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

Starcraft 2 Lags Everything Else...

F

Finox831

macrumors member
Original poster
Every time I open Starcraft2 in window mode and I try to tab to a web page or skype or even when I type it's all super laggy, like when I type It will take forever for it to even register and when I open a page it will lag a lot (will take a few seconds to even open) pretty much making it impossible to do anything else unless I close SC2. Has anyone else had this problem? what could I possibly do to fix this?

Thanks in advance.
 
There's nothing really wrong with your CPU and nothing you can really do to "fix" that. If you have a system monitor app like iStat, you'll see that StarCraft II takes up a lot of the CPU. The only thing that would get you past the "lagging" is to get a faster computer.
 
Thing is, it actually happens randomly. For example, right now I'm tabbed out of SC2 and typing this and It's not lagging at all but then other times It will be super laggy. (All i have is skype & SC2 opened)
 
well then lets eliminate

processor speed?

amount of ram?

sound slieka ram issue soyu have 2 programs runnign and its fine but if you open up 4 or more and it starts lagging you just need more system memory
 
TopHatPlus said:
well then lets eliminate

processor speed?

amount of ram?

sound slieka ram issue soyu have 2 programs runnign and its fine but if you open up 4 or more and it starts lagging you just need more system memory
Click to expand...

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Memory: 4 GB

I'm new with macs and I don't know how to find the amount of RAM my mac book has, but I can tell you it's one of the newer mac book pros, bought it just a few weeks ago.

Also, I can open any amount of programs I want at times without lagging then other times it will be very laggy (that's with me opening the same amount of programs)
 
Finox831 said:
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Memory: 4 GB

I'm new with macs and I don't know how to find the amount of RAM my mac book has, but I can tell you it's one of the newer mac book pros, bought it just a few weeks ago.

Also, I can open any amount of programs I want at times without lagging then other times it will be very laggy (that's with me opening the same amount of programs)
Click to expand...

hmmm well its very simple click the apple on the top left and select "about this mac" the opening box should have most of your info for technicals select more info.

it should be fine but SC2 is a massive programs to know how your mac is running with your programs you have 2 options

1 dl the istat pro widget for your dashboard which will tell you how much ran you are using, all disked connect, and the temps of your components its a very very useful widget

2 open finder
go into applications
select utilities
open activity monitor (same as istat but much less info)
look under system memory that is your ram and it will show you what you are using for your programs


these will help you huge i diagnosed that i needed more ram, and although you do have lots of ram and i am assuming its 1066 so its fast it may just not be enough for some of the big big programs
 
happens to me too when i play sc2. i like to play in a window sometimes and if i literally do anything else (mainly type in a webpage in safari), its laggy as hell. must be an sc2 bug, because WoW, sc1, war3x, and diablo 2 are just fine.

im running 10.6.3 (not 10.6.4 because of the bad nvidia drivers), 500GB momentus XT with the updated firmware, and a 15" mbp with core i7.
 
If things are taking time to open, then it's most likely your cpu being pushed to the extreme, and can't handle any more.

However, osx has problems with its current gpu drivers and proper utilization of vram bandwidth, so having a game open while doing other stuff (even with a quad core nehalem cpu) will give you choppy workflow.
 
Uhh... you realize that all the games you mentioned are many years old right? Starcraft 2 pushes even the latest macbook pros to their limits. Running it in OSX is another setback.

I don't know what campaigns you are in, but I can't imagine taking a breather for web surfing during SC2.
 
Finox831 said:
Every time I open Starcraft2 in window mode and I try to tab to a web page or skype or even when I type it's all super laggy...
Click to expand...

Running games in windowed mode is always slower because the system can't dedicate to just one application. Try FS, you'll get better performance, or try lowering textures, etc, if you're windowed.
 
Don't forget disk access. For me I've found lags mainly occur when a time machine backup kicks off while I'm playing. I'll check activity monitor and while cpu is high, the disk activity looks to be the culprit.
 
1. You stated that you have 4gb of memory, but don't know how to check how much RAM you have. Its the same thing 🙂

2. You will have better luck running the game in Windows via bootcamp.

3. If you've gotta run it in OSX and want to also be able to multi-task you may want to upgrade to 6 or 8gb of RAM. If the problem isn't the performance of the apps when they are open, but the actual speed of the apps opening then you should upgrade to a 7200rpm drive or even an SSD.
 
saniko said:
Uhh... you realize that all the games you mentioned are many years old right? Starcraft 2 pushes even the latest macbook pros to their limits. Running it in OSX is another setback.

I don't know what campaigns you are in, but I can't imagine taking a breather for web surfing during SC2.
Click to expand...

i know i listed old games. many other "recent" games didnt lag osx this bad as sc2. its just interesting that sc2 will literally bring osx down to its knees while playing. as i said, just need to wait for updated drivers from apple and for blizzard to update sc2.
 
haha you guys wanna see how tamed osx is?
this is my 2007 2.16 ghz 4 gb ram 160 gb hdd with 64mb gma 950 gpu

Screenshot2010-07-29at53854PM.png



hahah it took em 20 minutes for my computer to minimize the screen so i could exit it >_< haha but the audio sounded pretty good =D
 
I did a bit of playing around to get my Steam games and SC2 to work, but honestly I only found bootcamp to be the only proper solution.

I believe as I have read that 1 problem is 10.6.4 not giving enough juice to the Graphics card. Unfortunately 10.6.3 was not much better.

The problem may also be somewhere between the OpenGL and GeForce drivers required for each operating system.

Hope you find a solution though 🙂
 
In Windows, setting the graphics option to "Windowed - Full Screen" makes alt-tabbing instantaneous. I haven't installed it in OSX due to ***** 10.6.4.
 
I have the same issue and I don't think its the fault of my mac pro. I have an intel ssd, 8gig ram and 2,8ghz Octocore. iStat shows that I am nowhere near full capacity while SC2 is open but it still causes strange lag to the computer even during simply tasks like browsing.
 
whoooaaahhhh said:
Running games in windowed mode is always slower because the system can't dedicate to just one application. Try FS, you'll get better performance, or try lowering textures, etc, if you're windowed.
Click to expand...

Not true. Windows behaves this way, but in OS X all that happens is the window border disappears and the window is enlarged to fit the entire screen.

Try updating the computer to 10.6.4 now, with the new graphic drivers. Also, this could be caused by your macbook over heating and throttling the CPU, or trying to write to the HDD.
 
iLog.Genius said:
There's nothing really wrong with your CPU and nothing you can really do to "fix" that. If you have a system monitor app like iStat, you'll see that StarCraft II takes up a lot of the CPU. The only thing that would get you past the "lagging" is to get a faster computer.
Click to expand...

negative. I have the same problem and i'm running on a 17" i7 8GB.
SCII only uses ~20% on each core on mine and bout 3gb ram
 
Seriously. wtf

Never run games in window mode it messes up the performance.

Starcraft 2 can seriously max out your system and video ram and lets face it you are using a macbook to run it on.

most likely the 256mb video ram model which is pathetic my desktop has 2GB

Not to mention the HD cant cope since that is a huge bottleneck!

what your trying to achieve is unreasonabe thats all
 
pandamonia said:
Seriously. wtf

Never run games in window mode it messes up the performance.

Starcraft 2 can seriously max out your system and video ram and lets face it you are using a macbook to run it on.

most likely the 256mb video ram model which is pathetic my desktop has 2GB

Not to mention the HD cant cope since that is a huge bottleneck!

what your trying to achieve is unreasonabe thats all
Click to expand...

Did you even read my post? The system stutter it causes is not a performance issue. It is some sort of bug.
 
chuckflip53 said:
Bootcamp for the win! I didn't even bother installing this game on my OSX partition 😛
Click to expand...

I installed portal and sc2 on osx just because I'm too lazy to switch back and forth sometimes. I don't even really play video games anymore. Rather be doing something else honestly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back