The Ultimate guide to speeding up win 7 on low/mid range systems ready for TOR!

[passio]

I have a pretty reasonable system and i was struggling bad for performance in pvp and load times were ridiculous.

I read this and did the Aero change, Search change and Power management and the increase in performance is brilliant. I can actually play Alderaan civil war while it isn`t like a power point presentation. I might even turn up the settings so the game doesn`t look like crap. lol.

 

Thank you for this info as i`m not brilliant with technical stuff but this is so simple its untrue and really has helped.

 

Why is this not stickied? It was sheer luck i found this and maybe BW wouldn`t be losing so many subs if people could do this and get better performance till they sort the shabby engine out.

[Derfmiolleh]

This post is a huge help. Thank you.

[Rogoo]

Unfortunately, this is just yet another "placebo guide".

[ElvinMistress]

Rogoo

Joined: Mar 2011

Today , 11:09 AM

 

Unfortunately, this is just yet another "placebo guide".

 

You should give some of this a try , it truly does help . Though its no magic bullet it offers some people the ability to play versus not being able to before .

[renegadeimp]

Unfortunately, this is just yet another "placebo guide".

 

It isnt. It is a guide that has proven to give performance increases in almost all situations for low-mid range systems.

[renegadeimp]

You should give some of this a try , it truly does help . Though its no magic bullet it offers some people the ability to play versus not being able to before .

 

Very true and its the reason i made the guide and posted it here.

[Sycoskater]

A program you might wanna add that WILL boost your laptop's performance is: Game Booster 3

 

Game Booster 3 does a lot of what you have posted here, but doesn't cover it all. I see a 15% performance increase when I have it enabled. What it does is it turns off all Windows features that are not needed to keep the laptop running, and have your game running. It also changes your laptop's power plan, and tweaks it, for the most performance. It also has a few other nice tweaks, and additions in order for you to get the most out of your laptop!

 

I had my doubts about it, but have been using it for everything I play now. I actually found the program from someone in the SWTOR forums. Here is the link!

 

http://www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

[renegadeimp]

I'd rather people get to grips with it manually, than have a program do it for them, and if the program crashes, they wont know what to do to fix it.

 

But saying that, we did discuss it at the first few pages.

[Feydran]

I've had some issues with Game Buster 3.3 (random crashing) on a fresh format and up-to-date drivers so I just flat out avoid using it.

[Dianoia]

Most of this I would reccomend not just for low end systems, but for dedicated gaming PC's, also. Thank you for taking the time to write this!

[djbladeer]

ilum will still lag even if you got the pc's from nasa and internet of jesus , ilum will still lag. its game engines fault , not your pc's.

[renegadeimp]

ilum will still lag even if you got the pc's from nasa and internet of jesus , ilum will still lag. its game engines fault , not your pc's.

 

That is a completely different issue. Please dont derail the thread.

[G-Seven]

Thanks

[JediJudoChopx]

As a long time hardcore gamer, system builder, pro pc nut, etc. etc. etc. I will say that most of these tweaks are pretty old from Xp's early days. But,... they can still make a nice difference on any machine. Gaming or not. High or low end. Including Win 7. When I build new (or rebuild older) rigs for my clients that are not gamers I still use a good bit of these tweaks to this day.

 

I do not however condone those recommended programs or any crap like that at the bottom of this guide. More people get into trouble with that stuff then I care to mention. They do some crazy things to their poor PC's and those types of exe's usually compound the issues ten fold. I do get paid nicey to fix the negative effects of them by my clients though. So it's not that bad. lol! Nice job otherwise.

 

For anyone that wants more info on what a service does (before you disable it). This has been the go to site since Xp came out long ago. http://www.blackviper.com/windows-services/ (It also covers Vista, Win 7)

Edited March 16, 2012 by JediJudoChopx

[trueanimus]

My advice; run it on XP rather than 7 if you're on the lower end. Difference for me was like night and day. (E6750/ 2GB DDR2 / 250 GTS)

 

if you have win vista or win 7... you can run in windows xp sp 2 or 3 compt mode.. should be a huge fps increase since win 7 and vista both have limitations on the amount of ram they can see on a gpu. Setting to xp compt mode will let the OS see more than 1024m of Ram on the card. =)

[renegadeimp]

if you have win vista or win 7... you can run in windows xp sp 2 or 3 compt mode.. should be a huge fps increase since win 7 and vista both have limitations on the amount of ram they can see on a gpu. Setting to xp compt mode will let the OS see more than 1024m of Ram on the card. =)

 

Win 7 see's all 2 GB of both my 6970's and should have no issues seeing the 3Gb on my 7970 when i get it on payday.

[JediJudoChopx]

if you have win vista or win 7... you can run in windows xp sp 2 or 3 compt mode.. should be a huge fps increase since win 7 and vista both have limitations on the amount of ram they can see on a gpu. Setting to xp compt mode will let the OS see more than 1024m of Ram on the card. =)

 

Ah, where did you get that from? My rig see's all 4095MB of my video cards DDR3 ram in Win 7. (Nvidia Grforce GT 520 Galaxy) Total avail = 4095MB. Dedicated = 2048MB. My mobo has built in HDMI video/audio but it has a rare disable feature in the bios. A lot them do not. So you end up sharing some system memory anyway with no choice to turn that off.

 

You may want to check all of your bios settings. Just please be careful in there. Change the wrong setting, and you may not boot. You may also have a video card that has driver issues as well. (You might have old drivers). Or the card does not support Win 7 possibly. Hard to say without any info on your rig.

 

Heres a thread on a Win 7 forum with a guy having the same issues as you with his video card. http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/11606-3-gb-installed-but-only-1gb-usable-2.html

 

And heres some great info on Windows (all versions) and memory in general.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#how_graphics_cards_and_other_devices_affect_memory_limits

 

For anyone that wants more info on what a service does (before you disable it). This has been the go to site since Xp came out long ago. http://www.blackviper.com/windows-services/ (It also covers Vista, Win 7)

Edited March 16, 2012 by JediJudoChopx

[JediJudoChopx]

• Application Experience
  
• Computer Browser*(If your PC does not connect to any network)
  
• Desktop*Window Manager Session Manager*(If you don’t want the aero effects)
  
• Diagnostic Policy Service
  
• Distributed Link Tracking Client
  
• IP Helper
  
• Offline Files
  
• Portable Device Enumerator Service
  
• Print*Spooler*(If you do not use a Printer)
  
• Protected Storage
  
• Remote Registry*(You can safely disable it for more Security)
  
• Secondary Logon
  
• Security Center
  
• Server*(If*your*computer*is not connect with any network)
  
• Tablet PC Input Service
  
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  
• Themes
  
• Windows Error*Reporting*Service
  
• Windows Media Center Service Launcher
  
• Windows*Search*(If you rarely use Windows Search feature )
  
• Windows Time*(If you do not want to synchronize system time with*internet*time automatically. This is recommended to be disabled, as it is only useful if your system battery is dying or your country is about to switch to DST).
  

 

Hey, rather than starting a new post of my own I was wondering if you could add the following services to your disable list.

 

Windows Media Receiver service

Windows Media Center Scheduler Service

Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

And mark them as *only* for people that use their gaming rig solely for playing SWTOR (like me). I use my other PC's for everything else. So more services can be turned off. Or maybe a supplement list to the exsisting one for less confusion?

 

And also > Windows update < for advanced users that remember to check that manually.

 

I also set the following to manaul since I check this every so often myself. For anyone out there that has an ATI video card. You may want to research that before changing yours.

 

NVIDIA Display Driver Service

NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service (I don't use 3D, Nor does SWTOR)

NVIDIA Update Service Daemon

 

I also disable > Parental Controls < just on principle. lol I am very much an adult. xD

 

Your OP reminded me to get tweaking. Still running tests for more crap I can disable that will not affect SWTOR. Just upgraded this recently built rig from Xp (32 bit) to Win 7 (64 bit).

 

http://www.blackviper.com/windows-services/

Edited March 16, 2012 by JediJudoChopx

[renegadeimp]

Hey, rather than starting a new post of my own I was wondering if you could add the following services to your disable list.

 

Windows Media Receiver service

Windows Media Center Scheduler Service

Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service

And mark them as *only* for people that use their gaming rig solely for playing SWTOR (like me). I use my other PC's for everything else. So more services can be turned off. Or maybe a supplement list to the exsisting one for less confusion?

 

And also > Windows update < for advanced users that remember to check that manually.

 

I also set the following to manaul since I check this every so often myself. For anyone out there that has an ATI video card. You may want to research that before changing yours.

 

NVIDIA Display Driver Service

NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service (I don't use 3D, Nor does SWTOR)

NVIDIA Update Service Daemon

 

I also disable > Parental Controls < just on principle. lol I am very much an adult. xD

 

Your OP reminded me to get tweaking. Still running tests for more crap I can disable that will not affect SWTOR. Just upgraded this recently built rig from Xp (32 bit) to Win 7 (64 bit).

 

http://www.blackviper.com/windows-services/

 

Good points there. I'll check through and see if theres any additional tweaks for them as well.

 

Also, just to note, the win7 OS i use is a third party completely customised OS install. It doesnt have ANY of the extra junk such as media player, ms paint etc. All the install is, is the base OS. Nothing more.

 

It's very fast to install, has minimal configuration time, and flys when being used. My current boot time is around 12 secs from Power on to windows desktop. That incudes raid controller POSTing too. The main system Post takes 0.9 seconds according to my benchmark tools.

Edited March 16, 2012 by renegadeimp

[ElvinMistress]

For anyone that wants more info on what a service does (before you disable it). This has been the go to site since Xp came out long ago. http://www.blackviper.com/windows-services/ (It also covers Vista, Win 7)

 

Learned most of the things I now know about tweaking /performance from using this ( way back when I had Windows ME Installed ) !!!

 

Seeing the name blackviper brings back memories of exploration testing .. and swear words when I did something wrong and napalmed my OS .. LOL !

[JediJudoChopx]

Seeing the name blackviper brings back memories of exploration testing .. and swear words when I did something wrong and napalmed my OS .. LOL !

 

lol Me too!

Edited March 18, 2012 by JediJudoChopx

[JediJudoChopx]

Good points there. I'll check through and see if theres any additional tweaks for them as well.

 

Also, just to note, the win7 OS i use is a third party completely customised OS install. It doesnt have ANY of the extra junk such as media player, ms paint etc. All the install is, is the base OS. Nothing more.

 

It's very fast to install, has minimal configuration time, and flys when being used. My current boot time is around 12 secs from Power on to windows desktop. That incudes raid controller POSTing too. The main system Post takes 0.9 seconds according to my benchmark tools.

 

Cool thanks.

Edited March 18, 2012 by JediJudoChopx

[MartinSPT]

Holy freaking cow...

 

This guide needs to be yanked or revised. I don't have time to go through each item point by point, but many of the recommendation to 'increase' performance will reduce system performance because of the additional work that has to be done to compensate for the feature being disabled.

 

For example:

 

Turn off Aero

Never...

When running a game full screen, Aero is irrelevant, as the game is not using the composer.

When running a game in a Window (on the Desktop), Aero will have less than a 1% impact, and on some systems, due to the way Aero handles the buffer writes will increase performance of the game.

*Reference: Bing/Google Aero Basic Classic Benchmark (There are tons of tests showing what Microsoft and performance review sites have stated since Windows 7 was released, turning off Aero overall 'costs' performance, because in non-game Applications, it is assisting things like Font rendering, image decoding, and other tricks to augment speed.

 

 

Turn off Indexing/Search

Never...

After the 'initial' indexing of your content on your computer, even if you move 10,000 files an hour after that, the CPU utilization of the indexing service is going to be less than 5 seconds of computing time.

 

This Myth comes from products like Google Desktop Search and Mac's Search features that are 'resource' intensive. Windows 7 uses the features of NTFS to 'intelligently' monitor and update the index, so even with 2 million documents and files, the OS only tracks the 'changes' and doesn't have to walk through all the files and folders when changes are made. Thus there is not a reasonable level of impact that is humanly noticeable.

 

Additionally, when you disable the Search features of Windows 7, this requires the OS and any Application that 'depend' on the Search features to fall back to a manual file by file iteration scan every time it is used, creating excessive HD usage and CPU usage. (Developers use the search APIs which are SQL like commands to manage their own content or retrieve information for example about your Music collection or Pictures, and with this turned off the more documents, music, etc you have, the slower things become.)

 

At a 'worst' case moment, for example if you move 100,000 files into your pictures folder or documents, and the indexing service starts to add them, this is going to consume HD bandwidth, not CPU time. And if this happens, and you want 'top' performance for a game like SWTOR, simply 'pause' it under Indexing Options until you are done playing the game.

 

Another reason 'not' to disable this feature is that the 'search' box on the Start Menu is far more usable than people realize, from accessing programs faster by hitting the windows key and typing part of the name, to even opening a folder as the search will autocomplete the location for you.

 

If you are not using the search features in Windows 7 with virtually everything you do on your computer, you are wasting time, and missing one of the greatest features Windows 7 offers.

 

......................................

If the author would like to PM me about this article, I can provide links, data, and resources to eliminate the 'myth' portions so that he and others are not hurting system performance by not fully thinking through the ramifications of disabling features of the OS. There is a reason why Microsoft turns these features on that most people don't fully understand, and when they see the 'pretty' glass of Aero they assume it is slowing things down, and not realizing the features it is using that 'speed' up things more than the 'glass' ever slows things down.

(The Aero part of this goes back to the XBox 360 development and how and why Microsoft redesigned the nature of GPU technology with a new DMA and BUS transfer technology that are far too technical for a gaming site forum post to discuss.

[MartinSPT]

if you have win vista or win 7... you can run in windows xp sp 2 or 3 compt mode.. should be a huge fps increase since win 7 and vista both have limitations on the amount of ram they can see on a gpu. Setting to xp compt mode will let the OS see more than 1024m of Ram on the card. =)

 

 

Let me step in here, since I posted this tip originally...

 

The XP Compatibility Mode works.

 

However, the problem is NOT with Vista or Windows 7 nor how they see or use VRAM, instead the Game Engine itself has the problem.

 

Instead of the Game Engine using the correct APIs and asking Windows how much Video RAM you have, when running under Windows 7 or Windows Vista, it is 'by choice' ignoring what Windows 'tells it', and instead reads the low level dedicated VRAM in hardware. (Which is intentional, or a bad set of 'fallback' code that gets initiated when it doesn't see XP.)

 

Why this is a MASSIVE problem is that the technology in Windows Vista/7 has a virtualization and scheduling technology that the game is NOT using, so not only is the game not getting the full range of VRAM that the NT WDDM technology can provide, but it is also not conforming to the OS level GPU thread scheduler properly.

 

This results in the game swapping out massive amounts of RAM to and from the System RAM and HD to the GPU's VRAM, and it also fails to see that 'extra' threads are available (for example the GPU shader code) properly, as it is not listening to Windows.

 

So the way Vista/Windows7 works, is if you have extra SYSTEM RAM, it can make it into VRAM transparently, and then it manages the assets that need to be faster and puts them in true VRAM and the less used and not speed related assets it can shove into System RAM, and using a DMA trick over the ACP/PCI bus technology, directly extend the VRAM of the Video Card. (Which is different than an integrated GPU using system RAM.)

 

So if your Video Card has 256mb or 512mb or even 768mb of VRAM, and you have a lot of System RAM, WIndows 7 can offer the game 2 or 3gb of VRAM and manage it. This means that the game doesn't have to 'load' low level textures and 'swap them' and it also means the OS is doing what it was designed to do, which is also how the XBox RAM and GPU design work.

 

So by flipping the compatibility switch to XP Mode, the Game Engine 'no longer' uses the (direct/fallback) code, and instead just asks Windows how much VRAM is there, and 'listens' as it should, and it also 'listens' for threading to the GPU that is also being handled by Windows Vista/7.

 

So it gives ya more RAM, as Windows 7 and the computer was designed, instead of the game messing things up and not listening to Windows.**

 

It gets REALLY bad on systems with 512mb or less VRAM, as the game has a lot of 'assets' to hold the textures and content of an entire world. However, even on 1gb or 3gb high end Video Cards, it also is hurting performance in how it is not using the full extent of the GPU and the GPU scheduling of Windows that happens at the NT kernel level.

 

* Side Note on the Threading aspect *

The 'not' listening to Windows 7/Vista for GPU scheduling is one reason people are noticing their 'power saver' technologies on their Video Cards are 'down clocking/running slow' while playing the game. This is because the game is not listening to Windows, so it is not 'fully' utilizing the speed that your GPU has to offer as it is not sending as 'many' commands/threads as it can to the shaders and other GPU aspects that Windows 7/Vista manages.

 

 

The people that 'suffer' the most are 'integrated' GPU users where it is a newer system, and the BIOS/EFI is only allocating enough VRAM from System RAM to Boot. So when the game asks, the actual hardware 'allocated' RAM will be an insanely low number like 8mb or 32mb or 64mb. The reason NEWER systems do this, is because they depend on the WDDM of Vista/Windows7 to handle the VRAM and the GPU VRAM sharing of System RAM, instead of using the older slower 'integrated RAM sharing' technologies of years ago as Windows is faster and does it in a new way.

 

 

People keep confusing this issue, but the only thing you need to realize, if you are on Vista or Windows 7, turn on the XP Compatibility for the game, no matter what GPU or how much VRAM it has onboard. You will get more VRAM from the OS and the OS will manage the GPU threads and fully utilize the GPU properly, that the game will not do when it is running the 'faillback/direct' code that triggers when it sees Vista or Windows 7.

 

 

 

**(Windows Vista/7 are VERY unique in that they are the only OSes that have this technology, so if a programmer is coming from the XP world, or Linux or OS X, this concept will be mind blowing futuristic to them, so there is someone at BioWare or HeroEngine that just doesn't get how Windows WDDM/WDM technology truly works.

[XxLiamxX]

After Doing all of your specified steps, I am no longer able to access my AMD Vision Engine Control Centre.