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Has anyone ever encountered trails/artifacts as in the picture while playing SC2?

enter image description here

I've tried other 3D apps on the machine such as Portal2 -- That worked just fine. Wondering if anyone has encountered this before and if so how it was resolved.

Additional info:

Hardware Overview:

 Model Name:   iMac
 Model Identifier:     iMac11,3
 Processor Name:       Intel Core i5
 Processor Speed:      2.8 GHz
 Number Of Processors: 1
 Total Number Of Cores:        4
 L2 Cache (per core):  256 KB
 L3 Cache:     8 MB
 Memory:       4 GB
 Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
 Boot ROM Version:     IM112.0057.B00
 SMC Version (system): 1.59f2

ATI Radeon HD 5750:

 Chipset Model:        ATI Radeon HD 5750
 Type: GPU
 Bus:  PCIe
 PCIe Lane Width:      x16
 VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
 Vendor:       ATI (0x1002)
 Device ID:    0x68a1
 Revision ID:  0x0000
 ROM Revision: 113-B9710C-238
 EFI Driver Version:   01.00.417
 Displays:
iMac:
 Resolution:   2560 x 1440
 Pixel Depth:  32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
 Main Display: Yes
 Mirror:       Off
 Online:       Yes
 Built-In:     Yes
 Connection Type:      DisplayPort
Display Connector:
 Status:       No Display Connected
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Status: No Display Connected ?? – Bora Jun 6 '11 at 23:36
Out of the external display connector, there's nothing connected - it's a display integrated iMac though. – Matt Jun 6 '11 at 23:37
3  
Have you tried downloading smcFanControl, increasing the fan's RPMs and seeing if that improves your performance? Might be a heat issue in the GPU. – Crag Jun 6 '11 at 23:57
2  
I think that this should be addressed to tech support. – Meta Jun 7 '11 at 6:51
I've encountered it in other games, but it was with a video card that had essentially reached the end of its life cycle. – Shaun Jun 7 '11 at 23:46
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1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

Typically artifacting of this nature occurs when a GPU is either damaged or not cooled properly. If the GPU is still artifacting after providing substantial cooling improvements then it is probably irreparably damaged.

Heres what you can do:

  1. If your laptop actually has vents on it blow it out with compressed air. Dust in a heat sink will always reduce it's ability to dissipate heat.

  2. Get a laptop cooling stand/dock. Typically you can spend $30-$70 and see great improvements simply from helping your laptop cool better.

  3. If you are technically inclined, or know someone who is, you can replace the thermal compound on the GPU. This is not something you should do if you do not know how to do it, as things can very easily go wrong.

  4. Have you contacted Apple? (You probably should)

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