Very High Graphics Setting: Who is this for, NASA computers?

[Narciuss]

Yup, SLI is on, running version 311.48. PhysX proccessor is set to Auto-Select. Is there a recommended way? Use CPU, or dedicate one of the video cards to do it?

 

You can also use Single Display Performance Mode, Triple Buffer On, Thread Optimization On and I always Run 16x AF under Manage 3D Settings. PhysX always on GPU2.

 

But the problems you're describing as when your render a lot of people that is the game not you.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Narciuss

[BlackSpin]

No way to speed up the render huh?

 

You can also use Single Display Performance Mode, Triple Buffer On, Thread Optimization On and I always Run 16x AF under Manage 3D Settings. PhysX always on GPU2.

 

But the problems you're describing as when your render a lot of people that is the game not you.

[Kilora]

Yup, SLI is on, running version 311.48. PhysX proccessor is set to Auto-Select. Is there a recommended way? Use CPU, or dedicate one of the video cards to do it?

 

I think everyone took a warzone queue, there's about 6 people here and it's pretty solid at 55 - 60 fps now. This is frustrating.

 

I HIGHLY recommend turning SLI off.

[Kilora]

This game is not optimized. I don't care what anyone says. You can have the best computer available and get lag.

 

And I play on an Alienware and have no problems but I don't PvP. Admit it, this game engine is terrible. If you can't all see that, you've got blinders on.

 

I agree that this engine is bad -- I don't know if I'd say "terrible" -- but it is certainly bad.

 

As far as "best computer and get lag" I disagree completely. I rarely get any lag on max settings -- and my comp is not top-of-the-line nor am I OCing anything (though, I will be as soon as I get a decent cooling solution set up!).

[Narciuss]

No way to speed up the render huh?

 

Working on that in another thread called SWTOR: The Bad Girlfriend I can't Break up with! EA / Bioware need to optimize this game.

 

Do yourself a favor and test a optimized game and see if your getting good FPS on that game.

[BlackSpin]

Just for crits and giggles I turned off SLI and dedicated the second 780 to Phyx proc. Doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.

 

I HIGHLY recommend turning SLI off.

Edited August 13, 2013 by BlackSpin

[Caelrie]

My rig is:

 

AMD phenom 2 6 core cpu

12 gbs ram

GTX 680 video

 

I can run the game everywhere on max settings. The only caveat is that I use my card's AA instead of the game's. Something's screwy with the ingame AA. Lags me out.

[Kilora]

And there is the second time you've mention NVidia.

NVidia drivers blow AMD out of the water. Then add in the basic specification of the NVidia cards.

There is a reason why NVidia cards grace the very top of the performance charts. They may not win on the price/performance charts - but for sheer power and driver stability they far exceed anything AMD can bring to the table.

 

Uh, NVidia isn't "the very top" anymore.

 

GTX 680 < HD 7970 -- AND the 7970 was cheaper.

GTX 670 < HD 7950 Boost -- AND the 7950 was cheaper.

 

With AMD now backing ATI -- the two are leap-frogging. ATI has been able to put out more power for less of a cost, generally -- but not always.

 

With the two listed above (original pricepoint of $300+) ATI was by far the best option. At the time, however, Nvidia was best anwhere from $200-300 (GTX 660, GTX 660 TI), with ATI taking the $150-200 (HD 7850) and Nvidia taking the $100-150 (GTX 650 TI).

 

In other words -- people who actually pay attention to specs realize that the two companies are actually competing with each other now. Prior to AMD backing ATI -- I was 100% Nvidia. With ATIs drivers being exceptionally stable and bringing big improvements -- they've made quite the comeback.

[Caelrie]

Uh, NVidia isn't "the very top" anymore.

 

GTX 680 < HD 7970 -- AND the 7970 was cheaper.

GTX 670 < HD 7950 Boost -- AND the 7950 was cheaper.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

Not really.

[Kilora]

Just for crits and giggles I turned off SLI and dedicated the second 780 to Phyx proc. Doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.

 

Rather surprising -- mainly because SLI generally decreases performance in SWTOR. Worth a shot, at least!

 

This game is *certainly* not the best benchmark for computer quality. I'd recommend trying other games, or using actual benchmarks (FFXIV has a benchmark out that you could use, or 3D-Mark [they have a free version]).

 

Quite often with SWTOR, we've seen lower-end computers beat out some really nice rigs -- just because the engine is fairly bad.

[Kilora]

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

Not really.

 

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page12.html

 

Look, I can show links too! This one, however, has 12 pages of various benchmarks, not just one.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

I just got a new computer, and probably spent a little more than I should have. It's an i7 4900, dual GTX 780's SLI, 2 SSDs Raid 0 ('marked at 1100 mb/s.) I even installed SWTOR Unleashed and have ALL of the assets and DiskCacheArea running from my 32G of RAM...........and I still have to turn off bloom, set shaders to low, turn off Anti Aliasing because I still get LAG where FPS drops under 20 in the PvP, and the PvP area of the fleet. What else do I need to turn down to speed this up? Where the hell is the bottleneck?

 

I'm running a system with a single GTX 780, a single SSD, 16 GB of ram, and a comparable CPU and I run on all high settings with almost no issues. I also run on 3 monitors, often running Netflix/Hulu on one of the other monitors. Not sure what to tell you.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Arlon_Nabarlly

[Omisri]

As a rule I tend to stick to buying the core components for the maximum price of around £300-£400 in total, once every 24 months and i'm always running everything on max.

 

The market moves so damn quick but the software is years behind. Before you know it you would of spent a few thousand on the "top of the range" system only to find out you can plug into the matrix a month or two after.... you never know

[MillionsKNives]

Just for crits and giggles I turned off SLI and dedicated the second 780 to Phyx proc. Doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.

 

A: Top-posting.

Q: What is the most annoying thing in forums?

 

Sorry, it needed to be said.

 

As a rule I tend to stick to buying the core components for the maximum price of around £300-£400 in total, once every 24 months and i'm always running everything on max.

 

The market moves so damn quick but the software is years behind. Before you know it you would of spent a few thousand on the "top of the range" system only to find out you can plug into the matrix a month or two after.... you never know

 

Well the good part about the matrix is that it's free for everyone. Those socialist robots and their VR technologies...

[turjake]

Yup, SLI is on, running version 311.48. PhysX proccessor is set to Auto-Select. Is there a recommended way? Use CPU, or dedicate one of the video cards to do it?

 

I think everyone took a warzone queue, there's about 6 people here and it's pretty solid at 55 - 60 fps now. This is frustrating.

 

New drivers are 320.something. Maybe you should try updating? It doesnt guarantee help, but sometimes they manage to fix some things

[Caelrie]

http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page12.html

 

Look, I can show links too! This one, however, has 12 pages of various benchmarks, not just one.

 

11-26-2012.

 

Find something newer. Mine's updated weekly.

[Farstrider]

My system is far from cutting edge, its about 4 years old and wasn;t anywhere near the best then. But I play on all max settings with very little to no lag. (I do get bad lag in the new daily zone when its packed howevere, and load speeds seem to be getting longer with every patch).

i have heard that the game actually plays worse on better systems though.

 

Same here, my rig is pushing five years, I have really looked after her and upgraded only the gfx card. I spent around a grand on her. I can run SWTOR on Very High settings, only areas that drop to low fps are highly populated zones like the GTN at times, and our guilds larger scale RP-PVP battles.

[BlackSpin]

I ran the Unigine Heaven 4 benchmark , standard out of the box settings @ 1900x1080, SLI enabled; and got a score of 2458. Max FPS 208.6, average FPS 97.6. I'm pretty sure it's not my video cards that are causing the low frame rate on the fleet/pvp.

 

And I see a lot of people saying "I run fine every except high population areas." This is what I'm talking about. If I'm off doing missions by myself, or spending quality time on my starship by myself everything looks fantastic. I'm mainly talking about pvp/fleet where there ARE a lot of people.

Edited August 13, 2013 by BlackSpin

[Lionflash]

TIL: I own a NASA computer.

[Prototypemind]

One thing that I experienced is that aside from messing with AA and bloom the game became smoother and smoother as I turned the graphics up on both my old laptop and this one. Just needed something to get me by as classes are about to start, will eventually get a full rig, but it has been more than strange to me that higher settings have yielded better results. Aside from some adds taking longer than they should to populate at times it's relatively smooth on higher settings minus the new Czerka area which seems to murder almost everyone.

 

It really is a shame though that as much money has been pumped into this game they haven't taken the time to make a rebuild a priority. I understand the time and cost involved but you build a smooth, beautiful looking environment with great content and you will keep your customers for years to come. You have us for the long-haul if you do it right BioWare, so why not step up?

 

Eve, Wow, Starcraft, Guildwars, and other PC-based online gaming have yet to pull me in but here I am spending my cash to play your game, so why not give me and everyone else the best that you can?

[Cernow]

And I see a lot of people saying "I run fine every except high population areas." This is what I'm talking about. If I'm off doing missions by myself, or spending quality time on my starship by myself everything looks fantastic. I'm mainly talking about pvp/fleet where there ARE a lot of people.

 

No amount of hardware at your end will cure this. Lag on the Fleet, PvP and other crowded areas (eg CZ-198) is largely a server side issue. You can lessen the problem with good hardware and a good ping, but you'll never cure it.

 

This phenomenon isn't exclusive to SWTOR, all MMOs suffer lag when lots of players end up in the same location or zone. Some game engines handle it better than others (I'd put SWTOR somewhere in the middle) but all suffer it to some degree.

 

There's some next gen MMOs in the pipeline that are making claims to have developed ways to counteract this type of lag, but such claims have been made before and it's a case of believe it when we see it.

[Kilora]

11-26-2012.

 

Find something newer. Mine's updated weekly.

 

Funny, if you read my entire post I was specifically talking about when the cards came out.

[Mindsting]

I run 680 GTX in SLI and know your issue all too well.

 

Go into settings > Nameplates> and disable "Scale Nameplates With Distance"

 

Unfortunately SLI seems to have massive problems with scaling nameplates and no one has been able to figure out why. However, the odd thing about this problem is that if I run the game in SLI across 3 monitors in surround mode it has no issue with scaling nameplates and runs extremely smooth while properly utilizing both cards (as much as the game allows that is)

 

If I run the game in SLI across 3 monitors with each monitor serving as a separate one (done for streaming) then it seems to have massive issues with scaling nameplates.

 

Give it a try and see if that helps. It takes a while to get used to the stupid massive nameplates but it runs significantly smoother.

[Prototypemind]

No amount of hardware at your end will cure this. Lag on the Fleet, PvP and other crowded areas (eg CZ-198) is largely a server side issue. You can lessen the problem with good hardware and a good ping, but you'll never cure it.

 

This phenomenon isn't exclusive to SWTOR, all MMOs suffer lag when lots of players end up in the same location or zone. Some game engines handle it better than others (I'd put SWTOR somewhere in the middle) but all suffer it to some degree.

 

There's some next gen MMOs in the pipeline that are making claims to have developed ways to counteract this type of lag, but such claims have been made before and it's a case of believe it when we see it.

 

It is an aside, but how does Eve do? I saw shots recently from that ridiculously massive, multi-hour battle and just have to wonder how that turned out.

[BlackSpin]

Wow - I gave this a try. There are a lot of folks at the PvP terminal on the fleet, and FPS seems pretty stable at 45 to 55. No hiccups when turning. Although these nameplates look terrible now... thanks for the tip.

 

edit: less people now (around 14)... pretty much pegged at 60fps. This seems to have done the trick.

 

IT'S THE NAMEPLATES! Perhaps this is what they were talking about when they said chat bubbles were affecting system performance in beta.

 

I run 680 GTX in SLI and know your issue all too well.

 

Go into settings > Nameplates> and disable "Scale Nameplates With Distance"

 

Unfortunately SLI seems to have massive problems with scaling nameplates and no one has been able to figure out why. However, the odd thing about this problem is that if I run the game in SLI across 3 monitors in surround mode it has no issue with scaling nameplates and runs extremely smooth while properly utilizing both cards (as much as the game allows that is)

 

If I run the game in SLI across 3 monitors with each monitor serving as a separate one (done for streaming) then it seems to have massive issues with scaling nameplates.

 

Give it a try and see if that helps. It takes a while to get used to the stupid massive nameplates but it runs significantly smoother.

Edited August 13, 2013 by BlackSpin