Jackov Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Hey there, Recently I installed Vista 32 bit onto my late 2009 imac through Bootcamp and installed SWTOR. I'm encountering problems however... Loading times are unrealistically too long (5 minutes to log in) Low FPS, when the mouse is used to look around it freezes for example, making the game near unplayable. My system specs are 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB 800 Mhz RAM ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256 MB The specs meet the minimum system requirements as far as I know, so I'm wondering if anything can be done to solve the issue (more RAM etc). Thanks for your time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dasffion Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Not sure about the load times but for the FPS try turning the default settings from low to high then back to low, then turn off shadows completely and hit apply. See if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliKushwump Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) I am running bootcamp on my MacBook Pro and was having a choppy experience until I updated all of my windows drivers, especially the video drivers. After I updated I had no problems with running full rez on the highest settings. Also ensure you have the latest version of Bootcamp. My MacBook is a few years newer however this should help, hopefully. Edited January 6, 2012 by AliKushwump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackov Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Any idea where I could find the updates? Are you running vista too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wreckcenter Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I often run the game on my 2011 13" MacBook Pro, and the load times are pretty long. It has a CPU that's probably a little faster than yours. Seems fairly normal for your year model. However, there are a few things you can do to speed it up tremendously. First, the cheapest way for you to see an improvement on load times is to increase the amount of RAM in your iMac to 8GBs, then install 64-bit Windows so you can take advantage of that amount of RAM. The reason you may be seeing slow load times is because your machine is most likely paging its RAM contents to the HDD. You only have 2GBs, and that is not enough to run both Windows and Star Wars without it using virtual RAM off the hard disk drive. So not only is the game loading levels off the HDD (as well as other cached files), but it is also paging RAM content, so it's working double-time. RAM is orders of magnitude faster than your HDD, so when the computer has to use the HDD to store RAM content, you're going to see a very large decrease in performance. The second method is to buy a solid state drive, or SSD. On the gaming PCs that I build, I see a 2x to 10x improvement on load times versus a traditional spindle hard disk drive. The downside to this option is that SSDs are still relatively expensive compared to mechanical HDDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dasffion Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Any idea where I could find the updates? Are you running vista too? ati.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wreckcenter Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 If you have a 2009 iMac, you may need to borrow a retail copy of 10.6 or newer to get the proper Vista drivers for your model iMac. After the Apple Software Update has been installed (bundled with the drivers), it should automatically download any Boot Camp driver updates. Otherwise, you can download and install Boot Camp driver updates from Apple's Boot Camp support website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackov Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 ok great, thanks for the help! Didnt know ram could be added to an imac:) got windows 7, however i dont thinkmy version of osx supports it.... I guess crucial are the best place to buy ram? Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eeelitest Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 You no longer have to have a disc to get the drivers and such anymore. I guess apple got sick of people who didn't keep their os install disc on display above the fireplace and were instead downloading drivers from dodgy driver sites. You can get the updates to the software at http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ as well as the update to keep it up to date. I would definately say add more RAM. Watch a couple videos on youtube or elsewhere on how to install ram on your particular version of the machine. I believe RAM is one of the only things that you can upgrade on the iMac and I believe that it is usually accessed through the bottom of the stand in the older models. I don't know how to do it or if it can be done on the newest models without a putty knife and suction cups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wreckcenter Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) ok great, thanks for the help! Didnt know ram could be added to an imac:) got windows 7, however i dont thinkmy version of osx supports it.... I guess crucial are the best place to buy ram? Thanks again If you look at the bottom of the iMac, there's actually a small door with 2 screws. You just unscrew it to have access to the memory slots. It is a user degradable component, so don't worry about voiding your warranty if you have AppleCare. If you're uncomfortable with handling electronic components, you can ask an Apple Genius at any Apple Store Genius Bar to do it for you for free. The 2009 iMac uses PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066MHz. Crucial is a good brand. I recommend their discount brand so long as it has a lifetime warranty. Generally speaking, RAM either works or it doesn't. It isn't often that RAM fails after it is installed. I recommend an 8GB kit containing 2x4GB modules. Your 2009 iMac has the 64-bit EFI firmware. Regardless of the version of OS X you're running, you can install 64-bit Windows 7. Your Windows 7 box should contain both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the OS. As long as you're running 10.5 or newer, you should be fine. Edited January 7, 2012 by Wreckcenter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 this topic is very useful, thank you all guys. I have the 2011 iMac 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory, and 8gb of RAM, and now I'm going to install the game on bootcamp as it was on a much slower machine.Only having windows xp pro with service pack 3...would I be MUCH better on windows 7 or would it be just a small improve? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fazoolio Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I'm running the game in Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on bootcamp with an older spec Mac Pro and it is running like a champ. Your video card is way better than mine. I'd always recommend Windows 7 over Windows XP. Here is my stack: 2008 Mac Pro 8 Core Xeon E5462 @ 2.80 GHzNVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (probably really old by today's standards but i dunno)12 GB RAM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks for the input. I had the old 2008(ish) iMac running swtor on bootcamp on this windows xp, but since the machine itself - including graphic card - was below recommended, the game had to run on the very lowest settings. Playing star wars on lowest is to say the least...horrible.The question is, will the windows7 cut it better than the xp on the new machine?Guess I'll have to test it. ps: I don't even have grass/shadows. It's painful guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fazoolio Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 The thing to remember here is Windows XP is really really old. There is only so much MS could do with it. Move to Windows 7 and you will get better performance. Depending on how much RAM you have , install 64 bit (4GB +) to be able to take advantage of it XP will only see 3GB of memory max and is not really optimized for multi core systems It would be the same as saying should we use Lion or stick with Panther Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 waw...that brought me memories. hmm I guess you're right, having 8gb on xp means I'm wasting it. dang. now I need to "get" a copy of windows7 somewhere... thanks for the help mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 just to give an updated version of the topic I am currently going on max graphics and resolution on my iMac bootcamped with windows 7 ultimate 4gb RAM (got an extra 4 to install tonight) and it runs as smooth as I never thought it would. No fps jumping, no issue at all whatsoever. if anyone wants to know more about the spec config I have, just send me a note and I'll dish it out. And yes, sadly I must say windows 7 ultimate seems to be quite stable and does not get jumpy even when you press the Windows button (cmd) by mistake and get ported to the desktop. Goes smoothly in and out. Thank you all for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalmea Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Glad to hear its working, I'm actually running it on a Mac Mini (2011 low-end intel graphics model), and after a LOT of tweaks and 8 gig of RAM its actually running quite smoothly too! Turning shadows off made a big difference, and windows xp sp3 compatibility mode too, which even seemed to improve my graphics for some reason as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 oh yes, I must say that the shadows will always hinder your performace, I disabled them for the moment until I get home and place those extra 4GB RAM. also,it seems that the new bootcamp now gives you the option to burn a cd with all the drivers you will need, in a very easy setup.exe file that you can run on windows to update everything directly from apple. hope that helps for those that were - like me - having issues playing on bootcamped macs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fazoolio Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Don't forget to go to ATI or NVidia's website and download the latest video drivers once you are up and running with Windows 7 in Bootcamp. The stock drivers that come with the bootcamp pack Apple has you download are old Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobrolho Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Sorry, I didn't explain well.When you make a bootcamp partition, it asks you to burn a cd with the drivers you have, and since the drivers were the most recent ones, that's what you get on the cd. it's the ones you have installed on your mac, and not the ones that come from apple bootcamp. at least for me that worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valorann Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I have a iMac 2009 and am running using Parallels. Was having a very choppy experience until i upgraded the RAM. made things a load better. (i have the 27inch version so bought an extra 8GB so that i have 12GB) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ertrek Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 ok does it matter XP vs windows 7? I have a 2010 iMac with an i5 processor, 8Gb of RAM and a 1GB ATI radeon 5750 graphics card. Everying looks alright but the characters all look like small fat hobbits. I have updated the bootcamp and I think the drivers but still they are fat. The other screens all look fine but not the characters. What do I need to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinJGregoire Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 My iMac was running the game fine, all be it on low settings, until 1.1 hit. Now I get the dreaded repair patch message and it never works. I've uninstalled the game and tried a fresh install , also it had been a while and I had the day off sooooo I did a complete clean install of windows 7 ultimate, all drivers and service packs are up to date as well. I'm getting very frustrated. I love the game but I'm pretty close to my limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinJGregoire Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 If you call BM and send the DX logs they will see you are on a Mac and tell you they dont support Mac and basically hang up on you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilZeppelin Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I'm running the game in Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on bootcamp with an older spec Mac Pro and it is running like a champ. Your video card is way better than mine. I'd always recommend Windows 7 over Windows XP. Here is my stack: 2008 Mac Pro 8 Core Xeon E5462 @ 2.80 GHz NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (probably really old by today's standards but i dunno) 12 GB RAM I'm having graphic issues with my Mac Pro. Everything looks low resolution when it's at full resolution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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