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Starcraft 2 Unplayable - 2011 MBP 15" 6750m - wtf...

B

Bossboss

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
50
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Check this out.. Regardless of what video settings I have on for Starcraft 2, the game stutters along, freezing every 3-5 seconds for about 1-2 seconds. All is fine and dandy, 50-60 fps, then 0... just stops.

In case you were wondering, the video settings are a mixture of Medium to Ultra, nothing that would be overkill for this system. Brand new 2011 15" 2.2 with the 6750m gpu.

I am running SC2 on OS X. This stutter does not happen on bootcamp Win7.

I opened activity monitor and as I'm playing i notice the cpu % hover around 130%, then during times it is freezing it drops to like the 20% then spikes back up. Looks like its just constantly hitting 130% then halting, then 130% then halting.

Anyone else have this problem, this is driving me nuts!!!!

Just started happening since this past "update" to 10.6.7...

-Boss
 
Hmm I play on all Ultra and the game runs fine. It staggers at some points but I only have 4GB of RAM. If I added another 4GB, I'm sure there will be more allocated to the VRAM as virtual memory.

But I haven't played since I updated to 10.6.7. I'll check it out tonight or tomorrow and get back to the thread.
 
The fact that it doesn't happen in win7 bootcamp at least means you don't have any hardware issues. The drivers are still new to os x and the kinks will eventually get worked out. I have the same Mac and the same issue occurs here and there. Price of early adopter in combination with pressing the machine. Kinda sucks, but at least a software update should resolve it eventually.
 
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I haven't dared to play everything in Ultra yet even with 8 gigs of ram. Like you said, stutters, dropped frames, random blackouts, etc. Keeping it on Medium for most settings has been fine. I guess until I can play a real game on Ultra, i won't know what I'm missing.
 
I have base model 15" (with the 6490m) and I can play SC2 on Medium/Ultra. However, I noticed after 10.6.7, the game lags a lot right when a match starts. On 10.6.6, I was able to go from the loading screen to the game very smoothly. On 10.6.7, my frame rates drop to 0 after the match loads, and my game freezes for a few seconds before I can select my workers, etc.
 
KJmoon117 said:
Hmm I play on all Ultra and the game runs fine. It staggers at some points but I only have 4GB of RAM. If I added another 4GB, I'm sure there will be more allocated to the VRAM as virtual memory.

But I haven't played since I updated to 10.6.7. I'll check it out tonight or tomorrow and get back to the thread.
Click to expand...
The Vram is locked in for performance reasons using a physical connection. Added more system memory won't affect the video card. That could only be true for an integrated video card and even then the performance would still be pretty low.
 
Only thing I can think of is I got this weird laggy pause every so often when I had an external tv connected via MDP but it was turned off. I kept getting this funky input lag that bothered the hell out of me. Finally I did some trouble shooting, turned the tv on and let the displays figure itself out and it went away! Then I turned the tv back off and the system lag every 3-4 sec occurred again. So yeah I just disconnected the external monitor when I'm not using it. Is this normal? lol
 
that's strange as I've read that many people can run at high/ultra at playable frame rates with the new mbp... i wonder if the update had something to do with it?

i was really hoping i wouldn't have to use windows for sc2 :(
 
tosehee said:
are you using external monitor?
Click to expand...

No, laptop screen only - hi-res. I have 4gb ram now, tomorrow my 8gb kit arrives so I'll check to see if it is choppy with that - but I doubt that will help.

All I can do now is do some more testing... If all else fails, looks like all my games will have to run from bootcamp. :mad:
 
DustinT said:
The Vram is locked in for performance reasons using a physical connection. Added more system memory won't affect the video card. That could only be true for an integrated video card and even then the performance would still be pretty low.
Click to expand...

I haven't checked yet. It's been a very busy day today.

@DustinT: That's a shame... Damn, I was just getting used to playing it on Ultra but the slight choppiness is something I can't put up with during multiplayer. Such a shame that I can't improve the performance of the Gfx card with RAM.
 
KJmoon117 said:
I haven't checked yet. It's been a very busy day today.

@DustinT: That's a shame... Damn, I was just getting used to playing it on Ultra but the slight choppiness is something I can't put up with during multiplayer. Such a shame that I can't improve the performance of the Gfx card with RAM.
Click to expand...

let me know when you have a chance to check.. Playing SC2 is like watching a slide-show. Brand new computer too, hardly any apps. Going to wipe clean and fresh install to see if the gameplay is better pre 10.6.7.

wish me luck. otherwise its windows 7
 
Im running the Hi-res version...

I cannot play Sc2 on ultra. I'm running medium graphics settings...

I define playable at 60 fps.

For those playing Ultra, what framerate are you getting? Are you setting everything maxed??
 
Bossboss said:
Check this out.. Regardless of what video settings I have on for Starcraft 2, the game stutters along, freezing every 3-5 seconds for about 1-2 seconds. All is fine and dandy, 50-60 fps, then 0... just stops.

In case you were wondering, the video settings are a mixture of Medium to Ultra, nothing that would be overkill for this system. Brand new 2011 15" 2.2 with the 6750m gpu.

I am running SC2 on OS X. This stutter does not happen on bootcamp Win7.

I opened activity monitor and as I'm playing i notice the cpu % hover around 130%, then during times it is freezing it drops to like the 20% then spikes back up. Looks like its just constantly hitting 130% then halting, then 130% then halting.

Anyone else have this problem, this is driving me nuts!!!!

Just started happening since this past "update" to 10.6.7...

-Boss
Click to expand...

I have the same problem, I have the same computer and it runs ultra on windows fine but runs crap on medium on osx
 
darkeartg said:
I have the same problem, I have the same computer and it runs ultra on windows fine but runs crap on medium on osx
Click to expand...

at least i know its not just me. be back in a few hrs with results from a fresh osx install. hate to do it but it has come down to this.
 
I have no problem.

I played Starcraft 2 on Ultra with AMD 6750M and no problem for a while. I played campaign however... and Starcraft II 1.3.0 Patch came out. So maybe those two have something to do with it but I got no freezes what so ever.

As for FPS.

On campaign mode with the characters and etc. Armory/etc. I get 5-10 FPS. It's bearable and it's worth it for the looks I think. Gameplay, I get around 17-25 FPS and it's playable for sure.

I think more RAM might improve gameplay slightly. I looked at iStat and even though I have nothing but Starcraft running, I only have around 20MB of free RAM. But does anyone know if the AMD 6750M borrow RAM from system memory? Because damn, I can't decide between having extremely smooth gameplay or having very nice visuals.
 
SC2 is playable on Medium in massive Multiplayer with way over 30 FPS...

But i have a strange problem: on high the fps is also quit playable, but as protoss i got only around 20-30 fps when i am in building mode (when the blue circles are shown around pylons).

can anyone confirm that there is a massive fps degrease? (from 60 fps to 20 fps).
 
Update:

I formatted and reinstalled OS X, then installed sc2 and played a few games.

NO more stuttering, just nice smooth gameplay at high fps with the same settings as I had before. :D:D:D

Now I'm going to upgrade to 10.6.7 and re-run what I just did.. Will post results.

Then I will start installing apps one by one and checking the gameplay.
 
I run my 2.3GHZ 15" hires on "High" settings and it runs well at 1680x1050 using the laptop screen. when using my 1080p external monitor, i run it at 1600x900 and its great. 1920x1080 is too much
 
Bossboss said:
Update:

I formatted and reinstalled OS X, then installed sc2 and played a few games.

NO more stuttering, just nice smooth gameplay at high fps with the same settings as I had before. :D:D:D

Now I'm going to upgrade to 10.6.7 and re-run what I just did.. Will post results.

Then I will start installing apps one by one and checking the gameplay.
Click to expand...

Weird. Everything seems to be working fine now. A fresh install fixed the problem... Installed the same apps and updates as I had before too...
 
My guess is that 10.6.7 broke the auto switch of HD3000 -> 6750M, so you were playing under the HD3000. Reinstalling it seemed to fix it.
 
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I also have experienced the 3-5 sec stuttering. It's not reliably reproducible, and I can't pin it down to a clear cause. I have the high end 15" with 8gb samsung ram (impulse buy...) running on an ext monitor 1900x1200. Next time it happens I'll use one of the clients to tell which mode of graphics card is running
 
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