I solved my SWTOR low-FPS problem

As far as I know, changing the settings to performance will only make it consume more power. I believe that computer manufacturers are aware of this setting and it shouldn't make your computer overheat. That is the reason why it's called POWER MANAGEMENT.

I currently have a laptop which I bought the year 2002 (yeah I know I suck), and in order for it to keep up with the modern world, I set it to High Performance. I didn't care about the battery life because it's already battery dead. It's been set like that for like 5 years already and it still doesn't have problems.

I hope this info could help to clarify things.

No I didn't say that The GPU fan seems to be going steady with TOR running regardless of my settings..that hasn't changed. (which leads into that whole issue about TOR over-working the GPU even when the settings are low.)

TOR is the only game I have that runs the GPU fan like this. THen again I run full-screen windowed all the time (if you run full-screen exclusive, then alt-tab out, then the GPU gets a break as its not doing much as it doesnt render anything when its not the exclusive to the display, but in full screen windowed, its always working)

Its important to clarify WHY Power Management works to save power.

It makes your CPU run at lower clock speeds, that's why it saves power. Less speed, less power required, but that also means LESS PERFORMANCE.

It basically makes A 3.0 ghz cpu run at like 1.8 ghz (varies based on CPU type).

As such, you have less CPU..a LOT less, and it then becomes a big ol bottleneck.

Oh my god, its like im playing a whole other game now, thank you

but the cpu should be running at 3 GHz regardless of the power setting whilst gaming.

the power only gets reduced when the computer is idle..

oh my..I wonder if I stumbled upon something here.

one of those rare time we can honestly blame it all on Windows LOL

Programs are supposed to ask the cpu to run at 100% frequency in balanced, I'm not surprised swtor isn't utilising it efficiently.

Of course, clock rate and usage are two seperate things.

WRONG, this is why;

The CPU is OBLIVIOUS to your game or application settings. All it cares about is if whatever threshold of CPU activity that has been pre-determined by the power plan is reached. If that threshold is not reached, the CPU will NOT shift up to a higher clock speed.

Also, as in my case, for some reason the CPU would NEVER shift up even with LOTS of CPU activity. It was capped at the minimum even though that power plan is supposed to allow dynamic shifting of clock speed.

As such, its ALWAYS running on minimum.

Also Windows 7 DEFAULTS to using that power plan, so unless you alter it, its always going to run the CPU as low and as slow as it can. Its supposed to shift up when the demand is there, but obviously that does not always work.

EDIT: There are ways for a program to be smart about CPU usage and ask to see what is going on but games SUCK at working with power management, and really want everything you can toss at them.

Also coding apps and games to work well with power management is still a relatively new thing, that is mostly ignored. Most apps and game just make do with what the OS is willing to give them

THIS. power management should not be a problem at all. If your computer needs juice you'll get it. It's called throttling.

edit: as stated by post above, does not ahve to b 3GHz/max CPU freq.

Somehow it apparently goes wrong with SWTOR (in some cases). OP has AMD CPU system. No idea about intel's.

It should NOT overheat your PC, otherwise there is something wrong with your cooling. Your system should be able to handle it.

It might also be a heating problem overall, letting the CPU clock itself down when reaching a certain temperature, but that should work independently from the throttling system.

Hey now, Bioware was only trying to be Eco-friendly!