Star Wars: The Old Republic: PC Performance, Benchmarked

[Guest]

Did the BETA also and the game is very promising.
Regarding the article here when the author briefly mentioned about SWG (Star War Galaxies) not working out it was not entirely true in the beginning it only happened due to one reason after 3 or so years of successful hosting an awesome game they (Sony) decided to change to a more WOW style causing the game to become more simplistic (Sony said they did that to attract more players), another major issue was that they did not listened in the forums the huge amount of players negative feedback and they just stuck to what they thought it was the best approach without paying attention to what really matters (the players feedback) and they started loosing subscribers . One kick example is that in the original SWG becoming a Jedi is not something that you start with, you would have to do several specific quests and go through the trials (like in the real SW) after the NGE you would start as a Jedi (padawan) there was no more Jedi Knight and Jedi Master levels. If Bioware ensure a good quality game and listen to its players I believe it will be successful for the long run.

 

[betasprite]

[citation][nom]Yargnit[/nom]See that's the thing. I (and many other people) see it the opposite way. I won't play a FTP MMO as my main game. I just could never get into at as seriously as a PTP MMO. That's why we need both types available. Just on the fact that Guild Wars (2) is FTP I'll never try it.I'm not going 2 bash people that like it, whatever works for you. But I am getting tired of everyone trying to push all new MMO's to be FTP. PTP has a dedicated community of it's own just as FTP does.[/citation]
Technically, GW2 is B2P, not F2P. There's just no monthly fee.

I'd like to see a review of GW2 when it comes out, also, but mostly just to have more sampling data on the performance of the cards. Supposedly, GW2 is using fewer polygons and better textures to make it more viable for low-end cards, and I'd like to see if that works.

GW2 might not even be released in 2012, though, so that review could be a long ways off...

 

[wolf421]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]I discussed the CrossFire problem with AMD. Are you saying you tested CrossFire and non-CrossFire frame rates and your CrossFire frame rates were higher? Because that's not what I'm seeing.[/citation]

No that's not what I'm saying. I'm pointing out that in the article Tom's hardware stated that crossfire wasn't supported.

From page 3 1st paragraph: ( Star Wars: The Old Republic does not work with CrossFire using the latest AMD Catalyst drivers, so we were unable to test a dual Radeon HD 6850-based platform.)

I was a tester during the finial weekend and my crossfire gaming rig ran SWTOR on max settings all weekend long without a problem. So I don't know what build they where using or when they tested the game, but it sure wasn't the one from the last beta test that for sure.

Now an earlier client might have had problems but the last one ran smooth for me no problem.

 

[anti-painkilla]

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.

Haha nothing of the sort. Just pressed print screen, as i used to in WoW. I spent an hour taking screenshots, timing it all to get the best views on spell effects, just having none of the screenshots 'sucked', they game itself was all good. Would have installed fraps, but could get frame rate in game so didn't bother.

My assassin looked so kewl with the yellow twin blade lightsaber. Also im not buying the game and wanted to make some wallpapers for ma comp. Cant play mmo's, have to get out this summer.

 

[Guest]

I just wanted to add a comment about Crossfire not working. It may not work on the newer cards with the newer drivers but... I have the HD 5770 running in Xfire mode and the game had no issues with it what so ever. With that said, I am not running the newest drivers because a few MMOs that I play (and some of the single player games) crash out with ATI's newest drivers.

 

[pathosbedlam]

Yup No-Script FTW not to mention eset anti-virus so no nasty stuff gets through. It even picked up when our homepage for one of my groups was hacked and was trying to redirect me to another I.P address. ESET is Total Win-Sauce. I use Security Suite 4 because it does it all.

As for SWTOR, Pay to Play is better. less griefers and a better community. I've played a lot of Free to Play games, and it's usually too annoying because of scammers and gold spammers. I use to play PTP City of Heroes, and it was a great community, but it's so dead now with FTP in place, and unless I pay more money I can't use my gear I already had installed. That pissed me off a lot, so they can stick COH where the sun don't shine. Bring on the epic battles of star Wars The Old Republic. I love the PVP in it, and each story is so good. I can't wait to get back in.

Pathos.

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]Yargnit[/nom]See that's the thing. I (and many other people) see it the opposite way. I won't play a FTP MMO as my main game. I just could never get into at as seriously as a PTP MMO. That's why we need both types available. Just on the fact that Guild Wars (2) is FTP I'll never try it.I'm not going 2 bash people that like it, whatever works for you. But I am getting tired of everyone trying to push all new MMO's to be FTP. PTP has a dedicated community of it's own just as FTP does.[/citation]
In all likelihood and with a little luck GW2 is going to smash on the PTP market plus at the same time making the PTP market go they way of the dinosaur and I say good riddance.

 

[Marcus52]

I always think it's odd when people talk in terms of challenging World of Warcraft, or being a "WoW killer".

There is no other form on entertainment in which people think that way other than MMOGs. It's really pretty silly to me. I mean, no one writes or publishes a book with the idea in mind that it will "challenge" all the previously written books. No one makes a movie that is supposed to be better than all other movies, and will replace them all. You don't even hear one FPS shooter claim itself to be the "killer of all previous FPS shooters". No one ever talked about a "Doom killer".

Why should we have some MMOG set up as an icon just because it has a huge player base and talk about every other MMOG release afterwards as though it won't be successful unless it gets more players?

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]itguy_nyc[/nom]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?[/citation]
By Nvidias Flagship GPU you mean GTX 590 ?

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]Marcus52[/nom]I always think it's odd when people talk in terms of challenging World of Warcraft, or being a "WoW killer".There is no other form on entertainment in which people think that way other than MMOGs. It's really pretty silly to me. I mean, no one writes or publishes a book with the idea in mind that it will "challenge" all the previously written books. No one makes a movie that is supposed to be better than all other movies, and will replace them all. You don't even hear one FPS shooter claim itself to be the "killer of all previous FPS shooters". No one ever talked about a "Doom killer".Why should we have some MMOG set up as an icon just because it has a huge player base and talk about every other MMOG release afterwards as though it won't be successful unless it gets more players?[/citation]
MMOs are much more complex than an old school FPS game and WoW did nothing original but it did allot of things right and is still the most polished and stream lined MMO to date its just to bad the community has gone stale and it is all about numbers and stats instead of having fun.SWTOR looks good real good but it will be hurt big time because it is PTP subscription so I might just try it out for a month like most people and leave it for other games and FTP MMOs after the first free month is up.

 

[rrr1431]

Hey Tom's! How about doing this for Batman AC.

 

[pathosbedlam]

[citation][nom]Headspin_69[/nom]MMOs are much more complex than an old school FPS game and WoW did nothing original but it did allot of things right and is still the most polished and stream lined MMO to date its just to bad the community has gone stale and it is all about numbers and stats instead of having fun.SWTOR looks good real good but it will be hurt big time because it is PTP subscription so I might just try it out for a month like most people and leave it for other games and FTP MMOs after the first free month is up.[/citation]

WOW was about as polished as a rusty nail when I played it, and the fact that they keep increasing the level cap really drove me away. The last thing I want from game developers, is thinking that they can increase the level cap and throw in a few new areas and call that an update they want you to fork out more money to do. ah heck that. Also, who ever read the story in WOW? Seriously, it was probably about a hundred people out of 15million who read everything, and they probably had OCD. I'd much rather watch an animated cut-scene that makes me a big part of the story, so I am immersed enough in the story, that I don't even notice the run to max level. I had more fun in SWTOR in one weekend, than I did in WOW getting 2 characters to lvl 25. There was nothing to make me keep going in WOW, it just got boring, and you can only re-roll so many times with the same missions each time. Every class story in SWTOR is different, and I know I will be eventually doing them all, just to see the story. It's like paying $15a month for a never-ending movie starring me. You feel like your making the story as you go, not just being told what it is. That's a big difference. That's what an MMO should be, and I hope your time in game after launch shows you how good it is to be part of your story, and not being forced to read text, just to see whats supposed to be happening.

Pathos.

 

[Guest]

Guild wars along with Guild Wars 2 ARE NOT FREE TO PLAY. You buy the game first for 50 probably 60$ and you buy expansions which cost around the same price. I think you just mean it doesn't have a monthly subscription fee. Besides buying the game, you don't need to spend any more money on a premium account like "F2P" games and the only thing they sell in the store are character slots and costumes which gives players no advantages compared to those who don't buy it. I would say it's more of a buy to play game which is pretty rare.

 

[larkspur]

[citation][nom]wolf421[/nom]No that's not what I'm saying. I'm pointing out that in the article Tom's hardware stated that crossfire wasn't supported. From page 3 1st paragraph: ( Star Wars: The Old Republic does not work with CrossFire using the latest AMD Catalyst drivers, so we were unable to test a dual Radeon HD 6850-based platform.) I was a tester during the finial weekend and my crossfire gaming rig ran SWTOR on max settings all weekend long without a problem. So I don't know what build they where using or when they tested the game, but it sure wasn't the one from the last beta test that for sure.Now an earlier client might have had problems but the last one ran smooth for me no problem.[/citation]

Unless you measured your frame rates with Xfire on and with Xfire off and then made a comparison, you wouldn't know for sure whether your rig was using both cards or simply defaulting to one card per the drivers. I'm not saying your rig wasn't using both like you say, but smooth real-world gameplay doesn't necessarily require Xfire for high settings. So without some sort of numbers its just speculation.

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]trollpatrol93[/nom]Guild wars along with Guild Wars 2 ARE NOT FREE TO PLAY. You buy the game first for 50 probably 60$ and you buy expansions which cost around the same price. I think you just mean it doesn't have a monthly subscription fee. Besides buying the game, you don't need to spend any more money on a premium account like "F2P" games and the only thing they sell in the store are character slots and costumes which gives players no advantages compared to those who don't buy it. I would say it's more of a buy to play game which is pretty rare.[/citation]
What are you talking about GW2 is free to play no monthly subscription and all blockbuster games cost money anyway online or off so whats your point. We all know and expect that a brad new high quality game cost money to buy however a subscription is another story .

 

[Guest]

My wife's system is an old Athlon II dual core and an 8800 GT 512. I turned off shadows and that helped my frame rates a lot. I'm really curious tho, since they don't have a Mac client and the answer so far has been "Use Boot Camp", any chance of you guys testing Boot Camp w/a few Mac systems? I have one of the 2011 Mini's w/the upgraded video card and I'm curious if dual booting will make it worth my while or just wait till I get a new laptop in the spring.

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]SSquirrel[/nom]My wife's system is an old Athlon II dual core and an 8800 GT 512. I turned off shadows and that helped my frame rates a lot. I'm really curious tho, since they don't have a Mac client and the answer so far has been "Use Boot Camp", any chance of you guys testing Boot Camp w/a few Mac systems? I have one of the 2011 Mini's w/the upgraded video card and I'm curious if dual booting will make it worth my while or just wait till I get a new laptop in the spring.[/citation]
Buy a PC gaming rig if you want to game and just throw to MAC in the trash problem fixed because the PC gaming rig will do anything a MAC can do only faster and better.

 

[wolf421]

[citation][nom]larkspur[/nom]Unless you measured your frame rates with Xfire on and with Xfire off and then made a comparison, you wouldn't know for sure whether your rig was using both cards or simply defaulting to one card per the drivers. I'm not saying your rig wasn't using both like you say, but smooth real-world gameplay doesn't necessarily require Xfire for high settings. So without some sort of numbers its just speculation.[/citation]



Who said anything about frame rates? Really the only thing I was pointing out in my original post was the fact that the information about crossfire NOT being supported was wrong, that's it nothing more or less.

Btw: My fps stayed at a nice 60fps most of the time. It might have dropped maybe 5 - 10 fps but that was only in real intense fighting area's.. I had the fps meter up the whole beta test.

 

[larkspur]

[citation][nom]wolf421[/nom]Who said anything about frame rates? Really the only thing I was pointing out in my original post was the fact that the information about crossfire NOT being supported was wrong, that's it nothing more or less.Btw: My fps stayed at a nice 60fps most of the time. It might have dropped maybe 5 - 10 fps but that was only in real intense fighting area's.. I had the fps meter up the whole beta test.[/citation]

Look, I haven't talked to AMD like the writer of this article, nor have I spent any time whatsoever trying to determine if Xfire is FUNCTIONING with SW:TOR. My point is that having your Xfire rig play the game does not mean that Xfire is working with the game. Just because an Xfire rig plays a game doesn't mean the game is using the 2nd, 3rd or 4th card. Unless you point me in the direction of substantial proof that Xfire is in fact FUNCTIONING with SW:TOR, then I can only assume that your rig was playing the game utilizing only one card. It doesn't matter that you had Xfire enabled in CCC, if the drivers don't support Xfire in a particular game they will render the game in single-card mode.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]wolf421[/nom]Who said anything about frame rates? Really the only thing I was pointing out in my original post was the fact that the information about crossfire NOT being supported was wrong, that's it nothing more or less.[/citation]

I see... you're just arguing semantics, then.

I don't think it's wrong to say it's not supported. Support implies that it works, and CrossFire does not work. If it worked, it would show a performance increase over a single card. I never said CrossFire causes crashing, I said it was unsupported. You might have two cards in your rig, but if your framerates are the same as a single card CrossFire isn't working.

I suppose you could also say that a pickup truck has 12 cylinders if it runs off a 6 cylinder engine and carries a broken 6 cylinder engine sitting in the cargo bed.

But I wouldn't personally call it a V12 unless it was able to run using all 12 cylinders.

 

[hardstylerz]

Perhaps you all need an education on what's science fiction and what's fantasy...Hear this simplified explanation.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/technobabble

 

[King_Philippe]

I'm trying to understand how the 6970 trumps the 570, anyone care to explain why?

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]King_Philippe[/nom]I'm trying to understand how the 6970 trumps the 570, anyone care to explain why?[/citation]

Because the frame rates are faster in this game?

the 6970 has always been a close competitor to the 570. They trade blows depending on the game engine.

 

[King_Philippe]

Yes I understand that, but I also thought that the 6850>GTX 460, but somehow the 460 edges out the 6850 ever so slightly.

 

[Headspin_69]

[citation][nom]King_Philippe[/nom]Yes I understand that, but I also thought that the 6850>GTX 460, but somehow the 460 edges out the 6850 ever so slightly.[/citation]
Depends on the cards and depends on the games 6850 is better card then a GTX 460 all thing considered and the Radeon HD 5870 is as fast as a GTX 570.