Will Starcraft II be playable?

[mikecoulter]

Hey all, I've been watching a few videos about Starcraft recently and would love to try it out having missed the original game.

But would it run well enough (textures on medium perhaps) on this?

Late 2009 iMac
3.06 Intel C2D
Nvidia 9400m
4gb Ram

I bought my Mac for picture, video and music editing and have planned to buy more games orientated computer soon, would just like to see if it's worth buying the game now or not. Thanks in advance.

 

[strum4h]

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/
Also, Probably yes.

 

[mikecoulter]

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/
Also, Probably yes.

That site doesn't work on OSX, the intended installation partition of my Mac. I could run it on the Windows side, but I'd probably have to increase the partition size to install the game.

 

[strum4h]

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/
Also, Probably yes.

That site doesn't work on OSX, the intended installation partition of my Mac. I could run it on the Windows side, but I'd probably have to increase the partition size to install the game.

Honestly If I were you I would do that.

 

[mikecoulter]

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/
Also, Probably yes.

That site doesn't work on OSX, the intended installation partition of my Mac. I could run it on the Windows side, but I'd probably have to increase the partition size to install the game.

Honestly If I were you I would do that.

Hmm, I would, but it would be much easier for me to have It on the osx side...

 

[Boemmel]

I think it might run halfway alright, but only in a pretty low resolution and maybe you need to turn down textures to low as well.

Unfortunately, that graphics chip in you iMac is not overly powerful, it does normal system use quite well, but only light gaming duties. Also, the NVIDIA drivers are not optimized well for gaming on the Mac side.

Having said that, I run it on my oldish 2008 15" MacBook Pro in 1280x800 and medium and thought it ran smooth for my tastes. I also tried the native display resolution of 1440x900 but I thought it lagged a little bit as soon as there were some bigger units on the field. Since I really like the big units, I scaled it down a bit

YMMV though and my MacBook Pro ironically has a better graphics chip than your iMac.

But don't you have any friend who already bought the game? I think there are some limited guest passes in each copy which allow you to download and play the game for a few hours playing time, maybe you can ask someone to give you one of those so you can try it out yourself?

Also, if you have not yet played the first Starcraft, I highly recommend doing so. It still is a great game, has aged well and the story of the second one makes more sense and is much richer when you played and know the first one. Also, the original Starcraft is really cheap now and will run perfectly on your Mac. Heck, it even ran perfectly on my old iMac and that one celebrated his tenth anniversary last year

 

[mikecoulter]

I think it might run halfway alright, but only in a pretty low resolution and maybe you need to turn down textures to low as well.

Unfortunately, that graphics chip in you iMac is not overly powerful, it does normal system use quite well, but only light gaming duties. Also, the NVIDIA drivers are not optimized well for gaming on the Mac side.

Having said that, I run it on my oldish 2008 15" MacBook Pro in 1280x800 and medium and thought it ran smooth for my tastes. I also tried the native display resolution of 1440x900 but I thought it lagged a little bit as soon as there were some bigger units on the field. Since I really like the big units, I scaled it down a bit

YMMV though and my MacBook Pro ironically has a better graphics chip than your iMac.

But don't you have any friend who already bought the game? I think there are some limited guest passes in each copy which allow you to download and play the game for a few hours playing time, maybe you can ask someone to give you one of those so you can try it out yourself?

Also, if you have not yet played the first Starcraft, I highly recommend doing so. It still is a great game, has aged well and the story of the second one makes more sense and is much richer when you played and know the first one. Also, the original Starcraft is really cheap now and will run perfectly on your Mac. Heck, it even ran perfectly on my old iMac and that one celebrated his tenth anniversary last year

Ahh thanks for your input! I know the gpu isn't too good, I cheeped out and went for the base model by choice. As the more expensive models still weren't really worth the money for the performance boost they offered.

I think I may ask around, and if not, just buy it and see. It's worth a go!

Haha, I have an old iMac too, my friend sold me a rather awesome retro iMac G4. It can even play World Of Goo!

 

[Boemmel]

I think it might run halfway alright, but only in a pretty low resolution and maybe you need to turn down textures to low as well.

Unfortunately, that graphics chip in you iMac is not overly powerful, it does normal system use quite well, but only light gaming duties. Also, the NVIDIA drivers are not optimized well for gaming on the Mac side.

Having said that, I run it on my oldish 2008 15" MacBook Pro in 1280x800 and medium and thought it ran smooth for my tastes. I also tried the native display resolution of 1440x900 but I thought it lagged a little bit as soon as there were some bigger units on the field. Since I really like the big units, I scaled it down a bit

YMMV though and my MacBook Pro ironically has a better graphics chip than your iMac.

But don't you have any friend who already bought the game? I think there are some limited guest passes in each copy which allow you to download and play the game for a few hours playing time, maybe you can ask someone to give you one of those so you can try it out yourself?

Also, if you have not yet played the first Starcraft, I highly recommend doing so. It still is a great game, has aged well and the story of the second one makes more sense and is much richer when you played and know the first one. Also, the original Starcraft is really cheap now and will run perfectly on your Mac. Heck, it even ran perfectly on my old iMac and that one celebrated his tenth anniversary last year

Ahh thanks for your input! I know the gpu isn't too good, I cheeped out and went for the base model by choice. As the more expensive models still weren't really worth the money for the performance boost they offered.

I think I may ask around, and if not, just buy it and see. It's worth a go!

Haha, I have an old iMac too, my friend sold me a rather awesome retro iMac G4. It can even play World Of Goo!

Sounds good to me, in my opinion Starcraft 2 is definitely worth a go, I quite enjoy it even though I barely get time to play right now (only little chunks) and I actually kinda suck at RTS games

And really see if you can get your hands on the original Starcraft. It is still such a great game and I think a big part of why I enjoy Starcraft 2 is that I played a lot of Starcraft 1. If you know the first one even casually, I think it enhances the successor because it is essentially a bigger, better sequel with the continuation of the story and more options, but with the core gameplay and game essence and feel intact, so you will feel right at home. A few people were disappointed at that because they expected more innovation or change, but for me, that is quite fine

Ooh, an old iMac G4, those were quite nice Mine is even older, it is one of the chubby ones with the CRT monitor. But it still runs well