Benchmark is telling us something...

Buy a ps4 :p
That's the impression I'm getting since it old CPUs are going to struggle so much

Wouldn't the natural course be to just... upgrade whatever parts are struggling?

Replacing a cpu isn't something a lot of us could do
And it's not just any part..it's the cpu that stormblood is really asking a lot of

My cpu is 3 gens old and my benchmark scores are higher than some people with newer processors. Its people who had crappy low end cpus from years ago that are struggling

It also seems it's telling us no more DX9.

The graphics didn't get any better, why is the performance so bad?

I've already bought a PS4 but I'll not be surprised if the experience to become a community joke like the PS3 was.

I have a PS4 Pro and am ready :D

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Originally Posted by Ririta

The graphics didn't get any better, why is the performance so bad?

I've already bought a PS4 but I'll not be surprised if the experience to become a community joke like the PS3 was.

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More stuff per scene.

Well my CPU is definitely very old now, but on the bright side hopefully middle of May I'll have a brand new computer <3

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Buy a ps4 :p
That's the impression I'm getting since it old CPUs are going to struggle so much

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It looks like it has a lot more to do with the GPU. I'm seeing a lot of really high Benchmark scores coming through that have lower-end CPUs paired with halfway decent GPUs, and lower scores from excellent CPUs paired with lower-end GPUs (read: my benchmark). CPUs haven't generally been a performance throttle for a long while, and most people with an i3 or an i5 will be able to get a very high score if they just upgrade their GPU to something from the current generation (e.g. Nvidia GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 470 are both cost-effective ways to get a really high score).

Of course it's another problem entirely if you're on a laptop (like me). My piddly 5000~ score probably won't last for the entire expansion, so an upgrade is very likely in order. I'm just glad MacBooks hold their value.

It's unfortunate that a lot of people need to upgrade their PC's for Stormblood, but this is also a bit of a wake up call since if you need to upgrade for this you'll need to for more modern games as well. Good thing I rebuilt my system a few months back.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Replacing a cpu isn't something a lot of us could do
And it's not just any part..it's the cpu that stormblood is really asking a lot of

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It's certainly a better investment than buying a whole PS4...

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Buy a ps4 :p
That's the impression I'm getting since it old CPUs are going to struggle so much

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No thanks, I'm not goin to wait for "ps4 limitations"

My 3 year old rig passed the SB benchmark with flying colors ... but I'm still going to upgrade :)

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Originally Posted by St0rmchild

No thanks, I'm not goin to wait for "ps4 limitations"

My 3 year old rig passed the SB benchmark with flying colors ... but I'm still going to upgrade :)

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Same. Will most likely upgrade my ram, cpu, and mobo this fall.

My computer is kinda dated but its still got enough muscle to pass for extremely high so not that bad I think.

Anything over 7k is icing on the cake. Take a look at the graph they provided

http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchm...n=na_benchmark

It's at the bottom, it has 3 negative, under 1k, 1k-1499, 1.5k-1999, with only under 1k being considered unplayable.

2 middle rating 2k-2499 and 2.5k-3499 which suggest it can be played at standard setting

And finally 3 top tier rankoing, 3.5k-4999, 5k-6999 and 7k+ which all state the game is easily playable with said specs.

So even though you might have a 5k rating and feel inadequate towards someone who scored 12k, don't, your rig is fine.

Outside of the graphics card I got early in the year most of my stuff is a few years old and I still managed to get a little over 10k on the benchmark,if you're struggling to reach high then it's time for a upgrade.

And here I thought PC was the master race....

*flame shields up!

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Originally Posted by dragonseth07

It's certainly a better investment than buying a whole PS4...

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Not necessarily, if they're going to struggle running 4.0 there is a huge possibility that anything new is likely going to be pushing their system to the breaking point. Also if you have a laptop you can't really upgrade the cpu as easily as you could as desktop, and if you're going to throw a new cpu into your rig, a new i7 you'll still be sitting at roughly 300-400 for it. Could get a later gen ya, but that's not something I would do.

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Originally Posted by Jetstream_Fox

Not necessarily, if they're going to struggle running 4.0 there is a huge possibility that anything new is likely going to be pushing their system to the breaking point. Also if you have a laptop you can't really upgrade the cpu as easily as you could as desktop, and if you're going to throw a new cpu into your rig, a new i7 you'll still be sitting at roughly 300-400 for it. Could get a later gen ya, but that's not something I would do.

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Yeah I'm with this too. I know you're just talking about CPU's here but I think with everyone that found out they needed to upgrade wouldn't need just a new a new CPU. They would need a graphics card, in which a decent one would run you about 200-400 dollars. If the machines are REALLY old, then they might need to get a new motherboard, new ram, etc. I spent about 1500 dollars building the computer I have right now and that was a little under 3 years ago. If it got to that point, I'd personally recommend just getting a PS4 if you don't care playing the game with high end hardware.

For the price of a PS4 you could buy a motherboard, new cpu and ram. If those aren't the parts that are struggling in your system you could just buy a GPU instead for the same price or less than the cost of a new PS4 system that will be powerful enough to play FFXIV.

PS4 = $299.99
PS4 Pro = $399.99

CPU - $189.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16819113436

Motherboard - $59.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16813132977

RAM - $59.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16820232512

Total: $309.97

Chances are your current GPU and Power Supply are still adequate enough unless it's a GPU that barely ever reached the minimum system requirements for ARR/SB to begin with and if that's the case there are affordable GPU's out there that are more than capable of running SB in the $90-$130 range. Re-use your case, PSU, system fans, hard drives, dvd drive to conserve money in the budget. Although a new case would only be $20-$30 more.

My rig is about 7 years old, the only new part in it is the 980 GTX Ti, scored a nice 13.5k on the benchmark. Seems its putting most of the strain on the GPU. I mean if someone is packing a 7 year old i3 then sure, they may need to upgrade but I have an old i7 CPU and it handled this just fine.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Replacing a cpu isn't something a lot of us could do
And it's not just any part..it's the cpu that stormblood is really asking a lot of

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A good CPU is cheaper than a PS4.

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Originally Posted by Nixxe

A good CPU is cheaper than a PS4.

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Pretty much any decent quad-core CPU released in the past 3-4 years should be fine and the new AMD Ryzen CPU's are in the budget friendly range. It's mostly the people on really old AMD CPU's and old intel i3's that seem to be getting the short straw here.

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Originally Posted by ToasterMan

Yeah I'm with this too. I know you're just talking about CPU's here but I think with everyone that found out they needed to upgrade wouldn't need just a new a new CPU. They would need a graphics card, in which a decent one would run you about 200-400 dollars. If the machines are REALLY old, then they might need to get a new motherboard, new ram, etc. I spent about 1500 dollars building the computer I have right now and that was a little under 3 years ago. If it got to that point, I'd personally recommend just getting a PS4 if you don't care playing the game with high end hardware.

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I've spent around 1800 on my pc and don't even use it for 14, since the only thing I've really noticed is it helps load times, graphically the game is pretty standard across the board since they don't have any hi res packs for the game. I have a pspro and it runs 14 just as well, and I would say is likely the better choice to run the game on.

Honestly I don't really see the need to use high end graphics on my pc either, it's great for show, but I started out on Quake, running the game low on graphics, forcing everyone to be blue or green in my settings so they pop out in the arena, made the game great. I'll even do that in Battlefield, think hiding in that dark corner is giving you an advantage? Let me tinker with my settings and that corner isn't so dark anymore lol.

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Originally Posted by StarRosie

My rig is about 7 years old, the only new part in it is the 980 GTX Ti, scored a nice 13.5k on the benchmark. Seems its putting most of the strain on the GPU. I mean if someone is packing a 7 year old i3 then sure, they may need to upgrade but I have an old i7 CPU and it handled this just fine.

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This is exactly my experience. CPU throttling isn't going to affect 90% of the population as much as GPU throttling, and picking up an RX480/580 will probably do MUCH more to help most users' experiences than upgrading a CPU.

It's only enthusiasts who are going to benefit from higher-grade hardware or super-high performance (read: people playing on 120hz+ monitors or at 2K+ resolutions). Most normal gamers at 60fps 1080/FHD won't see the benefit of anything above that 7000 mark.

...though I DO recommend considering upgrading your CPU. Building computers is fun, and we need more people doing it so I can have more people to geek out over hardware with.

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Originally Posted by seraf

Pretty much any decent quad-core CPU released in the past 3-4 years should be fine and the new AMD Ryzen CPU's are in the budget friendly range. It's mostly the people on really old AMD CPU's and old intel i3's that seem to be getting the short straw here.

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Seems right. When I did the bench mark I got around a little over 14000 and like I said my computer is a little under 3 years old. I wasn't running it at max settings though. It's just that when I upgrade something, I want to be sure that what I have can play any game that I would want to play. I'm always concerned about future proofing too. I don't want to have to go back frequently for upgrades because I find myself constantly getting left behind.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

This is exactly my experience. CPU throttling isn't going to affect 90% of the population as much as GPU throttling, and picking up an RX480/580 will probably do MUCH more to help most users' experiences than upgrading a CPU.

...though I DO recommend considering upgrading your CPU. Building computers is fun, and we need more people doing it so I can have more people to geek out over hardware with.

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Any of the FX processors will bottleneck a decent current GPU. Those things were and are garbage. Heck anything past the phenom II's to the current ryzen from AMD is garbage lol

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

...though I DO recommend considering upgrading your CPU. Building computers is fun, and we need more people doing it so I can have more people to geek out over hardware with.

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I don't know if this last part was pointed at me but...I agree, saving to do another large upgrade to future proof for another 7 years. Building PCs is fun as heck though! Most of my friends call on me to put all the PC parts they order into a fully functioning rig. I either get paid or given free food for it. It's nice. :>

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Originally Posted by Driavna

More stuff per scene.

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I see I see.

If your computer looks like this, then yes, you will struggle, if not, i don't think there will be any problem.

http://oldcomputers.net/pics/C64combo.jpg

I think the benchmark will probably cause my laptop to explode, currently vacationing and will be away from my PC for a week, I don't think my PC will have much trouble, GTX980 should be more than enough for solid results.

Or....hear me on this one, turn down useless graphic options.



Shadows,glare,terrain/grass,water effect alllll that garbage takes a lot of juice. with everything on i roughly got 6k, and when i turned off a bunch of garbage i went to 13k. Didn't upgrade my PC for 5years, so that's pretty good.

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Originally Posted by RubenSnizzle

Or....hear me on this one, turn down useless graphic options.



Shadows,glare,terrain/grass,water effect alllll that garbage takes a lot of juice. with everything on i roughly got 6k, and when i turned off a bunch of garbage i went to 13k. Didn't upgrade my PC for 5years, so that's pretty good.

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That's true, I kinda touched on this in a previous post. I used to do that when Quake was huge, in the settings I would change all enemy models to be one specific model, turn as much as I could down depending on the arena. Was fun when we'd Lan on school computers, all equal in tech, but my game ran better cause I tweaked everything. But most people don't think that way anymore, they want all that eye candy.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

My cpu is 3 gens old and my benchmark scores are higher than some people with newer processors. Its people who had crappy low end cpus from years ago that are struggling

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This.

My computer is barely in the top 41% of Gaming PCs with a i7 4790k and GTX970. And its likely going to run Stormblood at max settings at 60+FPS. My laptop will likely do even more (its a bit newer and has a full sized 1070 in it).

Expansions as anyone who's played WoW or EQ in the last 19 years can attest, will require you to upgrade throughout the years. Hell EQ won't even fit on the harddrive I originally installed it on. And it definitely won't run on just 128MB of RAM either (gets close to 2GB these days). Talk about needing major upgrades.

^ All graphics options do make a difference in how the benchmark runs/performs, plus looks. If you don't have the PC parts to see a difference, then yes, taking down unneeded options works. However, it really does make a difference once you have better hardware. I upgraded my Alienware PC's RAM, hard drive (to SSD), and graphics card earlier this month. Well worth it! Now my current game and the benchmark run fantastically.

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Originally Posted by Ghastly

Replacing a cpu isn't something a lot of us could do
And it's not just any part..it's the cpu that stormblood is really asking a lot of

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It's actually very simple to replace them once you know how. The hardest, most grueling part of dealing with a CPU is the thermal paste. It gets -e v e r y w h e r e-

I built my own computer from scratch after some research on what parts i needed and how they interacted with each other. (Because who wants to pay all that markup for crap parts?)

To replace a CPU, you need to first get a CPU compatible with your motherboard (if you don't intend to replace the motherboard as well, that is), then you need to remove the CPU cooler, then you just unstick the lever, lift it up, pop out the old one, slide in the new one, secure the lever again, apply thermal paste, and put cpu cooler back in after cleaning off all old thermal paste with high percentage rubbing alcohol (re-using old paste is like asking for an air bubble to overheat your CPU). Then you just close up the shop.

You could also probably pay a guy 20 bucks to do it if you are not comfortable doing it yourself.

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Originally Posted by Averax

Snip

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That or just buy a high quality aftermarket cooler with paste already on it. A good way to spread paste around is with a business card. Apply a small dab and spread it with the card. Add more as needed.

A good amount of aftermarket coolers are leaps and bounds better than stock and there are some motherboards out there that have an auto overclock feature that will make some use out of that better cooler.

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Originally Posted by Stitches1974

That or just buy a high quality aftermarket cooler with paste already on it. A good way to spread paste around is with a business card. Apply a small dab and spread it with the card. Add more as needed.

A good amount of aftermarket coolers are leaps and bounds better than stock and there are some motherboards out there that have an auto overclock feature that will make some use out of that better cooler.

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just stick a small dot in the center and pop the cooler on. Boom, done.

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Originally Posted by Valkyrie_Lenneth

just stick a small dot in the center and pop the cooler on. Boom, done.

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I've done just that and it didn't end well. Why I spread it now and why you see some aftermarket coolers with a thin square off paste on them and not a dot.