Weekend tech reading: StarCraft II overheating bug confirmed

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Blizzard confirms StarCraft II overheating bug Screens that are light on detail may make your system overheat if cooling is overall insufficient. This is because the game has nothing to do so it is primarily just working on drawing the screen very quickly. A temporary workaround is to go to your Documents\StarCraft II Beta\variables.txt file and add these lines: frameratecapglue=30 frameratecap=60 Koku Gamer

ATI Catalyst 10.7a beta driver Starcraft II Support for Anti-Aliasing through the ATI Catalyst Control Center when using a Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP based system with an ATI Radeon HD 5xxx, 4xxx, 3xxx, 2xxx series graphics card or Radeon Mobility equivalent. AMD

U.S. Copyright Group 'steal' competitor's website The U.S. Copyright Group (USCG) has been all over the news in recent months. The lawyer group sued thousands of BitTorrent users who allegedly file-shared motion pictures belonging to their clients, including the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker. However, it turns out that USCG are not copyright purists either, as they have blatantly copied the website of a competitor without permission. TorrentFreak

The Web's new gold mine: Your secrets Hidden inside Ashley Hayes-Beaty's computer, a tiny file helps gather personal details about her, all to be put up for sale for a tenth of a penny. The file consists of a single code— 4c812db292272995e5416a323e79bd37—that secretly identifies her as a 26-year-old female in Nashville, Tenn. WSJ

M&A: Microsoft makes more from selling than it spends on buying Microsoft this morning filed its annual Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a treasure trove for anyone digging for nuggets of information about the company. The first one that jumped out at me: Microsoft made more money selling companies than it spent buying companies in its last fiscal year. TechFlash

Sceptre 27-inch LCD monitor for $249 Now through August 4, Newegg is offering Sceptre's 27-inch high-def LCD monitor for just $249.99 (regularly $399 MSRP) via promo code EMCYVNX69. TS Hot Deals

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/39834-weekend-tech-reading-starcraft-ii-overheating-bug-confirmed.html

 

[dividebyzero]

How much clout does the Starcraft 2 player base wield ?

At the games launch AMD inform the world + dog that...

After evaluating our options, our engineering team opted not to provide AA support for StarCraft II within the Catalyst Control Center, even though the competition has included AA support in their driver at launch....We will continue to work with Blizzard on this matter and hope to offer our customers an acceptable AA solution at a later date.[source]

Three days later and AMD are now supporting AA

[cynicism follows]
-a cynic might conclude that AMD held back on AA support until after comparitive graphics IQ reviews were published, and that if AA were so easily implemented in CCC in a matter of days, why aren't other (at present) AMD non-AA supported games afforded the same workaround [/cynicism ends...or does it?]

 

[Darkshadoe]

"U.S. Copyright Group 'steal' competitor's website" - LMFAO

Now the lawyers are pirating ... YARR!!

 

[treetops]

I just wanted to say thanks for posting about sc2 and those lawyers.

 

[TomSEA]

Heads up on that monitor - it's definitely a decent price for that size, but native resolution on that one is 1900x1080 instead of the usual 1900x1200 for most monitors of that size.

Not a deal breaker for most - just an FYI.

 

[princeton]

TomSEA said:
Heads up on that monitor - it's definitely a decent price for that size, but native resolution on that one is 1900x1080 instead of the usual 1900x1200 for most monitors of that size.

Not a deal breaker for most - just an FYI.

Actually most 27" I've seen are 2560x1440. Of course I haven't seen many of them but with 27" 1920x1080 won't look as good at it should.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Heh, most 27-inch desktop displays I've seen are 1080p. We must all be shopping on different planets.

 

[captaincranky]

Heh, most 27-inch desktop displays I've seen are 1080p. We must all be shopping on different planets.

You're quite right about that. In fact it almost seems that the 27" size has probably been created to fill a vertical height niche, because of the shortness of the 16:9 aspect ratio as compared to the 16:10 computer standard. 24 or 25" 16:9 displays would appear too short compared to the same sizes in 16:10, so ya gotta bump up a couple inches diagonal so you don't lose screen height.

I should add that this holds true across the board for 16:9 displays, obviously not just this particular size'

I find it somewhat annoying that the 16:9 standard is being rammed down the computer user's throat. I figure that if you want 16:9, go watch your damned TV.

Still cameras don't come anywhere close to 16:9 aspect. In fact, the 35mm format is 3:2,(or 16:10.66) which is a lot closer to 16:10 than it is to 16:9.

The net result of the 16:9 format is too short of a display area when viewing portrait oriented photos, and excess black end banding when viewing landscape oriented images.

 

[dividebyzero]

Presumeably some people are shopping at the Apple store (iMac 27" is 2560x1440) or Dell (likewise the U2711). Excepting the rare-on-the-ground NEC monitor that about covers 2650x1440.

 

[captaincranky]

Even the 28" Hanns-G is 1920 X 1200.

Apple is using a fluke size, which is more comparable to the 2560 X 1600 of a 30" panel. (Although that's a 16:10 standard)

One thing I always give Apple credit for, is that they don't inflict TN panels on you. It's IPS or nothing.

 

[dividebyzero]

Unfortunately with IPS pricing attached.
Looks as though 16:10 is going to be the exclusive province of the 2560x1600 / 1600 x 1200 pro graphics S-IPS and H-IPS monitors

 

[captaincranky]

Unfortunately with IPS pricing attached.

Phooey, Apple pricing on top of IPS pricing....

Anyway, Hewlett Packard to the Rescue...!

Have a gander at this; http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ils?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1280287474&sr=8-1&seller=

I think that this is only 8 bit color depth as opposed to another 24 they sell that's 12 bit. I also think you can live comfortably with 8 bit color.

 

[dividebyzero]

You beat me to the punch.
I was just browsing this article which has the same link!

 

[Julio Franco]

I've been using a 27-inch monitor for a few years now, one of the first Dell monitors of that size (2707WFP) that uses the same resolution of a standard 24-inch monitor but with a larger dot pitch, so things actually look bigger. It must be something to do with my eyes or perhaps a matter of personal preference but I can no longer stand the standard dot pitch of a 24 or 30-inch monitor, let alone the super high-res versions.

 

[Wendig0]

Thanks for posting the SC2 overheating story. I noticed that my primary graphics card was getting seriously hot (up to 105c) when I would go afk for a while. I also noticed idle framerates of up to 250fps, which is pure insanity, and I figured it was a bug in the fps calculations. Now it's working like a champ.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Wendig0 said:
Thanks for posting the SC2 overheating story. I noticed that my primary graphics card was getting seriously hot (up to 105c) when I would go afk for a while. I also noticed idle framerates of up to 250fps, which is pure insanity, and I figured it was a bug in the fps calculations. Now it's working like a champ.

Methinks this is a graphics driver issue. You should be able to tell the graphics card to do the dumbest calculations and it not melt down.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Darth Shiv said:

Wendig0 said:
Thanks for posting the SC2 overheating story. I noticed that my primary graphics card was getting seriously hot (up to 105c) when I would go afk for a while. I also noticed idle framerates of up to 250fps, which is pure insanity, and I figured it was a bug in the fps calculations. Now it's working like a champ.

Methinks this is a graphics driver issue. You should be able to tell the graphics card to do the dumbest calculations and it not melt down.

Sorry not driver - definitely hardware cooling. Blizzard shouldn't need to "patch" this because they haven't done anything wrong. ATi/NV should be fixing this crap.

 

[Burty117]

Its true, a Graphics card shouldn't be able to burn itself out just because its working at full load. That is more an ATI Nvidia issue i would say. Bit harsh to blame it on Blizzard but then again they did lazily not fix this from the beta.

 

[MrAnderson]

Cool, perfect gift for Dad! He has been bugging me to upgrade his setup so he can watch HD Cable. His HD monitor was damaged by my dear nephew. The kid has a mean pitch with stuffed animals; he blasted one at my father's screen and the screen went black. I had to give up my backup, but it did not have HDMI so now I'm here buying this one. I almost want one for myself...

 

[captaincranky]

Cool, perfect gift for Dad! He has been bugging me to upgrade his setup so he can watch HD Cable. His HD monitor was damaged by my dear nephew. The kid has a mean pitch with stuffed animals; he blasted one at my father's screen and the screen went black. I had to give up my backup, but it did not have HDMI so now I'm here buying this one. I almost want one for myself...

MrAnderson, we're very much interested in your story, but if you're not going to quote another post, or provide a link to "this one", we're pretty much in the dark as to "which one" you're talking about.

Speaking for myself, I also find it problematic that the SPCA doesn't allow the dropping off of children, particularly nephews.

 

[TorturedChaos]

burty117 said:
Its true, a Graphics card shouldn't be able to burn itself out just because its working at full load. That is more an ATI Nvidia issue i would say. Bit harsh to blame it on Blizzard but then again they did lazily not fix this from the beta.

I feel both ATI/Nvidia and Blizzard are partially at fault here. It stands to reason there should be failsafes for the graphics card to stop this from happening - other than just crashing the driver or BSOD.
But at the same time Blizzard has had issues with this since beta and just ignored it. They could have just as easily capped the fps in menu's and other low graphic areas so you didn't have this issue.

I feel both ATI/Nvidia an Blizzard where just lazy here.

 

[Rick]

I feel Blizzard isn't to blame here. There are plenty of games that don't have framerate caps and nearly all games give you the option to remove them -- often times by default.

The only problem here is insufficient cooling and nothing more.

 

[Guest]

How about blaming the SC2 addicts that would play this game 8 - 12 hours a day with a room temperature of over 30°C?

 

[captaincranky]

Waddya mean "blame the Star Craft addicts"?

How about blaming the SC2 addicts that would play this game 8 - 12 hours a day with a room temperature of over 30°C?

Now you listen buster, this is America, nobody is responsible for the negative effects of their own actions. That's why we have lawyers. So we can blame everybody else in the world for our own shortcomings, and get paid handsomely for doing it...! (Well, minus the extravagant legal fees, that we must concede to that avaricious pack of amoral parasites).