SWTOR The Hardware Killer

[Malastare]

The fan will work fine with a bad bearing right?

 

It will work... for a while... but it won't work "fine".

 

If you're hearing bearing noise from a fan, then you've got drastically increased friction in your bearings and that will lead to a lower rpm-for-voltage on the fan. Simply speaking: it's going to slow your fan, making it cool less than it wants to.

 

If you have a failing fan, you should really look into replacing it quickly. Fans with bad bearings can last a couple months or a couple minutes, and depending on what its cooling, the loss of the fan can potentially damage your computer.

 

The fact that yours is switching between quiet(ish) and loud says that its not fully failing, but its not reliable either. So long as its running in its "quiet" personality, it should be functioning at an acceptable level. However, speed increases or decreases may change that.

 

So: It's "fine" in that its very unlikely that its damaging your system right now, but its not "fine" in the fact that you're looking at complete failure in the future, and if that fan is cooling some critical component, you are risking some level of damage.

[Tool_of_Society]

Well maby my old good Geforce died cuz it was old He was working great till the end and I never had any issues with it. Like I said temp over 60 C happen me only once... on Ilum PvP.

 

And radeon 4850 died after 4 days cuz it has very ****** cooling system.

 

Buf the fact is - I was playing crysis 2 on this radeon and had about 65 C... and in TOR on Ilum it was armagedon.

 

My voltage is 12.33 V / 12 V but really I had no problem over 4,5 years (I bought my PC 4,5 years ago).

If your system is properly setup you can run your CPU AND GPUs at 100% usage and not overheat. It's completely and utterly impossible for SWTOR to do more then that. Voltage can look fine but once you put a load on it the numbers can swing wildly. I wouldn't trust your numbers unless you actually had the PSU setup on a test stand with proper equipment while running furmark and prime 95.

 

Like I said before the computers I build can run furmark AND prime 95 at the same time. Furmark is basically designed to overheat graphics cards by putting 100% load on them and prime 95 does the same to your CPU while also heavily loading your RAM. Every system build is stress tested continuously for at least 24 hours before I'm satisfied.

 

 

The last system I built had a phenom II x4 975 with a HD 6870 and even pushed to 100% usages the GPU's cooling fans never hit above 75% speed. XFX makes some beastly cooling for their cards. That same system just completely shrugged off PVP on Ilum with high settings.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Tool_of_Society

[ispanolfw]

I did run it :-)

 

Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 3960X 3.3GHz (Six-Core)

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 (Intel X79 Chipset) SATA 6b/s

16GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Dominator DHX

1200W Corsair Pro Gold Series (CMPSU-1200AX) (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)

250GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: 510 Series SSDSC2MH250A2K5) x3

Rad 0 configured

SLI Triple (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB (PhysX) (Overclocked EVGA 015-P3-1582-BR)

Digital Storm Cryo-TEC CPU System & Chipset + Triple Video Cards Liquid Cooling

Upgrade Chassis With Zalman Performance Fans (x6)

Touch V12XT Aerocool Temperature Display & Fan Controller

Noise Suppression Package

Overclock CPU 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz

Video/memory/OS all Overclocked

 

has multiple extras ect.... but like I said I run everything at below freezing, SWTOR bring it above 0.

 

Like I said, your word isn't enough. And i'm not talking about temps either.

[ispanolfw]

If your system is properly setup you can run your CPU AND GPUs at 100% usage and not overheat. It's completely and utterly impossible for SWTOR to do more then that. Voltage can look fine but once you put a load on it the numbers can swing wildly. I wouldn't trust your numbers unless you actually had the PSU setup on a test stand with proper equipment while running furmark and prime 95.

 

Like I said before the computers I build can run furmark AND prime 95 at the same time. Furmark is basically designed to overheat graphics cards by putting 100% load on them and prime 95 does the same to your CPU while also heavily loading your RAM. Every system build is stress tested continuously for at least 24 hours before I'm satisfied.

 

Then do explain how I can run both of those constantly with no shutdowns due to heat, yet swtor will?

[Tool_of_Society]

Then do explain how I can run both of those constantly with no shutdowns due to heat, yet swtor will?

I highly doubt that is true. What you're describing is physically impossible. Either you're lying about running furmark and prime95 at the same time or you're lying about swtor. 100% usage is 100% usage..You can't push the hardware past that.

 

 

OR you ran furmark and prime 95 for 5 minutes and called it a day..

 

 

If you're using speed/voltage stepping tech make sure your CPU and such is actually kicking up to full speed. I had one system that would run prime95 without actually clocking up to proper speed.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Tool_of_Society

[Diet-Hutt]

"SWTOR Killed Mah Video Card...

SWTOR Killed Mah Video Card...

 

In my mind my CPU's on fire.

I can't play for long, I smell a melting wire!"

 

With apologies to The Buggles.

 

- DH

[Darth_Gao_Gao]

"SWTOR Killed Mah Video Card...

SWTOR Killed Mah Video Card...

 

In my mind my CPU's on fire.

I can't play for long, I smell a melting wire!"

 

With apologies to The Buggles.

 

- DH

 

lol

[Solemnone]

While I don't agree that it is a hardware killer, and I don't experience the same issues as other users(except for that one patch last month that was causing systems to get hot, but no longer an issue), I can agree that SW:TOR is one of the most poorly optimized games on the market. I'm sure Bioware has some of the best coders in the field working on this, but something is fundamentally flawed, and if they any clue at all, they will make it a priority to fix it.

 

With that said, I love the game, and play all the time. There just isn't any logic in defending something that is so obviously broken.

[ispanolfw]

I highly doubt that is true. What you're describing is physically impossible. Either you're lying about running furmark and prime95 at the same time or you're lying about swtor. 100% usage is 100% usage..You can't push the hardware past that.

 

 

OR you ran furmark and prime 95 for 5 minutes and called it a day..

 

 

If you're using speed/voltage stepping tech make sure your CPU and such is actually kicking up to full speed. I had one system that would run prime95 without actually clocking up to proper speed.

 

I run for minimum 2-3 hours. And that's the thing, CPU temps never cause the shutdown, it's GPU temps. I'm using the system for work right now so I can't test it right this minute. Furmark pushes GPU temps to around 80c and swtor pushes to 90c which is right when it powers off. CPU temps are fine, and I will fully admit this is a Desknote. However, the CPU ventilation doesn't really intefere with the GPU Ventilation and vice versa, they're separate.

 

NP7280 if you'd like to go look at it. It's been replaced with a new model now which uses the new desktop hex cores. Mine has a 980X and GTX 480Ms.

 

Also, as i've noted this only happens when the high res textures are used, ie Character Creation and Cutscenes. During the rest of gameplay, it hovers at 84c, which is still rather close to cutoff. And again, no other game, mmo or otherwise does this. I'm also not claiming physical damage is going to happen either.

 

EDIT: Just as a note, my main system has no issues. Although the 2 5970s in it are WC'd and never really go beyond 40-50C anyhow.

Edited February 24, 2012 by ispanolfw

[Elkard]

Been playing since beta, no problems.

[King_Stinkeye]

I've thought that SWTOR ran too hot for a while and I've seen a lot of threads about it both here an in other forums. Normally I would side with the user error crowd on this one because I personally have never come across a game that caused this sort of problem. I cancelled this morning because I'm not happy with the performance of the game, but I was still curious so I thought I'd do a comparison between SWTOR and Rift.

 

Now because I already think there is a problem with SWTOR and because I am unhappy with the product, I tried to give SWTOR every advantage I could. For example, I tested it first, so that it would have a nice cold system to work with, and because the temperature where I live goes up around this time and the second test would probably have a degree or two extra because of it. I would have turned on the air con but I have a cold at the moment. I wanted SWTOR to win because I'm just as interested in whether or not my card is faulty as I am about demonstrating this issue. I would love to upgrade my decrepit 260, but can't justify replacing it if it's doing the job.

 

So to the test! Basically, for whatever reason, the perfect place to test SWTOR's use of your video card seems to be the character select screen. I get more GPU activity there than anywhere else. No idea why. I adjusted a few settings to get the GPU usage to between 57 and 60%. There was some fluctuation but it stayed within that range and was usually at a steady 58%.

 

Almost immediately the temperature rose, and so did the fan speed. I let it sit for a while until it seemed to max out at 84 degrees. Now there's a chance it could have gotten higher, but it definitely wasn't getting lower. Also, I don't have all day to wait around. I'm not happy with that temp and will be looking to improve my cooling, but I can live with it for now.

 

Anyway, to make things fair I had to give my PC a chance to cool down, so I went for a run (Yes I have a cold and I went for a run. Some people exercise even when they don't feel like it.)

 

Once I returned I instantly noticed the room temperature was definitely higher. I ran the test anyway using the rift character screen, and was able to tweak my settings to use a very, very steady 60%. There were minor fluctuations down to 59, but it was mostly at 60.

 

The first thing I noticed was that it took a lot longer to heat up. The fans didn't bother really kicking in as the temperatures were a lot lower. Eventually the fans hit 100% and I let the thing sit there and see how hot it would go. The temperature stopped at 78%. Again, it probably could have gone up, but I gave it as much or more time as SWTOR so I feel I was fair. Especially considering that an hour or more had passed between tests and the room was a lot hotter for Rift.

 

So I guess if you take these crappy tests at face value SWTOR is doing something funky to some systems. If I had to guess, I would say that SWTOR just makes your entire system hotter as it seems to need every resource it can get, but I don't care enough to get further into the details. And I know my machine isn't great but it meets the spec and I don't think it really matters in this case.

 

Here is a screenshot of the NVIDIA Inspector results. Maybe someone smarter than me can find a reason for this or point out what I could have done to get a more accurate result.

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/8ytg0y.jpg

[PhantomKnight]

What people fail to understand is that this isn't an issue with all hardware. You could have a random PoS, and someone else has a super machine, and the super machine is the one having problems. With no fault of the user or hardware.

 

Its just bad coding/oversight on the part of Bioware. I have a similar problem on one of my three computers that I play this game on. I literally have to put a software control on the fans to kick up to max the second I start the game. Just so my my video card doesn't hit 85+ C and reboot. That same computer can play any other game on the market, max settings for hours at a time and never go above 65 C, with the fan going half the speed. The cooling in the system is just fine.

[Costello]

My PC runs it with a few crashes.

 

But there is no doubt that this game runs hot, many people have commented on it and just cause individuals PCs can cope with it doesn't make it an ideal situation.

[Keather]

I have came up with a workaround for the high temps.

 

I have an EVGA GTX 560Ti overclocked, just install MSI Afterburner(an overclock program) and set the GPU Fan to around 70%, it gets a little noisy but you won't lose your video card...

[Caesar]

My brother lost two 8800 gt's (sli) in two weeks on this game. He had an antec 1200 case with plenty of ventilation.

[ispanolfw]

What people fail to understand is that this isn't an issue with all hardware. You could have a random PoS, and someone else has a super machine, and the super machine is the one having problems. With no fault of the user or hardware.

 

Its just bad coding/oversight on the part of Bioware. I have a similar problem on one of my three computers that I play this game on. I literally have to put a software control on the fans to kick up to max the second I start the game. Just so my my video card doesn't hit 85+ C and reboot. That same computer can play any other game on the market, max settings for hours at a time and never go above 65 C, with the fan going half the speed. The cooling in the system is just fine.

 

On this note, I even downclocked the GPUs as far as they would go and it STILL pushes the GPUs to 90c on character creation and cutscenes.

[Tool_of_Society]

I run for minimum 2-3 hours. And that's the thing, CPU temps never cause the shutdown, it's GPU temps. I'm using the system for work right now so I can't test it right this minute. Furmark pushes GPU temps to around 80c and swtor pushes to 90c which is right when it powers off. CPU temps are fine, and I will fully admit this is a Desknote. However, the CPU ventilation doesn't really intefere with the GPU Ventilation and vice versa, they're separate.

 

NP7280 if you'd like to go look at it. It's been replaced with a new model now which uses the new desktop hex cores. Mine has a 980X and GTX 480Ms.

 

Also, as i've noted this only happens when the high res textures are used, ie Character Creation and Cutscenes. During the rest of gameplay, it hovers at 84c, which is still rather close to cutoff. And again, no other game, mmo or otherwise does this. I'm also not claiming physical damage is going to happen either.

 

EDIT: Just as a note, my main system has no issues. Although the 2 5970s in it are WC'd and never really go beyond 40-50C anyhow.

What you're describing is impossible. SWTOR doesn't take control of your fan speeds so there's absolutely no reason for the 100% GPU usage in furmark to cause your card to run cooler then the less then 100% GPU usage in SWTOR. You're not telling the whole truth or maybe even a partial truth. Your wording indicates that you don't run prime95 too which could be a contributing factor. IF the ventilation in your case is bad then you wouldn't notice problems running only prime 95 by itself or furmark by itself because you're only heating up a couple components. WHere as if you run both of them then you're actually giving your cooling a real test as it's got to cool your chipsets/RAM/CPU/GPU all at the same time. Based on the few facts you've stated it's pretty obvious that your cooling is subpar and it causes problems when all your components are pushed.

 

Like I stated earlier I've ran this game on a wide variety of hardwarre (11 unique systems) and NONE of them have had overheating issues. I also run FURMArk AND PRime95 at the same time for 24 HOURS not a couple minutes.

 

 

 

 

Its just bad coding/oversight on the part of Bioware. I have a similar problem on one of my three computers that I play this game on. I literally have to put a software control on the fans to kick up to max the second I start the game. Just so my my video card doesn't hit 85+ C and reboot. That same computer can play any other game on the market, max settings for hours at a time and never go above 65 C, with the fan going half the speed. The cooling in the system is just fine.

Listen people... SWTOR doesn't take over control of your fan speeds. YOUR DRIVER CONTROLS THE FAN SPEED NOT THE GAME.. ONCE MORE SWTOR IS NOT CONTROLLING YOUR FAN SPEEDS...

 

If your GPU's temp is rising too high and the fans aren't picking up speed then your graphics driver is corrupt or incorrectly configured.

 

On this note, I even downclocked the GPUs as far as they would go and it STILL pushes the GPUs to 90c on character creation and cutscenes.

I have used the following graphics cards with a mix of AMD and Intel CPUS 6970 6870 5770 5750 integrated g41 graphics gtx 580 gtx 550 gtx 570 8400 gs. NOT a single one of those systems has had any overheating issues in SWTOR login, fleet, wz, Ilum it doesn't matter I've never had a single machine built by me have overheating problems in SWTOR. On the other hand I"ve had a few systems show cooling problems when stress tested by furmark and prime95 for 24 hours. I rectified those problems with extra fans or by adjusting fan speeds. Edited February 25, 2012 by Tool_of_Society

[Chumliedos]

Get a new computer yours is trash. 560 Ti lol noob

[Vizwik]

Your screen caps show nothing but your lack of proper ventilation and cooling. I run the game fine on my Laptop and my Desktop and I have no issues regarding temperature and the CPU/GPU/RAM usages are not out of the ordinary for MMO's.

 

This is what is going on...

[ispanolfw]

What you're describing is impossible. SWTOR doesn't take control of your fan speeds so there's absolutely no reason for the 100% GPU usage in furmark to cause your card to run cooler then the less then 100% GPU usage in SWTOR. You're not telling the whole truth or maybe even a partial truth. Your wording indicates that you don't run prime95 too which could be a contributing factor. IF the ventilation in your case is bad then you wouldn't notice problems running only prime 95 by itself or furmark by itself because you're only heating up a couple components. WHere as if you run both of them then you're actually giving your cooling a real test as it's got to cool your chipsets/RAM/CPU/GPU all at the same time. Based on the few facts you've stated it's pretty obvious that your cooling is subpar and it causes problems when all your components are pushed.

 

Like I stated earlier I've ran this game on a wide variety of hardwarre (11 unique systems) and NONE of them have had overheating issues. I also run FURMArk AND PRime95 at the same time for 24 HOURS not a couple minutes.

 

 

 

 

Listen people... SWTOR doesn't take over control of your fan speeds. YOUR DRIVER CONTROLS THE FAN SPEED NOT THE GAME.. ONCE MORE SWTOR IS NOT CONTROLLING YOUR FAN SPEEDS...

 

If your GPU's temp is rising too high and the fans aren't picking up speed then your graphics driver is corrupt or incorrectly configured.

 

I have used the following graphics cards with a mix of AMD and Intel CPUS 6970 6870 5770 5750 integrated g41 graphics gtx 580 gtx 550 gtx 570 8400 gs. NOT a single one of those systems has had any overheating issues in SWTOR login, fleet, wz, Ilum it doesn't matter I've never had a single machine built by me have overheating problems in SWTOR. On the other hand I"ve had a few systems show cooling problems when stress tested by furmark and prime95 for 24 hours. I rectified those problems with extra fans or by adjusting fan speeds.

 

I guess Sager as a company should have gone under by now for Sub Par Cooling then, right? Because that's what you're saying. I regularly clean the thing out, replace the TIM if neccesary and whatnot. Plus the CPU cooling and GPU cooling, while right next to each other, don't really transfer all that much heat to each other. One's not above the other, but side by side. And i'm not saying this "because heat rises" either. I've had it open while the GPUs are going full throttle and the CPU sink is still cool to the touch. Vice Versa even.

 

In any case, Furmark doesn't cause the system in question to hang. No other game causes it to hang. No other game even pushes the GPUs to the temps that SWTOR has. Hell, even Crysis pushed the system to the point that the PSU tripped, swtor doesn't, but sure makes the GPUs nice and toasty. Again, not damaging them, it shuts them off prior to that, but they still get hotter. Basically it means if I wanted to play SWTOR on that system, I have to deal with the system hanging every other cut scene. No other game does that. Even Crysis only pulled enough juice to trip the PSU once, which means it was likely the things I was running in the background pushing it over, and it wasn't much extra.

 

The only reason I even noticed swtor did this was that my desktop was out of commission at the time due to the sheer amount of electricity it uses. Now that we all have jobs again, instead of just one of us, I can us it again. And this one doesn't care what you run on it, the WC keeps it cool. Sure does heat up the room though.

Edited February 25, 2012 by ispanolfw

[Fabians]

Clean the dust INSIDE your videocard..

[Romiz]

It is also possible you have a defective video card.

[Dawginole]

Some of you either have too small of a case or terrible cooling. With the Corsair 650D I can have my HD5850 at 10% fans and maintain 70C. With 50% fans the card sits at 50C.

[Tool_of_Society]

I guess Sager as a company should have gone under by now for Sub Par Cooling then, right? Because that's what you're saying. I regularly clean the thing out, replace the TIM if neccesary and whatnot. Plus the CPU cooling and GPU cooling, while right next to each other, don't really transfer all that much heat to each other. One's not above the other, but side by side. And i'm not saying this "because heat rises" either. I've had it open while the GPUs are going full throttle and the CPU sink is still cool to the touch. Vice Versa even.

 

In any case, Furmark doesn't cause the system in question to hang. No other game causes it to hang. No other game even pushes the GPUs to the temps that SWTOR has. Hell, even Crysis pushed the system to the point that the PSU tripped, swtor doesn't, but sure makes the GPUs nice and toasty. Again, not damaging them, it shuts them off prior to that, but they still get hotter. Basically it means if I wanted to play SWTOR on that system, I have to deal with the system hanging every other cut scene. No other game does that. Even Crysis only pulled enough juice to trip the PSU once, which means it was likely the things I was running in the background pushing it over, and it wasn't much extra.

 

The only reason I even noticed swtor did this was that my desktop was out of commission at the time due to the sheer amount of electricity it uses. Now that we all have jobs again, instead of just one of us, I can us it again. And this one doesn't care what you run on it, the WC keeps it cool. Sure does heat up the room though.

Just a FYI Sager computers are actually manufactured by Clevo which is actually kind of a meh manufacturer in the OEM world but at least they've been around for a while. You do realize that ALL laptops have inferior cooling systems (even the Asus G series has cooling that is less then optimal) just because of the design requirements for the application. Gaming laptops have always cracked me up because the concept of a laptop just doesn't lend itself to gaming. Unless you're taking your laptop apart to clean it I guarantee there's dust and hair collected in the cooling system and as a result it's being at least somewhat choked for air. Just blowing out the vents won't do the job properly for a laptop. I would also check to make sure that you're not blocking the air vents when playing SWTOR.

 

Like I stated before FUrmark by itself only heats up your GPU. Most laptops have a heat pipe setup which connects the GPU and the CPU to maximize cooling with the minimal amount of air available. If you ran furmark and Prime95 at the same time you will quickly see a difference in temps and that would be a true test since no game is only going to hit your graphics card.

 

Crysis is an extremely old game in computer years and also is a single player game. While the game might of been a benchmark for performance in 2008 it's old news now. My server with integrated graphics can run Crysis quite well.

 

If it's true that your PSU "tripped" while playing any game then your system is in bad shape. Your PSU should have more then enough headroom to run your entire system at full power. It seems to me that your laptop has a defective PSU or an internal short. There's also the possibility that your laptop was so poorly made that they didn't put enough head room in the PSU to handle the hardware it's running. Overall if I were you I would be worried that your PSU is defective and might take the rest of your system with it when it finally dies.

[Kabhal]

I know I'm a bit late to the party but I run the game fine with no heat issues whatsoever.

 

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/6446/screenhunter03feb251422.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/7048/screenhunter02feb251421.jpg

 

i7 920 with a radeon 6770. Just my 2 cents.

Edited February 25, 2012 by Kabhal