HP Pavilion a6455.uk and SW:TOR - looking for advice please

[fa1th5by5]

I'm at my wits end trying to make Star Wars The Old Republic playable on my PC, and thought I could ask for some advice here if possible.

My PC was originally bought about 4 years ago and is a HP Pavilion a6455.uk with some newer components.

PSU: OCZ OCZ600MXSP-UK ModXStream Pro 600W ATX

GFX: Asus nVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

OS: Win 7 Ultimate 64x

Ram: 4GB

I have upgraded the GFX to try and get better fps as my game runs at approx 20fps in open areas (not warzones, I completely freeze up in them), but have seen little improvement.

I am considering installing 8GB of RAM but I'm now wondering if this would be throwing good money after bad.

Is it the CPU / motherboard that's the real problem?


Any help / advice very gratefully received. Money is tight so I'd really appreciate any guidance about priorities

Many thanks in advance.

 

[ddan49]

Check how much RAM you're using using task manager. CTRL + ALT + DEL, go to "Performance", then look at how much memory you're using (while gaming). If it's close to 100%, then you need more RAM. However, I don't think that's your problem. What CPU do you have? That might be bottlenecking.

 

[fa1th5by5]

Hi Dan

It's the AMD Phenom X4 9500 it came with.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

that CPU will run the game, fairly well (My HTPC is that, plus an HD 4850 and on my HDTV I got about 42 fps on medium settings)

 

[fa1th5by5]

Your 42 fps makes me sad I just joined a quick Ops and was struggling at 3fps!!

So if it isn't the CPU... what could it be? The GFX card is 2 weeks old btw.

 

[fa1th5by5]

Check how much RAM you're using using task manager. CTRL + ALT + DEL, go to "Performance", then look at how much memory you're using (while gaming). If it's close to 100%, then you need more RAM. However, I don't think that's your problem. What CPU do you have? That might be bottlenecking.

Apologies for double posting but I have had time to check this now.

Task Manager is showing 3.84 GB of memory in use. I also noticed while I had that open that the CPU usage fluctuates wildly while I play, and drops considerably when i seem to lag in the game.

 

[ddan49]

Do you have Win7 64 bit? It seems like you have 32 bit. Anyway, I'd get more RAM and a 64 bit version of Windows.

 

[fa1th5by5]

I just upgraded to 64 bit, that's why I was planning on upgrading my RAM to 8GB. Just concerned that the RAM isn't the root cause of the problem.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

might doublecheck the energy star settings

 

[ddan49]

If you're using all of your RAM (meaning 100% usage, and with 3.81GB that seems strange... a lot of RAM), then you might upgrade to... 8GB or even 6GB. Yeah, doublecheck the energy ratings as well. Also, try a virus scan... turns up stuff more often than you think. If not hardware, then software!

 

[fa1th5by5]

Not hugely tech savvy... do you guys mean the power settings?

I'm pretty sure my machine is clean though, I run Malwarebytes regularly, I'm a bit anal about it tbh lol.

 

[ddan49]

Yes, we mean the actual Power Supply Unit... the thing that channels all of that vulgar current into usable energy. It's one of your parts.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

well, also sometimes the automated energy saving throttle-backs in the CPU can kick in at inopportune times. turn off Cool & Quiet and related items in the bios

 

[fa1th5by5]

Thanks for the advice. I'll try that and see how I get on.

 

[tsnor]

--- Another thought.

(1) verify basic performance with a few free downloadable benchmarks. Even the windows experience numbers. See if you are roughly the same as others with your hardwre.
(2) check temps. See if you are thermal throttling.
(3) check drivers. Upgrade everything you can find. Maybe your win7 64 bit picked up some bad stuff.
(4) download and run 'Microsoft security essentials' it's free. scan. Unless you have a different anti-virus running. Malwarebytes is not an antivirus, it's used in addition to an antivirus (i think).
---
On the memory usage, that's easy to find.
start button, type 'resource monitor' in search box, then click on it when it appears in the list above. Go to the memory tab. Look at the pretty bar graph, then find the process who's working set is huge from the list above it. Google the process name to find out what it is.
--
If you have a rouge task using lots of memory (aka a memory leak) then you will hear your hard drive running a lot, and you will see the 'hard fault' number in resource monitor get large. It should be mainly 0.

 

[fa1th5by5]

Hi Tsnor

Thanks for your suggestions

1) My basic performance scores in Windows Experience do seem right, everything is in the 7s apart from my HHD which is 5.2 and so pulls the overall score down.

2) Temperatures. Everything is fine when the PC is running regular tasks but I have noticed that when I play SWTOR the cpu and gpu get considerably hotter. (Both 60 degrees and up) With the help of a friend this week we cleaned and reapplied the thermal paste on the CPU as it was dry as a bone, but it's not made a huge amount of difference. If I run the PC open sided with a regular household fan blowing more cool air into it it keeps the temps down, but doesn't show any fps improvement in SWTOR.

3) Drivers. I have checked and rechecked drivers and am pretty sure they are all up to date. I have heard there are some issues with the current Nvidia drivers and so have rolled back and tried the beta... no change.

4) I run Webroot SecureAnywhere on all my PCs, and use Malwarebytes and CCleaner regularly.

I'll take a look at the memory useage now to see if anything is showing a fault, thanks for that tip.

Since I last posted I have upgraded my RAM to 8GB, and I also took the graphics card back to the store it came from. They swapped it for a PNY Geforce GTX 550 ti, saying it was a better card, and I have seen a SLIGHT improvement in the game, but nothing to get excited about.

They also said that looking at the rest of my system, I should really consider a far better card, but this surprised me as I didn't think my CPU was that great? (AMD Phenom X4 9500) Are they just trying to get more money from me? *If* I did, would the Radeon HD 7850 or Geforce GTX 560ti be a viable upgrade considering the rest of my system?

Re Dan and ScrewySqrl's thoughts about energy. I've had a look in the BIOS and don't see anything about Cool & Quiet.

Thanks again for your help guys, it's much appreciated.

 

[fa1th5by5]

---
On the memory usage, that's easy to find.
start button, type 'resource monitor' in search box, then click on it when it appears in the list above. Go to the memory tab. Look at the pretty bar graph, then find the process who's working set is huge from the list above it. Google the process name to find out what it is.
--
If you have a rouge task using lots of memory (aka a memory leak) then you will hear your hard drive running a lot, and you will see the 'hard fault' number in resource monitor get large. It should be mainly 0.

Nothing out of the ordinary hogging memory, and no hard faults for any processes being reported.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

what else is running on the computer besides Star wars?

 

[fa1th5by5]

I've actually ended up taking it into the shop, I was so fed up with it. Looks like it may be a PSU issue. Perhaps a faulty unit.

 

[ddan49]

That's the case more often than you'd think. PSU is usually the first thing to check (after RAM).

 

[fa1th5by5]

Well, after all that it was not one, but TWO faulty gfx cards! I'm now sitting nicely at 35-40fps in open zones, 45-50 in flashpoints.

Thanks so much for your guidance though guys, I have learnt some great tips along the way

 

[ddan49]

Good for you!