Alienware M17x SWTOR General discussion thread

Hey guys!
I have been playing Swtor non-stop since I got into early access.

My fps hovers around 70-80. It can spike to 110 randomly and sometimes drop to 26 in a foggy room lol. All my settings are on high.

I am using 11.10 bf3 drivers.

What is everyone else experiencing? Any tricks to boost performance?

On the imperial fleet I am dropping to 19-24fps its disgusting -.-

 

its probably either the server load or crappy graphics optimazation. hopefully we will see a fix soon. Most of the TOR m17x owners use this thread btw if you would like to keep an eye on this thread.

 

The only problem I had was every 10-20 seconds it would slow down from the vsync limit of 60fps to like 25 and it didn't seem to be a result of the graphics environment changing.

From what I can tell it was a problem with how the game engine handles vsync and/or triple buffering with nvidia drivers, as it goes away when I disable vsync. I will try again today by disabling vsync in the game and using the nvidia control panel to enable it instead.

Generally speaking, it seems like the game is CPU limited on my system as overclocking the GPU didnt really yield any higher results. I wonder if the frame rate drops you saw might be related to loading the streamed textures more so than any limitations of the GPU.

 

Use a program like MSI afterburner to monitor GPU usage in-game. It really helps in determining whether or not you're getting CPU or GPU bottlenecked.

 

I have an R1 M17x and I'm lucky to get over 40fps during any sort of action in SWTOR with all the settings either on low or off. It's like 15 fps while on the Imperial fleet, and I get 60fps if there is NOTHING around me whatsoever.

I completely reformatted the pc and reinstalled nothing but drivers and the game and still can't figure out how to squeeze out a little more performance. It was tolerable, but then something seemed to change all of a sudden Tuesday, I think there was something in the latest patch.... it's really annoying now.

 

Hello guys.I bought brand new alienware last week.Specs:Nvidia 580 (2gb),2,20ghz I7 procesors,6gb ram,500gb hardrive.And i cant play swotr on max settings.On low settings am having 30fps on hogh 7.So what the hell ? I ubdated my grpahics card drivers,turned off firewall,no antivirus running at the bacground.I realy dunno what to do.In the begining of the game i was able to play it fine for 1day but was having like litle fps spike wich went off fast.Bt now when i log in i am able to play normaly with no fps lag on high settings for 2-3mins and then hell starts. :/ Please help.

 

sounds like you have the throttling issues consistent with the 580m. this thread should help you out. [Guide] 580m GTX throtting fix. No need to modify system Bios.

 

And btw then i log in for 2-3mins at that time am having 110-130fps :/ And in that guide i dont understand that part :There are 2, one is 580m.ROM which is a normal one with throttle fix, the 580m92v.ROM is an overvolted one.

Now extract the 3 nvflash files somewhere, leave the window open, put your chosen .rom file there too.
Where i should get the room ? And how i can check what kind of ROM i have?

 

Its probably not the throttle issue purely because SwTor wont tax it that much on max. It offloads way to much into the CPU to tax the GPU.

The issue at the moment is that bioware have wrecked the UI of the game. Check the customer service section of the ToR forums. Youl find a few fixes. Alot involve setting the graphics to high, then to low, then to high again. This resets your Options UI as for some reason, even though it says low.. its actually on high, the UI just fails to show it.

Ontop of that, the preset settings for the game have hidden options not configurable by you in the custom settings.

 

Ok now.Problem is definetly not in game.Now i even cant play mw3 or nfs the run they just fps laggs so badly.I dunno what happend. :/ Any sugjestions ?

Am having the same problem in all games.I can normaly play for like 5mins with no fps lag.And after that hell begins.

 

you could try the link in my sig but it definitely sounds like throttling. If you can't fix it, call dell and get the 6990m, similar performance, but no throttling.

 

I'm new to this forums and am also a new owner of a Alienware M17x laptop with the following setup:

Intel I7 2670 @ 2.20
8GB RAM
AMD Radeon 6870 1GB
750GB HD

and when I run SWTOR, my game is having horrible FPS issue, with an occasional freeze up for a second or 2 before it resumes again. I'm using the AMD Radeon drivers from Dell. Should I use the the current drivers from AMD or stay with what I have? Or am I missing something else that is causing the horrible FPS?

I have a desktop at home with the following specs that runs SWTOR like a champ and make me concerned about this laptop:

AMD Phenom II 970 @ 3.5
8GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 460 GTX
1TB HD

 

i would try updating the graphics card drivers and see if it helps. If my 460m runs it easily there isn't any reason your 6870 should have any issues with it.

 

I tried updating the drivers via the AMD site and they will not detect my GPU. So I am stuck using the dell website driver.....anyone know a fix for this?

 

I have the 6870M (900p resolution) in my M17x R3 as well. SWTOR runs at max settings without any problems with the Dell stock drivers. I get about 50fps average.

Do you have any background programs that could be causing the occasional 1 to 2 second freezes?

 

I use this laptop for work, so I may have one or two in the background, but nothing that should cause this. When I get home I will try using a program called GameBooster on this laptop to see if it makes a difference.

But going back to the driver issue, apparently only the AMD drivers from the dell site will install on the laptop. Is something messed up or can this be changed?

 

Does anyone know what's going on with TOR? It seems a lot of people are having performance issues. I sold my old R1 to a friend of mine and he's having trouble playing the game, but it shouldn't be so outdated by now that he has trouble on low settings with a couple of people around, it was still a pretty decent machine. I think he said he's seeing somewhere around 15-30 fps with everything turned down.

Specs:
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo T9800 2.93GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) OPERATING SYSTEM Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)
VIDEO CARD Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M, 2GB – SLI® Enabled edit
LCD PANEL 17-inch WideXGA+ 1440x900 (900p) edit
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1333MHz edit

I know the 260ms are old, but they can't be performing that badly can they? I'm hoping this is an issue with the game itself, because the laptop could still play current games quite well, most on high.

 

try changing the compatibility settings to windows xp sp3 and try updating the graphics drivers as well. should run fine at 900p

 

crossfire requires full screen mode to operate, might be the same with sli?
(fullscreen windowed option disables crossfire for me, has to be real full screen - where alt tab is annoying)

 

My problem was a matter of messing up during driver install. I have to re-install Windows 7 and the drivers, due to work, and when I installed the drivers from the disk, I installed the Intel GPU driver, then the AMD. This caused a major graphics issue. Once I realized that the Intel GPU driver comes with the AMD driver from Dell, I removed both, did a good clean that installed the AMD driver with no problem. I am running TOR like a champ now and am truly happy.

 

glad to see you got it fixed, now you can fully enjoy the game.

 

Everyone with vista and w7 should do this!

 

Snagged the idea from your post in the other thread. +rep for the info

 

I have to ask, since my framerates are far from fantastic.

I'm using 12.3 atm.

 

12.3 is working fine for my r3. 12.2 worked fine as well. are you running SWTOR in compatibility mode for windows xp as well as running it as an administrator? I have heard that both these things can fix ingame graphics issues for strange reasons.

 

since you're running crossfire, make sure you're running "Fullscreen" Mode and not the Fullscreen (windowed) mode

i'm running 12.4 preview atm and crossfire works well, game runs like crap when there's too many people on the screen however, cpu dependancy i believe (i cant believe they screwed this up in an MMO... really with their budget?)

also there's a setting where you can limit the number of players on the screen, it's a bandaid fix but it works. just don't be surprised to leap to an enemy player to find that he had 4 invisible friends next to him. i suggest no lower than medium to ensure this doesn't happen.

 

Do you get a black window popup at the windows startup?

 

black window popup?
not that i can tell

 

I made it home finally, got the replacement R3 from Dell for the junker they originally sent. Installed and updated SWTOR and it will not run. Constant "Program has quit responding" messages before it finishes booting.

How can I get this fixed before I leave in the morning to head back to AFG?

 

have you tried the refresh trick?

---ONCE THE WINDOW in loading screen DISPLAYS (NOT RESPONDING) DONT CLOSE OUT OR DO ANYTHING, JUST HIT: CTRL+ALT+DEL > SELECT TASK MANAGER > THEN SIMPLY CLICK ON THE SWTOR GAME WINDOW. THE GAME should REFRESH AND LOADING BAR may APPEAR AS IT SHOULD.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

 

That game engine has lots of issues. Have you tried running the game as an administrator and in compatibility mode for service pack 3? That might get it working.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using tapatalk 2

 

I've never been able to get constantly good FPS from tor, not even in beta.

 

80fps almost every where for me

 

big tony what forced settings do u use ?