The lights are on
Anyone else have StarCraft II try to melt their hardware? Blizzard admits that it's a known issue and has a fix for you.
Apparently, the game's menu screens aren't framerate-limited. This means that when there's nothing else going on, your graphics hardware renders the bejeezus out of those screens, causing nasty overheating problems. The fix is easy, requiring players to add the following lines to your "Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt" "Documents\StarCraft II\variables.txt" file (nice catch, commenter LegolElf):
frameratecapglue=30frameratecap=60
Good to know. Personally I would have appreciated a heads-up before my video card fried, but maybe this can save someone else from the hassle I've been dealing with since yesterday afternoon.
On a related note, Blizzard explains StarCraft II's system requirements in detail here. If you're curious, you'll get a much better answer there than you would from me directly. So stop asking and read the official post already!
[hat tip GiantBomb]
Email the author Adam Biessener, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Huh... wonder if they are going to replace people's fried cards?
So, the actual game has a Documents\StarCraft II "BETA" folder? Weird.
Yeesh... seems like that sort of thing would have been caught through all their beta testing.
Thanks for the post. I'll apply this once I'm off work.
"Do you need a graphics card that can keep up with this summers hottest hits? Well your in luck! Coming soon the Blizzard line of high end HD Graphics cards! Blizzard cards can take the heat!" I know a marketing gold mine when I see one >.<./
***, that has to suck. But it's good to know that Blizzard is stepping up to the plate :)
Yikes. Glad I didn't play much of this game before finding out about this. Thanks GI!
It's the hottest game out! I sure hope more people warm up to it.
OK, I got it started with the easy ones who's next?
Incidentally, I just got a chance to get back in game and checked my framerate in the menus.
260.
Great job, Blizzard :(
yeah my computer almost did get fried. Hopefully its still ok.
Man I hope that many people didn't have to replace their cards. Sorry to hear that you had to Adam.
Well better late then never I guess.
That is some lazy programming by Blizzard, but it would help if hardware manufacturers would agree to require on-board monitoring to automatically shut off a card at a certain temp.
Blizzard should replace the already destroyed video cards and give them extra weapons
Thanks for the fix!
well that sucks for those people.... including you Adam... haha
Does it matter if you're using a mac?
More of a hardware issue than a software issue.... Even if you gpu and cpu are working at 99% they would still throttle back when they are getting too hot. Some malfunction in the hardware could be an issue, along with too much dust in the systems. I played the beta, and now the retail version, and overheating has never been an issue. Even with this so called problem.
Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient.
you'll notice the 'if cooling is overall insufficient'.
Hurry up and fix it, I want more SCII stuff :P
Thanks for taking one for the team. Sorry about your GPU(s) V_V