Can someone explain why a game that once ran smoothly now runs choppy?

[Applejack]

The game in question is Starcraft 2, in case it matters. Back in September when I got the game it ran fine at high quality. No framerate drops, nothing. Smooth. Since I never finished the campaign (what can I say, other shit came up) and now want to do so I started a new campaign. But all of a sudden the game is running choppy, even on the first mission which isn't exactly heavy on the action. Even on medium the game is choppy as fuck. The game will pop up with "Try lowering settings or closing programs to improve performance". All my other programs are closed and playing it in low you may as well be playing Starcraft 1.

As far as I know this is the only game that has this problem. And it doesnt happen instantly. The game goes fine for a bit before the choppiness happens. I'd really rather not have to constantly start and restart the game just for smooth performance because that is not a solution.

I'm not going to post my specs, just know that they match at least the required specs but not the maximum.

[Setzophone]

How full is your hard drive?

[Chicken Little]

There are a few variables to consider, in that between playthroughs unless you're being anal there'd be dust build up inside the case which, in large amounts can clog fans and intakes, make things run hotter than usual and as such heat causes a reduction in capabilities. Secondly, any system change no matter how small it may have been could have compromised associated hardware / software that the game uses, a case in point;

When I bought my video card it installed fine and I loaded up WC3 to test to see if it played fine, it did and I packed it up to go a LAN the next morning. At said LAN and upon boot up the PC acted as if the video card never ran at all and was not installed, the only thing that happened was that I shut it down to transport it, a regular thing PC's are supposed to be able to do.

Also, a decrease in space could also lead to a decrease in performance as there are then less resources to be used. Of course I don't even meet the minimum specs of SC2 to know how it installed or runs or what have you.

[Lone_Knight]

Build up of spyware maybe? It will run in the background so it will be eating up space in RAM which I think would be vital in a game of Starcraft. Heat could be an issue as well; especially if your on a laptop. For a laptop just make sure there is proper ventilation. If it is a desktop trying cleaning off the fans and vents; if you have compressed air that is usually what's best for cleaning components like that. HDD space could be an issue, but I doubt it. If you installed a ton more stuff it would take the hdd a longer time to retrieve information.

So try running an anti-spyware scan, and clean vents. You can also re-format & reinstall too! Your computer will feel like new.

[Applejack]

There are a few variables to consider, in that between playthroughs unless you're being anal there'd be dust build up inside the case which, in large amounts can clog fans and intakes, make things run hotter than usual and as such heat causes a reduction in capabilities. Secondly, any system change no matter how small it may have been could have compromised associated hardware / software that the game uses, a case in point;

When I bought my video card it installed fine and I loaded up WC3 to test to see if it played fine, it did and I packed it up to go a LAN the next morning. At said LAN and upon boot up the PC acted as if the video card never ran at all and was not installed, the only thing that happened was that I shut it down to transport it, a regular thing PC's are supposed to be able to do.

Also, a decrease in space could also lead to a decrease in performance as there are then less resources to be used. Of course I don't even meet the minimum specs of SC2 to know how it installed or runs or what have you.



I'll try using duster, but I try and clean the fans on a biweekly basis. I'm pretty sure I have more harddrive space now than when I installed it since I recently got rid of around 100 gigs of stuff on the harddrive.

How full is your hard drive?

I've got about 550 gigs free on a 750 gig machine.

[Lone_Knight]

Defrag the HDD maybe?

[Snips]

My thought is that it's probably background processes.

Try a program called Gamebooster. It lists unneeded programs and processes and lets you choose which to shut down temporarily in order to enhance gaming performance, and they open again when you're ready to resume more casual computing.