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285-> 5870 same fps SC2

M

MyRumors

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
92
27
Hi,

i have a 2008 mac pro 2xQuad 2.8 GHz 4GB RAM

I just upgraded from nvidia 285 to ati 5870. The FPS in Starcraft 2
did not go up. Its almost exactly the same.
I was suprised so i check the CPU usage.
Its at 115% (of 800, 100 per core)
spred out over the cores. So the CPU doesnt seem to be the problem.
There are over 1 GB free of RAM,
little disk and network usage.

I run 10.6.6 it was just reinstalled before the upgrade.
No other download avalible.
I tried reinstalling SC2, same.

Any ideas?
 
On medium at 1920x i get around 50 FPS at start pos with some scv mineing.
this is same as with 285
 
I'll check mine when I get home. I have the 5770.

If it doesn't drop then it could be normal.

I know when it was first released there was a problem where it wouldn't throttle the FPS and it constantly ran full out.
 
I pretty sure its not normal. 5870 should give much better FPS then 285.
i get same result om Ultra also, around 30fps on both cards.
 
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Isn't SC2 FPS capped ? I tried the demo on my 5770 and it stayed at 45fps no matter what happened.
 
The 285 and 5870 are actually roughly comparable in most games… though you should see a bit of an advantage.
 
MyRumors said:
Its at 115% (of 800, 100 per core)
spred out over the cores. So the CPU doesnt seem to be the problem.
Click to expand...

You're assuming SC2 can use all your cores, which it cannot. SC2 could still be CPU bound if it's maxing out a single core.

Regardless, the Mac ATI drivers have always been worse performing for games than the NVidia drivers. That could be causing them to run evenly.
 
Try this:
If your display is set for 50hz that may be your problem, try disabling vsync

go to /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools
open Quartz Debug
Drop down the "Beam Sync" section
select Disable Beam Synchronization

if you don't get the window when opening Quartz Debug, go to window -> quartz debug settings or press command + 1

edit: You'll need to install the developer tools for OSX to do this
 
SDub90 said:
Try this:
If your display is set for 50hz that may be your problem, try disabling vsync

go to /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools
open Quartz Debug
Drop down the "Beam Sync" section
select Disable Beam Synchronization

if you don't get the window when opening Quartz Debug, go to window -> quartz debug settings or press command + 1

edit: You'll need to install the developer tools for OSX to do this
Click to expand...

SC2 has it's own built in VSync setting. Turning that off usually gives me an average of 70 fps. You don't have to do this. Just make sure VSync is off in SC2.
 
That seems correct, SC2 is more CPU than GPU when you get to the 285/5870 level at that res. They should be about the same maybe 1-2 fps more on the 5870. When I went to a core i3 3.85+ OC from a 2008 MacPro 2.8 GHZ I had a 20+ fps increase. This was after testing the 5870 and 285 in the MacPro. Unfortunately your CPU and ram is the bottleneck.

Check this out: http://www.techspot.com/review/305-starcraft2-performance/page13.html
 
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