Starcraft – Why does Starcraft 2 keep telling me to lower the graphics settings or close other applications

starcraft-2

I'm running a (new) 2010 Macbook Pro with:

  • A Core i7 2.66 Ghz Processor
  • 8GB Ram
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M Graphics Card

Is it really possible that it can't handle the "high" graphics settings on Starcraft II? It's particularly confusing since I'm using all the "recommended" graphics settings – the game seems to think my computer can handle it, but then while I"m playing, it'll pop up a message suggesting I turn down the settings or close other programs.

It doesn't appear to just be a bad message – the game does seem to slow a bit right after it pops up.

I've closed everything open in the dock, and disabled time capsule. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Best Answer

The nVidia GT 330M isn't really a gaming graphics card; it definitely has trouble with recent games like Bad Company 2. In-game benchmarks for the 330M show the performance of the chip in a lot of fairly recent games, and you can see for yourself that it doesn't really do well in high settings for most games. The PassMark benchmark for the 330M shows that the 330M isn't competitive on par even with current mid-market graphics cards like the GTX460.

As a comparison, my laptop has an ATI 4670HD (772 PassMark vs the 330M's 479 PassMark), 8GB RAM and a Core2Duo@2.66GHz, and it has trouble handling the game on medium at 1920x1080.

I hate to say it, but you're more or less out of luck trying to get Starcraft 2 to perform on a laptop on high settings unless you've forked out for something that advertises itself as a gaming laptop.

I've also heard that performance of Starcraft 2 under OSX is abysmal; it might be worth your while getting bootcamp running with Windows to see if that gives you a bit of a performance boost.

Summary: settle for lower settings, try installing Windows under Bootcamp.

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