Star Wars: The Old Republic: PC Performance, Benchmarked

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]envymert[/nom]I agree with the frame rate issue yet your article proves you did not do much research into the actual game and/or spent much time playing. You also state the only flaw you found is massive zones ......but then state how it isnt better than WoW.[/citation]

This is a performance analysis first and foremost. The review portion was limited to the first page, and it was extremely complimentary. But just because I don't agree with you that this game is a trillion times better than WoW does not automatically indicate that I put only a little time into it.

I've had the beta for months, i simply don't agree that SWTOR is the best thing since sliced bread. At its core its just another MMO. Yes, its a good one. But for me (and others, if you read the SWTOR forums) it doesn't automatically deserve to be granted status as THE BEST MMO EVAR just because it's solid and carries a Star Wars wrapper.

 

[clonazepam]

I'm not even going to read any comments this time. I don't think any of these benchmarks are valid, for retail.

Why wasn't it mentioned that the game runs at a fixed resolution of 1024x768, and just up-converts to whatever resolution you choose? This is evident by examining any screenshots, taken at any resolution, are at 1024x768. So a screenshot of the game taken with settings of 1080p, are 1024x768, and the images are "squeezed" from the sides, resulting in pencil-like thin characters. Once you resize the image in an editor, to 1080p, then its back to looking "normal", further proof the engine's just churning out 1024x768, no matter what your settings are.

If the retail version does in fact not upscale from 1024x768 to whatever resolution, then all performance results will be completely different, won't they?

 

[invlem]

I played a recent beta weekend and I'm definitely giving this game a go when it launches.

From a pure polish standpoint, this is the most stable, bug free MMO I've played at launch (at it was still beta).

That says a lot for me already, they seem to have their act together, the game itself plays very well, intuitive UI, and for the first time it doesn't feel like an MMO grind, more like an RPG you play with friends... Which is a really, really nice change of pace.

 

[clonazepam]

I was looking forward to reading this until i saw there was no GTX 580. No love for nvidia's flagship GPU? What's up with that?

the beta didnt care for sli, but the single 580 hovered around 100-120+.

quest=mission=job, whatever... you know what I mean

I played to level 19 as Jedi Sage. It's an awesome mmo that gives you the opportunity to use solo tactics, when it suits you. Quests indicate whether or not its a good idea to take another person or two, or three, with you. People that want to jump in for an hour or two, or just 30 minutes, will find something fun and rewarding to accomplish.

Grouping is interesting. If you have 3 players, someone will keep their companion in the fight to round it out, if necessary. You receive "social" pts when doing group activities. If you and friends are doing a quest, you are all in on the quest conversation. Every time there's an opportunity to respond, the participants random for the chance to respond. If you win, you receive 8 pts, and the other participants receive 4. If you are too far away to make it to the actual npc for the conversation, you can "phone-in" with your hologram whatchamacallit, so you don't have to keep friends waiting or run off forever to some other area.

As Sage, I enjoyed soloing most of the 19 levels. My first companion, was a sword-wielding, heavy armor tank, with taunt. I could drop in and out of the direct fight, to heal the companion, debuff, force attacks, kill off adds, etc. There's plenty to do. The second companion I received was a protocol droid, who could be set to a sort of "auto-heal" with no offense of any kind. There will be plenty of options, plenty of customization for your character. I haven't been excited about any mmos in half a decade, but I think this one has what it takes to go places. Cancelled the Rift account after reaching 16ish and bored. Played the WoW trial to level 2, still had 13.5 days left, deleted.

Some people won't appreciate the story driven mission system. Some people will be wanting to do just do a quick lil run, turn in quest items, and run back out for whatever... like a machine. I didn't really see anything facilitating that drone like playstyle, but many missions can be repeated, and are noted in the mission logs.

 

[peanut_316]

i beta tested the game twice had no graphic issues and the game was awesome, hardware tested on

i7-950
12gb ram
3way sli 570gtx using 285.96 drivers
at resolution 5760x1080 nvida surround

and tested on my Asus G73jh-a1 laptop 8gb ram, i7 cpu and ATI 5870m at 1920x1080

 

[clonazepam]

I played a recent beta weekend and I'm definitely giving this game a go when it launches.

From a pure polish standpoint, this is the most stable, bug free MMO I've played at launch (at it was still beta).

That says a lot for me already, they seem to have their act together, the game itself plays very well, intuitive UI, and for the first time it doesn't feel like an MMO grind, more like an RPG you play with friends... Which is a really, really nice change of pace.

Agree. I played through Friday to Monday morning, and it never once crashed to the desktop, never once got disconnected, and I was playing around with all the nvidia driver settings, switching around between single 580, 2, and tri-sli, and nothing could bring this game down. No graphical glitches, no sli glitches or anything... it was solid as a rock.

If you wanted to participate in the beta, you had to download 20GB of data. I believe this is the reason everything is 1024x768 and upconverted from there. Otherwise, the size would have been monstrous. The biggest complaint/issue I could find was there were a few times it wasn't possible to log into the swtor website. Once in awhile, on days 2-4 of the beta, there was occasional lag, hiccups. Kneel down to loot a corpse, loot window pops up, click to take items, then there might have been a 5 second pause before you looted, then the engine caught up. Once in awhile in fights it occurred as well, a 5 second hiccup, then it caught up and carried out the que of commands.

I just hope the retail version isn't all 1024x768 textures like the beta. Another bit of evidence to that fact, if you used MSI's Afterburner, and used the OSD, the text was crazy large proving the real resolution of 1024x768.

 

[amuffin]

[citation][nom]AGAMEMN0N5[/nom]Please and IGP performance numbers. This MMO+Star will be played be many people who are running older systems such as a Core2 MacBook Pro (not a 2nd gen Core... Intel + Marketing = Fail). I'm most interested in I3 and AMD Llano performance numbers for those who are budget conscious upgraders.[/citation]
You buying a mac was a fail.

 

[Guest]

Heya Tom. Let me explain the Kessel Run. Kessel is a basically a black market smugglers waystation. Smugglers like it because it's nestled deeply in an area of space that's pockmarked with black holes and other gravity yanking stellar phenomena, and therefore too dangerous for common travel. There are a variety of ways to get to Kessel, but there's usually a best route with the least amount of course corrections to get to the planet.

The Millennium Falcon's customized engine is so fast that the ship can safely skirt the edge of some of the gravity wells to reach Kessel in an overall shorter distance of parsecs, therefore requiring fewer course corrections. So there you go

 

[jta]

Not a bad writeup but I do question the results a bit, I played the beta ( especially the last build after the stress test weekend ) on my E8500 @ 3,56GHz, 8Gb RAM and GTX 280. My settings were 1920x1200 and had the gfx turned up to max, I never dipped below 20fps and if i turned just the shader setting down I stayed 30+ at all times.

SWToR isn't nearly as resource heavy as this test might make it seem, there's a big difference between raw benchmarking and playfeel. It's an MMORPG after all, a little slow here and there doesn't matter like it does in an FPS game.

 

[tuffjuff]

[citation][nom]pyrowipe[/nom]Yeah, Others also pay 50-100 dollars a month for cable TV, and spent the same amount of time watching reality shows like Jersey shore or whatever. I'm good with MMOs instead.[/citation]

I wish my Time Warner bill were only $50-100 a month.

 

[tuffjuff]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]This is a performance analysis first and foremost. The review portion was limited to the first page, and it was extremely complimentary. But just because I don't agree with you that this game is a trillion times better than WoW does not automatically indicate that I put only a little time into it.I've had the beta for months, i simply don't agree that SWTOR is the best thing since sliced bread. At its core its just another MMO. Yes, its a good one. But for me (and others, if you read the SWTOR forums) it doesn't automatically deserve to be granted status as THE BEST MMO EVAR just because it's solid and carries a Star Wars wrapper.[/citation]


I am confused why personal opinion about how "this game isn't that good" belongs in a PERFORMANCE COMPARISION article, but maybe that's just me?

 

[hythos]

I was hoping to get by with my NV450 :/
Looks like I'll need to look for a 6950(6970) for my PhX4-955.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]Why wasn't it mentioned that the game runs at a fixed resolution of 1024x768, and just up-converts to whatever resolution you choose?[/citation]

Because that is completely and utterly false.

 

[Guest]

It was a nice article and testing analysis.

Kind of ruined it for yourself a bit at the end with to me what looks like a bit of an ignorant opinion.

You act as if somehow those "free" games mentioned have huge followings and are enjoying monstrous success as "high quality competition" - I mean Need for Speed Online wtf? Those games put together will have less subs/players than SWTOR. Fact is no company right now can resist engineering their game with the aim of you emptying your wallet. I'd sooner know what i'm paying for upfront than have to suffer in-game because of crappy money-making schemes. Just see how bad LOTRO has actually gotten since it went "F2P". (Rank 15 Monster skills for real cash anyone?)

 

[envymert]

[citation][nom]tuffjuff[/nom]I am confused why personal opinion about how "this game isn't that good" belongs in a PERFORMANCE COMPARISION article, but maybe that's just me?[/citation]

Exactly ......he assumes because I posted that he did not test the game enough that I am a Starwars fanboi ...which I am not. Furthermore from his "opinion" in his performance review one can correctly assume he did not test or read as much about the game as he talks about he has. Read the SWTOR forums, yeah alot of people cannot wait for the game. Because a few people title their ports "THIS GAME SUCKS" that is somehow an accurate comment because its on the forum? If that were the case ...WoW, BF3 and CoD must all be crap games.

As I stated before his opinion which he says is nothing but positive , is not even valid. With a $15 monthly fee, avid fans should at least play all classes for the story all eight of them . There are actually ....16 classes for story purposes. This can be read on the forums that he adamantly described he read to show the fact people on the site say the game isnt that great. Not really sure why I read the articles here anymore they are some of the bias articles you can find anywhere....I guess I will stick to just looking at the graphs/charts and drawing my own conclusions.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]tuffjuff[/nom]I am confused why personal opinion about how "this game isn't that good" belongs in a PERFORMANCE COMPARISION article, but maybe that's just me?[/citation]

Yep, it's just your personal opinion.

We always add a short game review to put things in perspective.

Everyone enjoys them (well, everyone except fans so emotionally attached to the game that any criticism is considered heresy).

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Yep, it's just your personal opinion.We always add a short game review to put things in perspective. Everyone enjoys them (well, everyone except fans so emotionally attached to the game that any criticism is considered heresy).[/citation]

lol, well I will be a subscriber, but I'm sure "time played" wont come close to "time spent" on Toms, reading, commenting, and... trolling?

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Because that is completely and utterly false.[/citation]

Anyway, I accept your claim that my findings are completely and utterly false, but please tell me, how did I come to those findings? If you are correct, then I am just more confused, so I could use some help there. Thanks.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]lol, well I will be a subscriber, but I'm sure "time played" wont come close to "time spent" on Toms, reading, commenting, and... trolling?[/citation]

I fall under that blanket, too.

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]Anyway, I accept your claim that my findings are completely and utterly false, but please tell me, how did I come to those findings? If you are correct, then I am just more confused, so I could use some help there. Thanks.[/citation]

Well, I have a lot of years of digital artistry under my belt, and a lot of experience. I can spot an upscaled image from a mile away, but I took 1080p screen caps of this game and they're clearly per-pixel rendered. If they were upscaled, you'd see smudging and unintentional anti-aliasing at resolutions higher than 1024x768, and that is definitely not the case, at least with our test results.

I'm curious, clonazepam,... why do you think the game is upscaling from 1024x768? Did you hear it somewhere, or is your output smudgy?

 

[larkspur]

The beta has run smoothly maxed-out on triple-monitor eyefinity @4800x1200 on a single 6970 (with an i7-920@3.5). The UI windows are not inherently movable but everything looks great and the default window positioning isn't terrible.

Definitely an interesting game, tons of great written dialogue and excellent voice-acting throughout. Even if you don't like MMOs this game has plenty of single-player KOTOR-esque gameplay and grandiose save-the-galaxy or dominate-the-galaxy storyline to justify at least three months of subscription (or maybe six months if you actually have a life and don't spend 8 hours a day gaming). The battle system reminds me of KOTOR but is substantially more fluid like WoW.

It'll be very interesting to see how fast players consume the content and equally interesting to see how quickly new content is added especially @$15 a month. I think the quantity and quality of additional content will make or break this game since its definitely going to be a hit at launch.

 

[clonazepam]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]I fall under that blanket, too. Well, I have a lot of years of digital artistry under my belt, and a lot of experience. I can spot an upscaled image from a mile away, but I took 1080p screen caps of this game and they're clearly per-pixel rendered. If they were upscaled, you'd see smudging and unintentional anti-aliasing at resolutions higher than 1024x768, and that is definitely not the case, at least with our test results.I'm curious, clonazepam,... why do you think the game is upscaling from 1024x768? Did you hear it somewhere, or is your output smudgy?[/citation]

All of my screenshots were 1024x768. All of my captured videos were 1024x768 format divided by half as per the settings in msi afterburner. All while playing at a set resolution of 1920x1080. MSI Afterburner's On Screen Display text was huge, like if I were playing a game at 1024x768 resolution. The OSD text size scales up or down depending on the game's resolution. If it were really 1920x1080, the text in the OSD would have been a lot smaller, as is the norm with every other title I've come across. The OSD text size issue could have been a matter of viewport vs frame buffer settings for the on-screen display coordinate space... but that alone can't explain away why the screenshots and video taken with afterburner reflect a resolution of 1024x768. I suppose the whole thing might just somehow be related to MSI Afterburner, and is a problem with that software, so if that's the case, I won't be completely embarrassed... not like it hasn't happened before haha

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]clonazepam[/nom]All of my screenshots were 1024x768. All of my captured videos were 1024x768 format divided by half as per the settings in msi afterburner. All while playing at a set resolution of 1920x1080. [/citation]

It certainly sounds like you know what you're talking about, but it's the opposite of what i saw with the FRAPS hud, which *did* shrink with higher resolutions.

It's hard to say what might have caused that on your system, I don't know if I'd automatically assume it was afterburner, but something was definitely wonky there. But if the game was upscaling 1024x768 for everyone, there'd be a colossal uproar about it - so not having heard that uproar (after doing some looking for it on google), and having seen my own and others screenshots at 1080p, It's probably safe to say the problem is on your PC's end...

...no need to be embarrassed though, sounds like your system is messing with you.

 

[clonazepam]

my username on youtube is "TheClonazepam" and I threw up two gameplay videos. You can clearly see unedited that they are in 4:3 format, despite me playing at 1080p. I think, while my conclusions may be completely wrong, they at least follow a logical path based on the results I got.

 

[anti-painkilla]

No Ads here on Chrome.

Anyway, loved the game. Played on a med spec build. Most of the time getting 30-45fps. Setup some awesome screenshots, using my sith powers. Took like an hour to do them all, didnt check them til Beta testing was over and cried. They were all blank, whether this was intentional by bioware or not, it sucked.

However, dont play it. MMO's take way to much time. Didnt play further than lvl 13, but a lot less grindy than WoW or Aoin at the lower levels.

And the lightsabers never get old.

 

[clonazepam]

They were all blank, whether this was intentional by bioware or not, it sucked.

Did you use MSI Afterburner, Fraps, or some other? I wanted to do a bunch of game-play videos and screen-shots. Only two videos were salvageable, and all the shots and videos somehow wound up in 4:3 format, and I didn't want to go back and edit all the shots and stretch them back out to 16:9 format. I'd already wasted my time apparently, and didn't want to waste more fixing everything. Then the beta was over and I couldn't redo anything... ::small fiddle plays::

Anyway, I'd really like to hear what you used for capture, that ended up with blank results. I guess afterburner had some issues with sw:tor. In hindsight, I should have actually taken the time to look at them as I recorded, but oh well... Retail will be here soon so I can finally troubleshoot my issues. Left to guessing "why this" or "why that" sucks.

 

[Cazalan]

I wonder how many Free-to-play MMO games the market can support. Surely some of them will die off cause no one has a vested interest. At some point they're going to need more in game advertising. That's the only way Facebook games stay alive.