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Mac graphical slowdown (Starcraft 2)
Talka
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been having a weird problem with my Macbook Pro.
When I play Starcraft 2, I'm capable of playing about five minutes on high graphical level settings. After that point, I get immense slowdown and the game becomes unplayable even on low graphical settings.
What might cause a game to slowdown like that after five minutes of play? I'm thinking maybe there's confusion going on with the two video cards the MBP is supposed to switching between, but I can't think of a way to see which cards are running when (I've enabled the option to always use the higher-end one, but who knows if that's happening).
Any ideas what might cause something like this?
When I play Starcraft 2, I'm capable of playing about five minutes on high graphical level settings. After that point, I get immense slowdown and the game becomes unplayable even on low graphical settings.
What might cause a game to slowdown like that after five minutes of play? I'm thinking maybe there's confusion going on with the two video cards the MBP is supposed to switching between, but I can't think of a way to see which cards are running when (I've enabled the option to always use the higher-end one, but who knows if that's happening).
Any ideas what might cause something like this?
Talka on
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Secondly, make sure that you Macbook isn't overheating - otherwise it might throttle the CPU resulting in performance loss. (You can clearly hear the fans kicking in overdrive and becoming really audible) - flat surface gurantees that your machine doesn't heat up.
According to some reviews the Windows version of SCII is less problematic and has better performance. If you have Windows/Bootcamp installed it is worth a try.
Try avoiding tabbing out of the mac version, the game might show some odd behaviour (if this isn't patched already).
Some solutions right now:
1) Downgrade to 10.6.3, but I wouldn't recommend it.
2) Wait for 10.6.5 which has just been leaked to developers and hope it includes a fix for this issue.
3) Install Windows with Boot Camp and download the latest drivers for your card.
The Windows option might be the best one if you want to enjoy the game on higher settings right now. Remember that you can install as many versions of the game on as many computers as you want, as long as you only log into your Battle.net account on one computer at a time.
Nintendo Network ID: PhysiMarc
1. Bootcamp. Not because you have to (side note: I wish more publishers would release dual PC/Mac releases; I think with Steam we'll see more of this) but the drivers in XP/Vista/7 actually properly regulate fan speed and thus control temperature.
2. Grab a 3rd-party utility for manually setting your fan speed. I haven't tried this, but people say it works: http://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/
Switch to the Geforce 9400m.
Maybe there's a memory leak with the 9600 GT drivers or something, but for one reason or another the lower end graphics card in my Macbook Pro is rock solid. I have to keep the settings low but the FPS count is higher and more stable than my 9600 GT was on low settings. I'm hoping that Apple/nVidia fix this post haste, because it looks much better on the 9600.
This has been the case for any games which make lots of use of Pixel Shaders (3.0). Noteable exceptions are Team Fortress and HL2.