The Rio Olympic bronze medallist finished in a three-way duel with Olympic champion Ekatereni Stefanidi and Cuban Yarisley Silva, the 2015 world champion.
The bar was raised to 4.85m, which would have been a New Zealand record for McCartney.
However both Silva and McCartney failed at all three attempts, leaving Stefanidi to win her second DL meeting of the season. McCartney's best was 4.75m, 7cm below her national mark, set in Auckland in February.
Stefanidi attempted to nail the world record 5.06m set by Russian Yelena Isinbaeva in Zurich in 2009. However the Greek was unable to clear 5.07m but stamped her dominance on the event at the early stage of the European season with a formidable performance.
McCartney entered the competition at 4.40m and missed her first attempt, which didn't bode well. However she got past that height, and then sailed over 4.55m at the first up.
With the bar at 4.75m, and the field of 11 whittled down, McCartney made sure of a podium finish by clearing 4.75m at her third attempt, although it was a close thing.
She clipped the bar, which wobbled hard before settling back, to McCartney's delight. By this point Stefanidi was looking formidable.
At 4.85m, McCartney clipped the bar with a leg and this time there would be no reprieve from the forces of physics. Silva also missed all three cracks at 4.85m, leaving Stefanidi last woman standing.
The meet record stands at 5.03m, also by Isinbaeva, but it was beyond the gifted 27-year-old Greek.
