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I play Starcraft 2 on my laptop and I play on the lowest settings possible. I have quite a bit of lag problems, from my internet and probably my graphics card also. Here is my computer info.
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002)
Processor: AMD Turion(tm) X2 Ultra Dual-Core Moblie ZM-80 (2 CPUs), 2.1GHz
Memory: 3836MB RAM
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics (1916 MB approx. total memory)
DirectX 11
Is there anything that I could possibly download for free or anything like that to make my computer run Starcraft 2 better? I dont want to buy a new graphics card because I hear there really expensive and hard to find for laptops, so if there is anything that I could do just by downloading somthing or for free on the internet to make my computer run the game faster, that would be great, thanks!
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No there is no magic to make your computer run better. You not only need a better graphics card but also a better processor.
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On October 20 2011 07:28 skyR wrote:
No there is no magic to make your computer run better. You not only need a better graphics card but also a better processor.
What would you reccomend me doin then? Is just getting a new processor and graphics card about all i can do?
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You can't do anything since you won't be able to upgrade those on a laptop. You basically have to get a new laptop, or a better alternative is get a new desktop.
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you need to buy a new computer but it might be possible to play on like 640x480
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is there anything you guys would reccomend me doing to make it run smoother? other than buying a new laptop?
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On October 26 2011 11:56 CosmicHippo wrote:
is there anything you guys would reccomend me doing to make it run smoother? other than buying a new laptop?
No, there's nothing that can be done short of disabling and lowering more settings.
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On October 26 2011 11:58 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On October 26 2011 11:56 CosmicHippo wrote:
is there anything you guys would reccomend me doing to make it run smoother? other than buying a new laptop? No, there's nothing that can be done short of disabling and lowering more settings.
i already have everything on the lowest settings and it still doesnt run very smoothly
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On October 20 2011 07:28 skyR wrote:
No there is no magic to make your computer run better. You not only need a better graphics card but also a better processor.
Yes and no. Obviously he cannot download something to make it magically faster. But I think his PC might be at the very bottom end of the range to play SC2. Might need some optimization.
- OP, since you are on Vista, you might actually see a small improvement by changing the Windows theme from Aero to Classic if you have not done this yet. In Vista, the Aero theme does not use resources as efficiently as in Windows 7. By using classic instead of Aero you may actually free up something from 35-100 meg of RAM and a bit of GPU processing.
- Also, make sure you have defragged your hard drive lately, the file system in Vista is not nearly as efficient as 7; and like XP required frequent defrags to run optimally.
- Open a run prompt and type in MSCONFIG. Go to the startup tab (don't mess with the other tabs). This will show you a list of all the applications that are running on your PC by default every time you startup. Many like the Adobe speed launcher (which you will likely have if you have adobe reader installed) are pretty useless (unless you really can't wait an extra 2 seconds to open your PDFs). Disable all of them that are attached to an application. This should free up a bit more of your CPU.
Note: by doing this msconfig will change your PC startup type to "selective boot". Should not be an issue, however if you ever re-select "normal boot" it will re-enable all of these things. There are a few ways to get rid of them forever (Vista Windows Defender, direct registry editing, etc) but I won't go into that here.
- Only attempt this one if you actually know what you are doing or will actually take the time to read things. This can mess things up badly if you are not careful
+ Show Spoiler +
Open a run prompt and type in services.msc
In the box that pops up sort the list by 'startup type' so 'automatic' is at the top
What you will get is a list of all Windows and software components that can run in the background. You can free up system resources by disabling items you don't need such as the Parental Controls service. I'm not going to suggest any more as I have no idea which ones you are actually using, it's up to you to make that determination. However note that many services have other services that depend on them, Windows Update for example depends on BITS.
With many of these you will be nickle and dime-ing CPU usage but it might help a bit.
- Further extreme measure is to disable Windows Explorer and launch SC2 from the task manager. (I used to do this before I got my new laptop [/shame]) which should free up a bit more RAM if that is the issue. (maybe not in the OP's case, but for anyone else reading)
I would however refrain from disabling your anti-virus. While it will free up CPU usage it obviously creates a significant security issue.
If you are still having issues then you are SOL. Upgrading a CPU in a laptop is not really going to work, they are specifically designed with one type of chip in mind and could over heat or worse. GPU is usually integrated into the motherboard. Good news is that new PCs and laptops are getting cheaper.
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With that CPU it should be reasonably playable @ low in 1v1 as long as no-one goes too heavy on the zerglings. If it's not, the most likely problem is overheating, and cleaning the heatsink out will often help a lot.
If you're expecting to micro in battles in 2v2+ then you're out of luck.
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The last two posts are spot on. Close any unnecessary programs. You might want to open up your case and clean it out with compressed gas. Also, cheap laptops have awful cooling. Get a little desk fan or something and get your laptop elevated slightly, like on a book. You can get a good air current flowing over it to help sometimes.
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Thanks toast and ja22 and cowmoo, really apprciate the help guys
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EPT
