4870 not good enough for SC2 on high/ultra?
I've been playing SC2, and the graphics are fine in 1v1. But when I play 4v4 teams, my graphics can't keep up in big fights. I'll go from 50+ fps to 1, yes, ONE, or even 0, according to the on screen counter if you hit Ctrl-Alt-F.
System specs:
XP Home SP3
E7300 dual core @ 2.66 Ghz
4 GB ram
4870, 770/950 speeds when the stock 750/900 wasn't doing it.
Syncmaster 204B 20" LCD 4:3
I started off playing on all Ultra settings, but was not getting over 20 fps even when nothing was happening. So I very begrudgingly turn the video settings down to High, which improved 1V1 games.
But 4V4s still are too much for the 4870, when there's a few hundred things flying all over the screen in a fight.
Any ideas what to do for improvement? According to the published specs a 4870 should be plenty of GPU for SC2.
Radeon 5700-5800 series card? GTX 460?
System specs:
XP Home SP3
E7300 dual core @ 2.66 Ghz
4 GB ram
4870, 770/950 speeds when the stock 750/900 wasn't doing it.
Syncmaster 204B 20" LCD 4:3
I started off playing on all Ultra settings, but was not getting over 20 fps even when nothing was happening. So I very begrudgingly turn the video settings down to High, which improved 1V1 games.
But 4V4s still are too much for the 4870, when there's a few hundred things flying all over the screen in a fight.
Any ideas what to do for improvement? According to the published specs a 4870 should be plenty of GPU for SC2.
Radeon 5700-5800 series card? GTX 460?
0
Comments
I could OC the E7300, take it up around 3.0-3.2 and see if that helps any. And maybe push the OC on the 4870 a bit further, but I doubt I'll see the improvement I need.
From what I read, SC2 is supposed to be optimized for dual core CPUs, but not quad core.
Would a quad core Phenom 2 9650 be any better than the E7300 dual core? From what I've read, I don't think having more than 2 cores will help in SC2. My folding PC has the 9650, so it would be free for me to try it.
Are you forcing AA in the graphics driver? I know there was a big to do about that recently. That might be grinding you to a halt in some spots?
Then this would lead to the thought that the CPU is providing the bottleneck. Try a higher overclock if possible. :bigggrin:
I could be wrong (I didn't play much SC2 yet), but it might be a limited by your CPU more than the GPU. I tried the beta, I have the same GPU with a i7 920, and I didn't get hit with any lag ever. That said, I don't know that I ever got in any battles like you are describing.
Have you updated drivers? What about turning down just the AA/AF a notch or two.
XFX HD-487A-ZHFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ940XCGIBOX
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
As you can see, my CPU is a quad core and my comp can not handle 3v3 and up. It drops from 60 FPS to 1. I have tried just about every driver update and it makes no difference. I've posted on multiple forums about this issue and haven't had any luck.
I built my computer, but that's about as far as my computer knowledge goes.
However, there are a couple things on this thread that I haven't tried.
First, I am not sure if I am running the most recent Direct x 10. Also, this whole AA thing confuses me. What I'm going to do when I get home is listen to Rootwyrm's advice about CCC "If you've updated to the Catalyst 10.7a's, you need to go into CCC and make sure that Anti-Aliasing and Anistropic are set to Application Controlled, Catalyst AI to Advanced. If you let CCC control AA, it's forcing it to on, and that will destroy your performance". I will let you know how that goes. Hopefully it helps. This has been driving me crazy for about a month.
Thanks,
Overbeee