I don't even know if it pertains to the update or not anymore; it seems like that's when it started, but it definitely has something to do with the driver. I will try getting a driver from MSI to see what that does. In the mean time, if SE can't help (which I understand), feedback from other more technically inclined players would be appreciated.
I can look into that, but from the sound of it FFXIV uses a different physics engine. Additionally, it specifies that this happens during effect-heavy periods, where my FPS is just 20 steady, whether or not there's a lot going on on the screen. It also states that updating the driver reverts it back to the problem setting, and in my case, updating/reinstalling the driver fixes the problem temporarily.
I run in fullscreen. :P Also, I've tried this already, it makes no difference. I unchecked this, then I also made sure my NVIDIA Inspector profile wasn't limiting my framerate, since there is an option for it to do that. As far as I can tell there are no settings active that could be throttling my framerate, unless, of course, there's somewhere else I should be looking.
FURTHER UPDATES AND MORE EXPERIMENTS: Just as I suspected, my FPS is, once again, back up to 60 after updating my driver. This time I decided NOT to power down my computer or put it to sleep last night and just kept it on, since it seems that trying to play after doing the former results in my FPS dropping again. I will, once again, report back with what happens tonight when I try to play. If all is well, then I've narrowed my problem down to this:
-My FPS is fine when I update/totally reinstall my driver.
-Following rebooting or waking up my computer and logging into the game, my FPS drops again.
So options are never to shut down my computer ever again, or reinstall my driver every time I want to play games! :'D
