SWTOR The Hardware Killer

[jediknightoftor]

Guys,

 

Some of you are talking like the thousands of posts complaining about heat issues on a gaming rig were written by a trolling flash mob that had nothing better to do than spam the boards. Most of us are gaming laptop owners, which means we've probably played a lot of games, and yet this game is the one giving us problems. You say it's impossible for software to kill your hardware. Technically that is true because of safety switches, but if the safety kicks in at 100C because that's when a card will begin to be significantly damaged, but you play 4 hrs of ToR a day with your fans at 100% and your temps at 95C-99C, it's going to eventually kill your hardware. I had a six month old Qosmio x775 which does fine on max settings on Skyrim, and every other game, never breaching 70C but for some reason, ToR would run 90C+. While other games will drop the framerate when loading intensive ares, ToR just runs hotter with the framerate never dropping. Needless to say, I have just sent my system in for warranty replacement of the video card.

 

And for those of you sporting a car engine analogy, if your car ran fine at 120 mph under normal circumstances, but whenever you got gas from a specific station, your car would red line at 90 mph, only an idiot would say, "Huh, my radiator must be bad" and not "Something must be up with that gas." Yet, that is what you are telling us to do. Just because that gas works fine with 90% of the cars out there does not mean it is the remaining 10%'s problem that something in the gas reacts badly with something in their engine, and if the gas station wants to keep 100% of their business, they need to fix their gas. It's bad business to expect the car owner to find the problem and fix it, yet that appears to be what the devs are requiring of us thus far by not admitting the issue and/or not working on a fix.

[Quantum]

Guys,

 

Some of you are talking like the thousands of posts complaining about heat issues on a gaming rig were written by a trolling flash mob that had nothing better to do than spam the boards. Most of us are gaming laptop owners, which means we've probably played a lot of games, and yet this game is the one giving us problems. You say it's impossible for software to kill your hardware. Technically that is true because of safety switches, but if the safety kicks in at 100C because that's when a card will begin to be significantly damaged, but you play 4 hrs of ToR a day with your fans at 100% and your temps at 95C-99C, it's going to eventually kill your hardware. I had a six month old Qosmio x775 which does fine on max settings on Skyrim, and every other game, never breaching 70C but for some reason, ToR would run 90C+. While other games will drop the framerate when loading intensive ares, ToR just runs hotter with the framerate never dropping. Needless to say, I have just sent my system in for warranty replacement of the video card.

 

And for those of you sporting a car engine analogy, if your car ran fine at 120 mph under normal circumstances, but whenever you got gas from a specific station, your car would red line at 90 mph, only an idiot would say, "Huh, my radiator must be bad" and not "Something must be up with that gas." Yet, that is what you are telling us to do. Just because that gas works fine with 90% of the cars out there does not mean it is the remaining 10%'s problem that something in the gas reacts badly with something in their engine, and if the gas station wants to keep 100% of their business, they need to fix their gas. It's bad business to expect the car owner to find the problem and fix it, yet that appears to be what the devs are requiring of us thus far by not admitting the issue and/or not working on a fix.

 

 

Couple things about that...

 

1. There are so many hardware/software configuration it's impossible for the Developers to optimize for them all.
   
2. Laptops even "Gaming" laptops are not really suited for gaming for sustained periods, especially Online Games which are always much more system intensive when looking at similar graphics, audio, etc. You can not compare stand alone games with MMO's in hardware abuse ever. Laptops can not be built in that small a form factor with sufficient air flow, nor do most users have the technical knowledge to open up and properly clean a laptop.
   
3. Using your twist on the Car analogy. You are saying that Ford would be responsible if your car overheated because you decided to continue running it with a clogged thermostat, here's a hint it ain't happening, the user is responsible for proper maintenance and configuration.
   
4. 80% of computer problems are user error, either in maintenance or familiarity with software.
   

 

I find it much more likely that the issues are being caused by Improper Cleaning, Hardware that was degraded through factory fault or prior abuse, or use of equipment that may meet system specifications for the game, yet are not in a form factor suitable for sustained hardware intensive play (laptop vs desktop).

[marseluswallace]

Maybe you should get a better comp? Friend should get higher end Laptop? Laptops aren't really the best way to game anyways. Not saying it can't be done, but you have to pay out the *** to get a high end laptop

[philefluxx]

I have to pull off my side, crank up my GPU fans, and point a house fan to prevent my system from overheating. But with all this I dont have any issues and personally I have been meaning to buy a case with better ventilation. Its no secret that this game needs to be optimized, but you should have known that already if you payed any attention to the development.

[Andryah]

Laptops aren't really the best way to game anyways. Not saying it can't be done, but you have to pay out the *** to get a high end laptop

 

Some laptops should not be used to play online games. They may have the chip set for it, but are inadequately designed to manage the heat from pushing the chip sets. On the other hand, some do an excellent job of heat management while providiing very competitive chip sets.

 

A well designed gaming laptop can play this game just fine. Yeah, you pay more for the same level of performance then for a desktop, and laptops don't offer the same performance ceiling, but you get the convenience that a laptop provides in terms of portability. It gets down to personal choices/tradeoffs.

[Dayln]

My wife plays SWTOR on a laptop, and all on high settings

 

ASUS ROG 74 SX

 

It isnt perfect... but it is pretty darn good

[Andryah]

My wife plays SWTOR on a laptop, and all on high settings

 

ASUS ROG 74 SX

 

It isnt perfect... but it is pretty darn good

 

Yep. The Asus G series plays this game just fine IMO. And for a laptop they are beasts at cooling efficiency.

[Phaedrynn]

I'm not sure what you are doing, but my GTX 560 Ti's never get above ~70 C, and my CPU temps never go about ~50 C, this is after hours of playing.

[bsmolke]

I'm running it on my desktop just fine. The fan gets a little louder, but the air coming out is still relatively cool. It sounds like you experienced a ventilation issue.

[Jenzali]

-removed- Edited March 26, 2012 by Jenzali

[defiantlegacy]

Some Screens, why SWTOR is the most Hardware Killer Application, named MMO you ever see.

 

First off all, the first screen proofs, that already on the Login Screen your Hardware goes in stress mode.

 

http://www.swtor-mmorpg.com/img/gpu_temp2.png

 

The second screen shows you that there is enough only to make SWTOR to run as Icon, that the temps goes instant down to the normal.

 

http://www.swtor-mmorpg.com/img/gpu_temp3.png

 

The third screen shows you, how SWTOR will kill your hardware in not very long time, as my friends Laptop Toshiba Qosmio X300-15Q (2.500$] was killed in only 3 Days.

 

http://www.swtor-mmorpg.com/img/gpu_temp4.png

 

 

Compare with another MMO:

 

Aion

 

http://www.abload.de/img/gpu_temp5aaulr.png

 

Lotro

http://www.abload.de/img/gpu_temp6icxji.png

 

Videocard:

 

MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC - Grafikkarte - GF GTX 560 Ti, V238-248R

http://www.hardocp.com/images/articles/1297685175JTkEbytVuw_1_2_l.jpg

 

 

CPU Cooler

Noctua NH-D14

 

http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=21175

 

http://www.abload.de/img/gpu_temp2sd11j.png

http://www.abload.de/img/gpu_temp3ee35v.png

http://www.abload.de/img/gpu_temp4913w0.png

 

As long as one person does not experience these issues, then the problem lies elsewhere.

I am one of those who do not see these ridiculous figures depicted in your screenshot.

I suggest you check your system from top to bottom

[DarkCarnage]

i just tooka a stab as reproducting OP issues and here waht i had happen

 

i have a 07 clocked at 3.06

24 GB in Ram

and a 570 STX EVGA graphics card

all on a Asus ramapge III extreme board.

 

my graphics card barely broke 56-57 c when at the 'load screen fo doom" you OP makes you think it is. and my fan speed sitll under 40%

 

so OP it tiher a set up iss,es OC, or some random conflict in your system that making SWTOR a graphic card killer to your system. maybe need to check for software/hardware issues.

[Jenzali]

There's no denying that SWTOR is more taxing on the hardware than it should be, and I have a top-of-the-line machine. However I also understand that this isn't happening for everyone, and that it's super difficult for developers to track down the cause considering the sheer number of hardware combinations that people can have.

 

I understand that it's usually pointless to compare single-player games like Skyrim or Crysis (both of which my computer can run at max settings) to an MMO where there are tons of player characters to render.

 

I run 5 World of Warcraft's at max setting (multiboxing), sitting in the middle of Stormwind City at peak hours on a high population server - no overheating, no lag, no frame rate drops, no extra-noisy fans, and the combined number of player characters being rendered is orders of magnitude ahead of anywhere you can go in SWTOR including the fleet. But SWTOR brings my computer to the edge of destruction.

 

I love SWTOR, but it cost me. I had to go to the store and install 4 new fans on my case. Even with these, roommates are complaining about the sheer amount of heat and fan noise radiating from my room. My poor computer could singlehandedly cause global warming.

Edited March 26, 2012 by Jenzali

[Jinook_Phi]

I bought a used gaming rig which I ran past some TOR people on other TOR forums, as the CSR shut my threat down, and it did greatly improve my experience BUT there are still issues. Im running an Intel I7 custom built, water cooled, four fans, 12 GB of RAM, an enhanced motherboard, graphics card (stand alone) runs 2GB, blah blah blah.

 

#1- Everything runs about 85% better then when playing on an everyday computer

 

#2- Even with all this, I had to turn off shading as certain areas still had too high of a "jerky" response.

 

#3- I now play on all high settings, mid level preset with shading off. The game looks dramatically better.

 

#4- Riding on my speeder, chaotic lots of mobs fights, close in, still cause a higher rate of "jerky" then I expected would be the case with a system like mine.

 

#5- Some graphically rich areas such as Voss, some caves and interior areas, fleet stations, can still have moments of being jerky beyond what I would expect.

 

#6- If I play for more then 3-4 hours, which I rarely do, my performance begins to get worse but only by about 10%. I wonder if there is still a RAM leak issue?

 

So yes, this game is a lot harder on my computer then any MMO Ive ever played. It getting better, a lot better, both with things TOR has done and things Im doing, but issues remain.

[Jinook_Phi]

My poor computer could singlehandedly cause global warming.

 

That is rather funny!

[theLast]

As long as one person does not experience these issues, then the problem lies elsewhere.

I am one of those who do not see these ridiculous figures depicted in your screenshot.

I suggest you check your system from top to bottom

 

BS. The problem can be a combination of the components and the software. In my case, the OPs post holds 100% true. I start the game and from the character select screen onwards my video card is at 99% usage and even with the fan manually set to 100% the card sits between 74-82C.

 

I could post screenshots too, but you'd dismiss them like you did the OPs well documented proof.