[Rage]

So Star Wars The Old Republic runs like shit on my 5-year-old laptop. Half the time it chugs along at a snail's pace, the other half it's manageable, but still laggy. Frame rate at its worst can be a frame every few seconds, and commands (like simply walking) take seconds to register, if not longer. Yes, I've turned down everything there is to turn down graphically, it still runs like shit. Internet connection isn't the problem either-- I get a much different experience when that occurs (frame rate is decent, but none of the stuff server-side reacts to what I'm doing, ie mobs and stuff).

For a while I've known that my computer can run up to 4GB of RAM as opposed to its current 1GB. I figured this should be the final straw so I used crucial.com to recommend a compatible upgrade. I went with 2GB for now, effectively doubling my RAM, but now that I've ordered it I see that SWTOR only needs 1.5GB of RAM to run on Windows XP.

I kind of need this upgrade either way, but is it possible that 500MB was making all the difference? I hope so, because I'd really like this game to be playable without having to buy a new computer.

Bonus question: My fans need replacing at some point too. Is upgrading the RAM going to put more strain on them? No, I do not know much about computers, so sorry if that's a dumb question.

[TmEE]

Problem probably comes from the video card, I kind of doubt adding more RAM will make things better. Lack of RAM would only cause periodic issues when there's more stuff needing to be loaded in

[Rage]

TmEE, on 21 December 2011 - 10:57 AM, said:

Problem probably comes from the video card, I kind of doubt adding more RAM will make things better. Lack of RAM would only cause periodic issues when there's more stuff needing to be loaded in

Well at the very least it will make my computer able to handle multiple programs open at once, right? I like to play WoW in windowed mode and it's really not feasible on my laptop.

Here's the system requirements: http://www.swtor.com/info/faq#171060

Here's the laptop I use: http://www.notebookr...asp?newsID=2887

What am I missing? This is all Japanese to me.

EDIT: I see that that page that describes my laptop says it has 2GB of RAM, but my laptop is telling me I have 1. I think I might have went the cheaper route when I bought it? Not sure.

SON OF EDIT: For another potentially dumb question, I'd like to ask if I can combine the 2GB with the 1GB I already have. I know my laptop can fit two of the things, not sure if they need to match or not.

This post has been edited by Rage: 21 December 2011 - 11:31 AM

[Skaarg]

RAM might help a bit, but honestly it's probably mostly your video card. A mobile video card just isn't as powerful as a desktop card and a desktop Geforce 7900 just barely meets the requirement for the lowest settings.

[GerbilSoft]

Rage, on 21 December 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

SON OF EDIT: For another potentially dumb question, I'd like to ask if I can combine the 2GB with the 1GB I already have. I know my laptop can fit two of the things, not sure if they need to match or not.

You should be able to mix and match a 2GB module with a 1GB module. Note that if your laptop supports dual-channel, doing this will disable the dual-channel functionality, which may result in a slight performance reduction, but the extra memory usually offsets that. (Of course, if you only have one memory module right now, you're not using dual-channel in the first place.)

Note that even with 3 GB of RAM, a single process on 32-bit Windows can only allocate up to 2 GB RAM. (There's a boot option "/3GB" that allows up to 3 GB, but this may not work well with all drivers and the software needs to be written correctly and have the 'Large Address Aware' flag set in order to make use of it.)

This post has been edited by GerbilSoft: 21 December 2011 - 10:30 PM

[Rage]

GerbilSoft, on 21 December 2011 - 10:29 PM, said:

Rage, on 21 December 2011 - 11:01 AM, said:

SON OF EDIT: For another potentially dumb question, I'd like to ask if I can combine the 2GB with the 1GB I already have. I know my laptop can fit two of the things, not sure if they need to match or not.

You should be able to mix and match a 2GB module with a 1GB module. Note that if your laptop supports dual-channel, doing this will disable the dual-channel functionality, which may result in a slight performance reduction, but the extra memory usually offsets that. (Of course, if you only have one memory module right now, you're not using dual-channel in the first place.)

Note that even with 3 GB of RAM, a single process on 32-bit Windows can only allocate up to 2 GB RAM. (There's a boot option "/3GB" that allows up to 3 GB, but this may not work well with all drivers and the software needs to be written correctly and have the 'Large Address Aware' flag set in order to make use of it.)

Just opened it up and I'm using what appears to be two modules of 512MB (one is labeled as such, the other doesn't say the size). So I'm thinking of just replacing one of them with a 2GB one. Still a good idea?

[dsrb]

If your board supports dual-channel*, maybe it's best to go for two sticks of 1 GB?

* I thought most did? Then again, I haven't kept tabs on hardware for years

[Rage]

dsrb, on 22 December 2011 - 08:22 AM, said:

If your board supports dual-channel*, maybe it's best to go for two sticks of 1 GB?

* I thought most did? Then again, I haven't kept tabs on hardware for years

Well I already ordered the damn thing. Am I going to have to return it in exchange for two 1GB sticks?

[dsrb]

Ah, poo. I dunno; I meant that as an open question to be answered by more knowledgeable people. As well as seeing what they say, maybe check whether your mobo supports DC, and if so research whether it's worth fussing over?

[Rage]

Well, assuming it doesn't break my computer, and assuming it still ups my RAM, I'm not going to bother with returning it. I think SWTOR is something of a lost cause for me without getting a new computer/video card (ie, spending a large sum of money), but like I said, my RAM has been an issue for a while given my multitasking tendencies. In a perfect world I would seriously have WoW, Firefox and iTunes running all at once.

[GerbilSoft]

Rage, on 22 December 2011 - 12:17 AM, said:

Just opened it up and I'm using what appears to be two modules of 512MB (one is labeled as such, the other doesn't say the size). So I'm thinking of just replacing one of them with a 2GB one. Still a good idea?

Do one better: replace one of the 512 MB modules with the 2 GB. You'll have a total of 2.5 GB.

Dual-channel won't really make that much of a difference, so it's not a problem.

[Rage]

For what it's worth doubling my RAM actually worked.

[Elratauru]

Well, of course it did. Poor windows alone with 1GB, I have trouble trying to run some shit with 2GB alone, I don't even want to imagine how it was with 1GB.

Though, I'll asume that your cpu and gpu bottlenecks that laptop for anything else, aka; adding even more ram would not help if you wanted to do that in the future. But that happens with pretty much every laptop.

This post has been edited by Elratauru: 25 January 2012 - 07:44 AM