Video Card Savvy

Hey all, I wanted to toss this out to the community and see if any of you tech savvy peeps can gimme a suggestion.

I'm running the game on windows 10 64 with an Intel Core i5-2500 CPU @ 3.3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

Can anyone give me an idea of what I might upgrade to get the biggest bang for the buck? I was thinking of just getting a new video card but I'm not if anything else needs attention. What I want is to play the game well on high graphics but it doesn't have to be max settings as long as I know I got a good deal on an excellent piece of equipment. Thanks in advance.

Depends on your budget. Saying you want bag for the buck means you want something in the mid range with good performance. I would recommend an Nvidia GTX1060 6gb or an AMD RX480 8gb.

If you're in the US you can go for a RX 480 8gb, it's very good for the price it has, outside of US it costs more so it makes it not worth it, a gtx 1070 has an higehr price but outside of the us we're talking about a minimal difference and a 1070 is going to last you a long time and will allow you to play everything at good level; I personally wouldn't go for the 1060, is cheaper yes but as bang for the buck gtx1070 seems the best one on the market.

Your processor is solid. At this point I think your best bet is a new graphics card. A GTX 970 is a good card and not nearly as pricey as the 1070 mentioned above. Though it's one generation older, it would still be a huge upgrade for you and can run games easily. You'd basically have the same build my husband has at that point, and he can play any MMO at max settings.

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Originally Posted by Naunet

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This is also a good point, a 970 would be excellent and would come fairly cheaper. the reason I am suggesting a 1070 is because being of the current generation is probably going to last you much longer and I believe that is a good investment. Again if you're in the US I would still go for an aftermarket RX480 (better coolers solve some overheating problems the factory version has) and it has better performance than the 970 and is VR ready. A case can be done for the 980 and 980Ti, you could find them on the cheap and even tho they are also a generation older they should last you longer as they have higher performance than a 970.
My base reasoning is that considered your current card you don't like to upgrade often I assume, so getting something that won't need an upgrade for a longer time should be the best way to spend your money.

Biggest bang for your buck on a budget I'd recommend a Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 or an AMD Radeon RX 480, or a GTX 1070 if you can afford it. They are fairly budget friendly and can run the game no problem. A 1060 performs about as well as a previous gen GTX 970.

Also the GTX 1080 got a price drop to $500 because the 1080ti is coming out, but if you get a 1080 you might as well build a new rig because of CPU bottlenecking.

That said: Your CPU should be good enough to easily push 60fps at the settings those GPUs can push out (my GTX 970 can easily push ~60-100FPS @ 1920x1080 with max settings depending on model/effect population density on screen). The i5 2500 might be a bit of a bottleneck on the FPS for other more CPU intensive games, but it should be at the very least able to push a steady 60 for XIV.

Thank you everyone for all the responses. You guys and gals nailed it. I want solid to high performance (on ffxiv which shouldn't be asking too much) above all and I think that's what you recommended. I'll be looking for deals on 1060s and 1070s and go from there. Thanks again, see you all ingame.

1050 TI would surely already net you 60 fps at 1080p, 1060 would probabl net you 60 fps at 1440p, 1070 would probably net you like 100 fps at 1440p.

But then again they scale a little with games, i think there's a benchmark coming for 4.0 soon, right? Might be worth holding out for that.

IMO, dropping a mid to high end GPU on an ancient motherboard with a first gen PCI Express x16 slot is not a great idea.

I can vouch for the 970s as stated above. I ran with one for a long while until I converted to 4K and it just couldn't handle that resolution above 30 FPS and I had to switch to a 1080. Most of the 1000 series will give you solid performance in the 1920 x 1200 to 2K range so that's a safe bet and will do a bit of future proofing, but if you have any prospects of 4K gaming (and let me tell you that it's gorgeous) then you want to stick to the higher end of at least a 1070 if not a 1080.

I had the 970 and it ran the game at 45 fps on average unless i was in a dungeon and then it was 60+(though i capped it).
In Idyllshire with lots of people it would drop to the 20s. I wanted the best graphics possible for ffxiv and a stable 60fps so i upgraded to a new pc with an i7,water cooled, and the GTX1080 card. I dont ever lag on any setting, so far at least. absolutely capped at all times to 60fps and doesnt budge. The thing doesnt even get warm..

That said, if you dont mind fps dipping here and there, then 970 is fully capable of max graphics if you have decent cooling in your rig. (i had bad cooling in my gtx970 computer/the older pc)
I honestly recommend the "one-up"(gtx1070) to be honest. It will probably have the best fps on max settings for the cheapest price. The 1080 is overkill imo unless you want to play more graphically demanding titles.

If it doesnt get full 60 fps id bet money that it would be a unnoticeable that it was less.

At Christmas I went from a 560ti to a 1060 and it was like night and day. Even with my aging processor I could run the game at max settings and pull 60+ FPS anywhere but cities and that's with it sitting in just a PCI-E2 x16 slot.

I upgraded to a GTX1060 6gb recently and it's an amazing card for the price and overkill for FFXIV. Most any modern card is now, since FFXIV, while pretty, keeps a very modest asset budget... as most MMOs do. Even my older 760 GTX was keeping 30 FPS on maxed FFXIV at 1080p. Of course, you probably want to some play other games (lookin at you Conan Exiles), and 1060 should keep up for a couple years.

If you don't have a solid state hard drive (SSD) yet, you might consider budgeting for one eventually. A decent 512gb SSD should run ~$150. That will make everything you do snappy (no HD seek times), including loading screens. I usually only see loading screens flicker by now. I've heard horror stories about minutes spent loading in Idyllshire, but for me it's only ever taken a second.

Well I went out and dropped a thousand dollars on a new laptop.

It has a GeForce 900 or something of that nature. I'd have to look to know the specifics. My old Laptop had an ATI card and could play the game, but not at full settings.

I decided to do that after the first week of play. The new one is capable of running the game at full settings with 30-60 FPS... well unless you get a ton of players on the screen at once, then it slows down. And the screen is much larger.

It does run hot after about 6-8 hours of play though then I'll start to notice a slowdown... so I leave the game for about 15 minutes and then let it cool and everything is just fine.

I just answered a similar question on Reddit, so I'll just copy-paste my answer here, it should apply to you:

"With Stormblood coming and my old GTX 670 suddenly becoming not enough according to the minimum specs released a couple of weeks ago, I bought a 6 Gig GTX 1060, and can easily play the game on max setting, with 72 people in the diadem all trying to do the emergency event, with spells flying and skills flashing all at the same time, and never dip below 55 fps (1080p). [...]"

Very affordable at around 250$ (well, 340 with tax, but that's in Canadiana dollahs), and more than enough if you're satisfied with 1080p resolution, could probably run the game very well at 1440p.

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti just came out and if you want the best that you can buy get that card. If you want something cheaper just get a gtx 970

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Originally Posted by Elixirboy

IMO, dropping a mid to high end GPU on an ancient motherboard with a first gen PCI Express x16 slot is not a great idea.

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Didn't notice any mention of the motherboard OP is using, I am just assuming is something ok. If not yeah probably change that too, but in the end an H270 comes on the cheap and I don't think we're looking at any overclocking here.

Ok, so taking everything you guys have said into consideration, this is what I'm looking at;

1 × Intel Core i5-7500 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 BX80677I57500 Desktop Processor

1 × ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 ATX Motherboard with onboard AC Wifi and USB 3.1

1 x XFX Radeon RX 480 DirectX 12 RX480M8BFA6 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

1 x SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E250B/AM


Does this configuration work together?

BTW, this is the other parts of my pc;


1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 650D (CC650DW-1) Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Case

1 x ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9

1 x SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM2 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC ...

Thanks all.

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Originally Posted by Riverwulf

Ok, so taking everything you guys have said into consideration, this is what I'm looking at;

1 × Intel Core i5-7500 3.4 GHz LGA 1151 BX80677I57500 Desktop Processor

1 × ASUS ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI DVI M.2 ATX Motherboard with onboard AC Wifi and USB 3.1

1 x XFX Radeon RX 480 DirectX 12 RX480M8BFA6 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

1 x SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E250B/AM


Does this configuration work together?

BTW, this is the other parts of my pc;


1 x Corsair Obsidian Series 650D (CC650DW-1) Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Case

1 x ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9

1 x SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM2 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC ...

Thanks all.

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I dont think your RAM will work, I believe the MOBO (Motherboard) you have picked only accepts 288-pin while that RAM is a 240-pin. Although you did list a second MOBO down below, on purpose or accident? If that's your old PC then yeah your old MOBO and RAM are happy together of course since that MOBO has 240-pins.

Also I just threw this together so you can have fun with it: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nWqrnn make sure it's accurately picked parts if you're going to rely on it though~ (edit this part list top right of the list).

GTX 1000 series basically destroys on all of its predecessors and was surprisingly cheap even when released. I wouldn't even look at anything prior to it.

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Originally Posted by Riverwulf

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If you're not going to do any SLI or overclocking you can go for a cheaper motherboard, as for the SSD I would suggest the m.2 version, that's more personal preference, the difference in performance is nearly non existant

I had both a 1060 and a 1070. IF you're only upgrading the GPU, then go with the 1060, but if you're going to set up a new rig, go with the 1070, unless money is no object then get a 1080ti. 1060 runs 1080p really nicely and I have the 1070 now and play on my 55" 4k TV in 4k @ 75-90fps with some of the settings turned down but it's the less noticeable stuff. I typically cap it at 60 though, and only get small drops from time to time in certain dungeons or hunts.