I’ve been searching a bit, but couldn’t quite find what specs are required to run SC2/Coop on Ultra, so I could compare my system.
My system is i7 4720HQ and 970m, which is much higher than what the official Blizzard website says is recommended, but fps drops a lot when playing, so clearly it’s not quite enough, but I am very curious how much more one would need
Here are my specs:
I generally experience no lag at all playing on Ultra settings. Stetmann lags only when he goes full infestor (didn’t try that yet after the last patch), but even then it’s manageable. Hope this helps.
Did you launched the 32bit client (option in the battlenet launcher)? The 32bit client should be better even when your system can run 64bit.
The game isn’t even meant to be played on high video quality on the competitive level, because it is way HARDER to identify units from the background the higher shadow detail you have chosen. You want the units to be easily spotted and low shadow quality achieve that.
This is not an fps where you want eye candy. It is a strategy game which the appearances of each piece (units) are irrelevant as long as you can distinguish them clearly.
High video quality may make replays more epic to watch, but it hurts the actual gameplay when you play on these settings.
Well the recommended specs don’t account for all situations and are mostly based around multiplayer and campaign since coop wasn’t around when the minimum specs were decided. However, in theory those specs should be fine. Your GPU should hold up nicely for StarCraft but StarCraft even at ultra is single core CPU intensive. I think what is happening is that since you are using a laptop/notebook since those are laptop CPUs and GPUs, it heats up a lot more which causes you CPU to decrease in how many instructions per second it can do. Your CPU in theory can reach 3.4 - 3.6 giga hertz but I think that it is bottlenecking itself due to heat so doing a lot less. Try checking CPU temperature and how many instructions per second it is doing when your in StarCraft 2 coop.
That CPU blows mine out the water, that might be it. So many people say SC2 is CPU heavy, as it uses only 1-2 cores.
I did read about this. What I’m curious about is why the 32bit is supposed to run better ^^
(I’ll try it anyway, thanks!)
I guess I just like the eye candy luls, I don’t play super duper competitively, although maybe for Brutations I could reduce the graphics xD
I’ll try that, only thing is I believe when I’m running this stuff on a 2nd monitor lag generally get worse
Will this affect graphics/detail quality if we boot up in 32bit version? Mine seems to run fine the normal way but late game (esp with Stetmann) I will drop down to around 10-15 fps when I start the game with 60-65 normally.
This is the first I’ve heard about the above. Interesting.
I don’t really understand how having a high shadow detail will make enemy units somehow blurred or foggy etc…? Not sure exactly what you mean by this.
Sidenote: Apparently shadow detail (or shaders?) will make your fps drop a lot?
Shadow calculations tend to be hard work, so then it can lead to you losing fps when the CPU processor can’t handle all the work it has to do fast enough
Shades in 3D is essentially combining multiple layers of rendered picture. A layer of “shade” is placed on top of the primary render to simulate the effect of light source, so the shade layer is independently rendered, and then combined to the original image (usually by subtracting that dim specific parts of the picture as rendered on the shade layer). Because it is creating another layer and combining, it will take a toll on the video memory bandwidth and 2D processing power of the GPU.
Hmm, interesting.
I wonder if updating my GPU will give a better overall SC2 experience than updating my CPU (which would req a new AM4 mobo).
Currently use Radeon RX 470 but I think that’s outdated now and I’m not sure if there is anything much better for AM3+ mobos.
Figure it might be best to use wait and update the mobo/cpu/gpu all at once when I have a larger chunk of $$$ to spend.
And how much RAM? SC2 seems like having a lot! Also, what resolution are you running at?
Though the biggest issue I see is laptop processor + GPU. Intel speeds given for single core are instantaneous, not sustained. Sustained CPU+GPU is probably causing your laptop to throttle. Have you tried graphing CPU & GPU usage (temp, speed, etc) while gaming?
Are you perhaps using this laptop: https://www.anandtech.com/show/8971/the-2015-razer-blade-review/4
I’m on an RX480 8GB at the moment and not seeing lag except some Stetmann matches, like mass infestor with Kerri mass ling.
I play at a video game lounge, so never had to sweat the specs. Run at 2500x1440 resolution, with IIRC all other settings at medium high?
Did look up the following:
video card: RTX 2060
monitor: BenQ ZOWIE 144Hz monitors at 2K resolution
overclocked DDR4 RAM speeds
Solid state drives
Except for “Stetlag”, almost never had issues with lag. Even with Stukov pumping out mass Infested walkers.
I have a six year old laptop with an i7 4700HQ, a GTX 750m and a SATA SSD, which was fine for playing WoL and HotS but started to suffer so much lag after patch 3.0 that I switched to a gaming PC. 1v1 was still OK, but 4v4 and Co-op mutations had fps in the single digits. As others have said, the main problem with laptops is limited cooling capacity. You have a common ventilator slot for the graphic card and CPU, which means that if you increase your graphics resolution, you’ll get so much heat that you throttle your CPU, which is the most important part for playing SC2.
So I’m sorry to say that you’ll probably need a better computer for running SC2, preferably a desktop with a fast CPU. It’s actually a good time to build a new system: the new AMD CPUs are coming out in less than a month. I’d probably go for a Ryzen 5 3600X, which at 4.4 GHz is already pretty good, and should have enough overclocking headroom to hit 4.8-5.0 GHz. From my experience, 2 cores at 4.8 GHz can handle anything Starcraft related, even the Stukov-Stetmann duo. As for the graphics card, anything above a gtx 1060 is enough for maxed-out Ultra settings.
You don’t need to add a second monitor as that would add lag. Just download a CPU temp and clock speed checker and just open it mid game.
Yup, that’s also the direction I’d recommend. My CPU is a Ryzen 7 2700X - the extra cores are great for my work, but not needed for SC2. That R5 3600X should easily beat mine @ SC2.
For future reference: found on custom games creating forum that the main culprit is unit collision and path-finding calculations, and the fact most games are played on fastest increasing the rate of those calculations - which custom maps have potentially a work around for, but I digress.
These calculations are performed on single thread of cpu apparently, so in terms of buying an upgrade for your pc, you need to look into that first and foremost.
Tl;dr: to fix huge lag spikes in endgame, faster single-thread cpu performance is required.
Lock this thread already, Mod. It’s been a year since this is necro’d out… lolz. And especially it’s on a topic about hardware performance… after a year, I imagine the answer will be very different still (minus the “get the top end set up comment”).
Thread is still relevant, we’ve had this lag problem for a decade, the engine is still the same as it was a year ago and hardware barely changed.
Anyway, it’s definitely CPU and not graphics. Mostly the garbage unoptimized pathfinding algorithm that’s an embarrassment in a Blizzard product.
Just a few days ago I played Stukov on Malwarfare. Solid 60 fps. Then a suppression tower popped up and I sent the freshly spawned 64 Infested Civilians to group hug it. The moment they reached it and all of them tried to get into melee, my FPS dropped from 60 to 5. Even if I moved the camera and looked away. The moment the suppression tower died and the infested stopped fighting each other for melee reach, the FPS went back from 5 to 60. My GPU absolutely has no problem rendering 64 infested civilians in all their glory and shadows included, as they were still on my screen. The slowdown only happens when they start bumping into each other in combat.
It would’ve been an embarrassment years ago.*
This is basically what I expect from current year Blizzard. They’re only marginally more competent than the guys in charge of Fallout 76. But at least those guys are actively working to make their game better. SC2 seems to just be… in limbo.