 150. Weirdin' me out.
 
I was wondering if you can play starcraft II like you could in starcraft I, just against the computer on multiplayer maps, without having to be on the internet.
 
I was wondering if you can play starcraft II like you could in starcraft I, just against the computer on multiplayer maps, without having to be on the internet.

Yes, you can. When offline, simply go to "custom game" or I think there's a "versus AI" button. Select the map, fill in the AI, and play.
 
I had a similar problem, MacBook Pro Late 2011 i7 2.4, 6770M 4 gb RAM. I am going to upgrade to 8gb this week, hopefully that helps a little bit with it.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.