What Video Card can I upgrade too to run SWTOR?

[manuvo]

Hello,
Stars Wars: The Old Republic Specifications:

Processor:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or better
Operating System:
Windows XP or later
RAM:

Windows XP: 1.5GB RAM
Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB RAM
Note: PCs using a built-in graphical chipset are recommended to have 2GB of RAM.

Star Wars: The Old Republic requires a video card that has a minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM as well as support for Shader 3.0 or better. Examples include:

ATI X1800 or better
nVidia 7800 or better
Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better
DVD-ROM drive – 8x speed or better (required for installation from physical editions only) Internet connection required to play.


I was very dissapointed that my desktop currently failed the "CanYouRunIt" test for this game.

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/7 [...] ittest.jpg

Thats a picture of my failed test for SW:TOR.

My PC specs are:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 11/20/2011, 19:15:11
Machine name: OWNER-PC2
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_ldr.100218-0019)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq-Presario
System Model: GX618AA-ABA SR5350F
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/01/07 17:10:01 Ver: 5.16
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory: 2038MB RAM
Page File: 1942MB used, 2368MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 6.00.6000.16386 32bit Unicode

Card name: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2772&SUBSYS_2A5910…
Display Memory: 256 MB
Dedicated Memory: 0 MB
Shared Memory: 256 MB
Current Mode: 1440 x 900 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: HP w1907 Wide LCD Monitor
Driver Name: igdumd32.dll
Driver Version: 7.14.0010.1461 (English)
DDI Version: 9Ex
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/25/2008 16:44:28, 3301376 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B78E66-6432-11CF-3976-530AA3C2CA35}
Vendor ID: 0x8086
Device ID: 0x2772
SubSys ID: 0x2A59103C
Revision ID: 0x0002
Revision ID: 0x0002
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C

Now im no techie with hardware, because I was just informed you can just upgrade the CPU which I never knew you could do, I thought I needed a whole brand new computer. Can I get suggestions of CPUs/Processors and Video Cards that will run Star Wars The Old Republic? and fit my computer?

And preferably under 250-300$ to get both

 

[theitaliansico]

in order to upgrade the CPU you may need a new Motherboard because the slots may be different. not all CPU's fit into the sam spot but im no expert on CPU's. Your looking at alot of upgrades here and it all needs to sync perfectly otherwise something will get screwed up. You also forgot to mention what kindev of Power supply you have. I need to know the wattage before i can start makeing reccomendations. Ask the same question in the CPU section where they can further assist you there. keep in mind SWTOR isnt that hard of a game to run but you may be looking into more than a 350$ investment.

 

[manuvo]

Thanks for the reply. Is there any easy way to find out the PSU or do you have to physically open the computer?

 

[inzone]

Intel Pentium E5700 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80571E5700 $66.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116381

EVGA 01G-P3-1370-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $159.99 and a $10 rebate = $149.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130570

This video card requires a 450w power supply.
If you need to get a power supply;

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $65.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035

You also have a 10/100 network adaptor wich can be slow by todays standards so if you want to get a new adaptor;

Intel EXPI9301CTBLK Network Adapter 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express 1 x RJ45
$27.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033

The total for these upgrades comes to $310.96 if you choose to go with these choices , of course you can choose other parts as you like.

 

[nnorton44]

Or get PowerColor AX6870 Radeon HD 6870 1G, $159-$20 rebate=$139.99. Faster then a GTX 460.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131378

EDIT: I would also see about upgrading your RAM to 4GB.

 

[DaveUK]

I hate to say it, but you may need to re-roll your PC.

There is a more sinister potential problem here, in that many of the PSU's used in budget mATX units like this can be as low as 200w. This is because a system with this kind of specification doesn't tend to use much power.

If you were to add ~100w load for even a lower-end graphics card you could massively overshoot, and then you'd still be bottlenecked by the very low CPU frequency.

Full specs here, mentions nothing about CPU:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2008/ces/ds_sr5350f.pdf

It uses this Intel chipset, which even if the proprietary BIOS supports all the listed CPUs still gives you a very limited selection to choose from:

http://ark.intel.com/products/chipsets/28994

-----

In short, recommendations:

New PC time... I can see from your current specs that you're not going to want to spend a fortune so, something like this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1101380&CatId=333

and, then spend as much as you can afford on a graphics card... this as a minimum really:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1412978&CatId=3669

This build will give a huge, huge speed boost over your current system for everything (especally gaming) for under $500 (!)

Note that you may need to purchase an OS if your current machine just came preinstalled with one.

If you can afford more, go for an i5 based build instead of i3 and spend more on the graphics card.

If you aren't comfortable building your own machine or need to purchase an OS separately, then you should probably look at something like this:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dxcwmn1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=xps-8300

Comes in at about $800 when you add in the Radeon 6670 Graphics card upgrade (don't forget that ).

I know it's probably disheartening to hear this, but your machine - on every possible level - is not a gaming machine, and is not really upgradeable to be one. You'd need to change the motherboard, CPU, PSU, Graphics card... may as well just save and start again.

 

[manuvo]

@Inzone will all those modifications work with my current motherboard? Will the processor fit the motherboard and can it handle the video card?

 

[DaveUK]

BTW the Intel E5700 suggested above is not listed by Intel as being compatible with the motherboard chipset shipped with your computer. You will also find on machines like HP/Dell there can be a proprietary BIOS (what your computer does before windows loads) that could further restrict your CPU selection and compatibility.

Be careful about stuff like that!

Honest recommendations from someone who has been building custom PCs for over 15 years. As outlined above... start again, get a decent bundle to keep costs down, choose i3 as a minimum and i5 if you can afford it, minimum 4GB RAM and 450W power supply, and then invest as much as you can in a graphics card. Check out the Tom's latest "best graphics card for the money xxx" and slot your remaining budget into that.

Hope that all helps.

 

[inzone]

In this case the smart thing to do would be to build a new low end Pc that will play the games that you like , the problem with that iws the cost as you initially wanted to upgrade with a $200 to $300 budget and that is not going to be enough for the new build. You could do a $500 to $600 build , so the question is what do you want to do.

 

[inzone]

The cpu I listed is a LGA775 socket cpu which is what you have on your motherboard and it can certianly handle the video cardI listed. You have one full x16 pci-e slot fot the video card and you have one x1 pci-e slot for the network card. Since the post before this one has suggestd that the cpu will not work with the chipset on your motherboard , I suggest that you place a call to the computer manufacture's tech support to verify the upgrades you want to make and that everything will work together. The problem with some of these prebuilt Pc's is that they use bulk purchased components and they are hard to identify , so I would give tech support a call if you want to upgrade. If you want to go all new let us know and we can try to suggest a low bugdget build for you.

 

[maxwellwa]

Yeah, sorry to say, but you are going to need several upgrades to run the game that in total are going to put you pretty much at the same cost as a new low end computer. The plus side is you really don't need an expensive computer, as Bioware has done a great job scaling the game down for low end systems.

Just to throw this out there, if you decide to look for a new computer for SWTOR:
The game isn't overly reliant on video card muscle, but will do a lot of pre-rendering of areas when you load in, which makes a 1 GB video card and 4+ GB of RAM very useful (and arguably more useful than a heavy video card or cpu) for the game running smoothly.

Best of luck, I am in the process of upgrading a couple parts for the launch in four weeks, myself! Yay Black Friday sales!

 

[nnorton44]

I'd imagine the E5700 would work based on the fact that its 65W and uses 800MHz FSB.

 

[theitaliansico]

there are so many parts you would have to replace that it is this point why would you spend 400 and get alright system when youj can just build a new one for 600. you would vritually have to replace almost every major component to get them working with eachother and yes if it means new RAM and proccesor that means new motherboadrd im preety sure.