FPS drops like a stone before game crashes

[HakuroDK]

Hey guys!

I've been having this problem almost daily. I'll be playing my game, everything's working smoothly. My computer can very easily handle the graphics of this game (I think my benchmark was some crazy number like 11000+, so I know it's not low performance). However, there are times, usually during or after an area transition or teleport, my framerate will plummet to a frame every 5-10 seconds, then revert to normal, then plummet again, and at any time during these plummets, I'll get the standard Windows error message for a program that crashed.

Is there ANY way I can remedy this? I don't know if it's a network issue or if there's a program on my computer I should or should not have, or what.

I do know that my drivers are all current and updated, I'm not running more than Firefox and Steam in the background, sometimes Mumble, but that contributes more to 90k1/90k2 errors that I am aware are problems with my ISP and not the game itself.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you have if you can help me diagnose this problem.

Thanks!

BP

[Absurde]

I'm guessing you're using an ATI graphics card? If so this is an issue that's been there basically since the beginning and which SE doesnt seem to want to do anything about. There used to be a 150+ page long thread about it but it was moved to the resolved section (and no, nothing has really been resolved). There is a work around which i think involves disabling all the LOD features in your graphics settings, but ofcourse the game will look worse with objects only starting to look good when you're really close to them (oh and another side effect is armour models never using high detail, no idea why). So those are currently your options: random crashes or game looking crappy for no real reason.. until SE and AMD finally start cooperating on the issue.

[HakuroDK]

I'm guessing you're using an ATI graphics card? If so this is an issue that's been there basically since the beginning and which SE doesnt seem to want to do anything about. There used to be a 150+ page long thread about it but it was moved to the resolved section (and no, nothing has really been resolved). There is a work around which i think involves disabling all the LOD features in your graphics settings, but ofcourse the game will look worse with objects only starting to look good when you're really close to them (oh and another side effect is armour models never using high detail, no idea why). So those are currently your options: random crashes or game looking crappy for no real reason.. until SE and AMD finally start cooperating on the issue.

AMD Radeon, actually. But I'll try your suggestions anyhow.

[Raist]

AMD Radeon, actually. But I'll try your suggestions anyhow.

AMD and ATI are one in the same... AMD gobbled them up a few years back.

[KisaiTenshi]

You might want to tweak the mean time before crash
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946

In all seriousness, I never had that problem with an AMD card, but I DID tweak the driver crash recovery time because I use multiple screens, and one of the key things that crash is video recording while full screen.

Though what you describe is more typical of WiFi dropping. But of course would only happen if you're on WiFi. A similar problem is "roommate/family member is downloading/uploading stuff" or as you said Steam.

Generally you want to "cap" network settings on all devices that have uncapped bandwidth usage, this includes steam. Otherwise they will just max out the line. This is more typical of sub-25Mbit lines.

[HakuroDK]

You might want to tweak the mean time before crash
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2665946

In all seriousness, I never had that problem with an AMD card, but I DID tweak the driver crash recovery time because I use multiple screens, and one of the key things that crash is video recording while full screen.

Though what you describe is more typical of WiFi dropping. But of course would only happen if you're on WiFi. A similar problem is "roommate/family member is downloading/uploading stuff" or as you said Steam.

Generally you want to "cap" network settings on all devices that have uncapped bandwidth usage, this includes steam. Otherwise they will just max out the line. This is more typical of sub-25Mbit lines.

Not a bad suggestion to cap Steam. I might give that a try.

[Drako]

There is a work around which i think involves disabling all the LOD features in your graphics settings

Actually it's enabling the two LOD features in FFXIV settings.

This issue is ongoing sense launch. It just gets severely exacerbated when SE puts a high demand on open world content(see HUNTS). It's a unfortunately problem due to using old DirectX on newer cards. Most people are hoping the new DX11 client will resolve this and all the performance problems. It's crazy to buy a top of the line GFX and find your getting less then 30FPS running around Mor Dhona at max settings. SE has never really made any official comment on this problem. I'm not really sure why, it's one glaring issue that a big chunk of their players are experiencing.

Check these posts for more info on the issue.
ATI Card compatibility issues!
Memory Leak Preformance Issue