GPU Question

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12-27-2014, 05:28 PM
SweDDishB

GPU Question

I read that in the future there are going to be some graphical updates to FFXIV, and its got me thinking I finally need to bite the bullet and upgrade my GTX 480. Currently I'm playing on a 1440p monitor and I'm not even close to maxing out the settings.

I would love to be able to run the game on higher settings and see the world of FFXIV at its best. What card would I need to max the settings now and when they implement the graphical update in the near future? I was looking at a GTX 970. Would that get the job done on a 1440p monitor?
12-27-2014, 05:55 PM
Krindor

It will probably be enough. The 970 is one of the cards with the best cost/performance and I recommend you to get it, even if it doesn't max out at 1440p the next in line is 980 which is close to double the price and 2 970s are therefore a better choice. So start with 1 970 and if that is not enough get another if your budget allows it.

But considering that your GPU is a 480 the CPU might also be in need of an upgrade, but test out with getting one 970 first and depending on where the FPS is lying around you might wanna consider upgrading the CPU.
12-27-2014, 06:05 PM
Raist

I'm gonna hold out until we see the DX11 update released. It's going to unlock some performance enhancements for a lot of systems (quad cores, 64-bit... DX9 doesn't take full advantage of resources available in a lot of systems). Some may find things get considerably smoother when they finally put it out there.
12-27-2014, 06:09 PM
Vorpal_Spork

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krindor

It will probably be enough. The 970 is one of the cards with the best cost/performance and I recommend you to get it, even if it doesn't max out at 1440p the next in line is 980 which is close to double the price and 2 970s are therefore a better choice. So start with 1 970 and if that is not enough get another if your budget allows it.

But considering that your GPU is a 480 the CPU might also be in need of an upgrade, but test out with getting one 970 first and depending on where the FPS is lying around you might wanna consider upgrading the CPU.

SLI/Crossfire are only really worth it for insane resolution multiple monitor setups. Otherwise a single, more powerful GPU is better. On a single monitor you're setting yourself up to have to deal with sketchy or no SLI/Crossfire support in some games, microstutter and diminishing returns for no real reason.
12-27-2014, 06:31 PM
SweDDishB

Ty for the responses, I appreciate the feedback. Is anyone maxing the game right now on a single card in 1440p? Would a 970 max the current settings in 1440p? I currently have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @3.20 GHz and installed memory (RAM) 12.0 GB. Looking to hopefully purchase a single card but nothing insane like a GTX Titan or anything in that realm.
12-27-2014, 06:51 PM
Krindor

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vorpal_Spork

SLI/Crossfire are only really worth it for insane resolution multiple monitor setups. Otherwise a single, more powerful GPU is better. On a single monitor you're setting yourself up to have to deal with sketchy or no SLI/Crossfire support in some games, microstutter and diminishing returns for no real reason.

Considering his name he is clearly Swedish, the current price for a gtx 970 is 2800 kr while the price for a gtx 980 is 5100kr 2x 970 is 5600 which is only 500kr more than one 980, so for less than 10% more of the price of one he gets about 40% more performance and considering we currently don't know how a 970/980 works at 1440p in dx11 it's better to start out with one cheaper GPU as if it works a better one is wasted. The only reason to get a 980 is if there's a lack of PCI slots or choosing between 3x 970 or 2x 980.

But this is of course depending on how well the dx11 version will handle sli.
12-27-2014, 06:56 PM
Lexxuk

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweDDishB

Ty for the responses, I appreciate the feedback. Is anyone maxing the game right now on a single card in 1440p? Would a 970 max the current settings in 1440p? I currently have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @3.20 GHz and installed memory (RAM) 12.0 GB. Looking to hopefully purchase a single card but nothing insane like a GTX Titan or anything in that realm.

I have the 970 with everything set to max and no issues, some areas my FPS is over 100, others it'll drop down to 30. At 720p recording my friends wedding the FPS never dropped below 60 (I had locked the framerate with Fraps).
12-27-2014, 07:10 PM
Riardon

I'm playing with a GTX970 on a 144hz monitor at 2560x1440 with an average of 100fps everything maxed out. So you get the picture. For a 1080p at 60hz monitor a GTX970 is an overkill for this game.
12-28-2014, 03:11 AM
SweDDishB

Thank you Riardon that's what I was wanting to hear. I'm going to go with the 970. Maybe I'm wont be able to max settings after the DirectX11 update but it will be much better than what I currently have. And the 970 is the price range I was trying to stay in so that's a big plus to the wallet.
12-28-2014, 03:43 AM
KitanaiKoneko

You could also hold out a bit until AMD's 300 series comes out and see what their cost is.
12-28-2014, 05:26 AM
Deli

here: my desktop i7-4790, ASUS H87M-E, 12GB 1600 RAM, ASUS GTX970 4GB

I can't find 1440p, so I just do the 2715x1527 (@@:??) max everything with Nvidia experience setting

@ quiet area: 52-58FPS
http://i.imgur.com/x8LKqiY.jpg

@ mor dhona 34-43 FPS
http://i.imgur.com/uDNoxg3.jpg

I used to use i5-760 with my this ASUS gtx970, but @ mor dhona is around 23-36 FPS, so maybe you need to consider the CPU too... might be bottlenecked by it...
12-28-2014, 05:57 AM
raelgun

Highly populated areas will always yield low FPS, but you will get 60 FPS at 1440 at pretty much anywhere with that gpu, if your cpu is weak, you may still need to tone down the shadows and physics, this isn't a physX game.

Btw to the person doing recordings, get DXtory instead, FRAPs just eats hardware no matter what you have and its quality isnt far off from it.

Wait til end of jan for prices to drop as AMD new gpus are coming out, still get the 970 because it seems SE have done optimisation with Nvidia first.
12-28-2014, 06:03 AM
MiniTofu

Someone said it doesn't max out?

GTX970 is relative close performance as GTXTITAN, I will have to tell you it will maxed out at 2560x1440. Average 80FPS, 100FPS outside world map and in MD with a lot of players around 35FPS.
12-28-2014, 06:06 AM
MiniTofu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexxuk

I have the 970 with everything set to max and no issues, some areas my FPS is over 100, others it'll drop down to 30. At 720p recording my friends wedding the FPS never dropped below 60 (I had locked the framerate with Fraps).

Please don't use FRAPS, look up OBS, that's the next generation game recording. You can record at 1440p at 60FPS+ with your GTX970 using NVENC. Even 4K. Only 1-5 FPS drops.
12-28-2014, 06:11 AM
raelgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiniTofu

Please don't use FRAPS, look up OBS, that's the next generation game recording. You can record at 1440p at 60FPS+ with your GTX970 using NVENC. Even 4K. Only 1-5 FPS drops.

NVENC is low quality which is why it has such a low FPS hit though the GPU processing can help with that, if you want close to FRAPS like quality then you want DXtory, though to record FF14 at 60 FPS, you do need a beefier CPU, but Youtube either does, high quality 30 fps or downgraded quality at 60 FPS for non content creators.

Ive used bandicam, OBS, Fraps, shadowplay and out of those DXtory has the best performance/quality ratio.
12-28-2014, 07:00 AM
Skyl1n3

I use an R9 290 and even at 4K it isn't that bad, at 1080p it breezes it and I only paid £180 for it.
12-28-2014, 07:28 AM
Lexxuk

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiniTofu

Please don't use FRAPS, look up OBS, that's the next generation game recording. You can record at 1440p at 60FPS+ with your GTX970 using NVENC. Even 4K. Only 1-5 FPS drops.

I *could* except my monitor only goes up to 1050, and can't really replace the monitor easily as it's a 120hz 3D Vision one. Only used FRAPS to record a friends wedding though, I generally don't record stuff but I'll have a gander at em for my weddin (3360x2100 ;) )
12-28-2014, 10:26 AM
raelgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexxuk

I *could* except my monitor only goes up to 1050, and can't really replace the monitor easily as it's a 120hz 3D Vision one. Only used FRAPS to record a friends wedding though, I generally don't record stuff but I'll have a gander at em for my weddin (3360x2100 ;) )

I bet if you bought a 21:9 IPS screen that will change your mind :P.

All 120hz are TN panels which I will never go back to.
12-29-2014, 12:39 PM
Xoriam

I'm currently running this setup.

Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming @1567/1880
intel Xeon x5660 @4,2ghz (6 cores 12threads, I actually turn off hyperthreading when playing FFXIV to recieve a boost in FPS. FFXIV likes more cores, but dislikes hyperthreading)
Asus rampage iii motherboard
12gb corsair dominator
Crucial MX100 SSD

Recording with Nvidia shadowplay i get 0 fps loss.
I can play at record even at 4k resolution at 60fps. (FXAA turned off because it's unneeded past 1080)
12-29-2014, 12:46 PM
MiniTofu

Quote:

Originally Posted by raelgun

NVENC is low quality which is why it has such a low FPS hit though the GPU processing can help with that, if you want close to FRAPS like quality then you want DXtory, though to record FF14 at 60 FPS, you do need a beefier CPU, but Youtube either does, high quality 30 fps or downgraded quality at 60 FPS for non content creators.

Ive used bandicam, OBS, Fraps, shadowplay and out of those DXtory has the best performance/quality ratio.

NVENC on GTX900 series are not low quality, my TITAN has an older NVENC chip, the quality at 50Mbps is decent. It doesn't have much performance impact because it fetch the information from the buffer on a separated encoding chip. This is why the GTX700 series can only max at 1440p at 30FPS while the GTX900 has a newer encoding chip enable to record at 4k @ 60FPS and 1440p @ 60FPS.

I have OBS, FRAPS, Bandicam, Shadowplay, DXTory all purchased or owned. including Miriilis Action!. I've done hours of countless recording between all those softwares.

Running on 3930k, testing X264 is not a problem at all.
12-29-2014, 12:49 PM
Xoriam

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiniTofu

NVENC on GTX900 series are not low quality, my TITAN has an older NVENC chip, the quality at 50Mbps is decent. It doesn't have much performance impact because it fetch the information from the buffer on a separated encoding chip. This is why the GTX700 series can only max at 1440p at 30FPS while the GTX900 has a newer encoding chip enable to record at 4k @ 60FPS and 1440p @ 60FPS.

I have OBS, FRAPS, Bandicam, Shadowplay, DXTory all purchased or owned. including Miriilis Action!. I've done hours of countless recording between all those softwares.

On maxwell (9xx) if you select 4k resolution for recording in shadowplay you can actually record at 130mbps now.
12-29-2014, 12:52 PM
MiniTofu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xoriam

On maxwell (9xx) if you select 4k resolution for recording in shadowplay you can actually record at 130mbps now.

Good to know. :D Shadowplay on GTX7xx can only record at 50Mbps. The only way for me to push it higher is to use OBS with NVENC at 100Mbps+
12-29-2014, 06:34 PM
Kewitt

If you can wait till 3.0 comes out. DX11 will change a lot of these numbers.
Also other Cards will likely be released along with newer drivers.
12-29-2014, 07:15 PM
SweDDishB

Is there a time frame on when the DX11 update will be released? Will it be at the same time as the expansion?
12-30-2014, 12:07 AM
raelgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiniTofu

NVENC on GTX900 series are not low quality, my TITAN has an older NVENC chip, the quality at 50Mbps is decent. It doesn't have much performance impact because it fetch the information from the buffer on a separated encoding chip. This is why the GTX700 series can only max at 1440p at 30FPS while the GTX900 has a newer encoding chip enable to record at 4k @ 60FPS and 1440p @ 60FPS.

I have OBS, FRAPS, Bandicam, Shadowplay, DXTory all purchased or owned. including Miriilis Action!. I've done hours of countless recording between all those softwares.

Running on 3930k, testing X264 is not a problem at all.

50 Mbps at 60 FPS isnt very good, thats the equivalent to 25Mbps at 30 FPS in terms of quality.

100Mbps 60 FPS is equivalent to 30 FPS at 50 Mbps, DXtory at 30 FPS is 100 Mbps, lagirith is 200 Mbps at 30 FPS.

Granted DXtory is pretty hard to record at 60 FPS with those bitrates, but the quality is pretty high and its CBR.

Sorry but the math says otherwise, nice to know Nvidia are improving the chip though was wondering if they would do that or not.

I will give that shadowplay lets me play the games at 60 FPS at 50 Mbps while recording 60 FPS, but the quality is worlds apart to the 100 Mbps DXtory at 30 FPS, also youtube... you have to pick one over the other sadly.

I should add, DXtory lets you record at 30 FPS while gaming at 60 FPS so theres no fixed locking unless you want to.
12-31-2014, 12:39 AM
Turin

Quote:

Originally Posted by SweDDishB

Ty for the responses, I appreciate the feedback. Is anyone maxing the game right now on a single card in 1440p? Would a 970 max the current settings in 1440p? I currently have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @3.20 GHz and installed memory (RAM) 12.0 GB. Looking to hopefully purchase a single card but nothing insane like a GTX Titan or anything in that realm.

I have a 1080p monitor with the GTX 460 and can play on maximum settings. I have the i5 3570k processor. I've been looking at the GTX 970 G1 Gaming card lately, but not sure if I want to get it now or wait since I can already play the game at max settings. If you can't play at max, I'd say go for it since the GTX 970 is a great deal.