Desktop Hardware Q&A

[daemian]

Well I guess then I should just cancel my subscription. I am not going to build a new computer this soon after building this one, I had this one built just 6 months ago.

 

That's unfortunate. Upgrading to Win7 64-bit and adding more RAM will probably be your least expensive upgrade then, and might help with performance.

Edited December 30, 2011 by daemian

[APhantasm]

That's unfortunate. Upgrading to Win7 64-bit and adding more RAM will probably be your least expensive upgrade then, and might help with performance.

 

Why unfortunate, because I don't want to waste the money I already spent on building this one?

[Kookus]

Why unfortunate, because I don't want to waste the money I already spent on building this one?

 

Because it's a good game, and we would hate for you to miss out on it simply because you bought cheap hardware six months ago. I'm sorry that you do not like the answer you were given, but the status of your build is not Bioware's fault.

[daemian]

Why unfortunate, because I don't want to waste the money I already spent on building this one?

 

Unfortunate that you aren't able to play the game as well as you'd like with the system you have now.

Edited December 30, 2011 by daemian

[Veilshatter]

If I want to increase the voltage on my CPU what should I do? Its maxed out in bios and I have to connect external power.

 

Try looking on an overclocking how-to thread we dont really go over over that in here.

[Kookus]

I was getting pretty decent FPS (usually 40-80fps) but a lot of skipped frames. I assumed it was my video card and almost pulled the trigger on a new one for $300. Last nigght I fired up Resource Monitor in Windows 7, filtered it on swtor.exe, and waited or a frame skip. As it turns out, the problem is the hard drive, not my video card. Every time it would skip a frame, there was a corresponding massive orange spike in resource monitor under my hard drive. I am not sure if a better HD would fix it, or if it is a problem with the game that no HD would improve.

 

At this point, I would blame it on poor optimization in the game code. I expect that the devs are still working this angle, and wouldn't be surprised to see some major performance improvements in the coming weeks. Either way, given the price of HDDs right now, I would certainly put off purchasing a new one for another month or so.

[APhantasm]

Because it's a good game, and we would hate for you to miss out on it simply because you bought cheap hardware six months ago. I'm sorry that you do not like the answer you were given, but the status of your build is not Bioware's fault.

 

First off the answer you gave wasn't even answering the question I asked to begin with.

 

Second your saying that I wasted money for nothing. I am sorry but that is unacceptable. I don't know about you but I can't just afford to throw several hundred dollars out the window llike that.

[Faulken]

Will an Intel HD Graphics card not run this game well? I can play, but at a lot of points it becomes either a little choppy or really laggy. The weirdest thing about this though, is I can basically reset the lag just by opening my bags in game. So if it starts to lag, I open my bag and it goes away for a little bit. But this has me opening my bag sometimes every 5 seconds, and sometimes it wont fix it at all. Why does this happen?

[Veilshatter]

Why unfortunate, because I don't want to waste the money I already spent on building this one?

 

Why? Because I feel bad for people who buy out of date hardware and waste money on it. In regards to your question if you want to know a vid card I will tell you I personally like the gtx 460 1gb. Now just like the other people said if your not running win64bit you should definately do that first. From your post I say you, had 4gb ram which you already hit your limit for 32 bit

Edited December 30, 2011 by Veilshatter

[Kookus]

First off the answer you gave wasn't even answering the question I asked to begin with.

 

To be fair, you didn't ask a question; you railed against CS and basically whined. I almost passed up responding to you because of this; and upon further reflection, ignoring you is likely the appropriate course of action. If you have any further hardware questions... well... you'll probably be on your own, to be honest.

[APhantasm]

To be fair, you didn't ask a question; you railed against CS and basically whined. I almost passed up responding to you because of this; and upon further reflection, ignoring you is likely the appropriate course of action. If you have any further hardware questions... well... you'll probably be on your own, to be honest.

 

Then you didn't read. I asked what Video Card would work with my specs. Thats what I was wanting to know, and if you had read you would have known that.

[daemian]

Then you didn't read. I asked what Video Card would work with my specs. Thats what I was wanting to know, and if you had read you would have known that.

 

As long as you have a free PCIe slot, your only real concern will be choosing a card that fits within the limits of your power supply, your budget, and physically fits in the case.

Edited December 30, 2011 by daemian

[APhantasm]

As long as you have a free PCIe slot, your only real concern will be choosing a card that fits within the limits of your power supply, your budget, and physically fits in the case.

 

I had been told that my CPU would also limit my choices which was why I was asking. That some of the higher end cards would not work with my CPU.

[Selvune]

Thanks in advance to any comments/opinions

Here is my setup. Would changing the video card to the Radeon HD6770 give me any benefit and is it enough benefit to do or should I get something better. Thoughts and suggestions?

• 3.3 GHz Intel i3 2120

• 1 TB Serial-ATA-III Hard Drive

• 8GB DDR3-1333 MHz (Upgradeable to 16GB)

• NVIDIA GT520 1GB

• 480 Watt Power Supply

 

Also, someone else posted that Radeon video cards are causing problems with the game. Has prominent is it? Do I return the Radeon and get a comparable Nivida or higher class Nividia

[daemian]

I had been told that my CPU would also limit my choices which was why I was asking. That some of the higher end cards would not work with my CPU.

 

It will still work, but if you choose a higher-end card, your CPU will become a bottleneck... meaning it will prevent the card from reaching its full potential.

 

I'm not experienced enough with that CPU to know what card would be the most optimal (someone else can chime in here), but if you're planning to upgrade over time, you could always buy a decent card to see some improvement now, with the intention of improving the CPU later down the road.

[mikevunder]

Bridging over from this thread:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=106208

 

tl;dr people are suggesting I get an amped up PSU and were starting to suggest which GPU I should target.

 

PSU

I have a stack of Best Buy cards here I haven't had occasion to use, so I scoped out Best Buy's site and found this Corsair 600w... will this meet my needs? I know I can probably get it elsewhere for less, but I have these cards I'm probably not going to use on anything else.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+Gaming+Series+600-Watt+ATX+CPU+Power+Supply/1073679.p?id=1218217268656&skuId=1073679&st=power%20supply&cp=1&lp=2

 

GPU

I'm pretty ignorant on the lingo and specs in this area. My tech prowess is admittedly beyond rusty.

 

Someone has said ATI cards run SWTOR better and had suggested an ATI Radeon HD 6950. Following that advice, I checked Newegg.com and see there are a number of manufacturers of this kind of card. What brands should I avoid and also - what brands have held up well for you all?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=-1&IsNodeId=1&Description=ATI%20Radeon%20HD%206950&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

 

 

Thanks for any feedback.

[Segap]

Just as my desktop is currently broken I can only only be working off my laptop. My problems are the load times between areas or switching instances to join up for a group quest.

 

My specs are

Intel Core i5 CPU M450 @2.40GHz

4gb RAM

64 bit Windows

NVIDIA GeForce 310M

 

 

My drivers are up to date but the slow load times are killing me especially in group play.

Any ideas how i can help load times or is the system im running this on simply too slow ?

[APhantasm]

Also, someone else posted that Radeon video cards are causing problems with the game. Has prominent is it? Do I return the Radeon and get a comparable Nivida or higher class Nividia

 

Some Nvidia are having problems with the game as well, and I am not talking about just mine. I have seen other folks in the CS forum say they have Nvidia and are having problems.

 

Yet still I have seen folks with both Radeon and Nvidia post that theirs works just fine.

[Kourage]

Anyone know if setting the swtor.exe process to high priority helps any?

[daemian]

Some Nvidia are having problems with the game as well, and I am not talking about just mine. I have seen other folks in the CS forum say they have Nvidia and are having problems.

 

Yet still I have seen folks with both Radeon and Nvidia post that theirs works just fine.

 

I'm using a Radeon HD 6970 with no trouble and great performance, fwiw.

Edited December 30, 2011 by daemian

[derzlok]

Is the gtx580 worth buying i want a graphics card that i get max fps all times

[Selvune]

I would also like to mention it is nice seeing threads like this since everything else in the general forums seems to be complaints or people belittling other people. Nice to know there are nice people on these forums.

[Kookus]

Thanks in advance to any comments/opinions

Here is my setup. Would changing the video card to the Radeon HD6770 give me any benefit and is it enough benefit to do or should I get something better. Thoughts and suggestions?

• 3.3 GHz Intel i3 2120

• 1 TB Serial-ATA-III Hard Drive

• 8GB DDR3-1333 MHz (Upgradeable to 16GB)

• NVIDIA GT520 1GB

• 480 Watt Power Supply

 

Also, someone else posted that Radeon video cards are causing problems with the game. Has prominent is it? Do I return the Radeon and get a comparable Nivida or higher class Nividia

 

You'll definitely see a marked improvement with the 6770 over the 520. I am personally averse to ATI, but I haven't heard anything overtly negative about their performance with SWTOR, specifically.

 

You will, however, want to look closely at your power supply as a potential problem with this setup. 480 sounds like an OEM PS, which means it may not provide enough oomph to get you through such a significant upgrade.

[APhantasm]

It will still work, but if you choose a higher-end card, your CPU will become a bottleneck... meaning it will prevent the card from reaching its full potential.

 

I'm not experienced enough with that CPU to know what card would be the most optimal (someone else can chime in here), but if you're planning to upgrade over time, you could always buy a decent card to see some improvement now, with the intention of improving the CPU later down the road.

 

Thank you, yours has been the most informative post yet. You even addressed my question.

[Kookus]

Is the gtx580 worth buying i want a graphics card that i get max fps all times

 

I am running the gtx580 in my main gaming rig with no problems and consistently-high framerates. I consider it a worthwhile purchase, though YMMV, as overall SWTOR performance depends heavily upon other factors.