People who plays SC2, please help. Should I upgrade my CPU?

Hi fellow alienware owners, my current spec is a m17x r3 with a i7 2630qm, 6970m and a 256GB SSD.

I mainly play sc2 but lately the performance has been poor when I play online. I was wondering if I should buy a 2920xm ES from ebay and then overclock it as I am not sure if my CPU is struggling to match my GPU.

Even on the absolute lowest setting my game will dip to 10fps when it is mid to late game when battles are going on. Is that normal? I thought the 2630qm is a decent sandy bridge processor, when I did benchmarks it was as fast as my overclocked i7 920xm cpu from when I had a R2.

It's frustrating to see the game run at 60fps then dip to <10fps after 10 minutes or so. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

I also play Sleeping Dogs and NBA 2K13 for example, and both games run at a fluid 60fps on high settings, so is my CPU due for an upgrade?

Much thanks! =)

 

Hey crayonshinchan
your set up seems more than enough for SC2 i have similar setup 2760qm, 580m gtx, 256 GB ssd and my fps over 100 all times running on ultra .. seems like your in battery mode or maybe heat issue? what are your temps....
updated drivers power plugged in? stupid questions i know but i been through a similar process could be few things i would tick one by one before looking at cpu... or gpu...

i know there difference between the 580 and the 6970 mine runs at highest after one hour of play 59-62 deg full load... highest one stage went to 67 deg.. if temps are high have your tried to repaste your GPU/CPU vents clean? etc etc ...

let us know if u need more help cant think of anything else atm...

 

Hi MolocM17x,

I ran Hwinfo64 and nothing seems out of the ordinary. My cpu load temps are 65-70c, well within limits and underthrottling. I cannot overclock so all 4 cores are running at the max speed, 2.6ghz (only >_<)

GPU wise I use Sapphire Trixx to monitor and overclock temperature and during gaming it's around 70c as well. Hwinfo64 confirms that I'm running at the base clock of 680mhz/900mhz memory. I can even overclock and run it stable at 800mhz/1000mhz which is about the speed of a desktop 6850. If I enable V-SYNC the GPU usage is about 70% max, if I disable V-Sync then GPU is 99% max usage and when the game starts I have over 100fps on high settings... but I cannot play a full game smoothly because the frames refuse to keep up about 10 minutes in

 

Have you got a modded BIOS? its not the IGPU coming on is it? (swaping) from dedicated to IGPU?

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Have you tried reinstalling the game? It could also be a problem with the server or the internet connection...

 

Are you monitoring your clock when this happens inreal-time? If the clock stays at it's 'normal' setting, no drop, then you probably need to look at communications.

 

SC2 runs on my 920XM just fine, same clock speed as your 2630QM..

 

Yeah I was about to say, my 920XM does plenty fine. Even at the same clock speed your i7 is faster than ours.


I would ensure that your GPU is being used properly...

 

I would try to disable IGPU see what happens... If u have a modded BIOS that is

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Starcraft 2 is not optimized for quad-core processors. During intense games with *MANY* units on screen, you're going to have a FPS drop. Just because your framerate is 100 when you start the game, doesn't mean that it's going to stay that high during late-game with 5-6 players with maxed out population limits.

The 300x drivers (if you're using them) give me horrible SC2 performance. They seem to force ambient occlusion on, even if you disable it, and cut your FPS in half. I would revert to the 296.10 drivers, as they give the best SC2 performance I've found.

In terms of upgrading your processor to the 3.5 ghz ... it probably won't make much of a difference.

 

He has AMD not nvidia

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darkdomino, the drivers you refer to are for nvidia cards right? Because I thought amd drivers go by 12.x something

Also, I've searched about stuttering issues and it seems people are experiencing stuttering/hitching problems after patch 1.50 so it might be the game itself.

 

I had it with my 560m shutter but with my 580M nothing on ultra


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What have you tried so far crayonshinchan?

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I don't think this is necessary the case, I saw a pretty big performance boost when I upgraded my old i7 desktop from a 940 to a 970 hexacore (also did a GPU upgrade from a 6950 to a 580, but already overkill for SC2).

 

I have SC2 on my M17x (R1) (view sig for specs) and at high settings i experience no issues with lag. This issue has nothing to do with the hardware you have in your machine, more or less a software issue. Take the time to troubleshoot the drivers first with research in regards to your specs, use keywords in the search bar to find others who have expereinced similar issues and try those possible resolutions.

 

I agree with Mike but make sure ur temps are down though..

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I also agree, this cannot be HW is weak. I play SC2 on same card on ultra without problems, 50-60 FPS whole time. So CPU upgrade wont do the trick, I would rather suggest GPU upgrade for more FPS.

 

SC2 after a certain level will be CPU/cache limited. My former boss ran SC2 fine 1080p with a 5750 Radeon on high. My GTX 580 and Hexacore i7 ran nearly 150 fps, barely dipped under 60 during extreme spawn (Nexus wars).