Forced to play on low graphics

I am new to pc gaming, as this is my first, and my laptop wont allow me to play the game without massive amounts of lag on anything but the very low graphic setting. I would like to enjoy the better graphics but do not know how to fix the problem. I have Dell Inspiron n5010 and i have updated my drivers already any help or advice would be much appreciated.

laptops are problematic for gaming due to heat alone but this laptop you are using is not powerful enough for gaming, is more a work laptop or student laptop. A gaming laptop can get very expensive due to the need for high end cooling and graphics hardware made small enough to fit in a small frame. Dells are business laptops, Dell's gaming laptop line is called "alienware" which would offer more performance, Mobile cpus and gpus installed in business laptops are not really made for high end gaming like MMORPGs with large 3d environments and lots of models moving on screen, I did a bit of research on the model you are using and many find it hard to play offline 3d single player games, so going onto a busy online open world environment will be putting a lot of stress on that machine.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...9064802AAf9Vm1
above is an example of a user wondering if games are playable on your laptop model
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review...r_n5010/349068
this review from pcworld states that it doesnt perform well in gaming
" it's more than enough graphics performance for HD video processing and it will even be able to run some older games." (meaning it can play HD video but games not really only old stuff)
http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/laptop-overheating/
this is a thread of users with your laptop and it overheating after 1hr of gaming

I suggest finding a friend and someone you trust to give you some advice on parts to build a desktop pc (buying a prebuilt brand name will cost much more and is not worth it) then get them to put it together for you once you get the parts. Newegg is a good site for buying parts depending on your country. All of this is based upon my experience with laptops and gaming so dont take it as 100% fact, I am just sharing my view (you would build a great gaming pc to run swtor excluding screen for about 700-1000USD if you buy it in parts from a "close to wholesale" reseller like newegg)


cons for laptop Dell N5010 Inspiron:

5400rpm HDD, a bit slow to run games that have to access your hdd often like open world games including swtor
Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics: this is a mobility version of the 5470 so it wont give the same performance as a fullsize desktop version
ntel Core i5-430M CPU: again the M in the model is for mobility, this is the trap with laptops ppl and i myself fall for when they first get into PC or laptop gaming. They just wont be the same as a non mobility version as they use much less power and also dont take well to heat.

The minimum specs for the game are based on non mobility parts and its tricky because some feel they are being lied to because their laptop passes the minimum, the fact at the end of the day is, these laptops aren't built for gaming, even dell would admit to that, when buying games you almost have to meet the recommended or higher specs instead of the minimum when it comes to gaming on a laptop that is really meant for business or casual light weight games. Swtor and other high end games will load and run but they wont be very stable or offer decent performance, and once the heat builds up it only gets worse, I had an old laptop that would just switch off after 1hr of gaming due to heat, i sold it to a uni friend and build a PC.

GOODLUCK

Dam i was hoping i wouldnt have to get a new one but i guess its due time anyway. Thank for the help greatly appreciated.

as handy as laptops are, i must stress, i learnt the hard way also, even having ones that play games well at first, after a while heat starts to get to them, unless u buy the really expensive gaming ones which tbh arent worth it, best to get a cheap lappy for web surfing/study/work and a decent desktop for gaming (build yourself > brand name rip off).

My laptop passed the recommened and i was still preformaning low the game update like AA did help but still i lagged now and again, so like anyone i went seaching for a way to help. What i found was Vid's which made my fps jump up and make the game feel more stable and playable ofc im not saying this is a perm fix to the game but it will help untill you can get a new computer to play i have posted the links below.

Link 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdT-kTiyQ40

Link 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=WPV3fktuGEY

i cant promise this will help but i know it helped me