The Unofficial TOR and Boot Camp Discussion Thread

[daemian]

Hi,

 

i run a mac mini late 2009

Intel Core 2 Duo 2,26 GHz

4 GB RAM

GeForce 9400

with a Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit version.

 

my fps are to low to really enjoy the game. Have you guys got any ideas to help me get this game to run?

 

If you're running the latest drivers, and you've tweaked the settings to get the best speed, you can try turning your resolution down (dropping from 1920x1200 to 1680x1050 or 1440x900). Your video card can't be upgraded, so the only other thing you can do is to upgrade your system's memory to 8GB, but I'm not sure how much that will improve things.

[flofan]

Okay, slight issue.

 

I have an Early 2011 Macbook Pro and I bought Windows Vista. Apparently my version isn't compatible with Vista. I called Apple Support and they were like "well, uh, you've got 10.6.8? Then it should work. It has something to do with Lion."

 

I'm calling BS on this. I set up another time for them to call me so I can confirm it. Have y'all heard anything about this atrocious news?

[Pahanych]

Hello!

I have such problem

I've installed SWTOR on my PC which is not the fastest and newest one but games like wow and guild wars run rather fast. Than I've tried to run the game but it stopped after Bioware logo. Nothing had happened but black screen -_- Than I renewed directx and geforce 8600gts driver, it gave no help.

After this I decided to check if SWTOR will run on iMac(mid 2011) via bootcamp

and I really surprised when the game stopped at the same moment O___O

I have latest catalyst beta on iMac

maybe somebody had such problem and found the solution?

[daemian]

Okay, slight issue.

 

I have an Early 2011 Macbook Pro and I bought Windows Vista. Apparently my version isn't compatible with Vista. I called Apple Support and they were like "well, uh, you've got 10.6.8? Then it should work. It has something to do with Lion."

 

I'm calling BS on this. I set up another time for them to call me so I can confirm it. Have y'all heard anything about this atrocious news?

 

It should definitely work with Vista. What exactly isn't working?

[ineidzcode]

Hello!

I have such problem

I've installed SWTOR on my PC which is not the fastest and newest one but games like wow and guild wars run rather fast. Than I've tried to run the game but it stopped after Bioware logo. Nothing had happened but black screen -_- Than I renewed directx and geforce 8600gts driver, it gave no help.

After this I decided to check if SWTOR will run on iMac(mid 2011) via bootcamp

and I really surprised when the game stopped at the same moment O___O

I have latest catalyst beta on iMac

maybe somebody had such problem and found the solution?

 

Please list the specs of your iMac.

[daemian]

Please list the specs of your iMac.

 

By the way, I saw the other thread was closed. Feel free to re-post your tutorial here, I'm sure it'll come in handy!

[ineidzcode]

By the way, I saw the other thread was closed. Feel free to re-post your tutorial here, I'm sure it'll come in handy!

 

Will do. Thanks Daemian.

[ineidzcode]

*NOTE: The spoiler method is now considered the old method. I was getting mixed results from users. The newer method found among many sources seems to be the best for now. Please respond with your experiences and I'll be sure to add them to this original post. Thank you!

 

I'm running a brand new Mac Book Pro with an AMD Radeon HD 6770M video card, 8 gigs of ram on Windows 7 64-Bit and only seeing 15-20 FPS on LOW settings. Steve Jobs would be rolling in his grave right now! I was determined to find a fix.

 

For those of you that looked into fixing this similar issue, well you were probably like me. It has to be a driver issue! First instinct? Go to AMDs website and download the latest Catalyst Display Drivers.

 

You picked "Notebook Graphics" -> "Radeon HD Series" -> "Radeon HD 6xxxM Series" -> "Windows 7 - 64 Bit" and tried to install - I wish it were that easy!

 

If you followed this first instinct, chances are you received an error when trying to install your driver.

 

"AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. Your computer does not contain a proper graphics adapter."

 

Huh?

 

As of now, the beta Catalyst Drivers seem to be working. To successfully install these drivers, follow the steps below.

 

Uninstall Old Drivers

 

1. Download CCleaner
   
2. Shutdown ALL Catalyst Processes
   
   1. 
      
   2. Right click on toolbar
      
   3. Click "Start Task Manager"
      
   4. Drag open the "Description Pane" to easily identify any Catalyst processes running
      
   5. Right click all Catalyst processes and click "End Process"
      

[*] Run CCleaner

1. Select Tools
   
2. Uninstall tab
   
3. Uninstall "AMD Catalyst Installer Manager"
   

[*] Delete AMD/ATI Folders

1. My Computer -> C: (windows install) -> Delete any AMD/ATI folders that relate to your display drivers...->Program Files (x86) -> Delete any AMD/ATI folders that relate to your display drivers
   

[*] Remove current drivers

1. Control Panel -> Device Manager
   
2. Open "Display Adapters"
   
3. Right click on "AMD Radeon HD * (Your Card)
   
4. Click "Uninstall"
   

 

*Restart your computer

 

Install Beta Catalyst Drivers

 

1. Download Beta Drivers
   
2. Open Download folder
   
3. Double click "amd_catalyst_12.1_preview_windows_vista_7.exe "
   
4. Walk through install wizard
   

 

*Restart your computer

 

With these drivers, I can run Medium settings at 30FPS however I prefer smoother play so I run Low Default settings at 60FPS in Fullscreen mode.

 

My Catalyst settings:

Anti-Aliasing: 4x

Anisotropic Filtering: 4x

Tesselation: AMD Optimized

Catalyst A.I.: Performance

Wait for vertical refresh: Always Off (Performance)

Anti-Aliasing Mode: Multi-sample AA (Performance)

OpenGL Settings: Triple buffering selected

 

These settings work for me. I am by no means an expert so PLEASE post your settings if you find better performance from your card. I still can't believe I can only run Medium at 30FPS with this Mac Book Pro.

 

Thank you and hopefully you find this helpful.

 

Old Method (still may work for some folks if new method does not):

 

After a few hours of poking around Apple forums, AMD forums, Windows 7 forums, I decided to go straight to the source JUST to make sure I didn't miss anything...and I did!

 

AMD is very deceiving. When I see "MAC Graphics", I think Mac Kexts (Mac version of a driver), not Windows 7 drivers. Oh but look at the second drop down - "Apple Boot Camp".

 

Lets get to the good stuff. Lets fix our FPS.

 

What I did:

 

If you installed the Boot Camp Drivers CD, your screen resolution looks good - so make sure you visit the AMD site now to download your drivers so you are not vertically/horizontally scrolling to find download links.

 

Download 1 (AMD Boot Camp Drivers):

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...camp-win7.aspx

 

Download 2 (Newest Catalyst Release):

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...b_win7-64.aspx

 

*These downloads are for my setup. Radeon HD 6770M on Windows 7 64 bit. To find your downloads, visit here. First install is your setup using MAC Graphics as a system (Step 1) and Boot Camp as a product (Step 2) followed by your card specifics. Second download is your selection as if you were on a native PC with Windows.

 

After you have downloaded the drivers you need, follow these instructions:

 

Uninstall drivers Boot Camp installed

 

1. Control Panel -> Device Manager
   
2. Drop down "Display Adapters"
   
3. Right click "AMD Radeon HD 6770M" (or your AMD card) and select "Uninstall".
   
4. Restart
   

 

 

Install Boot Camp Display Drivers

1. Unzip your Boot Camp Display Drivers
   
2. Control Panel -> Device Manager
   
3. Drop down "Display Adapters"
   
4. Right click "VGA Adapater" (adapter name may vary)
   
5. Select "Update Driver Software"
   
6. Select "Browse my computer for driver software"
   
7. Navigate to your unzipped folder of the Boot Camp Display Drivers (my location was: Downloads\8.812-110104a-112011C-Apple.4-Win7Vista\8.812-110104a-112011C-Apple.4-Win7Vista
   
8. Make sure "Include subfolders" is checked and hit Next
   

 

After Windows finishes the install, restart your computer (if it doesn't ask).

 

Install Catalyst Mobility

 

1. Simply install the "Catalyst Mobility Suite" (the latest drivers released from AMD, Download 2) and you should no longer get the error you were seeing before.
   

 

 

I'm now running 50-60FPS on Medium in the Imperial Space Station. I hope this helps everyone else experiencing this horrific issue.

 

 

Disclaimer - I'm not responsible if you completely hose your computer. If you can't find the control panel, I suggest you STOP, and pay a nerd that can.

Edited January 2, 2012 by ineidzcode

[daemian]

Will do. Thanks Daemian.

 

No worries, I've added a link to this page in the useful links section of the OP as well.

[flofan]

It should definitely work with Vista. What exactly isn't working?

 

I haven't installed Vista yet, it's coming in the mail in two days. I was looking at Apple's FAQ and it had a link of "is your Mac compatible?" It had a long list of Macs that were only compatible with 7. I'll post the stuff:

 

 

 

 

Summary

MacBook Air (Late 2010) and later, MacBook Pro (Early 2011) and later, iMac (Mid 2011), and Mac mini (Mid 2011) computers, as well as OS X Lion, support only 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

Products Affected

MacBook Air (Late 2010), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011), MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011), Boot Camp, MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011), iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011), MacBook Air (Mid 2011), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011), iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011), Mac mini (Mid 2011)

 

 

I have an Early 2011 Macbook Pro. I was panicking because I spend money on a useless operating system. I called Apple Support and they said it should work. I called again to get a different person (who was much more helpful) and he said that it has to do with the operating system. Most Early 2011 Macbook Pros use Lion. I bought mine in that small, small, small window when they were still installing Snow Leopard.

 

TL;DR: If you have Lion you must use 7, if you're using anything other than Lion you can use Vista and XP (Service Pack 2 and above)

Edited January 3, 2012 by flofan

[flofan]

NEWS:

 

BioWare CEO discussed porting TOR for Mac!

 

It's the only interview about it, so I would take it with a grain of salt. I'll look up some more information about it.

[methodss]

Early 2011 13" Macbook Pro

Processor: Intel Core i5 (I5-2415M) @ 2.3GHZ

Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00GB (2.16GB usable)

Video Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000

 

Just loaded it with Bootcamp and Windows 7 32bit. I installed the newest drivers and fully updated Windows software. Getting about 10FPS at the absolute lowest settings. What is there for me to do next?

[daemian]

TL;DR: If you have Lion you must use 7, if you're using anything other than Lion you can use Vista and XP (Service Pack 2 and above)

 

You should be OK, but yeah, technically the latest version of Boot Camp that ships with Lion only supports Windows 7.

 

NEWS:

 

BioWare CEO discussed porting TOR for Mac!

 

That's great news... well, it's the most they've ever said about it publicly.

Edited January 3, 2012 by daemian

[daemian]

Early 2011 13" Macbook Pro

Processor: Intel Core i5 (I5-2415M) @ 2.3GHZ

Installed Memory (RAM): 4.00GB (2.16GB usable)

Video Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000

 

Just loaded it with Bootcamp and Windows 7 32bit. I installed the newest drivers and fully updated Windows software. Getting about 10FPS at the absolute lowest settings. What is there for me to do next?

 

I think the low RAM is definitely going to affect performance, you're already at the bare minimum specs. If you have a copy of 64-bit Windows around, that'll allow you to use all 4 GB, and more if you upgrade.

 

Also, when you're in the game, check that the priority for swtor.exe in the task manager is set to 'high'.

[methodss]

I think the low RAM is definitely going to affect performance, you're already at the bare minimum specs. If you have a copy of 64-bit Windows around, that'll allow you to use all 4 GB, and more if you upgrade.

 

Also, when you're in the game, check that the priority for swtor.exe in the task manager is set to 'high'.

 

I actually do have a 64bit copy laying around, am I going to lose all the data that is on the 32bit windows or is it just a straight upgrade? would I have to go back into Mac OS and do the Bootcamp Assist once again?

[ineidzcode]

I actually do have a 64bit copy laying around, am I going to lose all the data that is on the 32bit windows or is it just a straight upgrade? would I have to go back into Mac OS and do the Bootcamp Assist once again?

 

You will lose all of your data however you will not have to do the Boot Camp Assistance again. You will just boot from disk and format the bootcamp partition.

 

Make sure you have the Boot Camp Drivers disk for wireless/ethernet.

[Pahanych]

Please list the specs of your iMac.

 

iMac mid 2011

 

Intel Core i5-2500S @ 2.7 GHz

4 GB RAM

AMD Radeon HD 6770M(but windows shows it as 6740m oO)

windows ult 32bit

 

I have such problem http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=3396

But nothing listed there didn't help =/

 

and one more moment. I've installed catalyst beta without uninstalling previous version of driver, maybe it is a reason.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Pahanych

[Shai-Huluud]

Having a mare getting FPS over about 10-15

 

Macbook Pro 17"

dual core intel 2.8ghz

Windows 7

8 Gig RAM

Nvidia 9600m GT w/500meg

 

The Boot camp (3.3) Nvidia drivers are about 2 years old and any attempt to use updated drivers from the Nvidia site results in a message saying that the graphics card is not recognised.

 

any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

i normally run the game with the Nvidia desktop panel set at performance over quality (global and program specific)

the game is running at the same resolution as my desktop which is 1920x1200 and the ingame settings are -

 

grass and trees off

shadows off

bloom off

textures set to high (Ive had them set at low and found no difference to fps so i thought i may as well enjoy my crap fps a bit more)

[Narblazu]

Im also using the setup:

 

Macbook Pro 17"

dual core intel 2.8ghz

Windows 7

8 Gig RAM

Nvidia 9600m GT w/500meg

 

All performance settings in the nvidia control panel are set to max performance. in-game all settings are at low and shadows are off (tried swiching it to high, and back to low since some said it helped, made no difference to me).

 

I would also like to know if it is possible to upgrade the geforce drivers (currently i'm using the ones installed by boot camp, and trying to download from nvidia just says the hardware is not recognized), and if that will make fps any better?

 

Currently i have to play the game in 800x600 fullscreen which makes the game look like ****, can hardly read text. But it is the only way to be able to play with a fps that makes it worthwhile... ranging from 10-60 depending on the environements.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Narblazu

[daemian]

@Shai-Huluud & Narblazu

 

I'm currently using an AMD card so I'm not able to test this on my machine, but here's a link to the latest GeForce driver on Guru3D (Windows 7 64-bit):

 

http://downloads.guru3d.com/GeForce-Forceware-290.53-Vista-7-64-bit-download-2836.html

 

This version is not yet WHQL certified, and some players have had better luck installing the beta versions as it doesn't do the same check for system compatibility that the certified drivers do, so it should hopefully bypass Apple's safeguards that are preventing you from installing the non-Boot Camp drivers.

 

Post your results here if it works, and if it helps with your FPS issues. Remember to completely remove the old drivers first, I find it helps to use Driver Sweeper and CCleaner. If you haven't used these before I advise making sure Windows is completely updated with all service packs etc. before using these programs.

 

You'll probably get the best results running at less than 1920x1200. Try 1440x900. Good luck.

Edited January 3, 2012 by daemian

[daemian]

and one more moment. I've installed catalyst beta without uninstalling previous version of driver, maybe it is a reason.

 

Try uninstalling and cleaning out the old drivers (use Driver Sweeper and CCleaner) before installing the new beta driver. As I said above, make sure your Windows is fully up to date, as these applications are designed to work with the latest updates of Windows.

[lewys]

I followed the tutorial on a previous page (14/15 maybe) and i uninstalled the video card and when i done that i restarted the computer but when it comes back on the video card is now called standard VGA graphics adapter. then i try to install the catalyst beta and go through the wizard and it says its completed but it hasnt installed so i do it again and same thing happens. my graphics card still says standard vga graphics adapter and it cant be updated through device manager and now i cant start the game up because i have an error 7.

 

i have reinstalled bootcamp and done everything again and the same thing has happened what can i do?

 

the game doesnt even start now and my graphics card which is now called standard VGA graphics adapter wont go back to AMD and my resolution looks worse than what it was even though its the same resolution.

[daemian]

I followed the tutorial on a previous page (14/15 maybe) and i uninstalled the video card and when i done that i restarted the computer but when it comes back on the video card is now called standard VGA graphics adapter. then i try to install the catalyst beta and go through the wizard and it says its completed but it hasnt installed so i do it again and same thing happens. my graphics card still says standard vga graphics adapter and it cant be updated through device manager and now i cant start the game up because i have an error 7.

 

i have reinstalled bootcamp and done everything again and the same thing has happened what can i do?

 

the game doesnt even start now and my graphics card which is now called standard VGA graphics adapter wont go back to AMD and my resolution looks worse than what it was even though its the same resolution.

 

When you uninstall your driver it will automatically install a generic VGA adapter (otherwise you would only see a blank screen). It will have a pretty low resolution. So you got that far correctly.

 

At this point restart your computer. Boot Camp should be set to restart in Windows mode, to make sure you're not interrupting the installer process. Run the installer, let it run through the entire process. When it's done, restart again.

Edited January 3, 2012 by daemian

[lewys]

I have doe that but after catalyst installs and I have clicked finish the program isn't on my computer anywhere

[lewys]

Ok by the looks of it it didn't install properly. It says that I had warning messages on install and it only installed 20mb and if I try to uninstall it says that I had a warning message on uninstall and it only uninstalled 6 mb. So it won't uninstall now. How can I get it to?