SWTOR getting lag

[PCquestion]

Hello, I can't figure out if my lag is coming from my system or from my internet. I do not have blazing fast internet but my download speed is 8meg. my ping times rarely go over 100 and not often. Battlegrounds are completely unplayable but most of the other game is if I'm patient. I don't have an extremely high end system either but I think it should play SWTOR at least. Here are my specs.

AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core @ 2.20ghz
Windows Vista 64-bit SP-2
4GB DDR PC-3200
EVGA 9800GTX+ 512mb

I'm guessing its my ram...I know my videocard is kinda borderline, but it doesn't seem to make a difference whether or not my settings are all the way up or all the way down, its the same thing. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[DM186]

Your GPU is old but it was a nice one in its day and it still holds its own on todays games. Lag is cause by all kinds of stuff but the most common is heat and sometimes it is the PSU burning out.

So lets start with you heat. Are you monitoring your Temps? When was the last time you cleaned out your rig with compress air? Some cards you have to take out and blow air through them like mine.

What is your PSU brand and how many watts is it? Please get back to us with the answers then we will go from here.

 

[PCquestion]

my temps are fine, highest temp in my system is high 50's celcius sometimes low 60's but that is my GPU. My PSU is a BFG Peak output of 550w. I have been monitoring with HWiNFO32 and it appears that my GPU is not even being pushed, however the RAM on the card is always sitting at 99.9% used when playing SWTOR. I did some research online and found out (unsure if its totally true), that SWTOR doesn't utilize the system RAM that is being set aside by win Vista for the graphics. I've tried setting the game to run in compatibility for WinXP sp3 because thats what the forums i saw that on said to do. Apparently that will make the game utilize this ram. unfortunatly I only have the option for service pack 2. I keep my system very clean, I even take my GPU apart and clean it out. If you don't it gets caked and you don't get all the bunnies out. Everytime I do this I reapply new arctic silver 5 to the GPU and thermal pads on the ram chips. Is there a utility that i can download to see if my PSU is doing alright?

Also, I think I should not that my internet is one of those Wireless systems they have out in rural areas. Don't know the exact name of what it is. Basically I have this antenna on my house that points towards a tower on the mountain. Unfortunatly this is the best thing I can get. There is DSL here but they oversell their capacity and its horrible. The only reason I'm getting 8mg download is because I paid for a commercial account and pay 120 dollars a month for it..lol..the usual fastest connection you can get from them is half that speed. And I don't know how to test and see if the net is the prob. If its my net then ok, I'm screwed. If its my PC i can fix that...just don't want to dump 2 grand into a new setup and then i'm still having the same issue.

 

[DM186]

Well it is good to hear that it isn't your temps. The BFG PSU is not the best on the market but it will do. There is no way to test your PSU unless you have a volt meter then you would have to know the power to a connecter.

The only other way to check is put it into another rig or if you have access to another PSU and put it into yours and see if you have the same problem. Is this the only game you play?

Or are there other games you play and they also have the same problem? You can check your ram with a memtest86+ which I will link you to. I will also link you to a burn in test to see if it will act the same way.

To check your internet speed I have a network card and it came with a program that I can use to check upstream and downstream. So I am paying for 7.5megs and I am getting 5.47megs.

I will link you to some internet speed checks and I will link you to this thing called gameboost it might help but I don't know for sure if your wireless is the cause of your lag. It might be or not.

If you get a flux in your readings of the test then I would say that is the problem but if it is steady then I would rule it out. Give all this try and and hope it will yield a fix. Good luck

http://www.memtest.org/

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/

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

http://www.ozone3d.net/msi_kombustor/

 

[PCquestion]

Thank you for your help in the matter. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to upgrade my entire system. I think my system is old enough that if I were to just upgrade my GPU I would cause a bottleneck somewhere else resulting in not utilizing the GPU to its fullest.

If I'm going to upgrade tho I want to build a system that will stomp any game out there for a little while so I don't have to worry about it for a couple of years. Do you mind taking a look at what i'm looking at and tell me if I'm probably good? Here it is.


ASUS Crosshair V Formula AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard

AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133

EVGA 03G-P3-1593-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified Hydro Copper 3072MB 384-bit

my hardrive is a 500g sata III drive already and its less then a year old so I think I'm ok there.

CORSAIR Professional Series HX1050 1050W Power Supply

I'll probably liquid cool the cpu and the gpu i chose is the hydrocopper so that aswell. I've never liquid cooled, and have no plans of overclocking, but i like the idea of not having a bunch of dust bunnies in my GPU..its a real pain to clean it out. Any suggestions on the type of loop to use, pumps and rads would be appreciated.

Also, what is the difference between the CPU i chose and the 980 black edition. the 980 was more expensive but appears to not be as fast. Something I'm missing?

 

[DM186]

Ok I would not go for either CPU's the first one is OC's and can only go up one point you will never see any difference in gaming. The second one is better you can OC it a lot more.

And I know you are not going to OC anything. My choice is the i5 2500k and yes it is $60.00 more the the 980 but it is what gamers are going with. I linked you to all 3 CPU's so you can see them.

I also let your see the i5 vs 980. I also let you see the GPU's 580 vs 680. The 580 is still a decent card and by no means I am not trying to talk you out of that card. I just want you to see the newest one in comparison

You really don't need that big of a PSU a 850w would be better and it will be $100.00 cheaper so you could get the i5 2500k CPU. Also the 850w will be big enough in case you want to SLI another 580.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207011

Other than what I have commemted about it looks like a very nice setup and you should be able to handle any thing you can through at it. Really think about the CPU and the PSU. Good luck and let me know what you are going to do.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103935&Tpk=amd%20phenom%20ii%20x4%20980

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072&Tpk=i5%202500k

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=288

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/517?vs=555

 

[PCquestion]

So, problem solved, I've upgraded. Specs are:

Intel Core I5 3570K Ivy Bridge CPU
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16 GB Ripjaws Z 2133mhz (4X4GB)
Corsair 1050 PSU

Wrapped it all up in a Thermaltake Level 10 GT Case. I'm still running the EVGA 9800GTX+ GPU untill i can afford a GTX 670 FTW. But framrates have quadrippled with what I did do.

Thank you much for the help

PS. Never ever, ever, i mean ever install windows 7 with a geforce 9 series card in your comp...lol..what a nightmare...driver issues like mad..doesn't even finish the install, just happy I had an old MSI 6600GT laying around to throw in there and install.
From what I can tell the graphics driver that win 7 will install for the 9 series cards at the end of the install is crap, causes a black screen and install won't finish...

 

[DM186]

Well that is very good news and I am glad you found the problem so hats off to you and I will you the best of luck when your new card comes in. Cheers