Hey,

**The purpose of this guide is to Boost your fps but also, somewhat overclock your
starcraft 2 if I can call it that. This guide is intended for people with lower end machines that want to enjoy Starcraft 2 on higher settings, at the cost of minimal ones.**

So i have 1g ram, AMD Athlon 64-FX55 processor, and a Nvidia 6800 Ultra.
Yet i REFUSE to play sc2 on low, it looks like wc3 and thats not what i want for this game.
So let me give you my full sc2 current settings.

Textures-Medium
Shader-Medium
Post Processing-Medium
Reflections-Off
Effects-Ultra
Lighting-Low
Shadows-Off (I will get to this)
Terrian-Medium
Physic-Ultra
Models-High
Unit Portraits-Off
Resolution-1280x1028
Window Mode
FPS:24-45 average, hardly ever goes below 24
Stuttering-Only when a mother ship pops(all that cloaking does a number on my comp)
Crashes- Zero Zero Zero

Now my game runs great, looks great, and i love it.

*General Breakdown*


Textures- Not an fps whore, relies on VRAM. Mine is set accordingly.

*Shader-This is the major one, this from Low--->Medium makes sc2 from looking like wc3 to an actual 2010 game. This relies heavily on your GPU, not usage, but capability. My poor 6800 does not support high/ultra in the slightest bit. Set this accordingly or try going 1 setting up on it after using this guide.

Post-Processing-Relies on your gpu ability. Either enables displacements, halos, and depth of field depending on what your gpu supports. Set this accordingly, as it is the best setting for fps.

Effects-Relies on your CPU, a cause in stuttering. Does not effect FPS hardly at all.

*Lighting-Major FPS whore but seriously unneeded.

*******Shadows*******- This thing sells itself on the streets, this is the biggest fps whore.

*Terrain- The general look of the terrain and other doodads.

Physics-Relies on the CPU. Minimal stuttering causer. does not affect fps really at all.

Models- Honestly, set this to high unless you have a graphics card worse than mine.

***Unit portraits- Seriously a big fps whore surprisingly.
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[ The * settings]

Shader- This is by far the most important setting their is in SC2 to change your game from looking god awful, into something spectacular. This is HUGE this is the main setting. Honestly, i am sorry about this one, as for me going from low-medium was no significant fps loss. I do not know about going up from, High-Ultra, some gpu do not support all of its functions and this controls how everything looks and can be for the worse. The only reason low-medium is so so so crucial, is that its a small fps hit, for a 100x better looking game.***EVERY OTHER SETTING CORRESPONDS WITH THIS ONE***
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Lighting- Mine is set to low, why you ask? Setting this to high is hardly noticeable, and to be honest, i dont think you are admiring the lighting when playing sc2. Yet this is a MAJOR fps hit. Setting it to low boosted my fps +5, with hardly no graphics hit at all.
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*Shadows- Here it is, this is leading cause in FPS. Mine is set to off, how you ask? I will explain all that shortly at the bottom. Setting this to off was at least a 10-15+ fps gain. Never when im playing ever even noticed shadows before. This is actually a main FPS drain in many games today, some shadows are really needed, starcraft 2, is not one of those games. Your too focused on playing that I bet shadows never even come to mind. It does not affect gameplay at all, or anything really. Its like a free FPS gain. I strongly suggest turning this off.
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Terrian-Another example of being heavy on fps, yet this one is more noticeable. The true difference, yet again, is only from low-medium, after that, it only adds more foliage, and better looking water. For a nice FPS gain with no real graphics loss, set this to Medium.
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*Unit Portraits- This one i have to be honest, i wish i could have it on, yet i cannot as this is another major, yet surprisingly fps drain. Now being honest again, not once do i ever take into account looking at my unit portraits and it isnt very important in the slightest. Setting it from 3d-->2d is suggested for higher end gpu. I STRONGLY suggest turning this off otherwise. This is a great FPS boost at the cost of nothing.
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[How to turn off the *]
First before you go any further, go set all your graphics accordingly after following this guide, it is crucial!

Alright now that you have done that, go to
MyDocuments\Starcraft 2 Beta\

You should see the replays folder, gamelogs, and maps. Along with Variable.txt

Open variables, you should see all these words and what not. Here are the ones to look for and the settings for an FPS gain. These ones can only be turned off using this method so far.

Remember, IT IS SO important to do this after you set your graphics ingame.

GraphicsOptionLightingQuality=0 (Lighting to its lowest)
GraphicsOptionPortraits=0 (Unit portraits off)
lightingLevel=0 (further lowers some light settings)
shadows=0 (turns off shadows)
softshadows=0 (turns off soft shadows)
portraits3d=0 (no 3d portraits)
portraitsOff=1 (Portraits off)

Now you should have a 25-30+ fps gain when playing and can enjoy sc2 on slightly higher settings than your computer allowed. This works for me, and i hope it works for you also, and i hope this guide helped.

(To reset all this, just go back in game, change the light/shadow/unit settings INGAME, click accept, and now its back to normal)

(Graphic settings will vary)