SWTOR Graphics and Performance Explained

Now updated for 64-bit, this guide is shows exactly what every Graphics Setting in the game does (with screenshot comparisons) and shows how impactful each one is on performance. In addition, it contains tweaks to your system to improve performance, some Windows 10 bug-fixes, and some Quality of Life Improvements you can make to make the experience more enjoyable.

Introduction

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a flawed masterpiece. It’s got amazing story, fun MMO combat, and an awesome community. But like I said, it’s flawed. One of those flaws is the engine the game runs on—the HeroEngine. Not only does it run on said 32-bit 64-bit dumpster fire of an engine, it runs on a modified alpha build of it. The game also uses DirectX 9, an API that came out in 2002. I'd wager that most of the people reading this guide weren't even alive in 2002. Now, I can't wave a magic wand and bring the game up to date with modern standards, but what I can do is help you get the best experience out of BioWare's pathetic engine that your system can possibly manage. And believe me, trying to make this game run well is not an easy thing. It takes hours of anger and frustration, and tons of trial and error to accomplish the feat. Luckily for you I’ve already done all the legwork for you. All you need is some time to spare, and a pair of eyes to read the guide, so let’s get started.

The 64-Bit Update—The Epitome of the Silly Notion of "BioWare Magic"
After extensive benchmarking, my thoughts on the new 64-bit client are pretty negative—it's just as much of a dumpster fire as before, except now it can use more RAM. Other than my computer's specs, nothing really changed between these new 64-bit benchmarks and the old 32-bit ones. The performance impact for most of the settings is virtually identical (in terms of percentage, of course). A 64-bit client is supposed to help BioWare Broadsword make more content and do it faster too. It also opens the door for optimizing the game or doing something more drastic like updating it to DX11 (or even DX12 or Vulkan), but with their ridiculous work ethic, I just don't see that happening.

System Requirements

Before we start, I want you to make sure you meet the system requirements. Don’t bother telling me that you checked already, because the requirements on Steam and elsewhere are complete rubbish. This is an oversight on BioWare's Broadsword's part, because while the system requirements on the page were accurate back in 2011, they are not accurate today. That's because the game has gone through loads of engine improvements, both graphical and performance-related! Those old specs just don’t hold up anymore, but after extensive research, I've come up with some system requirements that are accurate, detailed, and tell you what to expect.

One thing to remember however is that any system requirements I can come up with are only really meaningful for PVE situations like Class Stories, Expansions, Flashpoints, etc. This is because when the game runs 8 to 16 man content like Warzones, World Bosses, and Operations the engine just can’t keep up. You could be running an RTX 4090 and the latest Threadripper CPU but still suffer from FPS drops. That’s just how the engine is and we can’t do anything about it. To my knowledge, only AMD's X3D CPU's can run 8 and 16 man content, because the engine seems to really love the extra L3 cache.

Potato Requirements (720@30+fps on the Low Preset)
OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.7 GHz or AMD FX 8350 @ 4.0 GHz
RAM: 6GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 730 (1GB) or ATI Radeon HD 5570 (1GB)
Storage: 50GB available on an HDD

Minimum Requirements (720p60fps on the Low Preset)
OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.7 GHz or AMD FX 8350 @ 4.0 GHz
RAM: 6GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 (1GB) or ATI Radeon HD 5850 (1GB)
Storage: 50GB available on an HDD

Recommended Requirements (1080p60fps on the High Preset)
OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 @ 3.1 GHz
RAM: 8GB RAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 (2GB) or AMD Radeon R9 380 (3GB)
Storage: 50GB available on an SSD

Maximum Requirements (1080p60fps on the Ultra Preset)
OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X @ 3.6 GHz
RAM: 16GB System RAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (4GB/8GB)
Storage: 50GB available on an SSD

Graphics Options

This is the bulkiest part of the guide, and probably the most useful. I’ve described how impactful each setting is to the image, and provided screenshots (click to enlarge) so you can judge the visual differences for yourself. I’ve also included a table with the framerate for every level of every setting to show the performance cost.

My testing involved cranking everything to the highest possible setting, and then lowering the setting I wanted to test to the lowest. At that point I would measure the framerate and then record it. Then, I would take the setting to the next step to do the same until I reached the highest step for that setting. I’m also obligated to disclose that I took the screenshots in places that best showcased what the graphics setting did. However, I didn't necessarily benchmark in those same spots. I benchmarked the framerate in places that used that particular effect (e.g. shadows) the most. That way, I could really show how impactful it was on performance. Anyway, without further ado, here are the screenshots and numbers!

Test Bench
OS: Windows 10 Version 22H2
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
RAM: 16GB of DDR4-3600 RAM running in dual-channel mode (i.e. 2 8GB sticks)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB)
Storage: Samsung EVO 980 NVMe SSD
Resolution: 1440p (via Nvidia DLDSR)

Texture Quality

Texture Quality is pretty important as far as visuals go. It completely changes the how every single rock, lightsaber, blaster, and spaceship looks. Unless you're on an integrated card, there is no reason to put this on low since it doesn't affect performance.

Low:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Low	108
High	106

Shader Complexity

This option controls the lighting and shading effects on everything. As such, it has the most visual impact by a long shot. It's a good idea to push this option as far as your machine can take it before tinkering with other options. It isn't a free option by any means, with a linear increase in performance cost with each setting, but I'd say that it's worth it. Please note that you lose some other effects automatically when you set it to Low, i.e. Bloom, Enhanced Shadows, and Shadows.

Low:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Low	160
High	104

Bloom

Bloom is a post-processing effect that makes bright objects like blaster bolts, lightsaber beams, and lights "glow." It does this by bleeding their colour into the surroundings. It's a pretty essential effect, and it doesn't have a huge impact on performance so I say go for it!

Off:


On:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	106
On	104

Anti-Aliasing

Anti-Aliasing makes jagged, pixelated edges on objects (called aliasing) smoother. Different people tend to be either more annoyed or less annoyed by aliasing, so this option is actually dependant on your preferences. For example, on higher resolutions like 4K some people turn it off since it doesn't make too much of a difference. If you choose to use Anti-Aliasing however, keep in mind that it does not come free. Not the higher settings at least. In SWTOR, the Medium setting is FXAA; the High setting is 2xMSAA; and the Very High setting is 2xMSAA+FXAA. If you have horsepower to spare, you can get rid of jagged edges using Nvidia DSR or AMD RSR.

Off:


Medium (FXAA):


High (2xMSAA):


Very High (2xMSAA+FXAA):


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	116
Medium	115
High	108
Very High	107

Character Level of Detail

Character LOD controls how detailed character models are. This includes the complexity of their facial expressions, the realism of how light interacts with them, and many other things. It's pretty noticeable in cutscenes, but less so in normal gameplay. Activities like World Bosses, Warzones, and Operations tend to have many players. In such scenarios, this'll affect performance a lot. So if you're trying to squeeze out every last frame for large group content, this is a good option to turn down.

Low:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Low	200
High	185

Texture Anisotropy (Anisotropic Filtering)

Anisotropic FIltering is a technique that combats the blurring of textures when they're viewed at an angle. This option is pretty important because High Quality textures still look pretty bad without AF. This setting doesn't hurt performance at all as long as you're not on an integrated GPU. In SWTOR, Low is 4xAF, Medium is 8xAF, and High is 16xAF. If you turn it on it's not worth putting it on anything other than High.

Off:


Low:


Medium:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	196
Low	195
Medium	195
High	195

Character Texture Atlasing

This setting adjusts the degree of Texture Atlasing. This is a technique where many small textures are atlased together to make one big, detailed texture on the character models in game. It's basically a Texture Quality setting for all character models. It's pretty noticeable so I'd keep it on High if you can help it. Like Character LOD, lowering this can improve performance in situations like World Bosses, Warzones, and Operations.

Low:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Low	210
High	207

Graphics Options (Continued)

Visible Character Limit

This adjusts the amount of NPCs that can be rendered around you at once. It also controls how far away from your character the game will render NPCs before stopping. Player characters have a constant draw distance so that people with better computers don't have an unfair advantage in Ranked PVP. So this option only effects NPCs. I'd suggest keeping it on High for a balance between performance and visuals, since there's not much of a difference between High and Very High.

Low:


Medium:


High:


Very High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Low	85
Medium	84
High	82
Very High	81

Shadow Quality

Shadow Quality controls the type of shadows rendered by the game. Off has no shadows, the Low setting has blob shadows under players and NPCs, and the High setting has full, detailed environmental shadows. This is a very impactful graphical effect. Shadows are the most demanding thing to render in the game. Unless you meet the Recommended Requirements I'd recommend turning this setting to either Low or Off. Otherwise, the performance impact varies from planet to planet. Grassy planets like Alderaan need much more juice than Coruscant or Korriban. Shadows are also effected by two more options, both of which come next.

Off:


Low:


High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	119
Low	116
High*	80

*Please note that Shadow Map Resolution and Shadow Map Cascades were on their maximum setting when measuring High quality shadows. The performance cost of these shadows may be reduced if those settings are turned down.

Shadow Map Cascades

Shadow Map Cascades controls the draw distance of higher-resolution shadows. Higher settings allow for detailed shadow rendering for a longer distance. After the distance drop-off point shadows render at half-resolution. After one more drop-off point, shadows stop rendering. This setting is quite brutal, so it's best to find a balance between this and Shadow Map Resolution.

Medium:


High:


Very High:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Medium	110
High	99
Very High	96

Please note that Shadow Map Resolution was set to the maximum (2048) for this benchmark.

Shadow Map Resolution

This power-hungry option adjusts the resolution of shadows in increments of 256. It's best to find a balance between this and Shadow Map Cascades.

1024:


1280:


1536:


1792:


2048:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
1024	100
1280	98
1536	91
1792	89
2048	82

Please note that Shadow Map Cascades were set to the maximum for this benchmark.

Enhanced Shadows (Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion)

SSAO approximates Ambient Occlusion in real-time as an image post-processing effect. It darkens creases, holes, and surfaces that are close to each other. In real life, such areas tend to block out or occlude ambient light, appearing darker. Contrary to its in-game name, it doesn't have anything to do with environment shadows. SSAO is one of the nicest effects in the game, making a subtle but huge change that makes everything more realistic. It doesn't come very cheap, but it's worth it if your computer can take it.

Off:


On:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	126
On	121

Graphics Options (Continued)

Conversation Depth of Field

This setting mimics the eye effect of blurring objects that aren't in focus, but only during cutscenes. It looks pretty good and gives story cutscenes a more stylized, cinematic feel. Since it only applies to cutscenes, I'd disregard the performance cost and leave it on. Unless you're on a potato, that is.

Off:


On:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Off	129
On	126

Tree Quality

This slider changes the visual quality of trees and the distance at which you can see them before they're swapped to lower-quality models. In my testing, it seems to have almost no effect on framerate.

0:


25:


50:


75:


100:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
0	102
25	102
50	101
75	101
100	101

Grass Quality:

This slider adjusts the density of grass by increasing the number of grass objects rendered per unit area. Looks best maxed out and has very little impact on performance beyond the difference between 0 and something above 0. That said, setting it to 0 gives a drastic performance boost so it's something to consider on low-end hardware.

0:


25:


50:


75:


100:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
0	139
25	98
50	97
75	97
100	96

Please note that Grass Render Distance was set to Ultra for this benchmark.

Grass Render Distance

This setting adjusts the distance around the player in which the game will render grass. Its effects are more noticeable on grassy planets like Alderaan and Belsavis. There's a very steady and linear decline in framerate as you turn the setting up. That makes it a good option to turn down if you're experiencing choppy gameplay on planets like Alderaan, Voss, or Belsavis. However, I found that it's a bad idea to put it below High. This is because the performance difference between High and Medium is almost non-existent, but the visual difference is noticeable.

Medium:


High:


Very High:


Ultra:


FPS Table:

Setting	Average FPS
Medium	131
High	130
Very High	120
Ultra	99

Windows Tweaks

Tweak 1: Run as Administrator and Disable Fullscreen Optimizations.
Step 1: Go to the game’s files by right-clicking it in your Steam Library, clicking Manage, and then Browse local files.
Step 2: Right-click the file called launcher.exe (or just “launcher” since file extensions may not be visible based on your system settings) and click properties.
Step 3: Go to the compatibility tab and check the boxes that say "Disable fullscreen optimizations"
and "Run this program as an administrator." After that click OK.
Step 4: In the game folder, go into the folder called swtor, then the one called retailclient.
Step 5: Right-click the file called swtor.exe and click properties.
Step 6: Go to the compatibility tab and check the boxes that say "Disable fullscreen optimizations"
and "Run this program as an administrator." After that click OK.

Running the game as administrator guarantees that the game has full access to anything it needs on the computer. In fact, some games like SWTOR often won't run at all on non-administrator accounts. I recommend disabling "Fullscreen Optimizations" since what Microsoft is referring to forces games to run in a borderless window. A borderless window is not a true fullscreen experience. While it looks the same as true fullscreen, it causes a performance reduction.

Tweak 2: Turn off Game Mode
Step 1: Open Start Menu and search “Settings.”
Step 2: Open Settings.
Step 3: In the search bar at the top, search for “Game Mode” and click the result called “Game Mode settings.”
Step 4: Make sure Game Mode is turned off.
Step 5 (OPTIONAL): Turn off Xbox Game Bar stuff while you’re at it.

Why do this? Because Game Mode has been a controversial feature ever since it was introduced. Most of the time it won't make any difference at all, sometimes it'll give you a 0.5fps improvement that can just be chalked up to a 1% deviation and no real-world performance boost, and the rest of the time it'll likely tank your framerate a bit.

Tweak 3: Mess around with Hardware Accelerated GPU-Scheduling
Step 1: Open Start Menu and search “Settings.”
Step 2: Open Settings.
Step 3: In the search bar at the top, search for “Graphics settings” and click the result called “Graphics settings.”
Step 4: Toggle the "Hardware Accellerated GPU-Scheduling" setting.
Step 5: Don’t leave the menu if you want to do Tweak 4. Otherwise, restart your computer and see if the game runs better if it's on. If it doesn't, feel free to turn it back off, then restart your computer again. Your mileage will vary with this setting, though as a rule of thumb, it should benefit you if you have a modern CPU and GPU. On my old computer, it introduced a micro-stuttering issue that was never there before for me and in Dark Souls III and Sekiro it introduced periodic freezing. On the other hand, it's caused no issues whatsoever on my current computer.

Tweak 4: Make sure the game is using your dedicated GPU (NVIDIA OPTIMUS SYSTEMS ONLY)
Step 1: Follow Steps 1-3 from Tweak 3.
Step 2: Click Browse under “Graphics performance preference” and go to the game folder.
Step 3: Go to the swtor folder, and then the retailclient folder, then select swtor.exe.
Step 4: Check the “High Performance” option.

Why do this? Because if your laptop's integrated graphics card isn't made for games. It can't handle them. Period. Use the discrete Nvidia GPU that it has instead.

Tweak 5: Make sure not to use the Balanced or Power Saver power plan
Step 1: Open Start Menu and search “Power Plan” and click the result that says “Choose power plan.”
Step 2: You’ll be presented with a bunch of options (generally 3-4). Pick High Performance. You can use Ultimate Performance if you like, but I don't think it does much.

This tweak is another major case of "your mileage may vary." For people with lower end hardware and laptops, using Ultimate Performance or even High Performance can make a huge difference. Meanwhile, for higher end hardware it isn't likely to do a lot—if anything at all.

Tweak 6: Make sure to use the Ryzen Balanced or Ryzen High Performance power plan (AMD RYZEN SYSTEMS ONLY)
Step 1: Go to the AMD Drivers and Support[www.amd.com] page.
Step 2: Click "Chipsets," then pick the chipset according to your motherboard model before clicking submit. If you don't know your motherboard model, go to System Information from Start Menu to find out. The item will be called "System Model."
Step 3: Click either the "Windows 11 - 64-Bit Edition" or "Windows 10 - 64-Bit Edition" tab according to what OS you're running, then click the download button next to "AMD Chipset Drivers."
Step 4: Run the Installer and wait for it to finish checking driver compatibility.
Step 5: In the next screen, make sure "AMD Ryzen Power Plan" is checked, then click install. I'd recommend installing all of the stuff here but it's perfectly fine to pick and choose.
Step 6: Once the installation is done, restart your computer.
Step 7: Open Start Menu and search "Power Plan" and click the results that say "Choose power plan."
Step 8: You'll be presented with a bunch of options, two of which should be "AMD Ryzen™ Balanced" and "AMD Ryzen™ High Performance." Click "Show additional plans" if you can't find them. I'd go with Ryzen Balanced personally. The Ryzen High Performance plan will provide a miniscule boost over Ryzen Balanced but also draws a lot more power and generates a lot more heat.

Your mileage may vary with this tweak. If you're using a Zen 1 or Zen 2 CPU (Ryzen 1000-3000 series), then you should see a tangible difference in all of your games. I know I did. But from what I've read online and heard from other people, it doesn't make a difference for Zen 3 and Zen 4 CPU's (Ryzen 4000, 5000 and 7000 series).

Tweak 7: Install DirectX9c
Step 1: Go to this page[www.microsoft.com] and download the file.
Step 2: Make a folder called DirectX9c or something like that on your desktop or another location of your choice.
Step 3: Open directx_Jun2010_redist.exe, click “Run” when prompted, and accept the license agreements when asked.
Step 4: Have it extract the files to that folder when prompted by clicking “Browse” and selecting the folder.
Step 5: Go to that folder.
Step 6: Open DXSETUP.exe.
Step 7: Accept the license agreement, click “Next” when prompted to start installing, and wait for it to finish.
Step 8: Click “Finish” when it completes the installation and then restart your computer.

Why do this? Because not everything from DirectX 9 was carried forward into later versions. Normally, this doesn't affect games too much, but there are some old games like SWTOR that were built for DirectX 9 and may encounter issues under later DirectX versions, as a result. This won't override any newer DirectX 10 and beyond files, but simply add DirectX 9 files that you might be missing. You don't need to install it if you aren't having problems, but it won't hurt to install.

Tweak 8: Plug your laptop in (LAPTOPS ONLY)
Step 1: Plug your charger in so your computer has enough juice to run games properly. Seriously, don’t play games on a laptop without plugging in the charger.
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit.

Why do this? Refer to Step 1.

NVIDIA Driver Tweaks

Before We Begin
Before you get started, go to either the NVIDIA site or use GeForce Experience to download and install the latest drivers for your GPU. This is always a good thing to do. Next, you have two pieces of software that you can use to tweak how the drivers handle the game. You can either use NVIDIA Control Panel, which comes with the driver, or NVIDIA Inspector, which you can download from Guru3D. Nvidia Inspector is the same as NVIDIA Control Panel, but allows you to tweak hidden settings that Control Panel wouldn’t even show you. I’d recommend NVIDIA Control Panel if you’re not very good with computers, and NVIDIA Inspector if you’re feeling tech savvy.

Option 1: NVIDIA Control Panel
Step 1: Right-click on your desktop and click NVIDIA Control Panel.
Step 2: Click “Manage 3D Settings” in the panel on the left.
Step 3: Click “Add” and go to the game folder, then the swtor folder, then the retailclient folder and add swtor.exe
Step 4: Set “Low Latency Mode” to “On.” This’ll make warzones a tiny bit more consistent and improve input lag. This is because the CPU will spend less resources pre-rendering frames (or will reduce the number of those frames to just 1), freeing up more processing power for CPU-intensive situations like warzones.
Step 5: Set “Power management mode” to “Prefer maximum performance.” This keeps your GPU running at full-speed in 3D games. SWTOR in particular benefits from this since it does exhibit odd behaviour where it will down-clock your graphics card speed randomly as if it's not running a 3D application. With Prefer maximum performance on, your graphics card will not clock down while playing the game. This gives your framerate a little more consistency.
Step 6: Set “Shader Cache” to “On.” A Shader Cache is a collection of parsed and pre-compiled shaders for any given game. Having Shader Cache on is necessary for almost all games to run smoothly without noticeable freezes or visual glitches.
Step 7: Set “Threaded optimization” to “Off.” Threaded optimization seperates the V-Sync thread from the main render thread and improves framerate in triple-buffered rendering scenarios. Most older games, SWTOR included, use double-buffering, and in these older games, Threaded optimization will cause a performance reduction. Hence, keeping it off improves performance.
Step 8 (OPTIONAL): Set “Vertical sync” to “On.” Do this if you prefer to use V-Sync in games (like I do) because SWTOR’s implementation of V-Sync is pretty lame. Driver-forced V-Sync is way better, and runs better too.

Option 2: NVIDIA Inspector
Step 1: Extract the files you downloaded.
Step 2: Open nvidiaProfileInspector.exe.
Step 3: In “Profiles,” search “Star Wars: The Old Republic” and click the result. You need to use proper punctuation here.
Step 4: Under 2 - Sync and Refresh set “Maximum pre-rendered frames” to “1.” This’ll make warzones a tiny bit more consistent and improve input lag. This is because the CPU will spend less resources pre-rendering frames, freeing up more CPU power for CPU-intensive situations like warzones.
Step 5 (OPTIONAL): Under 2 - Sync and Refresh set “Vertical Sync” to “Force on.” Do this if you prefer to use V-Sync in games (like I do) because SWTOR’s implementation of V-Sync is pretty lame. Driver-forced V-Sync is way better, and runs better too. If you do this follow Steps 6 and 7 as well.
Step 6 (OPTIONAL): Under 2 - Sync and Refresh set “Vertical Sync Smooth AFR behavior” to “Off.”
Step 7 (OPTIONAL): Under 2 - Sync and Refresh set “Vertical Sync Tear Control” to “Standard.”
Step 8: Under 5 - Common set “Power management mode” to “Prefer maximum performance.” This keeps your GPU running at full-speed in 3D games. SWTOR in particular benefits from this since it does exhibit odd behaviour where it will down-clock your graphics card speed randomly as if it's not running a 3D application. With Prefer maximum performance on, your graphics card will not clock down while playing the game. This gives your framerate a little more consistency.
Step 9: Under 5 - Common set “Shadercache” to “On.” A Shader Cache is a collection of parsed and pre-compiled shaders for any given game. Having Shader Cache on is necessary for almost all games to run smoothly without noticeable freezes or visual glitches.
Step 10: Under 5 - Common Set “Threaded optimization” to “Off.” Threaded optimization seperates the V-Sync thread from the main render thread and improves framerate in triple-buffered rendering scenarios. Most older games, SWTOR included, use double-buffering, and in these older games, Threaded optimization will cause a performance reduction. Hence, keeping it off improves performance

AMD Driver Tweaks

Before We Begin
These are settings I came up with after going through most of the documentation available for AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition. There aren't as many settings to play with as Nvidia Control Panel or Nvidia Inspector, but what's there is pretty useful. Any kind of feedback or extra information from AMD users is most welcome! Also, I'm not sure if Adrenalin comes with AMD's drivers, so you may have to download and install it first.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition
Step 1: Right-click on your desktop and click AMD Radeon Settings.
Step 2: Click on the "Gaming" tab.
Step 3: Click “Add” and go to the game folder, then the swtor folder, then the retailclient folder and add swtor.exe
Step 4: Set “Radeon Anti-Lag” to “On.” This’ll make warzones a tiny bit more consistent and improve input lag. This is because the CPU will spend less resources pre-rendering frames (I believe AMD's implementation reduces these frames to 0), freeing up CPU power for CPU-intensive situations like warzones.
Step 5: Set “Shader Cache” to “AMD Optimized.” A Shader Cache is a collection of parsed and pre-compiled shaders for any given game. Having Shader Cache on is necessary for almost all games to run smoothly without noticeable freezes or visual glitches.

Bug Fixes

This section is a compilation of fixes/workarounds for some bugs you might face. These bugs range from crashes, specific error messages, missing textures, black screens on launch, etc.
A lot of these happen on Windows 10 a lot since old software often doesn't play nice with the OS. Because of that, these should be particularly useful for most users.

Bug Fix 1: Black screen on startup or invisible/small game window
Step 1: Press Windows Key + R at the same time to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type/copy and paste the following:

%localappdata%\swtor\swtor\settings

Step 3: Open the client_settings.ini file and change the following lines:

FullScreen = True
D3DFullSCreen = True
RefreshRate = 60 (or whatever your monitor's refresh rate is, e.g. 75, 90, 120, 144, etc.)
Width = 1920 (or whatever your monitor's width resolution is, e.g. 1280, 2560, 3840,etc.)
Height = 1080 (or whatever your monitor's height resolution is, e.g. 720, 1440, 2160,etc.)

Step 4: Start the game.

Bug Fix 2: Missing textures and assets
Step 1: Go to your Steam Library.
Step 2: Right-click SWTOR, and click "Properties."
Step 3: Click the "Local Files" tab on the left.
Step 4: Click "Verify Integrity of Game Files."
Step 5: Let Steam scan your game and redownload any corrupted or missing files.

Bug Fix 3: Only a single instance of this application can run
Step 1: Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Step 2: If the window is tiny with very little information, click the "More details" button.
Step 3: Click the "Details" tab at the top and look for any processes called swtor.exe.
Step 4: When you find them, click each one and click the "End Task" button.

Bug Fix 4: NodeSpecCache-unable to open NodeSpecCache for writing
Step 1: Press Windows Key + R at the same time to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type/copy and paste the following:

%localappdata%\swtor

Step 3: Delete the files called DiskCacheStatic and DiskCacheStream.
Step 4: Right-click SWTOR in your Steam Library and click Manage, then click Browse Local Files.
Step 5: Go to the folder called "swtor."
Step 6: Delete the file called DiskCacheArena.
Step 7: Make sure SWTOR is set to "Run as Administrator." Instructions for this are found in the Windows Tweaks section.

Bug Fix 5: Everything other than the skybox vanishes at certain camera angles
Step 1: Disabling Fullscreen Optimizations (Tweak 1 in the Windows Tweaks section) can help, but it won't always fix the problem. Thanks BioWare.

Bug Fix 6: Low resolution textures irrespective of settings
Step 1: Press Windows Key + R at the same time to open the Run window.
Step 2: Type/copy and paste the following:

%localappdata%\swtor

Step 3: Open the folder called "swtor" then open the folder called "settings."
Step 4: Open the file called "client_settings.ini."
Step 5: Press Ctrl + F and type/copy and paste the following:

MinspecVramCutoffMB = 256

Step 6: Replace 256 with 128. Then save your changes and close the file, but do not leave the folder.
Step 7: Turn on SWTOR and see if the issue is fixed. If not, keep replacing 256 with lower and lower numbers until the issue fixes itself (after 128, try 64 or 32).
Step 8: If it still doesn't work, open the file and make your changes. Then save them and close the file. Then finally, right-click the file, then click "Properties" and set it to "Read Only."

Quality of Life Tweaks

Important Note
Most of these tweaks are subjective, and just stuff that made the game more enjoyable for me. Feel free to suggest more in the comments!

Tweak 1: Turn off General Chat to avoid toxic morons and credit sellers
Step 1: Right click the chat tab and click Chat Settings.
Step 2: De-select “General.”
Step 3: ????
Step 4: Profit.

Tweak 2: Turn off FlyText for cleaner, less cluttered visuals
Step 1: In-game, hit the Esc key on your keyboard.
Step 2: Click “Preferences.”
Step 3: Click “FlyText.”
Step 4: Disable FlyText.
Step 5: No more numbers when you hit people!

Tweak 3: Turn off friendly nameplates to slightly improve Warzone and Operation performance
Step 1: In-game, hit the Esc key on your keyboard.
Step 2: Click “Preferences.”
Step 3: Click "Nameplates."
Step 5: Disable nameplates for friendly players. You can also turn off nameplate scaling with distance to get some more fps but it look quite bad so I wouldn't recommend it.

Tweak 4: Change the interface
Step 1: In-game, hit the Esc key on your keyboard.
Step 2: Click “Interface Editor.”
Step 3: Pick from one of the presets in the game like Advanced or Retro, or make your own! You can also download interfaces made by other people and install those.

Tweak 5: Enable Auto-loot on Right-click
Step 1: In-game, hit the Esc key on your keyboard.
Step 2: Click "Preferences."
Step 3: Click "Controls.
Step 4: Turn on "Auto-loot on Right-click." This'll let you loot things a lot faster.

Tweak 6: Show Exploration Missions
Step 1: In-game, open your map.
Step 2: Find the checkbox on the left that says "Show Exploration Missions," and enable it. This'll allow you to do some planetary side-quests that are normally disabled. This one's great for people that want to experience every little thing the game has to offer.

Tweak 7: Lock your Quickbars
Step 1: In-game, click the small lock icon on the bottom left corner of your main quickbar. This will prevent you from being able to drag abilities around by accident. Great for people that click quickbar buttons instead of using keybinds. And if you really do want to re-order your abilities, you can do that too.

[Occam's Chainsaw]

@Tunnfisk glad to hear that :)

[Tunnfisk]

Worked like a charm. Warzone FPS went from sub 20 to 60+. Thanks a bunch!

[Grzmichuj]

Should i change nvidia inspector settings if im using g sync?

[Jason Ryder]

I didn't even find a "Shader Cache" option in "Program Settings" for SWTOR in the Nvidia control panel. All I could find is "Shader Cache Size" in "Global Settings" and set it to "unlimited"

[Sippin_tea2020]

i just bought the subscription today and i cant even login any ideas?

[SemiErectNemesis]

I have wondered for so long what most of these options did not just in this game but games in general. Every guide I found was weirdly convoluted. Thank you for simplifying it for my peanut brain.

[Occam's Chainsaw]

@Souw I'm glad the guide helped. It's because of years of being in similar situations and having to just figure them out myself that I made this one in the first place. Enjoy the game! :)

[Souw]

I can't put into words how much I appreciate this. I'm just playing the story since it's so good, but I was doing Blood Hunt, and on the last boss due to the fires I went down to a PowerPoint and was losing my mind. Thank you so much for making this.

[Occam's Chainsaw]

@Cruze Control, I'm really glad the guide helped. :D

[Cruze Control]

This thread is still relevant today (December 2023) as it was when it was first posted. I've been playing the game since beta and I was wondering why the performance actually got worse with each update. Thanks man, you're a GODSEND.