Windows running REALLY slow after quitting StarCraft 2

[tocheeba]

Not sure why this is, but my computer runs EXTREMELY slow after quitting StarCraft 2 after playing for an extended period of time (30 mins+). It takes about 5 mins for it to get back to pretty much normal, but it's never 100% fast like it was prior to launching the game. The only way to get Windows running fast again is to restart the PC.

Pretty much the same problem as this guy:
http://forums.gamersfirst.com/lofiversion/index.php?t170373.html

Specs:

-- Studio XPS 435 Desktop: Intel Core i7-920 Processor (8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz)
-- 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz (4 DIMMs)
-- 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
-- 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850

StarCraft 2 runs fine with everything on High settings...well, the loading screen of the 1st game takes a long time to load...longer than everyone else...and then the first 20 seconds of the game it may be really slow and seems like it's loading a bit. But after that, everything loads fast.

Any ideas? It drives me nuts, as I play SC2 daily, and hate restarting my PC due to it server media to my HTPC (which isn't being used during gaming) - I just don't like restarting.

 

[Nihilis]

Sounds like a heat issue to me personally. The fact that your performance slowly increases after you quit SC2 would possibly be your temperatures slowly decreasing.

Download HW Monitor and tell us what temperatures your CPU and GPU reach whilst gaming

Heat throttling is a major cause of performance issues for gamers, especially those who've overclocked, or expect incredible settings without the appropriate cooling installed in their rigs.

Get back to us Good luck.

-Nih

 

[Gman450]

Well, to start off with, SC2 is heavily CPU dependent. You have a good CPU with you. As suggested by Nih, check your Temps with HWMonitor. Both the GPU and CPU temps should be recorded whilst gaming.

 

[tocheeba]

I'm going to test temps this week. I'm thinking it's more of a RAM issue, although 4GB is enough for SC2 and Windows 7 to run fine. I have other stuff running, but more than enough ram for all of it. And it's a fresh install of windows 7 - no bloatware that came with dell. I normally build my own PC's, so I'm not a noob...but I got an open-box deal on this a few years ago for dirt cheap - otherwise I would've never bought a dell.

 

[tocheeba]

Update:

I'm a total noob...I had like 1.5GB of free RAM, which I thought was enough, since I've alt-tabbed out of SC2 before, and seen it only taking 600MB of RAM. However, I used a remote monitoring program on my iPad to monitor my PC, and noticed it was taking a LOT more than that. I was running out of RAM and I think it was dumping things to my hard drive. I have things like CrashPlan, Dropbox, Subsonic, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, etc. running, and Chrome - which was using about 1GB of RAM, so I just closed Chrome down and it worked great - I quit SC2 and things were fast almost immediately.

For those interested in the iPad app I used, it's called PC Monitor and it's AWESOME if you like monitoring things remotely or have a server you need to keep track of.

for iPad/iPhone/Android:
http://mobilepcmonitor.com/

 

[Gman450]

Glad to see that everythings okay now.

 

[Hawkeye22]

You didn't think to shut down all apps before launching the game??? With only 4 gig of ram, I would be.