The Unofficial TOR and Boot Camp Discussion Thread

[thesoulshereaps]

I think the real problem is that on a MACBOOK it recognizes HALF of your processing power on Bootcamp.

 

Both my Brother and my husband have mac laptops and they aren't really able to play. The processing power is just too limited.

 

I have A Mac Pro and I have no problems... BUT I have an 8 CORE machine with 22 gigs of RAM (I do heavy 3d modeling so the RAM is for rendering). I also dedicated one of my 4 HDs just to Bootcamp. The PC side has a dedicated HD and that helps out a lot.

 

I think in order to really play this game on a mac, you need a really powerful mac to do so.

 

 

My other suggestion would be making sure everything is up to speed update wise. I had a lot of updates to do.

 

You don't need a powerful mac. I'm using a regular old iMac running Lion with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB of ram. Near max graphics with 40-70 FPS. 20 FPS in congested areas.

[ghostin]

Bind it to another key.

Esc -> preferences -> keybindings tab at the bottom

 

Thank you. Helped out so much. Thanks again.

[lewys]

http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/lewys_vesti/b767d6c5.jpg[/img]"]http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/lewys_vesti/b767d6c5.jpg

 

 

Is it looking this bad for everyone on the character select screen? i thought the texture problem was just for in game character textures.

[Son_of_Belial]

Hello,

 

I'm trying to play this game. (obviously) Im on a macbook pro.

I installed windows and the game fine. I launch the game and asked for my email and password and from the launch screen I click play but when it loads it quits and says error code 7 and I do meet the system requirements. Has any one else experienced this problem?

please reply.

[Domone]

I'm just wondering if anyone is having issues with hard crashing while in the game. Such as distorted/stripped/fragmented screen after a few minutes of play at odd times. That freezes the game up and requires me to manually reset it. It is almost making my game unplayable. I don't know what to do about it.

 

 

I'm using an iMac windows 7 and i just reinstalled the game, which did nothing for me. I'm contemplating going back to Vista to see if that works better. I had NO issues of these kind during beta, but this only started after the first patch was implemented in live.

[Spacedusted]

I read all the other posts, took me quite a while but i hate it when people ask a question and the answer is on the other page. Even though there are thousands of references and links to the latest catalyst drivers there are several people saying they have nvidia 330 cards. (mid2010 mbp) and absolutely no links or answers about nvidia cards. So my question is:

 

Where can I get latest nvidia drivers that work on bootcamp?? (not latest bootcamp ones, I have them and they suck)

 

I am getting 15-25 fps at very low, and on top of all that which would have been acceptable, I get about 30 mins of gameplay then the gpu and cpu exceed 105 degrees and my mbp shuts down cause thats its threshold.

 

I am also running Lubbo's fan control to optimize the fan speeds and i keep them at max 6000rpm, and still exceeds 105 degrees after 45 mins of play.

 

I have a stable machine, under MacOSX it runs starcraft 2 and other power hungry steam games Portal 2, L4D2, HalfLife 2 pretty well on mid-high settings, with no framerate drops and certainly no overheating.

 

Specs are:

MacBook Pro 15inch, mid 2010

2.4GHz Intel Core i5

RAM 4GB (two 2GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 on external display 19 inch monitor.

Windows 7 Enterprise (64bit) all updates done running with latest bootcamp drivers.

 

I've tried running it on medium or high and it works but i get 10-15fps tops. I am certain these are issues with the outdated bootcamp drivers and I know that it can run better.

[ArtillaSWE]

My specs: 2008 Mac Pro, 2.8 GHz 8-core, 12GB RAM, Radeon HD6970 2GB

 

At 1920x1200 I'm getting 60-110 FPS depending on the area, all settings on max with AA and AF boosted in Catalyst. My GPU is running at 64 degrees at 99% load, which is slightly more demanding than it was in beta.

 

The old thread is deleted but so I can't refer back to older posts, but I would have thought you'd be getting better than that. Do you have anything turned up high in Catalyst? If I turn AA up more than 4x my FPS drops like a stone. Also make sure your computer is using the discrete GPU and not defaulting to the intel integrated graphics.

 

Hopefully someone with the same specs can post their results to compare.

 

Im on a Mac PRO 2008 aswell 8 x 2.8, 8 Gig Ram and Radeon 5870 card. All settings at full except shadows. Forced AA in catalyst. I never had any fps problem, guess im around 40-70 depending on situation. Thats with a screen resolution of 2560x1600, in other words twice as much graphics to render as 1920x1080.

 

Most of the time i use vertical sync thou to keep the gfx fans less noicy. No need to have more frames per second then my monitor will show anyway.

[juliusone]

Hey, I'm playing SWTOR in boot camp and ui looks fine, but everything is stretched out. I have checked my resolution for windows I am running on the Mac (2560x1440), and it matches with what the game is set up for. Everyone looks pretty wide and some of the faces are cut off during cut scenes/cinematics. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[HxCLexie]

I've got a 27 inch iMac i bought December of 2011 with a built in AMD Radeon HD 6970M. Can anyone let me know if it's compatible? I've got 4GB of RAM and i think i'm all good for compatibility but keep getting the Error Code: 7 message

[wibblefish]

Where can I get latest nvidia drivers that work on bootcamp?? (not latest bootcamp ones, I have them and they suck)

 

I just went to the nvidia website and downloaded the latest drivers that work with the 330m (beta) http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-290.53-beta-driver-uk.html for windows 7 64 bit (those are the ones I have) ... you can use the search on the nvidia main site for other os ones.

 

In regards the heat issue, I have similar experiences (though my machine hasn't had a thermal shutdown) but running the fans at 6000 rpm using a fan control I can easily get up to those temperatures which is odd as I haven't experienced that running games for hours on the mac side.

[Spacedusted]

I just went to the nvidia website and downloaded the latest drivers that work with the 330m (beta) http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-290.53-beta-driver-uk.html for windows 7 64 bit (those are the ones I have) ... you can use the search on the nvidia main site for other os ones.

 

In regards the heat issue, I have similar experiences (though my machine hasn't had a thermal shutdown) but running the fans at 6000 rpm using a fan control I can easily get up to those temperatures which is odd as I haven't experienced that running games for hours on the mac side.

 

Thanks a lot, that helped, I'm going to install it and come back with feedback. Also, did you turn off the thermal shutdown. I want to do that, its safe for the gpu up to 120degrees. If you know a way to turn it off please share. Cheers for the link.

 

______________

 

L.E. :

I installed the driver you linked, and worked like a charm.

I'm getting 20-40fps unpopulated and 15-30fps in populated areas on everything low except for character detail which i want on high.

So at least I have a playable machine, the temps are still running a little bit too high in the limit 100degrees after 30 mins of play. Any idea on how to turn off or at least raise the thershold for thermal shutdown on MBP ?

 

L.E.2 :

Thanks a lot, I recommend the drivers wibblefish linked in his post. They run ten times better then those crappy bootcamp ones. However my issue has been partially solved, in the sense that I'm left with the overheating issue, I got about 1 hour added to my play time then it goes critical and shuts off. So now, about 1.5 hrs into play thermal shutdown because of cpu and gpu exceeding 105 degrees.

 

Anyone know a fix for Overheating issues?

If not, whats the best external third party fan stand for macbook pro??

Edited January 16, 2012 by Spacedusted

[daemian]

Anyone know a fix for Overheating issues?

If not, whats the best external third party fan stand for macbook pro??

 

I use MSI Afterburner to create a custom fan profile for my GPU. You have a lot of options, I've created a curve that ramps up the fan speed quite aggressively as my GPU heats up.

 

I've got a 27 inch iMac i bought December of 2011 with a built in AMD Radeon HD 6970M. Can anyone let me know if it's compatible? I've got 4GB of RAM and i think i'm all good for compatibility but keep getting the Error Code: 7 message

 

Yep, your machine is compatible. Check the customer service forums, the error code 7 problem should be listed under the hot issues thread.

 

Hey, I'm playing SWTOR in boot camp and ui looks fine, but everything is stretched out. I have checked my resolution for windows I am running on the Mac (2560x1440), and it matches with what the game is set up for. Everyone looks pretty wide and some of the faces are cut off during cut scenes/cinematics. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I think there are some posts about this earlier in the thread, you should be able to resolve this by updating your video driver.

Edited January 16, 2012 by daemian

[daemian]

"Mac OS X 10.7.3 to support AMD "Tahiti" graphics cards"

 

This has been rumored for a while, but it's great news going forward for anyone with a Mac Pro who might be wanting to upgrade to a new AMD card in 2012. On the other hand, they're also talking about the possibility of the Mac Pro being phased out... personally, I hope they're wrong about that.

[Gannikus]

Ok so I been lurking in this thread lately

 

I have a mid 2010 Macbook pro and updated my direct x and graphics card.

Running windows 7 64x, set swtor.exe to xp service pack 3 for comparability, shadows off, windowed mode, bloom off, vsync off, everything low, forced AA, yet there are random times where I get 20-30 fps but 50% of the time I get 5-10 fps....I have no idea why its random, but when I ran the beta awhile back, it ran PERFECTLY with 20-30 fps....

 

 

Graphics card is Nvidia 9500

 

What else can I do?

Edited January 16, 2012 by Gannikus

[Reggied]

Iv got the new MacBook Pro 2011 and swtor runs perfectly on max graphics

[Spacedusted]

Ok so I been lurking in this thread lately

 

I have a mid 2010 Macbook pro and updated my direct x and graphics card.

Running windows 7 64x, set swtor.exe to xp service pack 3 for comparability, shadows off, windowed mode, bloom off, vsync off, everything low, forced AA, yet there are random times where I get 20-30 fps but 50% of the time I get 5-10 fps....I have no idea why its random, but when I ran the beta awhile back, it ran PERFECTLY with 20-30 fps....

 

 

Graphics card is Nvidia 9500

 

What else can I do?

 

How did you update your directx drivers? Post a link if you can pls. My results are a bit better but at least yours doesn't shut off in 1 hour because its overheating.

 

I ask again, are there any solutions for overheating or at least a way to raise the threshold?

[Gannikus]

How did you update your directx drivers? Post a link if you can pls. My results are a bit better but at least yours doesn't shut off in 1 hour because its overheating.

 

I ask again, are there any solutions for overheating or at least a way to raise the threshold?

 

Here's my driver

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook-win7-winvista-64bit-285.62-whql-driver.html

 

as for the direct x, somewhere in the microsoft website

 

Do you have a mid 2010 MPR? I leave my laptop on for about 8-10 hours a day and watch movies etc AND play Swtor for 1-3 hours when I get decent fps and it never froze. Maybe there's something wrong with your fan

[Spacedusted]

Its the Mid 2010 MacbookPro with nvidia330m card. There's nothing wrong with the fans, i run Portal 2, and Starcraft pretty high with a lot of fps on the mac side, I render 1080 video in motion and Final Cut for hours and it never overheats or turns off. EVER!

 

Anyone know a fix? maybe after this new update coming tomorrow.

[daemian]

I've just added an SSD as my Windows 7 system drive in my Mac Pro and installed TOR to it as well. (A word of warning to the weak-hearted: if you're thinking of doing this... you may not want to. Macs do not use the same BIOS as Windows so getting everything to install and run at optimal settings was a bit of a drawn-out process, to say the least).

 

After I spend some more time with the game I'll post an update on whether or not I see any improvement in performance. One interesting thing is I cannot get ATI Tray Tools to run at all since the upgrade. TOR will crash at the launcher and I get system errors if it's even installed, so I removed it completely. This is on a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit. That's too bad because I was seeing a small performance gain with it installed on the old drive.

 

I also tested the theory that running FRAPS in the background gives smoother performance. For me, there's no difference, good or bad.

 

Another thing I noticed is regarding the fan control. My machine is always very quiet in OS X and using the Boot Camp GPU drivers. As soon as I switch to newer drivers, the fan profile changes dramatically in Windows. I tested this with an AMD HD 6970 and an Nvidia 8800GT.

 

According to MSI afterburner, the machine isn't running that much cooler with the Apple drivers in Windows, but the fans aren't kicking in until a higher temperature.

 

Also, if you run Firefox while gaming, it's somehow causing the GPU to constantly ramp up to 100% usage, which causes the machine to slowly heat up over time. This is unrelated to turning off hardware acceleration in the browser or Flash.

Edited January 18, 2012 by daemian

[NauticalNarwal]

I am new to the whole bootcamping thing. I just did it this evening. I dont have the recovery disks with me for my drives so does that effect me at all? I keep getting the error code 7 that my computer isnt compatible! I am running on an Intel i5 2.53 GHz

4.00 GB RAM Windows 7 64 bit. Someone please help me I just wanna be able to play again

[daemian]

I am new to the whole bootcamping thing. I just did it this evening. I dont have the recovery disks with me for my drives so does that effect me at all? I keep getting the error code 7 that my computer isnt compatible! I am running on an Intel i5 2.53 GHz

4.00 GB RAM Windows 7 64 bit. Someone please help me I just wanna be able to play again

 

Try the Customer Service forum. There's a thread about error Code 7 here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=35738

 

It's not a Boot Camp issue, it's a Windows thing, not sure what causes it. Good Luck!

[Wallaid]

So I bought a Mac, Installed Windows 7 via BootCamp, SWTOR is up and running and I may have some info people want to know about it.

 

First I like to say that I read the OPs post here to get BootCamp running, thanks for posting that info it was very helpful.

 

 

My system:

iMac 27"

Core i5 3,1GHz CPU

1GB Radeon HD 6970M

1TB HDD.

 

Running the game in 2560x1440 with everything on HIGH.

Smooth graphics, with a tendency to become lagging after extended periods of gaming.

 

So I looked into it.

The iMac came with 4GB RAM. That is NOT enough when running BootCamp.

I bought and installed 16GB RAM and with SWTOR and Google Chrome open, browser open on google.dk, I'm looking at a memory usage of 4,36GB. No wonder it became slightly laggy after some time, when I only had 4GB RAM.

 

If you want to play SWTOR on a Mac running a BootCamp setup, make sure you have plenty of memory. I would suggest 6GB or more.

 

In comparison my wife runs the game on a 3-year-old PC with a new PSU, an Nvidia GTX 560 Ti and 8GB RAM installed. Her computer has a memory usage of 3.36GB with the same programs installed and open. BootCamp and difference in graphics software being the differnce to my setup.

 

It seems BootCamp and Apple services take up ~700MB RAM.

 

EDIT:

Just to sump up, since I installed 16GB RAM it runs smooth as butter all the time.

No lag after several hours of SWTOR or BF3 gaming, and it even seems to get less warm now - (I could burn my fingers touching the frame before installing extra RAM, now it's a much more reasonable outer temperature) - I take it it doesn't struggle as much to make up for the RAM starvation now.

 

It's highly recommended to install 6GB or more RAM in your Mac if you need to run Windows through BootCamp. It will highly improve performance and probably also improve your quality time in the game.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Wallaid

[lewys]

I have finally got a decent FPS of lowest around 45 and highest being 100 (still around 25-30 in cantina though) with settings on high and medium with shadows off andy have fixed the awful texture on my character by downloading and reinstalling the game.

 

Thanks to everyone here who has helped me with all the different problems i have had.

 

I do have one more question though.

I said i would ask here for someone to see if his mac could run it as he doesn't have the game yet so i don't think he can access the forums.

 

His specs are

 

2009 iMac

intel core duo 2,9 ghz

4GB DDR3 RAM (1076Mhz)

Nvidia GeForce GT120 256MB

 

thank you

[daemian]

I do have one more question though.

I said i would ask here for someone to see if his mac could run it as he doesn't have the game yet so i don't think he can access the forums.

 

His specs are

 

2009 iMac

intel core duo 2,9 ghz

4GB DDR3 RAM (1076Mhz)

Nvidia GeForce GT120 256MB

 

thank you

 

Congrats, I'm glad you finally got it running better! I feel your pain, I've had to reinstall my operating system about 4 times this week and reinstalled TOR 3 times.

 

Your friend's machine meets the minimum specs, so they should be OK to play on at least lower settings. Upgrading the RAM might help a little bit, that machine can handle a maximum of 8GB.

[Gannikus]

So I bought a Mac, Installed Windows 7 via BootCamp, SWTOR is up and running and I may have some info people want to know about it.

 

First I like to say that I read the OPs post here to get BootCamp running, thanks for posting that info it was very helpful.

 

 

My system:

iMac 27"

Core i5 3,1GHz CPU

1GB Radeon HD 6970M

1TB HDD.

 

Running the game in 2560x1440 with everything on HIGH.

Smooth graphics, with a tendency to become lagging after extended periods of gaming.

 

So I looked into it.

The iMac came with 4GB RAM. That is NOT enough when running BootCamp.

I bought and installed 16GB RAM and with SWTOR and Google Chrome open, browser open on google.dk, I'm looking at a memory usage of 4,36GB. No wonder it became slightly laggy after some time, when I only had 4GB RAM.

 

If you want to play SWTOR on a Mac running a BootCamp setup, make sure you have plenty of memory. I would suggest 6GB or more.

 

In comparison my wife runs the game on a 3-year-old PC with a new PSU, an Nvidia GTX 560 Ti and 8GB RAM installed. Her computer has a memory usage of 3.36GB with the same programs installed and open. BootCamp and difference in graphics software being the differnce to my setup.

 

It seems BootCamp and Apple services take up ~700MB RAM.

 

EDIT:

Just to sump up, since I installed 16GB RAM it runs smooth as butter all the time.

No lag after several hours of SWTOR or BF3 gaming, and it even seems to get less warm now - (I could burn my fingers touching the frame before installing extra RAM, now it's a much more reasonable outer temperature) - I take it it doesn't struggle as much to make up for the RAM starvation now.

 

It's highly recommended to install 6GB or more RAM in your Mac if you need to run Windows through BootCamp. It will highly improve performance and probably also improve your quality time in the game.

I have 8gb ram and still get 2-5 fps most of the time.