Stuttering graphical performance

Just recently I've acquired a decent laptop. Since FFXI requirements are pretty easy to get, I figured this laptop would be able to run it perfectly. I guessed wrong.

I've installed everything correctly, all expansions. I had no error whatsoever when installing the game.
Everything went smoothly until the moment I logged in. I had set the configurations beforehand exactly like a similar computer I have (the laptop is better). It turns out I have really bad graphical performance, everything is really laggy in an open field. I can walk in Jeuno with some difficulty but it's pretty bad.
The only time it's not stuttering it's when I face my camera towards a wall or a small spot. Battling monsters is quite slow because of it as well. So I am at a complete loss here, this laptop has the requirements but it runs it terribly. I tried all graphical settings from very low to high. Updated my graphics card and nothing changed.

I've tested other games, even FFXIV:ARR's benchmark and my laptop can handle it. My only guess left is that FFXI has no compatibility with Windows 8.1.
If that is the problem then is there a solution for it?

Acer Aspire E1-572
Windows 8.1 64bits
Intel Core i3-4010U 1.7GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4400
4GB Memory DDR3

Try disabling any network interfaces that aren't in use. For example, if you're connecting wireless, disable the physical adapter.

I disabled the other network adapter and left the wireless one on. No changes, sadly.
I'm attempting another install to see if it works, this time running the installer as admin. I'll report later.

Make sure you disable and not just disconnect.

I made sure the adapter was disabled and not just disconnected.
Did the reinstall and nothing was solved... I'm out of options now. The terrible performance still continues. :(

While onboard graphic chips for current laptops shouldn't have any issues, have you tried messing around with the drivers for it at all? That'd be my guess as a culprit for the hit to your framerate, not something with networking. Could be a W8 issue too, I've read of a few different issues, but no first hand experience with em.

one of my laptops (macbook pro with win7, that doesnt have integrated gfx) has crappy framerate now since the last update, they screwed something up in the client renderer.

Used to be able to run 2k x 2k background resolution and 1600x900 res and it was always smooth. Now I have to modify it down to run it at 1280x720 with a 1k x 1k background res and it still gets choppy.

Since the rendering performance drop seems to be related to lots of characters onscreen, i'm guessing that the shadow rendering for characters or something is still being processed now even though I have shadows turned off (with them not being visible).


I have run ffxi on this computer for years and never saw such a massive performance degradation until the last update. There is nothing else that ever gets run or installed on this machine besides ffxi.

I've downgraded my graphics card driver and it seemed to remedy the issue a little. The game is now at playable fps with some lowered options. Still nothing like what my friend had, but I'm happy enough it's working better.