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This is REALLY weird. ATI Radeon 6750M works better when VH Capture is running.

superkrups20056

superkrups20056

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 14, 2011
54
0
OK, so before I begin, let me say that I've been experimenting with my (probably defective) card on another thread. But today I made a discovery that I think makes this topic deserve its own. First of all, here is the original post:

superkrups20056 said:
Can SOMEONE explain to me why on my 2011 Macbook Pro:

1) Using Bootcamp, I run Starcraft 2 on Medium and low graphics settings (see attached picture file for exact settings), plugged in, and the computer still stutters during the medium AND large battles, almost to the point where it is impossible to micro

  • I am running on 1680x1050 resolution. No external displays.
  • I installed the catalyst 11.3 and 11.4 drivers recently before uninstalling them and opting for the latest boot camp drivers.
  • It seems like everyone else in this thread has got Starcraft 2 to run at much better graphical settings than I have without this stuttering frame rate issue during the huge battles.

2) How people are getting the 1440x900 resolution option on bootcamp when they have a 1680x1050 monitor? Or are they running the game in Mac OSX?

Please help...I'm pretty sure right now the game ran smoother on my 2010 Macbook Pro with the 330M...how I love nVidia drivers...at least they updated monthly and were officially supported by Apple's Boot Camp program.

Thanks so much in advance.

EDIT: I just read Goldsaint's post on the previous page. While I cannot say that I've gotten those high of frame rates on Starcraft II with the 330M, I can say that the frame rates I am getting with the 6750M are MUCH lower than the 330M on similar settings, with both cards NOT overclocked. goldsaint may be right. however. From what I've seen, the 6750M might actually be WORSE for gaming on bootcamp.
Click to expand...

After overclocking the card to 750/950 using the ATI tray tool, I still was not getting much of a difference. The card still SUCKED on boot camp.

However, when I was about to video card capture the experience to show my problem to you guys using VH capture, the framerate jumped to AMAZING settings! I'm talking 60-70 frames per second with Thors blasting away my hydralisks! With some real action happening on the screen, the framerate has never been better...I couldn't believe it!

Then I turned off my VH capture off and went back to the game. The action was still happening, but my framerate dropped to 25-27 FPS...weird, huh?
 

Attachments

  • SC2 graphics settings.PNG
    SC2 graphics settings.PNG
    112.6 KB · Views: 364
Are you sure it's using the 6750 at all times, and not only when you're capturing? Maybe it's using the Intel HD3000 when you are running SC2 by itself.
 
What's funny is I've heard of this happening (not for the 2011 MBP) but issues like this occuring on another laptop I forget. But simply having some other program, I forget atm, helped "boost" a GPU. I wanna say it was on the M11x with WMP. Anyway, it must be some driver problem. I also wonder if it's only SC2 related. Have you tested any other games? I feel Crysis 2 runs very well in bootcamp but I haven't bothered installing SC2 on Windows since I'm happy with it on OSX.

Oh also, run MSI afterburner and see if your clocks are maxing out with and without VH capture. Please report back!
 
I wanted to review and give an exact recount of what happened.

superkrups20056 said:
While plugged in, I was playing a custom game of Starcraft II that I did not care about losing. My opponent had massed thors and was blasting away my Hydralisks. The battle was, as usual, running at 20-25 FPS. But when I started the screen recording, the frame rate jumped to 60-75 FPS I couldn't believe it! Everything was so smooth, and this was in the middle of a huge battle! I've never felt this game work so well before on Boot Camp! I immediately switched all the graphics settings to 'high' and was still achieving around 35-40 FPS! But then when I turned off the screen recording, the frame rate immediately dropped to 15-20 FPS. Switching it back to low and medium graphical settings yielded the basic 20-25 FPS that I always experienced.
Click to expand...

aznguyen316 said:
What's funny is I've heard of this happening (not for the 2011 MBP) but issues like this occuring on another laptop I forget. But simply having some other program, I forget atm, helped "boost" a GPU. I wanna say it was on the M11x with WMP. Anyway, it must be some driver problem. I also wonder if it's only SC2 related. Have you tested any other games? I feel Crysis 2 runs very well in bootcamp but I haven't bothered installing SC2 on Windows since I'm happy with it on OSX.

Oh also, run MSI afterburner and see if your clocks are maxing out with and without VH capture. Please report back!
Click to expand...

OK, so I reinstalled the 11.4 drivers (specifically, I uninstalled current drivers via device manager, rebooted, and then reinstalled 11.4) and the same situation was happening. I do not have Crysis 2, but I encounter the SAME problem when I play League of Legends on anything above Medium settings, so I am really curious to see if Crysis 2 will actually work. According to ATI tray tools, I ran the onscreen display to check out my GPU Activity %.

I set the graphics on all 'High' settings to better notice a difference. During a Thor vs hydralisk battle in Starcraft II,

  • With VH capture recording OFF, the framerate was around 20-25 FPS. The GPU Activity % was 35-40%
  • With VH capture recording ON, the framerate was around 30-45 FPS The GPU activity % was 97-99%
  • All tests were done without any overclocking.
 
ViviUO said:
Why not just play the OSX version?
Click to expand...

I do not like the OSX version because of the mouse acceleration. Plus all of my other games are installed to the Windows side of my computer, and it is the side I generally use most.

aznguyen316 said:
What's funny is I've heard of this happening (not for the 2011 MBP) but issues like this occuring on another laptop I forget. But simply having some other program, I forget atm, helped "boost" a GPU. I wanna say it was on the M11x with WMP. Anyway, it must be some driver problem. I also wonder if it's only SC2 related. Have you tested any other games? I feel Crysis 2 runs very well in bootcamp but I haven't bothered installing SC2 on Windows since I'm happy with it on OSX.

Oh also, run MSI afterburner and see if your clocks are maxing out with and without VH capture. Please report back!
Click to expand...

I did another test with MSI afterburner like you requested! I charted and posted my results below.

  • The tests were done without overclocking the card, as you can probably see.
  • Notice how the GPU Activity jumps dramatically when VH capture is recording the screen.
 

Attachments

  • VH Capture ATI 6750M chart.PNG
    VH Capture ATI 6750M chart.PNG
    43.2 KB · Views: 201
thanks, looks like your core and memory are maxing out fine, but yeah it's funny about GPU usage increase with VH. I'll have to look at my GPU usage % when I play Crysis 2, if I remember it's pretty high. You really have to test other games to see if it's the game or the something else. It very well could also be something within SC2 but you'll have to experiment further to determine that. Good luck!
 
aznguyen316 said:
thanks, looks like your core and memory are maxing out fine, but yeah it's funny about GPU usage increase with VH. I'll have to look at my GPU usage % when I play Crysis 2, if I remember it's pretty high. You really have to test other games to see if it's the game or the something else. It very well could also be something within SC2 but you'll have to experiment further to determine that. Good luck!
Click to expand...

I just tested Portal 1 on the very highest settings without anti-aliasing. I didn't even need to dish out VH Capture!

  • The game ran at 90-120 frames per second with 99% GPU Activity WITHOUT VH Capture recording the screen. However, there was a lot of frame tearing, but the gameplay was smooth.
  • To fix the frame tearing, I turned on VSYNC. This brought the GPU activity down to 49% and the frames per second down to 60 FPS. This is probably what the setting is supposed to do, right?

Does this mean it is a Starcraft II problem?
 
Yes, vsync locks FPS at 30 or 60 so that's okay, it helps your GPU out to not render as many unnecessary frames too.

It's hard to say because Portal 1 is not as intensive as say SC2 is. But if your GPU activity % is even higher than SC2 without VH then maybe it tells you something there. But then again, maybe portal 1 inherently does not need as much GPU activity, I dunno.
 
I tested League of Legends on the highest settings as well, and the GPU activity was not being utilized without VH Capture. It was the same situation as Starcraft II.
 
Hey I installed SC2 on boot camp about an hour ago and ran a really quick test via campaign gameplay. Via MSI afterburner in SC2 I get full 100% GPU usage while in game. So it must be some sort of weird setting you have in Windows? Win 7 64bit ultimate.

Also SC2 runs AMAZING in boot camp, even better than OSX (which is what I kind of expected). I'm importing and will upload the video shortly in the 6750 benchmark thread.
 
aznguyen316 said:
Hey I installed SC2 on boot camp about an hour ago and ran a really quick test via campaign gameplay. Via MSI afterburner in SC2 I get full 100% GPU usage while in game. So it must be some sort of weird setting you have in Windows? Win 7 64bit ultimate.

Also SC2 runs AMAZING in boot camp, even better than OSX (which is what I kind of expected). I'm importing and will upload the video shortly in the 6750 benchmark thread.
Click to expand...

Are you using a 2011 Macbook Pro? Please do post a video. I wonder if it will help if I reinstall windows...
 
superkrups20056 said:
Are you using a 2011 Macbook Pro? Please do post a video. I wonder if it will help if I reinstall windows...
Click to expand...

Yeah specs in sig. GPU is 100% max whenever SC2 is up. When I minimize is the only time the activity drops. Uploading a video now, I'll let you know when it's available =) most likely later in the morning say 10 hours from now. Gonna let it up while I sleep (slow ass DSL upload speeds) blaahh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC3BBehrHmk

around the 4minute mark is when I show MSI afterburner and the GPU activity.
 
Last edited:
Hey guys, a little update on my situation here...it seems to be doing this when I am PLAYING ONLINE. Portal works perfectly, the CAMPAIGN OF STARCRAFT WORKS perfectly, but Starcraft ONLINE and LEAGUE OF LEGENDS online makes the GPU activity lower. Azguyen, can you confirm that your GPU activity works at 100% capacity during an online SC2 match?
 
superkrups20056 said:
Hey guys, a little update on my situation here...it seems to be doing this when I am PLAYING ONLINE. Portal works perfectly, the CAMPAIGN OF STARCRAFT WORKS perfectly, but Starcraft ONLINE and LEAGUE OF LEGENDS online makes the GPU activity lower. Azguyen, can you confirm that your GPU activity works at 100% capacity during an online SC2 match?
Click to expand...

I will have to test when I get a chance as bootcamp for SC2 is not my main option =)
 
Was there any fix other then running that screen recording software while playing games?

I get this problem too in League of Legends on bootcamp but in not in OSX (hate the mouse acceleration in games though)
 
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