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Shelgeyr
 Post subject: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:24 pm 
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My gaming experience with SW:TOR to date has been tolerable at best, borderline "angry german kid" at worst.
I know it's mostly my hardware, and not the game itself, but I'm kinda strapped and hoping it's possible to improve things with a quick, cheap fix, so here goes.

Win7 (32 bit)
Processor: Intel Core 2 6300 @ 1.86GHz / 1.86GHz
RAM: 2GB
Video: GeForce GT 220

So ... can I make my life easier with a video card upgrade, or do I just need to bite the bullet and wait til I can scrape together the cash for a whole new system?

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Müs
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:41 pm 
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I'd say absolutely a video card upgrade would help.

Which one? I have no idea. I've lost track of what's good anymore.

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Kaffis Mark V
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:57 pm 
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Actually, I think it's probably quite likely that you're CPU bound. What resolution are you playing at?

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Shelgeyr
 Post subject: Re:
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:07 pm 
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Kaffis Mark V wrote:
Actually, I think it's probably quite likely that you're CPU bound.
That's my suspicion(fear) as well :(

Kaffis Mark V wrote:
What resolution are you playing at?
1680x1050

Game client defaulted to "Low" for graphics quality, and I turned shadows off, but everything still looks pretty good to me. Sort of afraid to find out just how much prettier everything *really* is than what I'm able to see.

Also of note: when I select "Quit Game", it takes 8-10 minutes to completely shut down, and while the game is running, I'm essentially unable to do anything else. Simply opening Chrome and trying to look something up on Torhead while I'm logged in is so torturous as to be damn near not worth the effort.

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Mookhow
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:14 pm 
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Is there any particular reason you're running Win7 32-bit and not 64-bit? If you can reinstall with a 64-bit version of Windows, you can dump some more memory in, which should also help a bit.

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FarSky
 Post subject: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:15 pm 
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Isn't that the bare minimum processor speed required? I don't have the specs in front of me.
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FarSky
 Post subject: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:18 pm 
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Ooh, you're a bit below.

Quote:
The following are the system requirements recommended for running Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Processor:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or better
Operating System: Windows XP or later
RAM:

Windows XP: 1.5GB RAM
Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB RAM
Note: PCs using a built-in graphical chipset are recommended to have 2GB of RAM.

Star Wars: The Old Republic requires a video card that has a minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM as well as support for Shader 3.0 or better. Examples include:

ATI X1800 or better
nVidia 7800 or better
Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better
DVD-ROM drive – 8x speed or better (required for installation from physical editions only) Internet connection required to play.

You should ensure you have at least the above PC specs in order to run SWTOR smoothly. It can run on systems which aren’t as powerful, but you won’t be able to play nearly as well, especially in groups and large PvP battles.
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Shelgeyr
 Post subject: Re:
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:30 pm 
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Mookhow wrote:
Is there any particular reason you're running Win7 32-bit and not 64-bit? If you can reinstall with a 64-bit version of Windows, you can dump some more memory in, which should also help a bit.
My understanding is that 32-bit vs 64-bit OS is tied to hardware. Am I mistaken?
In any case, the computer is an old Dell XPS 410 and I got it with Vista 32 because I had no reason at the time to believe I would need 64; so my Win7 upgrade needed to also be 32-bit. At this point, even if I could install 64-bit Win7 on my existing hardware, I can get a newer, more powerful computer almost as cheaply as purchasing the OS alone, so that's not an option.

It looks like computers have gotten even cheaper than I realized, and we can budget this by putting it on our Best Buy card:
Dell Inspiron / AMD Athlon II X2 / 4GB Ram
That ought run things pretty smoothly, eh?

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Mookhow
 Post subject: Re: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 8:40 pm 
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That PC has twice as much memory and it has a faster CPU. The video card is a bit weak, but if you don't get too aggressive with the graphics options, you should be okay. And you can upgrade your video a lot more easily than upgrading the other internal components. It's also a 64-bit OS, so ,assuming there is room, you can upgrade your memory at a later date as well.

edit: BB says it's expandable to 8gb.

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Raltar
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:00 pm 
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It certainly looks like your processor that's really holding you back. My old computer had the same graphics card and the same amount of ram, but I had a quad core at 2.33 ghz and I was running 20-25 FPS on medium with 30-35 on low.

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Müs
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:12 pm 
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Told ya I was full of **** :)

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Shelgeyr
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 7:39 pm 
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So - new computer is up and running.
Sadly, SWTOR is still downloading fiels (after 4 hours!) so I can't yet report on the level of improvement.

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Mookhow
 Post subject: Re: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:20 pm 
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I hope you have good results.

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FarSky
 Post subject: Re:
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:55 pm 
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Shelgeyr wrote:
So - new computer is up and running.
Sadly, SWTOR is still downloading fiels (after 4 hours!) so I can't yet report on the level of improvement.

Oooh, do please share. If it works well enough, I'm going to pick up that same box for Phe to use. :)
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Shelgeyr
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:57 pm 
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Quick update : game client runs beautifully, but I was getting 2.7 FPS, so I cannibalized my old computer for the video card.
Will update again once I've got the drivers for the new(old) card fully installed.

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Kaffis Mark V
 Post subject: Re:
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:22 am 
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Shelgeyr wrote:
Quick update : game client runs beautifully, but I was getting 2.7 FPS, so I cannibalized my old computer for the video card.
Will update again once I've got the drivers for the new(old) card fully installed.

To that end, Farsky, perhaps this would fit the budget to replace said graphics card? It should be a nice balance between value and performance.

See, components, I know.

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"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades
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Shelgeyr
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 1:48 am 
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Final verdict : average 30-40 FPS, good responsiveness. I'd probably experience better results if I bumped up the RAM and bought a more current video card instead of using my old one, but it's enjoyably playable :)

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Numbuk
 Post subject: Re: Hardware advice?
PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:04 am 
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Anyone else get a bit of a stutter/lag when exiting a speeder (with a companion phasing in)? My hardware is more than capable for this game, but there's something about exiting a speeder with a companion around that my system doesn't like. Not completely unplayable, but fairly jarring when doing a force leap/charge.

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Shelgeyr
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:59 am 
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Haven't seen that, but I've noticed the game seems to freeze up for a second every time I open my map.

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