In this article, I’ll do my best to explain everything you need to know about the SWTOR 64-bit update and how it affects you. This significant tech upgrade is aimed at improving performance and opening new horizons for future improvements and content development!
Why was SWTOR upgraded to 64-bit
Up until recently, Star Wars The Old Republic was a 32-bit program designed for 32-bit systems.
At the time of SWTOR’s release, 32-bit systems were common, but everything was moving toward 64-bit, so there was some criticism about it.
Twelve years have passed since then and computing technology has improved significantly. This meant that SWTOR was in need of some updates in order to keep up with the times.
If you are an active follower of the SWTOR BioWare team, you may recall an article written by Keith Kanneg of the BioWare team from December 12, 2022. He had the following to say…
On top of creating content, we made huge strides from a technical standpoint. We’ve been talking about modernization efforts for some time, and now players are able to see some of this on the front end. We’ve updated our forums and game launcher with new tech, are in the midst of bringing the game to 64-bit, and have been successful in testing content on servers hosted in the cloud.This was an initiative that we’ve been working towards for the better part of the year, and we are now in a position to talk about it. The last few rounds of testing on the Public Test Server have been done on AWS!Current testing is proving to be successful, and we look forward to next steps. Moving servers entirely to the cloud in the near future will enable us to improve the game experience for our players and create opportunities to increase the player base over time. All of these initiatives are to lay the groundwork for even more to come.
A bit more than 3 months have passed since then and now we finally get to see how these changes affect your experience with SWTOR!
How the 64-Bit Update Improves SWTOR
This upgrade allows SWTOR to utilize more computer resources. Before the program could utilize up to 4 GB of RAM, though this cap is now removed with the 64-bit update.
This in turn can improve performance and reduce lag in some cases due to the increased access to RAM. To be clear, the theoretical cap for 64-bit systems is ~16 Exabytes, but the current maximum supported by Microsoft is much lower, ranging from 128GB-6TB depending on the Windows version.
BioWare has shared some other benefits from this shift to 64-bit related to performance and future opportunities.
They expect some laptop users will see dramatically better performance, though most people will see only modest improvements since Windows is optimized for 64-bit so there are fewer emulation and compatibility layers involved in running the game.
In general, BioWare suspects that players will see the greatest difference in very very large areas (Tatooine, Hoth, Belsavis, etc.) or in very busy areas (Fleets, in-game events, etc.).
Being on 64-bit gives BioWare more options in general for what they can do with future content, like creating more complex environments and scenes.
BioWare also highlighted the fact that they fixed the framerate limiter, which had long been broken. They expect some users that are hitting the FPS limit will experience slightly lower, but more consistent frametimes, resulting in a more fluid and enjoyable experience, but they wanted to reiterate that the FPS limit can be adjusted in the settings as well.
In addition, a working framerate limit should mean less fan noise, less heat, and less power consumption on laptops, though your mileage may vary on power consumption because are lots of other factors involved.
How to update SWTOR to 64-bit
64-bit is baked into SWTOR now. There is no longer a 32-bit version you can use at all, BioWare isn’t offering support for both like you might see with other types of software.
You don’t need to do anything special to “activate” 64-bit, it will be installed automatically when you next update the game as part of Game Update 7.2.1.
The download itself is ~35GB, but a lot of that will be modifications to existing files, so the total file size of the game won’t change by as significant a number. The game takes up ~48GB on your computer, but it requires ~75GB of space on your computer to download and install. 75 is what you will see in the newly updated PC System Requirements as well.
SWTOR PC System Requirements
As a result of the new hardware evaluation tech, the upgrade to 64-bit and the fact that it’s been a long time since they updated them, following the release of Game Update 7.2.1, BioWare announced the new and official current PC System requirements:
- OS: Windows 10 or later – 64-bit
- Processor AMD: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better
- Processor Intel: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz or better
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: Star Wars: The Old Republic requires a video card that has a minimum of 1 GB of on-board RAM as well as support for Shader 3.0 or better.
Examples include: Intel HD 3000 or better/AMD Radeon HD 7450/Nvidia GeForce 610 - Storage: 75 GB available space
- Internet connection: Required to play
Graphical Changes to SWTOR
If you were previously running the lowest graphics settings on SWTOR, then you’re likely to notice some significant changes. In the Preferences Menu under “Graphics”, you will notice a tab that allows you to change the Graphics Quality Preset. The “Very Low” preset was removed with this update with the lowest setting available being “Low”.
At the very least, you might be able to get away with some shadows if you were not able to before.
Refresh Rate corresponds to the capabilities of your monitor. Unless you have something fancy, your monitor’s refresh rate is probably 60, though you can change this in the drop-down.
Frame Rate corresponds to the capabilities of your GPU and this setting governs the maximum number of frames the game will try to render per second. Unless you’re experiencing screen tearing or want to reduce power consumption, there’s not much of a point to capping your FPS otherwise as it just increases latency.
Common Issues with 64-bit SWTOR and Workarounds
This update is not without its issues; fortunately, these are rather minor and easily fixed. SWTOR’s community manager, Jackie Ko mentioned the following solutions to these issues in the SWTOR forums:
Antivirus Popup
If you are experiencing issues with your antivirus program, update your firewall/antivirus settings to allow SWTOR to pass. You do not need to disable the program entirely.
Blank Server Screen
Some players are experiencing a blank server screen and not being able to access their home servers to play their characters. This is likely a result of the program’s compatibility settings.
To change the compatibility settings, you’ll need to do the following…
- Access the swtor.exe by going to “[installation directory]\launcher.exe or [installation directory]\swtor\retailclient\swtor.exe” in your PC.
- Right click “swtor.exe” and select “Properties”.
- Click the “Compatibility” tab
- Uncheck “run this program in compatibility mode”.
Startup Crashes
Jackie brought up these possible fixes to players experiencing game crashes on startup. This is likely a result of DirectX 9 not being installed. If you are experiencing this issue, you’ll need to install the June 2010 Direct X runtime, the download link for this can be found here.
SWTOR Running At 60 FPS Regardless of Settings
If you experience 60 FPS despite selecting another refresh rate, you will just need to select another refresh rate, apply it, then reapply your original refresh rate.
Flickering Graphics and Textures
If you are experiencing flickering graphics and textures, then you’ll be able to help not only yourself but other players experiencing this issue. Jackie asked that you do the following…
Hi everyone,We've received some reports of players who are experiencing flickering graphics/textures. In order to help us troubleshoot this issue further, we are asking for the following info: - Type of machine you have- Graphics card- Driver version of the card - If you go to to your Device Manager > Display adapters > click properties on your graphics card, you should be able to find this info- What version of Windows you have- Dxdiag fileSend all this info to [emailprotected] and be sure to include your account name write "Flickering graphics issue with 64-bit" in the subject line! Has the 64-bit update improved your performance in SWTOR? If so, tell us how down below in the comments!
