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Contents
1 BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS ..................................................................................................... 3
Basic Troubleshooting Tips ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
How-To Guides .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8
How-To: Update your Video Driver .............................................................................................................................. 8
How To: Reset your Video Driver Settings .................................................................................................................. 9
How To: Update The System Drivers .......................................................................................................................... 10
How To: Update your Operating System .................................................................................................................. 10
How To: Perform a Clean Startup ................................................................................................................................. 11
How To: Adjust Visual Effects in Windows ................................................................................................................ 12
How To: Check Your Power Options .......................................................................................................................... 12
How To: Check Your GPUs Power Management Mode ...................................................................................... 13
How To: Disable Windows 10 Game DVR ................................................................................................................. 13
How To: Configure or Disable OneDrive ................................................................................................................... 14
How To: Optimize Windows for Best Performance for Programs ..................................................................... 14
How To: Optimize Your Hard Drive ............................................................................................................................ 15
How To: Check for Overheating Components ........................................................................................................ 15
How To: Scan for Viruses and Malware ..................................................................................................................... 16
How To: Check for Problem Devices .......................................................................................................................... 17
How To: Use the StarCraft II 32-bit Game Client .................................................................................................... 17
How To: Disable NVIDIA ShadowPlay & Streaming Service ................................................................................ 17
How To: Temporarily Disable your Sound Card ...................................................................................................... 18
How To: Check for CPU Hogs ....................................................................................................................................... 18
How To: Turn Off Search Indexing in Windows ...................................................................................................... 18
How To: Enable Intel Turbo Boost ............................................................................................................................... 19
How To: Use High Performance Discrete GPU ........................................................................................................ 19
How To: Exit Battle.net When Launching Games ....................................................................................................20
How To: Disable Superfetch ..........................................................................................................................................20
How To: Enable or Disable AMD Turbo Core .......................................................................................................... 21
3 MAP PERFORMANCE.........................................................................................................................38
Dusk Towers ..............................................................................................................................................................................39
Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to make this guide as accurate as possible, but no warranty is implied. The author
shall also not, at any time, be liable or responsible to any person or entity for any special, direct, indirect or
consequential damages arising from the information contained in this guide.
Feedback
If you have any feedback, comments or questions about this guide, or any words of wisdom youre willing to
pass my way, Id love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a message on Twitter at twitter.com/mvpdeanx.
Revision History
Version Description Revision Date
v1.0 Initial release May 13, 2016
v1.1 Added AMD Turbo Core and fixed typos May 20, 2016
BASIC TROUBLESHOOTING
TIPS
There are many factors that can affect the frame rate and overall performance of the games you
play. Often these problems can be resolved by doing some basic PC housekeeping and walking
through a set of basic troubleshooting steps.
This chapter starts off with a compilation of the more common troubleshooting tips you can try to
fix low frame rate issues. For the non-tech savvy users among us, easy-to-understand step-by-
step guides have been added which will walk you through each process one step at a time.
24 Disable Superfetch
Superfetch tries to improve performance by predicting which applications a user is likely to launch and
preemptively loads them into RAM. Some players have reported improved game performance with SuperFetch
disabled, so disabling it may be worth a shot if youre experiencing in-game stutters. Step-by-Step Guide.
4
drops stopped with AMD Turbo Core disabled. If its already enabled, try disabling it. If its not enabled, turn it
on and see if that helps. Step-by-Step Guide.
NVIDIA
1. Open the Internet browser.
2. Go to the NVIDIA download page http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
3. Under Manually Find Drivers For My NVIDIA Products, select the product type, series, operating system
and language.
4. Click Search.
5. On the GeForce Game Ready Driver page, click Download.
INTEL
1. Open the Internet browser.
2. Go to the Intel download page https://downloadcenter.intel.com/
3. Under Select a product, select Graphics Drivers.
4. In the Additional Selection Available, select your Intel Graphics Card.
5. Click on the most recent driver version from the list below, and click Download.
AMD (Crimson)
1. Right-click on an empty space on your Desktop, select AMD Radeon Settings.
2. Click Preferences, then Restore Factory Defaults.
3. Select Yes to restore all settings to their default values.
4. Click Done to go back to the main screen.
5. Click Gaming, then click Global Settings.
6. Go to Global OverDrive, and click Reset.
7. Select Yes to reset the OverDrive settings.
NVIDIA
1. Right-click on an empty space on your Desktop, select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. In the tree-view on the left, click on Manage 3D Settings.
3. Click Restore Defaults in the top-right corner.
If youre using Windows Vista or Windows 7, make sure you have the latest Service Packs installed. The easiest
way to install the latest Windows Service Pack is to run Windows Update. Service Packs no longer exist in
Windows 8 and above. Windows 8 and later versions have updates that replaced Service Packs.
Windows 7
1. Click the Start button.
2. In the search box, type Update.
3. Select Windows Update from the results to open Windows Update.
4. Click Check for Updates and wait for Windows to finish searching the latest updates for your computer.
5. If any updates are found, click Install Updates.
Windows 8 / 10
1. Click the Start button, then click on Settings.
2. Select Update & Security.
3. Select Windows Update on the left, and click on Check for updates.
4. If any new updates are available they will automatically downloaded and installed, unless youre using a
metered connection.
Windows 8 / 10
1. Press Windows Key + X to open the Start
button context menu. 6
2. Select System from the menu.
3. In the System window, click on Advanced system settings on the left.
4. In the System Properties window, click Settings in the Performance group.
5. On the Visual Effects tab, click Adjust for best performance, and then click OK.
Windows 7
1. Click the Start button, then click Control Panel.
2. Click Power Options.
3. Under Preferred Plans, select the High Performance power plan.
Windows 8 / 10
1. Press Windows Key + X to open the Start button context menu.
2. Select Power Options from the menu.
3. Under Preferred Plans, select the High Performance power plan.
AMD (Crimson)
1. Right-click on an empty space on your Desktop, select AMD Radeon Settings. 3
2. Click Gaming, then Global Settings.
2
3. Check the Power Efficiency setting to ensure
its set to Off.
NVIDIA
1. Right-click on an empty space on your
Desktop, select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. In the tree-view on the left, click on Manage
3D Settings.
3. Click the Program Settings tab and
select the StarCraft II profile from the
Select a program to customize
dropdown list box. If there are
multiple StarCraft II profile items (e.g.
one profile for the 32-bit and another
one for the 64-bit executable), make
sure to perform step 4 on all listed
4
StarCraft II profiles.
4. Under Specify the settings for this
1
program, search for Power
Management Mode and set it to Prefer
Maximum Performance.
5. Click Apply to save the changes.
1. Right-click the OneDrive System Tray Icon, and select Setting from the popup menu.
2. On the Microsoft OneDrive window, click the Choose Folders tab.
3. Click Choose Folders.
4. Uncheck the folders you dont want OneDrive to synchronize. Because StarCraft II writes data in the
Documents/StarCraft II folder, you may want to consider unchecking the Documents/StarCraft II or
Documents folder.
5. Click OK to save the changes.
Generally speaking, files load faster when they are stored in one contiguous block and without any gaps than
when they are stored in multiple locations on the hard drive. As you create and then delete files or uninstall
programs, holes will be created in the data layout on the drive and new files will be stored in multiple locations
on the disk. This is called fragmentation. Some games load data on the fly and if there is lots of file
fragmentation, it can have an impact on the frame rate. The simple solution to file fragmentation is using
Windows Disk Defragmenter.
CAUTION: Defrag is not recommended for SSDs. The many write accesses that are
involved when running a defragmenter will reduce the lifespan of the SSD.
4. Files which are in use will not be defragmented, so make sure to shut down as many programs as
possible before proceeding.
5. Click Defragment disk.
NOTE: The StarCraft II FPS indicator can also be used to monitor your GPUs
temperature while you are playing. Press Ctrl + Alt + F to show the FPS indicator.
A virus, malware or other malicious software could cause your games to run slowly. Check whether your
system has any of these things by scanning your system using antivirus software like Windows Defender,
Kaspersky, or Avast! If your computer is running Windows 7, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials
for free and use Windows Defender to remove spyware. If your computer is running Windows 8 or Windows
10, you can use the built-in Windows Defender to get rid of viruses, spyware and malware. Note: Windows
Defender on Windows 7 will only remove spyware.
NOTE: There are a few other popular anti-virus options you might also want to consider.
Kaspersky http://usa.kaspersky.com/
Avast https://www.avast.com/en-us/index
AVG http://www.avg.com/
1. In the Battle.net desktop app, click the StarCraft II Icon on the left.
2. Expand the Options menu, click Game Settings.
3. Under StarCraft II, check the Launch 32-bit client (instead of 64-bit) checkbox.
4. Click Done.
1. Right-click on My Computer or This PC and select Properties to open the System dialogue window.
2. On the left, click Device Manager.
3. Expand the Sound, video and game controllers section.
4. Right-click your sound card, and then click Disable.
Do you have an Intel processor and does it support Intel Turbo Boost Technology? Try enabling it. Turbo Boost
is supported by the following processors.
The only way to enable or disable Intel Turbo Boost is through a switch in the BIOS. Consult your motherboard
manual for information about enabling Intel Turbo Boost.
NVIDIA
1. Right-click on an empty space on your Desktop, select NVIDIA Control Panel.
2. In the tree-view on the left, click on Manage 3D Settings.
3. Click the Program Settings tab and select that StarCraft II profile from the Select a program to
customize dropdown list box. If there are multiple StarCraft II profile items (e.g. a profile for the 32-bit
and 64-bit executables), make sure to repeat step 4 for every StarCraft II profile in the list.
4. Under Specify the settings for this program, search for Preferred Graphics Processor and set it to High
Performance NVIDIA Processor. If there is no such setting on the Program Settings tab, click the
Global Settings tab and look for this setting there.
5. Click Apply to save the changes.
Do you have an AMD processor and does it support AMD Turbo Core Technology? Try enabling or disabling it.
If its already enabled, disabling it. If its not enabled, turn it on and see if that stops the fps drops and helps
improve your fps.
The way to enable or disable AMD Turbo Core is through a switch in the BIOS. Consult your motherboard
manual for information about enabling AMD Turbo Core.
TUNING YOUR
SETTINGS
Chapter 1 offered a set of basic troubleshooting steps that may help fix low frame rate issues in
your games. If youre still experiencing low fps in StarCraft II, there are still a few more things left
to try.
In this chapter we will take a look at the video card software settings and the StarCraft II in-game
settings. The in-game graphics options can have a large impact on the frame rate and lowering
them will help increase performance. We will run some benchmarks to get a general idea of how
much impact these settings can have on the frame rate in StarCraft II. Towards the end of this
chapter we will provide some suggestions for performance increases.
1. The Graphics Quality setting was set to Ultra (unless noted otherwise in the results).
2. In the Display section, the following settings were applied. Display Resolution: Full screen, Resolution:
1920 x 1080, Vsync: Off, Antialiasing: Checked (unless noted otherwise in the results), Reduced Violence:
Unchecked, Texture Quality: Ultra (unless noted otherwise in the results).
3. One setting in the Graphics Options was changed from the Ultra preset default to a different value.
4. The 64-bit StarCraft II client was closed and then re-launched using the Battle.net launcher. The
Battle.net launcher was set to close when launching a game.
5. A 31 minute 1v1 replay file was used and recording the fps always started at the 27 minute mark (with
150+ supply on each side) and ended when the replay was finished (@31:05).
6. After the replay was finished, the StarCraft II client was closed and the min/avg/max fps was written
down.
125
Default 84,641
41
80
Ambient Occlusion (Performance) 63,233
41
102
Ambient Occlusion (Quality) 75,253
41
115
Antialiasing - FXAA 80,584
43
124
Max. Prerendered Frames (1x) 84,931
43
124
Max. Prerendered Frames (4x) 85,816
43
127
Multi-display (Single) 84,882
44
126
Multi-display (Compatibility) 85,865
43
127
Shader Cache (Off) 86,212
43
128
Texture Filtering - Quality (Hi-Perf) 84,98
43
125
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic (On) 85,886
42
129
Texture Filtering - Trilinear optimization (Off) 84,837
42
130
Threaded Optimization (On) 86,49
43
Looking at the chart above, the Ambient Occlusion and Antialiasing FXAA settings on the NVIDIA Control Panel
seem to have the most impact on fps in StarCraft II. The visual effects of anti-aliasing & ambient occlusion can
be seen in 2.3.1 Anti-Aliasing and 2.3.2 Ambient Occlusion. Turning off Shader Cache and enabling Threaded
Optimization did increase the average frame rate a little too.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion (AO) adds darker shadows where two surfaces meet. Surfaces and objects that are close
together (e.g. wall corners) are usually darker than surfaces that dont have any other object near them.
Its a very subtle difference, but if you lay the two images on top of each other in Photoshop or GIMP and toggle
the top layers visibility, the differences can be seen much easier.
227
Low 164,269
81
165
Medium 108,8
55
144
High 101,576
49
125
Ultra 84,641
41
130
Extreme 91,449
39
The graphics quality varies greatly between the different quality presets. Especially between low and medium,
the differences in both visual quality and fps performance are quite big. The visual differences between medium-
high and high-ultra are not as obvious.
Its a bit unclear why the Extreme preset offered higher averages and maximum frame rates than the Ultra
preset. The tests were rerun 3 times just to be sure these values werent wrong. One thing to note is that some
In the following few sections we will test the individual in-game settings, beginning with Texture Quality.
Texture Quality
Texture Quality Impact
Low 85
Medium 84
High 84
Ultra 81
0 20 40 60 80 100
Ultra High Medium Low
FPS 81 84 84 85
Reducing the texture quality from Ultra to High gave a small performance boost (81 to 84 fps), while reducing
texture quality even further hardly improved the frame rate.
Low 205
Medium 160
High 133
Ultra 122
Changing shaders from low to medium caused the frame rate to drop from 205 fps to 160 fps. Between medium
and high there is still a significant drop in fps (160 fps to 133 fps). The performance hit wasnt as big when going
from high to ultra shaders.
We can see striking differences in visual quality and performance between low and medium shaders.
128
Low 87,539
45
125
High 84,641
41
Setting the Models option to low did increase the fps a little. The difference between low and high models will
be noticed the most when units are destroyed or when buildings are constructed. Below is an illustration of an
SCV exploding. On the left there are no model parts flying around while in the right screenshot you can see the
SCVs mineral drill in the explosion.
125
Ultra 41
84,641
131
Off 47
88,616
Ragdolls are enabled when the Physics setting is set to High and its effect can be seen during the animation of
corpses that fling around after they are killed. Ragdoll physics calculations can be CPU intensive, especially if
there are many units dying at the same time.
Post Processing
Post Processing Ultra vs. Off
Max Min Avg
125
Ultra 41
84,641
126
Off 41
85,118
125
Ultra 41
84,641
132
Off 46
92,249
Off Ultra
Max 132 125
Min 46 41
Avg 92,249 84,641
By setting Effects to low, we managed to increase our max fps by 7, the average fps by 8 and the minimum fps
by 5. The difference between Low and Ultra effects is shown below.
125
Ultra 41
84,641
132
Off 43
85,976
While the minimum and average fps only increased 1-2 frames when turning off Terrain, our maximum fps
increased from 125 to 132. The differences are subtle, but if you take a close look at the screenshots below, you
can see grass and little rocks on the terrain.
125
64-bit client 41
84,641
131
32-bit client 41
86,857
While the minimum fps was the same in both game clients, using the 32-bit game client increased the average
fps by about 2 fps and the maximum fps by 6 fps. If you want to squeeze out every bit of performance, using
the 32-bit client would seem to be the better choice.
Intel Hyper-Threading
Intel Hyper-Threading
Max Min Avg
125
HyperThreading ON 41
84,641
127
HyperThreading OFF 43
87,151
Turning off Hyper-Threading did increase the frame rate on the test machine. If your CPU supports Hyper-
Threading and youre trying to squeeze out every bit of performance, toggling this option may be worth a try.
SOUND
Enable Reverb : Uncheck
NOTE: Turning VSYNC off will allow the game to render its graphics at its maximum frame
rate, but may cause screen tearing. If tearing-free gameplay is preferred, turn VSYNC on.
VSYNC will attempt to synchronize the games frame rate to your monitors current refresh rate (60fps
on a 60Hz display, 120fps on a 120Hz display etc.).
Triple Buffering will improve performance if VSYNC is enabled, so be sure to enable Triple Buffering
too if VSYNC is enabled.
Everything on low should give you the highest frames per second. If youre still experiencing low fps after that,
try running a system benchmark (e.g. PassMark) and compare your computers performance with the online
results to ensure your system is running at the correct performance speeds.
The above settings should provide the highest visual quality but they will also cause a huge hit on performance.
If youre experiencing fps issues with the above settings, try lowering or turning off one or more of the following
performance heavy settings (order depends on what features are more important to you).
Ambient Occlusion
Anti-aliasing
Shaders, Lighting & Shadows
If the processor is the bottleneck (Windows Task Manager can be used to monitor CPU usage), try lowering or
disabling one or more of the following StarCraft II in-game settings.
Physics
Reflections
Effects
Beyond those settings, determine what features are more important to you and lower them accordingly until
youre satisfied with the performance.
MAP
PERFORMANCE
In chapter 2 we saw how video card software options and in-game settings can affect the frame
rate in StarCraft II. In this chapter we will explore another factor that influences the frame rate of
the game map performance.
Some areas of the StarCraft II maps may provide higher or lower fps than others. Things like
clusters of large doodads, water, vegetation, lighting & shadow and decorative models can
cause the fps to drop greatly in certain areas of the map.
To test the performance of a map, we first set the keyboard scroll speed to the lowest value
possible, then fire up a replay, pause it and scan the entire map by scrolling from left to right
(starting at the top left) with successive rows going from top to bottom. Areas where the frame
rate dropped below a certain threshold (120 fps), were marked in a top-view screenshot of the
respective map. Finally we tested which in-game graphics setting would increase the fps in those
problematic areas.
1 118 frames per second - The frame rate in this area dropped to 118 fps (@Ultra settings). By changing the
lighting setting to low or medium, the fps increased to 132fps (+14 frames) on the test system.
Changing the Terrain option added an extra frame to the fps (119 fps). Lowering any of the other settings
(shadows, reflections, effects, texture quality, post processing and physics) didnt improve the fps at all
during the test. The test was repeated 4 times to ensure the values were correct.
2 114 frames per second - In this area the frame rate dropped to 114 fps. In the previous area (1) we were
able to get the frame rate back to >120 fps by lowering the setting the lighting option to either low or
medium. Unfortunately thats not the case here. Setting the lighting option to either Low or Medium only
increases the frame rate to 119 fps (+5 frames) and lowering Terrain didnt seem to have any effect as
well. However, by changing the Shader option from Ultra to High, we managed to get 128 fps in this area.
3 101 frames per second Setting lighting to low or medium increased the frame rate to 136 fps. Setting
terrain to low gave a minor fps boost (+1 frame).
4 118 frames per second - Setting lighting to low or medium increased the frame rate to 132 fps. Setting
terrain to low gave a minor fps boost (+1 frame).
5 110 frames per second - Setting lighting to low or medium increased the frame rate to 136 fps. Setting
terrain to low gave a minor fps boost (+1 frame).
6 99 frames per second The drop in frame rate was the highest in this area. Changing lighting from ultra
to low or medium increased the frame rate to 128 fps. Changing the terrain option didnt increase the
frame rate in this area.
7 117 frames per second - Setting lighting to low or medium increased the frame rate to 143 fps. Changing
the Terrain option didnt add any extra frame to the fps (117 fps).
Summary: With everything set to Ultra, we were able to get +120 fps except in the circled areas drawn in the
image above. In most cases, lowering the Lighting setting to either Low or Medium helped getting the frame
rate back to +120 fps and lowering the Terrain setting added another boost of 1 frame per second. In one area
this wasnt the case (area 2), and we had to lower Shaders from Ultra to High to achieve a minimum of 120 fps in
that area.
None of the other settings seemed to have any influence on the frame rate, which would probably be a different
story if there were units and action on the map.
Chapter 2 covered the impact of video card software settings and in-game options in StarCraft II and offered a
few suggestions for better performance.
In the final chapter we tested the performance of a map, identified the problematic areas and presented a few
suggestions that have shown to improve the frame rate in those areas. For now, I have limited myself to
analyzing only one map, Dusk Towers. If you want to see other maps added to this chapter, feel free to leave a
message on Twitter at twitter.com/mvpdeanx.