Help w/ system reqs to run SWTOR

[XxUnforgivenxX]

Suppose my future rig contains:

500W Power
i5 or i7 3.0+ cpu
2 gts450
4 gb RAM pc3-10600

Based, off what's been leaked and released, do you think that would be MORE THAN enough to run SWTOR? or just about right?

It would seem pointless to speculate now but I just need a general sense of how much I need to save. I've been away from PC gaming since MxO so my grasp on what graphix quality/performance/cost should be are off.

FYI: I played MxO with a geforce 5700, 1gb ram, and p4 1.7ghz. the frame rate was meh, but I'd like to have a nice experience with swtor and see it running smoothly.

[ArchNemesis]

I'm thinking all that is more than fine

I'd get an ATI Gpu, but that's personal preference. I feel ATI is better bang for buck, where as Nvidia tends to be more expensive without enough performance to justify it.

[Fuse]

That is definitely enough... and the PSU is pretty much irrelevant to gaming unless you run a ton of hardware in it.

[Ash]

That is definitely enough... and the PSU is pretty much irrelevant to gaming unless you run a ton of hardware in it.

Or unless you're Broin.

[Fuse]

I'll rephrase...
A 500W will handle the i5 and 2 gts450's with no issues. If you plan on having a handful of HDs and a couple DVD/BRs in there, I might bump that up a bit.

If you are Broin, then no - that will not work. The laws of physics will not let Broin be close to anything less than the best. Sparks fly, fires erupt...It's not pretty. Remember the huge blackout in Ohio a few years ago? Broin was flying in his private jet and tried to get on the internet over Cleveland.

[Tecknik]

Instead of doing two 450s in SLI, you could go with a more powerful single card like the GTX 470 for around the same price.  You'd need at least a 550w for a GTX 470, though.

I doubt you'll have any issues with an i5 or i7 at 3+GHz.

[Fuse]

Unless they changed something, the gtx460 has better benchmarks than the gtx470, BTW. It's also a bit cheaper. It's what I run, and is really impressive.

EDIT: Nevermind on the performance stuff. It's been a while sinse I looked up benchmarks, but most 470s will indeed beat out the 460's. 460's overcloock better and are much better performance for cost. Even with that said, the 460 is a great buy. Performance = 470. Cost = 460.

[Tecknik]

Unless they changed something, the gtx460 has better benchmarks than the gtx470, BTW. It's also a bit cheaper. It's what I run, and is really impressive.

EDIT: Nevermind on the performance stuff. It's been a while sinse I looked up benchmarks, but most 470s will indeed beat out the 460's. 460's overcloock better and are much better performance for cost. Even with that said, the 460 is a great buy. Performance = 470. Cost = 460.

I was going to recommend the GTX 460 (I run two in SLI), but the GTS 450 in SLI beat out a single GTX 460 in all the charts I could find.
 
Still, with that being said, a single GTX 460 would be a very nice option for now.  You can always pick up a second one for SLI later on down the road when they're cheaper.

If you're going to go the GTX 460 route, make sure you get the 1GB model.  Don't bother with the 768MB model.

[Lithium]

Intel is really pricy. If your looking budget AMD has much better deals. 6 core processor, nice motherboard, and 8gb of ram can be less than $500. Keep in mind with Intel you want triple channel ram i.e. 3 sticks to get the speed advantage.

I have a GTX465 and its a good card, but I'm underwhelmed as it is the bottleneck, not the cpu on the very high end games. I might be willing to sell it if anyone is interested.

[Avzeke (Khr0n1k)]

I have a 460 as well and I am sure it will be more than enough to run SWTOR. I have that paired with a i3 2.9Ghz and it runs everything great. Not a very scientific benchmark but I haven't had any problems running almost anything on high with good frame rates.

[Apollithenes]

Tried to find a thread similar to this the other day. Thanks for whipping one up Unforgiven. I'm creating a wishlist at the moment too, and pricing it all out. Concerned it will be out of my price range, but I'll sort it out.

Anybody got an older rig they want to sell? I never played MxO on a machine that could handle it. Why start now?

[XxUnforgivenxX]

@Lith WHAT?!? I feel soo n00b for not knowing about Tri Chan RAM. I was blown away when I found out GPU's were going multi-core.  So should I be finding motherboards with 3,6 RAM slots?

@Apolithenes I was running Mxo @ 13 fps on avg. 18fps when standing around. hyperjumping just wasnt the same as  it looked on youtube. If SWTOR ends up being a DirectX 10 game, then equipment costs should be a couple hundred dollars lower. Hopefully by the time goes live, price points will have dropped 10-20% for min req equip as well.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! With all that's been said, I'll likely get a GTX460 or a radeon 6800 series card to start with and add SLI/Crossfire later. I'll probably stick with intel in the event I ever want to try converting it into a Hackintosh.

[Lithium]

I don't build Intel rigs so I don't know the chipsets or core codes. But the advantage of iCores or whatever they are is that the triple channel memory improves performance. (ala. video encoding and hardcore cpu/memory stuff, typically not gaming) So yes, Intel motherboards should have 6 memory slots and you need 3 sticks for triple channel performance. That's why for me I could never justify Intel because everything is a lot more expensive and the graphics card typically bottlenecks first anyway.

Like I said I have a GTX465 that I don't think I want, not that it's a bad card, it's better than the 460, I think I am going to crossfire something or get something with a little bit more DX11 power for some of the higher end games. I'd probably sell the 465 for the price of a 460 so just PM me if you want to work something out.

[XxUnforgivenxX]

Thanks lith. I'll think about it. Now I'm pondering the necessity of a GPU because of sandy bridge. I have a ton of catching up to do.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Sandy-Bridge-Quick-Sync-Technology-Better-Than-Nvidia-at-Video-Transcoding-178130.shtml

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row/7

"Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics is good. It's fast enough to put all previous attempts at integrated graphics to shame and compete with entry level discrete GPUs. The fact that you can get Radeon HD 5450 performance for free with a Core i5 2400 is just awesome. As I mentioned before, you won't want to throw away your GTX 460, but if you were planning on spending $50 on a GPU - you may not need to with Sandy Bridge."

[Saint]

Or... from the screenshots on razer.com it looks like the switchblade is going to run SWTOR, you could just buy one of these.. hehe although you would either need to use the hdmi output or get used to the 7" screen
http://www2.razerzone.com/switchblade/gaming