Why can't I run Starcraft II on ultra?

[Kasceis]

My system specs:
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8 GHz
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 1600
XFX HD 5870 1 GB DDR5 (with latest drivers 10.7a)
Windows 7 64-bit
Samsung XL2370 LED 1080p

I run everything on Ultra except for the following(at work so can't check exactly, 2 are on low and 1 other is on medium)
Shadows: Low
Lighting: Low
something else: medium(not ultra)

I see people with far less specs and run everything on ultra.. whats the deal here?

 

[RobBosman]

You mean the settings are pre-set at these or that your computer doesn't run the game smootly if you set them higher?
If the first option, just adjust them to a higher setting of your choice.

 

[kaitheus]

Your setup should be able to tear through SC2 with no problems what so ever, if anything try re-installing your drivers, Sound,Video etc etc. If that doesn't work then either the games having trouble an needs to be re-installed or Blizzard needs to patch there game, and if it is the ATI driver there most likely have a hotfix for is as at the moment ATI cards don't have AA in SC2.

 

[cuecuemore]

My system specs:
Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8 GHz
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB DDR3 1600
XFX HD 5870 1 GB DDR5 (with latest drivers 10.7a)
Windows 7 64-bit
Samsung XL2370 LED 1080p

I run everything on Ultra except for the following(at work so can't check exactly, 2 are on low and 1 other is on medium)
Shadows: Low
Lighting: Low
something else: medium(not ultra)

I see people with far less specs and run everything on ultra.. whats the deal here?

It depends what you mean by "can't run Starcraft II on ultra." If it is unplayable at these settings, the above posters have the solution for you. If you mean that you get 35-45 fps but not 60+, this article is uncannily close to identifying your exact problem.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...CPU-benchmarks-x-Core-i5/i7-leading/Practice/

What it comes down to is that SC2 is currently a CPU whore-- even mid-level GPUs can be bottlenecked by top-of-the-line CPUs due to Blizzard's current code optimization (or, more appropriately, the utter lack thereof).

The folks at Legion overclocked the crap out of an Intel Core i7 965 EE (4 cores, 3.2 Ghz-->3.7 Ghz!!!) and ran 6 GB DDR3 to ensure not CPU bottlenecking in their benchmark,

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/starcraft_ii_wings_of_liberty_beta_performance,1.html

whereas the beta bench performed at Tom's used the Core i7 920 and, well, got raped by bottlenecks.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/blizzard-entertainment-starcraft-ii-benchmark,2611-4.html

I am hoping that Blizzard will release CPU optimizations soon, especially for quad-core processors.

 

[kaitheus]

It depends what you mean by "can't run Starcraft II on ultra." If it is unplayable at these settings, the above posters have the solution for you. If you mean that you get 35-45 fps but not 60+, this article is uncannily close to identifying your exact problem.

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,...CPU-benchmarks-x-Core-i5/i7-leading/Practice/

What it comes down to is that SC2 is currently a CPU whore-- even mid-level GPUs can be bottlenecked by top-of-the-line CPUs due to Blizzard's current code optimization (or, more appropriately, the utter lack thereof).

The folks at Legion overclocked the crap out of an Intel Core i7 965 EE (4 cores, 3.2 Ghz-->3.7 Ghz!!!) and ran 6 GB DDR3 to ensure not CPU bottlenecking in their benchmark,

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/starcraft_ii_wings_of_liberty_beta_performance,1.html

whereas the beta bench performed at Tom's used the Core i7 920 and, well, got raped by bottlenecks.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/blizzard-entertainment-starcraft-ii-benchmark,2611-4.html

I am hoping that Blizzard will release CPU optimizations soon, especially for quad-core processors.

Actually I have noticed that SC2 seems to be more of a GPU hog then a CPU hog O_O, as my GPU temps goto 55c while my CPUs at a pretty constant 38-43c pointing to its more GPU oriented then CPU (More Load on the GPU=more Heat and Less Load on the CPU= less Heat :O) and to note I have everything set as high as it can go an the game plays great. An for all we know SC2 may perform better on AMD systems then Intel systems for some reason who knows ?

 

[cuecuemore]

Sorry, my previous was the worst post ever. What it comes down to is that for some reason SC2 is not quad-core optimized, leaving folks with four cores running background system services on two cores and the game on two others, often resulting in gpu bottlenecking.

@Kaitheus: Wow, CPU peaks at 43C, and a dual-core too, quite jealous.

 

[kaitheus]

Sorry, my previous was the worst post ever. What it comes down to is that for some reason SC2 is not quad-core optimized, leaving folks with four cores running background system services on two cores and the game on two others, often resulting in gpu bottlenecking.

@Kaitheus: Wow, CPU peaks at 43C, and a dual-core too, quite jealous.

lol That's only in SC2 that its like that, in games like Crysis it'll hit around 52c. But my 4890OC never go's over 55-57c even in ME2, DAO and Crysis . Keeping my room temp at about 22-25c helps ALOT :O. Hopefully there release a patch or driver that better optimizes SC2 on quad an six core CPUs as I em planing on getting an X6 soon lol.

 

[Kasceis]

The game runs fine. Its just odd that it says its recommended on low. Also, how do you check the FPS while I am playing SC2?

 

[Shirosaki]

you can run shaders in ultra.

Low is for I think 128mb, you have 1gb which is what it says ultra should have for shaders.

You should just change everything to ultra or max and play it from there. Don't pay attention to what it recommends.

DL Fraps if you want to check your FPS in game.

 

[kaitheus]

I agree Fraps and Xfire can both monitor your ingame FPS I use them both :O lolz. Xfire can even display the time if you wanted it too . You can set everything to ultra with your systems setup btw lol
I'm playing SC2 on full ultra an my FPS is just fine, sure I get a few FPS dips here an there but thats expected with my aging CPU.

 

[Aoebil]

Hey i got a question. I'm pretty new to computers and I know my system is nothing special. I have:
Intel 2.66 dual core (cant remember exact model)
2GB DDR2 667 RAM
GeForce 8800GTX
IDE 500 GB HD

I know that's relatively weak and it's an older machine, but in all my graphics settings it suggests Ultra except for a few (shaders, lighting). I can't even get above 20 fps on everything low (in 2v2+ and big campaign missions). I don't understand why it would suggest that to me but run so slow. What can I do to increase my fps? Get a completely new rig? lol

 

[Shirosaki]

You don't need a new rig. You could just buy a new video card. I had a similar setup to yours. Does your game sort of lag at the beginning when you play a map? If so you might want to get 2 more gigs of ram on top of a new video card so the game runs more smoothly. If there is no slow down issues or anything, then just a new video card would do.

What kind of OS do you have? 32 bit or 64 bit?

 

[Aoebil]

Oh yeah I forgot, my OS is Windows 7 32-bit. And I just got a new video card. It should be more than enough to run the game on low .... I would think. I keep reading that the game is dependant on my cpu. And I bought mine 4 years ago and its only dual core...

 

[Aoebil]

I figured it out. I thought my cpu was dual core. After some investigation, it turns out that it's only a single core. The guy who built my rig for me duped me lol. But that's what the problem is. Is it a bad idea to buy a use/refurbished cpu on the internet?

 

[kaitheus]

I figured it out. I thought my cpu was dual core. After some investigation, it turns out that it's only a single core. The guy who built my rig for me duped me lol. But that's what the problem is. Is it a bad idea to buy a use/refurbished cpu on the internet?

Would help to know exactly what motherboard you have and most have there name or model on the board in big bold lettering so it shouldn't be hard to locate .

Example would be: 790XT G45 etc etc its usually between the PCI or PCI-E slots.

 

[jawn]

Just manualy change the settings. I have a phenom II 550, and a Radeon 4870, and I can run everything ultra.

 

[chobocolin]

I run everything on Ultra except for the following(at work so can't check exactly, 2 are on low and 1 other is on medium)
Shadows: Low
Lighting: Low
something else: medium(not ultra)

Same thing here


I am using a e6500 2.93 OC to 3.2 ghz
saphire vapor-x 5770 1gb
3 gb of ram
bad brand 550w psu


I run sc2 at 1600 by 1050

WHen I click the reset to default in the stacraft2 option It put everything to ultra exept 1 thing to high ( I think it's texture)
For now this is normal...

then I drag my mouse to
Shadows: Sugested Low


Lighting: sugested Low


something else sugested medium.

lol ? By default set to utlra but it sugest to put at low.

And what is even crazier is that I do not have the option to put Shadows at low. I only have the meium/high/ultra option

When playing, I was having some fps drop down for 1 sec and seemes like a lag but I could see the fps down to 14
then goes back to 50 fps.This was disturbing me .So I decided to put


Shadows: medium
Lighting: Low
and the other one to : medium
Fps goes up to 105 at the begining

and now the game run really good

I also had some light problems in one of the battle.net 1v1 league map
When I was playing there was some kind of fast lightning in the midle of the screen

now They are gone.

 

[jerreece]

I figured it out. I thought my cpu was dual core. After some investigation, it turns out that it's only a single core. The guy who built my rig for me duped me lol. But that's what the problem is. Is it a bad idea to buy a use/refurbished cpu on the internet?

It's probably a Pentium 4 or Pentium D with Hyperthreading (HT), which makes it ACT like a dual-core in SPECIFIC SOFTWARE. Games however, do not use HT at all. Could be they mislead you, or frankly that they didn't understand what they were selling.

 

[smile9999]

this games doesnt need an ultra rig to play on ultra(yeah I liked that rhyme lol), for me I am running this specson 1920x1080:
phenom II x4 965@3.8
corsair 4 GB ram
ATI radeon 5850@stock
windows 7 64

I get from 45 to 50 FPS most of the time thats on ultra and also the recommended settings before I changed anything was ultra

 

[masky007]

I have MSI 460 HAWK talon attack 1GB even core clocked @ 930MHz the game still laggs when the lightning and shadow ar at ultra, if my memory serves me well than i think this is a problem due the shader clock speed of the graphic card.

Only for lightning -- damn blizzard - they were always the best known as releasing the best optimized game ever - but this is a glitch for them - lightning and shadow should not consume so much processing power EVER especially not for a strategy based game like SCII! I hope they will patch this issue and i believe that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey