swtor lag and my computer

[jayejay]

as mentioned above im having obvious sw:tor fps lag. i went to can you run it and it says i shud be on the better side to play it but none the less i still fps lag is there a way to see if my video card is better or worse than my processor ?


AMD Athlon(tm)64 x2 dual core processor 5000+ 2.60Ghz

4.0 gb ram

viideo card exactly what the box says.. yes i kept the boss the whole year i had it

GeForce GT 240 1024 DDR3

any help wud be nice

[inux94]

Your specs are low, the processor is 5 years old and your card is rubbish at gaming.

Tried running it on low?

[jayejay]

everything is low and how do u no its so old and what shud i i get ? on the cheaper side but still play medium settngs nothing too fancy seeing how im obviously not a gamer just like mmos

[Dawnseven]

I'll let a propeller-head far far better than me deal with your specific technical question, but I note that you have a faster processor than me (mine is dual core, but 2.3Ghz I think), the same amount of RAM (I *might* have 6GB, but I'm 90% sure it's 4) and you have twice as much RAM on your vid card than I do, and I'm running SWTOR just fine (30 fps on average) so I was wondering... did you turn shadows off in your game preferences? They are, by default, on low. There is at *least* a 10 fps increase (one guildie got a 15 increase) with shadows off. I think the shadow problems (Google this) are more of a Bioware issue than an end-user equipment issue. The problem might not be you. Just thought I'd mention it.

[jayejay]

yea i tried it on and off no diff and 4gb of ram is including video card and the actual ram

[SmthJce33]

Turn Shadows to Off. Shadows are killing most systems on this game.

Nevermind, saw that you said you turned it off and saw no difference (which doesn't make sense).

[inux94]

Ram on card doesn't matter aslong as you got over 1GB of VRAM

RAM is the module sticks that you put on your motherboard, VRAM is for your card, you shouldn't include it under total RAM when posting specs.

And how I found out the age of your components, there's wikipedia and google.

[jayejay]

anything u suggest ?

[manniefaces]

Upgrade your RAM and the graphics card. Those are low end specs and you will struggle to run the game.

[Ballador]

The problem is, Jay, that with the age of your current components, most new components are not going to be compatible. A new processor is probably too much for the motherboard/memory that you have in the system. You would probably need to purchase a motherboard, CPU, memory, and video card to really see a difference.

Have you tried a lower in-game resolution? What are all your graphics settings in game currently set to? Just login, write every setting down and put it up here. Thanks!

---------- Post added 2012-01-05 at 04:50 PM ----------

Upgrade your RAM and the graphics card. Those are low end specs and you will struggle to run the game.

Before you jump into a RAM purchase, please check the motherboard manufacturer's website and ensure that your motherboard can handle more than 4 GB of RAM, and what speeds of ram it supports as well. You also MUST check your operating system. If you are running Windows XP or Windows Vista/7 32-bit, your OS can only address 4 GB of RAM, so adding more is a waste. If you are running Windows Vista/7 64-bit, then you can add RAM, however I doubt that is your issue. CPU and Video are more important that physical RAM for almost every MMO out there. Honestly, your CPU is what is really holding you back, more than likely.

[jayejay]

http://i.imgur.com/caXgz.jpg
theres my visual graphics everythng is low
and my comp is 32 bit

[skylla05]

Additionally to turning off shadows, also turn off bloom and lower your foliage (or ground clutter. Sorry I forget what it's called in SWToR)

I have a reasonably decent computer (i7 950 - 6GB RAM - HD6870), and Shadows and Bloom even kill my system. Turning them both off significantly improved performance for me. Bloom doesn't typically affect my games at all... but it definitely does in SWToR. It's pretty evident that the graphics in SWToR are not at all optimized that well.

Another thing you might want to double check, is your actual video card settings. Make sure you don't have AA or AF cranked up and let the program manage those settings instead of your video card. AO (Ambient Occlusion, also sometimes called Adaptive Antialiasing/Multisampling) is another thing to check to see if it's enabled on your video card. All these things would increase quality at the (significant) cost of performance (especially AA and AO)

If none of that helps, chances are it's a hardware issue in general and the only resolution will be to upgrade. You could upgrade your processor, motherboard, video card and ram for under 500 bucks total (you won't have a high end machine, but you should be able to play most modern games rather well). Might not be something you have the luxury to do, but it's worth keeping in mind if you really want a performance upgrade.

edit: I missed your screenshot.

There's a couple things that might help.

Windowed mode generally slows games down because your video card is still trying to draw the game, on top of your OS. Try playing fullscreen instead.

Turn off vertical sync. Vsync is only necessary if you are going over 60fps, where screen tearing generally starts to occur. If you're not hitting 60fps, generally speaking Vsync is probably more detrimental than anything.

But again, check your video card settings and make sure you don't have AA, AO/AAA or AF enabled. And if they are, either turn them right down, or allow programs to manage your graphic settings (I don't use nvidia cards, but I imagine there's an option that allows you to do this)

[jayejay]

what AA stand for just incase i dont mess with the wrong settings..

[inux94]

Anti Aliasing, turn it off, I suggest you to just get a new PC.

[jayejay]

i planned on getting a new one just wanted to see if this one was salvagable for a couple months i can afford anything around 5-600 $ if it means new motherboard cpu and vcard or new computer

[Uggorthaholy]

i planned on getting a new one just wanted to see if this one was salvagable for a couple months i can afford anything around 5-600 $ if it means new motherboard cpu and vcard or new computer

This is a great decision. Marest's sample builds have some great information in them, and we're always ready to help with building a new PC - this one just definitely can't hack SWTOR.

[jayejay]

where do i start??

[DoctaFlood]

To avoid making a new thread, I'm also getting incredible lag problems in SWTOR. My current specs are:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.3 gHZ
Ram: 6G DDR2
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5670
At the present I am assuming my CPU is the problem, and am looking to potentially get a new one come tax returns. Problem being, my PC was built by a friend of a friend somewhere around 5 or 6 years ago, so the mobo would also be too dated to successfully upgrade to anything decent. I bought the video card over this past summer for around 130-150 at best buy, so I'm trying to withhold upgrading that until I have more money to burn.

The CPU I'm currently looking at is AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX on newegg for 150$.

In addition, I'm possibly looking to get around 8g of ddr3 ram to go with any new mobo simply due to the cheapness of ram at the present and it's decrease in power usage. Any suggestions would be appreciated both on my current specs and what the problem may be, and in terms of upgrades. Thanks in advance.

[Ballador]

where do i start??

If you are in the US, goto NewEgg and start pricing some of their pre-built complete systems, or price the components to build one yourself. There are a lot of systems available, you just have to locate the features you need.

---------- Post added 2012-01-05 at 09:25 PM ----------

To avoid making a new thread, I'm also getting incredible lag problems in SWTOR. My current specs are:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.3 gHZ
Ram: 6G DDR2
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5670
At the present I am assuming my CPU is the problem, and am looking to potentially get a new one come tax returns. Problem being, my PC was built by a friend of a friend somewhere around 5 or 6 years ago, so the mobo would also be too dated to successfully upgrade to anything decent. I bought the video card over this past summer for around 130-150 at best buy, so I'm trying to withhold upgrading that until I have more money to burn.

The CPU I'm currently looking at is AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX on newegg for 150$.

In addition, I'm possibly looking to get around 8g of ddr3 ram to go with any new mobo simply due to the cheapness of ram at the present and it's decrease in power usage. Any suggestions would be appreciated both on my current specs and what the problem may be, and in terms of upgrades. Thanks in advance.

If I were to purchase a new board today, it would probably be the ASUS Sabertooth - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131736
Of course, with that, I would need a Zambezi Oct-core processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103961
Along with some Mushkin RedLine ram ... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226224