General Game Performance - Anyone Else Feel The Way I Do?

Hello, I don't post often here but I just wanted to throw up a thread and get the opinion and experiences of others on game performance.

Whenever I am playing FFXIV I feel, hear, and see the effects of my computer being strained to its maximum usage. Live streaming music is affected and lagged out as an example. My computer is definitely able to run the top games at the best or just below best settings, I built it this year and spent around 1200 dollars getting the hardware together.

I ALWAYS run into many different types of video lag in the game, they seem to be coming from the game loading other players, or objects in more cluttered areas, like Ul'Dah. However, its not a small amount that happens only when I enter the city.. it happens ALL THE TIME in the city, and shows up in other areas of the world as well where I am simply just running around exploring or fighting stupid repeated mobs (i digress).

So whats the deal? I know to expect a few troll posts of "your comp sucks" but I can assure you that isn't the problem. I noticed a very popular and surprised thread discussing the issue of character pathing being bugged and super sub par, but I think this is another subject that needs to be addressed as well. Is there some way SE can work on general lag spikes in towns, draw distance, and simple things like that which effect game play on all levels?

I hate forcing myself to play, and then forcing myself to ignore the giant lag spikes and super low draw distances. :(

Please feel free to comment and tell me about your thoughts on this issue! I would love to console in others' similar pains or at least find a false sense of hope in their fanboyism =]

thanks
-LM

In before "SE said they would fix it eventually accept it or quit"

Lol, yes that is also something I should expect. But just to clarify;

This thread is to get the experiences of others who feel the same way, or even want to deny that there is a problem here at all. I think any light shed on the subject would be constructive to the future of this game.

Well... your going to have to post some specific details about your computer system in order for anyone to provide anything other than the classic flame-bait material. Stating you spent $1200 on a computer doesn't mean much. However, that said, there are some things you can check on right now in case you decide you don't want to give specifics about your computer:

1) Turn off any anti-virus programs. If you got an anti-virus program that likes to run in the background, it can and will eat up processor cycles, which can impact performance.

2) If you've done a lot of installing/uninstalling programs or moving/deleting files, defrag your hard drive. The way your hard drive has files organized on the actual drive can impact performance.

3) If your running Vista or Windows 7, disable Aero (either permanently or just when you run FFXIV, which can be accomplished by right-clicking on the FFXIV shortcut, selecting Properties, then click on the Compatibility tab and put a check next to "Disable Desktop Composition").

4) Disable Ambient Occlusion and Field of View in the FFXIV Config program. This is especially important if your using a low to mid-range card and will make a big difference.

5) Check the timings of your memory (which can be done via BIOS). Memory modules have different timings, which affects the speed that they run at. Oft-times, the timings that BIOS sets the memory modules to aren't going to be optimal for the modules (such as assigning 333mhz timings to memory that is designed to run at 667mhz).

6) Check the temperature that your processor is running at. Just about every processor manufactured within the last 8 years has some kind of thermal throttle built into the chip, which causes the processor to downclock itself once it hits a certain temperature. This is to prevent the processor from overheating and burning. If your processor is throttling down, that means it's running too hot and you need to do something about that (be it add/replace case fans, clean out the dust bunnies from the heatsink and any case grills, and/or reapply the thermal compound on the heatsink.)

7) If your running an AMD-based system, turn off Cool'n'Quiet (accomplished via BIOS). This will disable the AMD subsystem which automates voltage stepping and cooling performance... in English, disabling CnQ will force the computer to run at maximum efficiency with maximum cooling at all times, regardless of what your doing.

Now then... to put some perspective here, this is my computer built, which I put together for about $800:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Quad-core processor
4GB's DDR3 1600Mhz RAM (running at 8-8-8-32 timing)
ATI Radeon 5770 1GB Video card
150GB Hard Drive (pulled from old computer)
Windows Vista (transferred from old computer)

With this setup, I can run the game at 1368x760 resolution with standard settings (minus AO and FoV, of course) and maintain a solid 50-60FPS in all areas except Ul'dah, where it drops down to 25-30FPS. I can listen to music in the background without any performance hit... heck... I even had my anti-virus scanner do it's weekly scan of the system one time without seeing a performance hit (I use AVG, in case you were wondering).

That said, take a look at the suggestions I have provided and see what you can do. If you want information that is a bit more specific to your situation, your going to have to provide some system specifications on what your running that goes beyond the price you paid for your rig.

I've noticed certain aspects of this game where I get inexplicable amounts of stress on my system. Like botany leves. I can stand at the Ul'dah leve counter at peak time when leve reset occurs and my GPU will barely go over 60% and stays around 65-70 degrees.

But while logging during botany leves, my GPU will shoot up to about 90-94% and run up to about 77 degrees.

It just comes down to bad optimization. The game only loads so much around you, so as you move it's continuously trying to load what was just around you.

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In before "SE said they would fix it eventually accept it or quit"

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There's a difference between bringing up an issue maturely and just spitting out attitude like you do in all of your posts. You can learn a few things about effective communication from the OP.

And yes, you're right, the current option is to accept the game as it currently is, or to quit till it's fixed. SE can't wave a wand and they've devised a plan and are sticking to it so they actually can eventually get to everything.

Yeah, the engine they designed seems mediocre in some respects. I can't really blame them for trying to make their own engine (internal support > external support generally), but they should've hired some experts on engine design and optimization. They don't have to be the caliber of John Carmack, but they should be able to understand the best methods for resource management in a rendering engine. *shrugs*

Your concern is valid, but there is no easy answer.

First and foremost, lag spike is a very vague term.
Getting 50-60 FPS in one area and then dipping to 30fps in a busy city with a lot going on is not really lag. That happens.... in most any game... there is a different between Max FPS, MIN FPS and AVG FPS....
In some games, the min/max difference is so high, they have to hard limit the max (Some as low as 30fps) to minimize the variance.

Some times it's a matter of game settings. For Instance, You get 40+ frames in one area... so you think: Cool... I'm good with 8xaa at 1920x1080 with the highest texture detail.... But if your min frame rate is 15fps in crowded areas, then yes, you need to drop those settings

The fact is... with crossfire ATI Radeon HD 6990s (I know, I know, crossfire support, blah blah blah) you can run on the lowest possible settings and resolution at a constant 60fps....
to take it a step further... with the same setup (And a quad core CPU/4gb+ RAM)), you can run at max settings (Except possibly general draw quality) with no area dropping below 40fps

With a GTX 260, dual core CPU, 3.25gb RAM, you can run on the lowest settings possible with at least 30fps in all areas...

So really just find out where you fit in there

Unfortunately, a lot of the lag and character draw are built in features, not bugs. The game restricts the distance and number of character models shown at any given time. It also has a lot of server side stuff, which makes the client and client interface seem like its running in slow motion.

The game has fundamental issues.

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Originally Posted by goonMagi

Lol, yes that is also something I should expect. But just to clarify;

This thread is to get the experiences of others who feel the same way, or even want to deny that there is a problem here at all. I think any light shed on the subject would be constructive to the future of this game.

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I want to deny that there is a problem at all!! I mean for me personally it runs fine even with windowed/autohotkey window box removal which supposedly lags others. Then again I'm not the type to complain about menial problems which don't affect my ability to play the game, so it is possible I sometimes do experience lag and just play through it.

Okay I don't really want to deny that there is a problem at all, and I do want them to fix it for people who have this problem. I merely don't think it ruined the game or renders it unplayable/unenjoyable. Though I do understand why that stance is unacceptable to some people on the forum, if I was really unable to play I might want everyone to be in the same boat as me too so that it would be priority #1.

Thought I'd come here and give my experience with this problem as well.

A few weeks ago, my video card died on me (ATI Radeon hd 5770). I waited impatiently, running my computer off of my on board video card (ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics), of course the thought of even attempting to login to ffxiv was out of the question.

Well, boredom got the better of me, and i gave it a shot. Not only was i capable of getting into the game without changing any settings, it was playable... Performance took a small hit, but if i was outside of a city, just killing mobs, it was completely functional. This made me feel a little better, knowing that it wasn't my machine causing such horrendous lag, but rather the game. As every other recent game that i've played gives me no problems what-so-ever.

I really can't see myself playing again until this problem gets addressed. The loading lag, combined with the UI lag makes what would be an enjoyable game feel clunky and unfun.