6950 Performance

Kk... So finally got my friends to get there money up and purchase rigs.. so i figured we should give FFXIV a shot... I sold my old card to a friend (5770) and Upgraded mine to a 6950 Twin Frozr II OC. Now from what I've read its an impressive card and also i've bench marked it a couple of times on heaven I've gotten up to 60FPS with the default settings. However once i play FFXIV i get about 30FPS-36FPS... in non populated areas its just me and a few billy goats..lol. I've seen people on this forum claim to get 60FPS with max and 8AA..

My settings are as follow

Max on everything.
No AA
No DoF/Ao

Also my card is clocked to 940/1400...

Did you update the drivers?

Fullscreen mode?

General Drawing Quality <<<< Do not maximize this option

try 8 (Standard)

Set General Draw Quality no higher than 8 (9 and 10 will not increase quality, and setting it to 8 may free up enough GPU resources that you can turn on max AA and still get a performance boost if GDQ was set over 8). Full screen mode is faster. Make sure you have the latest windows updates as well as the latest video drivers. Other than the basics, can't offer much until you post your specs and settings in FF (can get both from the FF Config utility).

Would need your CPU too cuse if that is out dated, no matter what graphics card you have it cant process quickly enough.

I have a 5770 and I run 60fps lol. 40+ crowded, i could turn of 8AA and it'd be smoother but meh

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Originally Posted by Coldfire

Fullscreen mode?

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No.. Makes difference? will try
..kk tried just now.. i'm getting 21-31fps now.. = [

And yes i just got this card maybe... 4 days ago.. and i downloaded the drivers from the site asap!

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...ykeh/video.png

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/i...eavenbench.png
i72600k
Side note i'm running on Water with an OC of 4.5GHZ.. temps go no higher than 60 under fulllll load.

And wow thanks guys wasn't expecting so fast replies great help so far!

I have a 6950 and get 60FPS in the field and around 40FPS in Ul'dah. Got my setting on high apart from Drawing Quality 8, DoF and AO off.

oh and it's running 840/1350 on the card.

I run two 5970's in crossfire, of course nothing beats this setup so ya 60FPS everything max.

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Originally Posted by origamikitsune

Set General Draw Quality no higher than 8 (9 and 10 will not increase quality, and setting it to 8 may free up enough GPU resources that you can turn on max AA and still get a performance boost if GDQ was set over 8). Full screen mode is faster. Make sure you have the latest windows updates as well as the latest video drivers. Other than the basics, can't offer much until you post your specs and settings in FF (can get both from the FF Config utility).

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This was the winner!
Thanks it works now im getting 55-60FPS with the goats. (haven't tried AA)
Geesh.. Why is that setting so demanding its almost worse than Ao...
Out of curiosity anybody running AO.. remember when i got my Limited copy everyone i ran into couldn't run it.. it was known to be "super buggy" this is my first time on the game since Limited Edition launch so i assume its actually do able now... And last but not least kinda set back that the clicking out of the game makes it crash thing? Remember when i was at comic-con i asked the community manager if that was getting fixed and he said yeah should be soon.. lol well its almost a year from than? is there anything i could do to get around this?
Thanks in advance and thanks for all the help thus far like i said wasn't expecting the replies so fast am truly grateful!

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Originally Posted by Masturshake

This was the winner!
Thanks it works now im getting 55-60FPS with the goats. (haven't tried AA)
Geesh.. Why is that setting so demanding its almost worse than Ao...
Out of curiosity anybody running AO.. remember when i got my Limited copy everyone i ran into couldn't run it.. it was known to be "super buggy" this is my first time on the game since Limited Edition launch so i assume its actually do able now... And last but not least kinda set back that the clicking out of the game makes it crash thing? Remember when i was at comic-con i asked the community manager if that was getting fixed and he said yeah should be soon.. lol well its almost a year from than? is there anything i could do to get around this?
Thanks in advance and thanks for all the help thus far like i said wasn't expecting the replies so fast am truly grateful!

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Running the frame buffer at double your resolution cuts your frame rates in half... go figure

Im just messing with you... enjoy the new card

Don't think it's just a problem with the framebuffer size. SE really needs to optimize this stuff xD

Yeh its known issue the game is unoptimized, but even still that GFX should of not been doing 30fps haha, lest you figured it out, the frame buffer matters a lot, if you was on like 1080p and doubled it you'd be having a 4k/2k res which is pointless imo, if you was running at like 720p and doubled it, it could probably handle it better as it'd just be a resized 1080p.

Hey guys while i still have this thread on front page..
Let me get everything out the way lol..
So my FPS is great now.. but i get little jitters here and there as well as a little screen tearing.. Solutions? i hear v-sync fixes this? will it demand more from my card.. also i read that jittering is from HD for what its worth im running on a OCZ vertex II 120GB

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Originally Posted by Masturshake

Hey guys while i still have this thread on front page..
Let me get everything out the way lol..
So my FPS is great now.. but i get little jitters here and there as well as a little screen tearing.. Solutions? i hear v-sync fixes this? will it demand more from my card.. also i read that jittering is from HD for what its worth im running on a OCZ vertex II 120GB

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Well now that you have fixed the GDQ problem.. Now you can run windowed... at least I would... that could fix your issues...
And yea Premium V, The game is so unoptimized...

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Well now that you have fixed the GDQ problem.. Now you can run windowed... at least I would... that could fix your issues...
And yea Premium V, The game is so unoptimized...

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So you're saying windows will stopp my tearing / jitters?
Alright i'll give her a try..

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Originally Posted by Masturshake

So you're saying windows will stopp my tearing / jitters?
Alright i'll give her a try..

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I know people have reported a lot less glitches in windowed mode as opposed to full screen

Now that you got your drawing quality sorted out, turn your AA back on and max it out. It won't affect your performance.

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Originally Posted by Neptune

Now that you got your drawing quality sorted out, turn your AA back on and max it out. It won't affect your performance.

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Yeah i went on ahead and did that ahh feelsgood.. see this is what i was expecting from a GPU upgrade lol.
Well now i feel pretty confident that i can max out all the mmo's to come
Tera/GW2/B&S

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Originally Posted by Masturshake

Yeah i went on ahead and did that ahh feelsgood.. see this is what i was expecting from a GPU upgrade lol.
Well now i feel pretty confident that i can max out all the mmo's to come
Tera/GW2/B&S

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Yep you are set. Makes me kind of feel bad for newcomers to the game that would assume they could max drawing quality. When the game was released it didn't have that setting so when it came out we all quickly found out it was bs. But new players like you don't have that luxury. The luxury of quickly detecting SE's bs. lol.

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Originally Posted by Neptune

Yep you are set. Makes me kind of feel bad for newcomers to the game that would assume they could max drawing quality. When the game was released it didn't have that setting so when it came out we all quickly found out it was bs. But new players like you don't have that luxury. The luxury of quickly detecting SE's bs. lol.

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It's always had the setting, but it was under a different name. I forgot what it was called, though.

you NEED you processor past 3.4ghz or have a SSD with ffxiv on it cuz it loads a tons of crap video card helps alittle but its mainly how fast you system can load to your ram. SSD you will get beyond 60fps

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Originally Posted by Masturshake

Yeah i went on ahead and did that ahh feelsgood.. see this is what i was expecting from a GPU upgrade lol.
Well now i feel pretty confident that i can max out all the mmo's to come
Tera/GW2/B&S

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your new video card should probably overkill all the mmo's in next few years except Final Fantasy Fourteen

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Originally Posted by indira

you NEED you processor past 3.4ghz or have a SSD with ffxiv on it cuz it loads a tons of crap video card helps alittle but its mainly how fast you system can load to your ram. SSD you will get beyond 60fps

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My Q6600 @ stock 2.4GHz runs this game just as well as my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz, both under GTX 480's and SSD (never drops below 60 FPS outside of town, and never drops below 50 FPS in town). Overclocking my Q6600 to 3.2GHz makes maybe a 3-5 FPS difference. Not even worth the extra CPU temps as it doesn't even go past 60% usage stock.

So no, you don't NEED to run your CPU past 3.4GHz. You do NEED at least a Quad Core if you're using a GTX 460 or better GPU. You also do need an SSD if you don't want to stutter around town, so I'll agree with that. That was actually probably my biggest upgrade. From a 7200 RPM HDD to an SSD is like day and night in terms of game performance, and gave the absolute largest performance gain by far.

-- First system --

Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz
4GB G.Skill DDR2
GTX 480
1TB 7200 RPM HDD

FPS min-max: 40-60, with periodic stutter to around 15 FPS in Ul'dah.
With SSD: 51-60, no stutter.

-- Second system --

i7 920 @ 4.0 GHz
8GB G.Skill DDR3
GTX 480
1TB 7200 RPM HDD

FPS min-max: 45-60, with periodic stutters to around 15 FPS in Ul'dah.
With SSD: 53-60, no stutter.

For anyone with an ATI/AMD card, I would also give this a try. I've still got a 5770 myself, which I'm planning to upgrade around the end of summer, and this boosted my FPS by about 10-15 or so:

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Originally Posted by InuraBera

Just as a point of interest for anyone using an AMD/ATI graphics card.

I recently picked up the latest drivers for my card (In the AMD Radeon HD6900 series running on Windows 7 64-bit), along with the 'patch' released to help out with Brink and various other issues. Since installing these, along with fixing Brink (the program I originally installed it for) Final Fantasy XIV also runs a lot faster and quieter, not entirely sure about heat however.

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloa...win7-64.aspx#1 is the driver page
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...15ahotfix.aspx is the hotfix page.

At the very least, it may help out some of you for the moment. Along with that, I have found the game has been running better after certain patches and such, though that may just be placebo.

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EDIT: Just realized that the hotfix was originally for 11.5. Not sure whether or not it was included in 11.6 as well. My bad! I'll do some more research and get back to you!

EDIT 2: Seems like the fixes were included in the 11.6 release as well. So if you have the latest drivers, you should be good to go. Carry on! :p

Interesting. I've been running an SSD since day 1; I didn't realize it made that much of a difference. I figured it would only help out with between-zone loading screens.

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Originally Posted by Evangela

your new video card should probably overkill all the mmo's in next few years except Final Fantasy Fourteen

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Most definitely, FFXIV is the new EQII. I've been playing the Extended server the last week since I upgraded to a GTX 580, and with everything on max I get an average of 35-48fps. For an MMO thats nearly 7yrs old, and with one of the best GPUs on the market, I was expecting a solid 60+, but ah well...not bad.

You'll have no problems playing the next generation of MMOs starting this fall, cause while SE doesn't quite understand it, many others do ~ its all about accessibility. Why do ya think WoW has so many subs {PCs that are a decade old can run it fine}, but anyway, you're set for the next 2-3yrs easy!

GW also runs on very old PCs and is super successful. Well FFXIV will appear on PS3 and that's what they put all their hopes on. But imho the PS3 is a disaster itself xD

I don't know if this has been posted, but I did this to two of my 6950s and it was pretty awesome.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/159

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Originally Posted by Heoki

I don't know if this has been posted, but I did this to two of my 6950s and it was pretty awesome.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...ng/vidcard/159

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Don't you lose the warranty if you flash your video bios? <.<

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Originally Posted by Neptune

Interesting. I've been running an SSD since day 1; I didn't realize it made that much of a difference. I figured it would only help out with between-zone loading screens.

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It's due to Square's inability to utilize buffering properly, so we're forced to frontload a huge amount of data, which causes stuttering and frame loss. The SSD fixes this because it can actually read the data fast enough. Of course, you need fast enough RAM to keep up with the SSD and handle the data coming in. But most non-generic DDR3 RAM can do it easily. DDR2 is a little more selective, but it's fairly minor.

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Originally Posted by Capita

My Q6600 @ stock 2.4GHz runs this game just as well as my i7 920 @ 4.0GHz, both under GTX 480's and SSD (never drops below 60 FPS outside of town, and never drops below 50 FPS in town). Overclocking my Q6600 to 3.2GHz makes maybe a 3-5 FPS difference. Not even worth the extra CPU temps as it doesn't even go past 60% usage stock.

So no, you don't NEED to run your CPU past 3.4GHz. You do NEED at least a Quad Core if you're using a GTX 460 or better GPU. You also do need an SSD if you don't want to stutter around town, so I'll agree with that. That was actually probably my biggest upgrade. From a 7200 RPM HDD to an SSD is like day and night in terms of game performance, and gave the absolute largest performance gain by far.

-- First system --

Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz
4GB G.Skill DDR2
GTX 480
1TB 7200 RPM HDD

FPS min-max: 40-60, with periodic stutter to around 15 FPS in Ul'dah.
With SSD: 51-60, no stutter.

-- Second system --

i7 920 @ 4.0 GHz
8GB G.Skill DDR3
GTX 480
1TB 7200 RPM HDD

FPS min-max: 45-60, with periodic stutters to around 15 FPS in Ul'dah.
With SSD: 53-60, no stutter.

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that's very helpful!! thank you ^^

Yeah SSD has made a massive performance for me as well, since I got my new lappy I put the SSD in it from my PC, now XIV on my PC stutters so much on 7200rpm HDD! :3

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Originally Posted by leomax

Yeah SSD has made a massive performance for me as well, since I got my new lappy I put the SSD in it from my PC, now XIV on my PC stutters so much on 7200rpm HDD! :3

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Velociraptors (10,00 RPM0 and caviar blacks (64mb cache) help with this also... not nearly as much as an SSD but at a much more reasonable cost per gigabyte