2560x1440 vram limited?

[FinalAura]

Hey guys, never thought i'd be saying this, but of all games.. Starcraft II seems to be limited by my system.

I have a 6950 1gb, i7 920 @ 4.0ghz, and 12gb ram, so my system really isn't that bad... If I put sc2 on the highest settings possible (extreme), with no aa enabled through CCC, when I load the campaign mode, I lag really bad. Like a 1 FPS slideshow. I then turn the settings down to "high" instead of extreme and its buttery smooth. I checked gpu-z and the vram was definitely trying to go above 1024, and on high, my vram usage is around the high 900's.

I didn't think i'd be bottlenecked from starcraft.. I've never had a slideshow happen with other games with NO aa on. I don't play games that are too demanding, but I max Street fighter IV with the highest aa as well as CS:GO with highest settings and it doesn't lag. I Also tried the Diablo beta and maxed that as well with no problem. I've also played bf3 single player in an eyefinity setup (5040x1050 prior to my single monitor switch) with pretty high settings, no AA and it didn't lag like a slideshow, and that resolution is more pixels then 2560x1440.

So, I guess my question is.. will 2gb card be enough to run this game, or will 2gb not be enough as well? I was thinking of getting a gtx 670, but it seems pretty ridiculous to upgrade just for starcraft, which is a blizzard game known to run well on even the lowest of computer setups.

Or maybe theres another factor im not aware of?

 

[Forceman]

Sure sounds like VRAM. You can try disabling Aero when you play SC2 (right click on the icon and under compatibility select disable desktop composition and disable visual themes). That is supposed to free up about 200mb, which might be enough to get you by. You should have no problems with VRAM with a GTX 670 - the 680s didn't seem to run into any trouble, even at high resolutions (at least not with a single card).

 

[FinalAura]

Thanks for that suggestion. It actually helped decrease the vram usage.

I tried further investigating the issue by turning each graphic setting down one by one and it seems that its the shader and post processing settings that have been taxing my system. I have to run them one notch lower to get smooth framerates.

Still feels weird how I can't run starcraft, of all games, in its full glory, haha.

 

[x3sphere]

I had no problems at 2560x1600 in SC2 with a 2GB HD6970, outside of minor FPS dips in huge battles. I've since moved to a 7970 and it's buttery smooth at all times. So it would seem VRAM is your issue.