Need help deciding what to upgrade on my PC after running the Benchmark...

My wife and I have identical computers I built last January as budget gaming rigs. We got scores in Heavensward around 9500 on Max if I remember right. That isn't the case with Stormblood. We both get between 5600 and 5800 on Max, and while it says that is very high I want to improve that. I am thinking the CPU needs upgrading more so than the GPU. Here is what we have:
AMD FX 8320 (8-cores)
Nvidia GTX 960
16GB RAM

FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood Benchmark
Tested on: 5/16/2017 7:26:22 PM
Score: 5649
Average Frame Rate: 39.916
Performance: Very High
-Easily capable of running the game. Screen Size: 1920x1080 Screen Mode: Full Screen DirectX Version: 11 Graphics Presets: Maximum

Suggestions?

~Konaim Xi~

the sys req's list the recommended GPU as the 970. I got a score around 15.5k with that and a i7-5930k and I KNOW it's the GPU holding me back. If anything, I would go with a GPU upgrade if that 8-core CPU has a clock speed around 3.6 ghz. In fact, if you play other games, I'd advocate going for a higher VRAM GPU as the 970 has only 4 GB and it's not enough to max out GTAV in 1080p (gotta tone some things down). I may post scores with my EVGA GTX 1080 ti FTW 3 GAMING GPU when I install it but I am sure scores will be higher.

In your case, it's probably both the CPU and GPU that can use an upgrade. I don't know the clock speed for your CPU so I can't say for sure.

Depends how much money you want to spend. Upgrading from that CPU will likely require a new motherboard, which might benefit from new RAM, too. That's a hefty chunk of cash if you do it properly. A new GPU could be had for less than those three, but if your CPU is the bottleneck, it won't matter a huge amount.

I'd suggest monitoring CPU usage while running the Stormblood benchmark (something like OpenHardwareMonitor works well). Check if any of your individual cores are being fully utilized. Similarly, monitor your graphics card. One of them is likely being pushed to its limits; whichever one is, that's your bottleneck, and that's the one that should be upgraded.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...nchmark-Scores.

There's lots of posts there that show what hardware and resolution was used. Find a score you like and check out what gpu/cpu they had.

That CPU is actually better than my FX 8350 (4.6gig on air cooling) you really need to overclock it to get its real potential. http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/a...us-motherboard


This guide should help a bit Ive seen 5.2gig on 8320's depending your cooling and motherboard. I am currently running a msi gtx 970 and can get 10k on the new benchmark and yeah i know full well the gpu is the bottleneck but its a workhorse i can't easily part with lol

Have the exact same specs, but with the nvidia 970. I got 9000+ on max

Awesome, Thanks guys! I haven't had the time to really sit and dive into it all, but I'm glad I posted here. I'll do some research and find out. Money is no longer the issue, but I'd rather not buy 2 new CPU's, GPU's, and 2 new motherboards if I do not have to lol.

Keep in mind your HW score may have been running on DX9 rather than DX11. DX9 scores would likely have been higher than DX11. If you want to verify that you can google the HW benchmark and redownload it just to test, either way it really doesnt matter now as Stormblood is the defining factor anyways.
I highly recommend looking at the Stormblood Benchmark thread that cheolsu posted above, and see what score you'd like to achieve.

Keep in mind you really dont need a super expensive rig to hit a decent score. Even an older intel i5 and 960 combo can hit Extremely High scoring.

For example my rig is 4 years old now and below is my scoring from earlier today.
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood Benchmark
Score: 10195 Extremely High
1920x1080 Maximum DirectX11 Borderless Windowed
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Average Frame Rate: 70.379

I have 2 PCs here. One is a i7-6800 with an OpenGL video card, and one is a i7-4770 with a GTX980. Both are running M.2, 32GB RAM, no overclocking.

On Max settings, the i7-6800 scores 4900, and the i7-4770 scores 11800.
On Standard (Laptop) settings, i7-6800 scores 10700, and the i7-4770 scores 15500.

Based on this, the system specs you listed, and the component hierarchies at TomsHardware...

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rchy,4312.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rchy,4388.html

...I think you'll get the best performance boost by upgrading your CPU. However, you can do no wrong with an upgrade of either at this point.

It could be your GPU. I have an MSI 970A-G46 motherboard running an FX-6200 6-core (3.8 GHz) and I had a GTX 650. On normal settings with DX11 I was getting about 4k. I upgraded the GPU to a GTX 1060 6gb and now I'm getting 8k on maximum settings with DX11. I just wanted a boost on the current machine so SB would be smooth. I'm planning fresh builds for my husband and myself later in the year that will utilize the new Ryzen processors. Not sure what your price range is but I was able to get the GTX 1060 gb for less than $300 US.