Lag spike problem, only when playing FFXIV

Hi there,

I've been having this issue since about 3 weeks ago, where every 4-5 minutes I get a brutal lag spike that puts me at about 3 FPS.

I have an AMD Phenom II X2 555 Processor (3.20 gHz), and a ATI Radeon HD 5700 series Graphics Card. However, I've been playing FFXIV since Beta with this same PC and it's always been perfect, no lag even in the busiest of battles.

Like I said, this has been going on for 3 weeks. I've even tried reducing the graphics down to minimums in the settings, or experimented with going into very uncrowded/empty areas, but still, every 4-5 minutes on the dot, I will get a massive lag spike that puts the CPU usage up to 100% and renders the game unplayable for about 1 minute.

Does anyone have any idea of what might be going on?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Lag = Time that takes the communication between client and server to go from one to another.

Freeze = When your hardware or software halt for some time and lower the overall performance.

So, the lag you have don't have anything to do with your fps, your fps are directly caused by your hardware and software.

For what you said it seems that you have a resident program that every 5min do something "heavy" and make the pc freeze. What you should do is to open the game and leave the task manager windows also open and check which process is making the cpu go to 100%

Onces you find it post it here.

I only have this type of issue when I walked into the adventurers guild in a city. This patch and server transfers seems to have fixed it for me, since I no longer experience it...

I'm not a tech support guy, but it sounds like a (memory-related) buffer overflow of sorts. Your memory, RAM, becomes full, and it starts using your hard drive as a place to store temporary files needed in order to run your computer. This usually affects the whole system drastically, depending on your setup, and can choke the performance down, as you've described.

Assuming this would be the case, do you remember updating any motherboard- and/or memory management-related drivers (like RAID, SSD, graphical) recently? Another possibility is that some program running in the backround is hogging up resources all of a sudden, like antivirus-software that starts running a full-scan, let's say, on a hourly basis (surely it's highly unlikely, but i've met a few cases were it was 'accidentally' set to do that, for reasons unknown)? Some recently installed programs may have an inconvenient auto-updater firing up, but... looking at your description it'd had to be one huge m-f'er to choke it down that badly.

Maybe more important questionwould be, do you hear any more extra noise inside your computer when this occurs? Does the fans pick up more speed, or does the hard drive start making a rapid lowish, ticking/crackling noise?

Considering how ruthless this game can be to components, i really suggest you pop open the side of your PC, and check that you don't have any dust clogging your cooling systems. Some setups (usually depending more on the driver- and user-set options) may lower automatically your PC's performance, in order to run cooler. Would kinda make sense if your comp was full of dust by now, and cannot run as cool anymore, as it has ran before.

Welp, last night I did what you (and my partner) suggested: to open up the PC and clear it up, as I had already run my antivirus, malwarebytes and a couple of other 'disinfectant' programs, and came up with only a couple of medium threats.

So anyway, when I opened the PC there didn't seem to be a lot of crap in there. The CPU was the most clogged up one, so I gave that a through clean up and...

Well, the issue is kinda sorted now... xD

I wouldn't have even guessed, as it's a relatively new PC and the dust build-up wasn't that big at all, but it seems that it might have been like you said - the system just decided to lower the performance in general, because the rest of my heavy software (Photoshop, Premier) that I use regularly is working better too.

So yeah, thanks for that hint. And thanks for your help everyone! :3

Don't mention it. I'm glad to hear that the issue was solved by getting the dust out. Usually if the tricks mentioned above proves no effect, i start to take backups of the most important files, and get ready to wipe the whole system clean and do a fresh install.

I used to do dust cleaning monthly, until i upgraded to watercooling. I still do regular maintenance every 6 months or so, but it's mainly related to changing the water and seeing there's no signs of corrososion or leaks. After that i just take an pressurized can of air and gently blow the interiors clean.

It's funny how i sometimes get some weird looks when i tell someone to clean out their PC's interiors, especially if they have pets, as they seem sceptical that'd be the issue. But, i guess times change, and the proper cooling seems to be a major issue these days.