I have an i7, GTX 570, 6GB of RAM, and I have to run on LOW settings...

[Kanzel]

I was having serious FPS and stuttering issues until I made a few changes. I'm running an E8400 Core 2 Duo overclocked to 4 GHZ, an AMD HD 6850 also at max overclock before voltage tweaks, and 6 gigs of DDR3 and was still getting awful, awful performance when this was not the case during the beta.

Turn vsync on, FORCE it on if you have to if you encounter any problems, because it solved many of the stuttering problems(half-second pauses after force charges, other nonsensical shenanigans). Bloom turned on can cause massive FPS drops during this patch for some people, and the in-game Anisotropic Filtering option should be set to low as there's a serious issue with how the game client handles it. Force Anisotropic to 16x through your video drivers instead of using the application to do so for a large gain.

Some options in the graphics menu actually don't do anything, such as setting the texture quality from high to medium(no difference), as well as there being no difference between low and off shadows. I'm somewhat confused as to what the hell the devs were smoking when that went through.

[amplol]

I hope that is the case, thank you

[Krazed]

Here's some things I've seen cause the issue at hand.

#1 is drivers. Yes you may have up to date, but a lot of times its the new ones that cause issues. Try rolling back a few months just as a test.

#2 - Power. This has been said, but double/tripple check your connections. Look inside your PC WITH IT OFF and make sure the power cables plugged into your video card are firm. Trace them back to the power supply and make sure they arent disconnected if they are modular.

#2b - More power. This time check to make sure you arent missing a molex connector (the "large" flat 4 pin connectors on your power supply) that should be plugged into your motherboard. Others have an additional 4/6 pin square/rectangle power connector that it needs to run properly. Also, some AMD based boards require a 4 pin molex for crossfire. This at times being plugged in can cause issues. It's strange, and very difficult to explain but unplugging can FIX slow issues.

#3 - Your motherboard bios settings. Some have auto speed controls for the processor. This can cause huge issues if its not working correctly and force your fancy i7 3.5Ghz mean machine to go down to 1Ghz. I've seen this happen time and time again.

#3b - An alternate yet similar problem I've seen on certain computers and laptops is a Turbo feature for i7 Processors. It's actualy windows software that runs on the Widget bar and controls the speed of the processor based on either CPU demand ,or more often, a button press/setting to turn it off.

#4 - Having said that, if you have any Overclocking software for your video card. (Rivatuner, EVGA's Precision, etc.) Make sure these settings arent screwed up also.

#5 - Is it overheating? This can cause all kinds of strange issues. Mostly, however, it causes artifacting and lockups. But it can also cause things to run poorly.

Other than that, I suggest doing the following as a nice, easy fix if you haven't already.

Uninstall the driver via Add/Remove Programs, before rebooting, delete the NVidia folder from the C:\Program Files directory. Reboot, install new drivers, reboot again, try the game all over again.

Having said all that, its usually a drivers or physical hardware issue causing these sorts of problems. And the drivers don't just have to be video card related. It could also be motherboard chipset related.

Finally - Check to see if there's any rampant programs running that are just strange. It could be antivirus that starts a scan on startup that won't tell you (Except in task manager) or it could be spyware, it could be something that is just broken and needs removal due to it not running as it should dispite no processing power.

It's a computer, it could be anything! It's all tied together in the end...

[Bytes]

I was having serious FPS and stuttering issues until I made a few changes. I'm running an E8400 Core 2 Duo overclocked to 4 GHZ, an AMD HD 6850 also at max overclock before voltage tweaks, and 6 gigs of DDR3 and was still getting awful, awful performance when this was not the case during the beta.

Turn vsync on, FORCE it on if you have to if you encounter any problems, because it solved many of the stuttering problems(half-second pauses after force charges, other nonsensical shenanigans). Bloom turned on can cause massive FPS drops during this patch for some people, and the in-game Anisotropic Filtering option should be set to low as there's a serious issue with how the game client handles it. Force Anisotropic to 16x through your video drivers instead of using the application to do so for a large gain.

Some options in the graphics menu actually don't do anything, such as setting the texture quality from high to medium(no difference), as well as there being no difference between low and off shadows. I'm somewhat confused as to what the hell the devs were smoking when that went through.

I'm having the same terrible performance too, but I'm using an E7300 & HD 4830.

I'm going go try what you said, I hope it fixes the lag and stuttering.

P.S. Bioware really fucked up the optimization for this game, how it's even possible for this game to run so randomly is insane, people with the same or similar computers shouldn't be getting wildly different performance.

[Prank]

I run a first gen core2duo and an 8800gtx and I can run on High settings at 1920x1200 on a 24in monitor. Something is INSANELY wrong with you or your computer

[Bytes]

I run a first gen core2duo and an 8800gtx and I can run on High settings at 1920x1200 on a 24in monitor. Something is INSANELY wrong with you or your computer

No it's Bioware's fault, if there was something wrong with my computer I wouldn't be maxing out Skyrim and running BF3 on medium-high settings with 50 FPS.

The OP's hardware would have to be fried for his computer to not run this game on at least medium.

[Rexy]

sucks or the OP... i have a 480gtx being bottle necked by a dual core 3.0 OCed to 4.2 at max setting 1080p with 50fps =x

[Prag]

I run a first gen core2duo and an 8800gtx and I can run on High settings at 1920x1200 on a 24in monitor. Something is INSANELY wrong with you or your computer

How is that even possible? Does your computer even meet the minimum reqs? >_>

I'm so confused, but I'll try Kanzel's suggestions.

[Prank]

How is that even possible? Does your computer even meet the minimum reqs? >_>

I'm so confused, but I'll try Kanzel's suggestions.

It IS possible because Im doing it.... I had to turn shadows off completely and bloom etc, but I run on all high textures at 1920x1200

[Bytes]

It IS possible because Im doing it.... I had to turn shadows off completely and bloom etc, but I run on all high textures at 1920x1200

High textures is nothing.. it's one of the least performance hitting thing in the game.

One thing on high =/= high settings

[amplol]

Yah I really am not sure what's going on. I have no clue how it's possible. I do get random freezes here in there in any games I play, so I guess I'll try replacing my hard drives.

[Bytes]

Yah I really am not sure what's going on. I have no clue how it's possible. I do get random freezes here in there in any games I play, so I guess I'll try replacing my hard drives.

Don't replace your hard drives because of one game, if you're not getting these problems with any other game it's not your hardware.

This is a known bug, it's been reported thousands of times on the SWTOR forums, there was a huge thread about it, the only thing we can do is hope Bioware fixes these odd performance glitches as soon as possible.

[Neofate]

Have the same gfx card but 4 gb ram.

Running on high with no issues AT ALL, with AAx16 enabled through Nvidia Inspector.

Check your drivers and cables. Can't come up with anything else, sorry.

Perhaps roll back to older drivers or smth?

I have a similar RIG,.. 4.6Ghz, Quad core Intel, 8GB 1600, Crossfire 5870 HD's, With Corsair TX1200 Watt, ...

You either hope it is a cheap hardware issue, or some odd software problem.

First check software if hardware is not getting you anyway.

Reinstall Win 7, completely.. people get so worked up about these things when they spend 2 hours in frustration and an install is 20 mins.

Save the game if you want, but I'd start from scratch and re-dl it, just IN CASE.

Make sure you you monitor your resources. Go to task manager (ctrl-alt-dl) -- and resource manager, expand it.. and see what is going on with the whole system. Anything abnormal?

Do you have a cheap component in there at all?

I made sure I didn't stick one single cheap component or even allow a cheap capacitor .. (if I could help it). I had to eliminate as much as possible. Two years later good.

But we know a good machine, built right, is going to run right.

Yours should be smoking with this game.

I run with my duals at 110-160 FPS.. always. You should never , with that system and single GPU go that low.

Again, software (OS), no go, you KNOW if you have hardware.

Start eliminating piece by piece.

RAM, one chip at a time.

PSU (swap it).

Even reseating the CPU, and the whole deal till you finally figure it out.

The worst situations are a bad Cap or resistor on a motherboard that you is really hard to nail down, and you ultimately have to Dx it by exclusion of all else.

Good luck.

[amplol]

Thanks for the thought out response. I'll reformat tomorrow and go from there.

[Klingers]

All I know is I'm running a mid-tier i5 with 10GB of ram and a GTX460. Hardly a beast yet I'm getting 30+ FPS at 1080p with everything maxed out. Something's definitely not right with your setup mate :-/

[Chingylol]

I have a worse pc then you and am getting 75+ pretty much everywhere. This might sound dumb but is your power cord plugged in all the way? My card kept crashing on me once, and it was cause of that lol

[dekcahw]

Check all your 3d driver settings and play around with them to see if there is anything that swtor doesn't like being forced on or off. Try beta drivers if you can find any, try a few older drivers to see if anything works. Beyond that I would do a memcheck and harddrive check (good to do now and then anyways so what the hell.)

[Sethlol]

I have a i5 2500k, 16gb ram, Radeon 6950 2gb and I'm also having problems with running this game on highest. It really feels slow, especially in big areas. I can run every other new game on the highest settings (Skyrim, BF3 etc.) but SWTOR, nope.

Hopefully new drivers will come out soon that optimize the game.

[Prag]

Anyone tried the ATI 12.1 preview drivers? If so, any problems/praise?

[Sethlol]

Anyone tried the ATI 12.1 preview drivers? If so, any problems/praise?

Ye, I would like to know this as well.