Low fps, probably need a new graphics card - help?

Ok so, I have a pc and a graphics card that both are a little over one year old. Far from top of the line, but more than sufficient to run XIV - or so I thought. However, despite lowering my graphics settings, I've never been above 14 fps and it sucks beyond words - it's making camera control and character movement erratic and unreliable. In the benchmark the only way I would score above 2k was by overclocking, but I had to reset to default because when running the actual game my card was quickly getting very hot (reached 80C while still on the character creation screen).

My current card is an Asus Radeon EAH6450, and going by SE's own specs I should upgrade it. The problem is, I need a low profile card. And seeing as I'm pretty much clueless about this, I guess my questions are; 1) can anyone suggest one or more specific card(s) that will perform better and that are low profile? I'm honestly having a really hard time finding low profile cards. And 2) is there anything else I can change in my settings to improve my fps in the meantime?

I've obviously unchecked the "improve overall graphics quality" option, and set it to max 30 fps (don't even know if that has any effect to be honest), a few other changes too that I don't remember at the moment - but yeah, additional suggestions would be much appreciated.

Can you give us your full specs? This is so we can see what kind of upgrade you can handle or if you should just go ahead and buy a new computer.

And what your budget is as well.

square minimum recommends http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...s/hd-4770.aspx, desired http://www.amd.com/us/products/deskt...on-7950.aspx#3

the spec recommend link http://www.ffxivinfo.com/systemreqs.php

No budget for a new pc whatsoever unfortunately. By specs I assume you want to know more about my pc - it's an Acer Aspire X1930 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz and yes I know it's nothing spectacular but hey, single parent etc, it was what I could afford at the time. :(

As for my budget when it comes to a new card - well, kind of hard to set a limit really, seeing as prices in your country will probably differ from where I'm from. But I guess it's safe to say you can skip the horribly expensive cards though.

Edit: @Xceriis - yes I saw those specs too, and while I do meet the minimum requirement it's not by much. The issue is finding a better card that actually physically fits in my pc case. :/

Also, if I come across as less than intelligent when it comes to pc stuff, it's because I am pretty much a computer illiterate, so please bear with me.

Low profile is going to really restrict the type of cards you can plug into your computer, usually only lower powered cards are in that form. The beefier cards usually require a much more powerful power supply (with appropriate connectors) and 2 full size slots (for the fan, power comes with a lot of heat).

The most powerful low profile card I found on newegg is this HD7750 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814129271 and it's really not much more powerful than the minimum req HD 4770... Having said that, it scores 1631 compared to your HD 6450's 292 benchmark, according to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net

Like I said though, you need to make sure that your powersupply can handle it, and that your PCI-E slot is compatible, etc. EDIT: Forget that card I linked, your PC cannot handle it - the powersupply is too low and the PCI-E slot is only version 2.0.

EDIT: sorry I replied before you told us your PC. I'm afraid the Acer X1930 is really hard to upgrade, it only has a very small 220W power supply and the unconventional casing doesn't help with upgrade parts. People have talked about it here http://www.tomshardware.com/s/upgrade+aspire+x1930/

You'd really be better off buying a new computer :( sorry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tamoa

Ok so, I have a pc and a graphics card that both are a little over one year old. Far from top of the line, but more than sufficient to run XIV - or so I thought. However, despite lowering my graphics settings, I've never been above 14 fps and it sucks beyond words - it's making camera control and character movement erratic and unreliable. In the benchmark the only way I would score above 2k was by overclocking, but I had to reset to default because when running the actual game my card was quickly getting very hot (reached 80C while still on the character creation screen).

My current card is an Asus Radeon EAH6450, and going by SE's own specs I should upgrade it. The problem is, I need a low profile card. And seeing as I'm pretty much clueless about this, I guess my questions are; 1) can anyone suggest one or more specific card(s) that will perform better and that are low profile? I'm honestly having a really hard time finding low profile cards. And 2) is there anything else I can change in my settings to improve my fps in the meantime?

I've obviously unchecked the "improve overall graphics quality" option, and set it to max 30 fps (don't even know if that has any effect to be honest), a few other changes too that I don't remember at the moment - but yeah, additional suggestions would be much appreciated.

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That's a 6450 isn't it? Should be more than okay. I have a Mac 5770 and fps were fantastic. I'm assuming you updated your drivers? If you haven't that would be a reason why it's giving you problems. They had a driver update quite recently.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tamoa

As for my budget when it comes to a new card - well, kind of hard to set a limit really, seeing as prices in your country will probably differ from where I'm from. But I guess it's safe to say you can skip the horribly expensive cards though.

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New card $100-$150AUS
New case $40-$50AUS

EDIT: These are inflated Australian prices for basic gear that would run the game fine. You could get them cheaper if you looked around. Its just a ballpark figure to get you going.
Also I suggest you talk to your local PC hardware retailers and discuss the matter with them. If they are half as competent as they should be they should be able to give you alternatives and prices that you could even bring back to these forums for people to give you their opinion of.

An HD 5770 has a benchmark of 1680, the HD 6450 is only 292... more than 5 times as slow... The first number of the model only specifies the generation of the card, a 6xxx is not necessarily better than a 5xxx. I'm afraid no amount of driver tweaking will help.

Well first off limiting your frames to 30 wont help, all that means is if it would run over 30fps a t certain points it won't, so set it back at 60 or just leave it unlimited. Also you said you overclocked your graphics card but have you tried overclocking your processor? That may help a little, unless it gets too hot aswell. You could try lowering the ambient temperature with a fan blowing on your computer or install some fans like these

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-...I3QO0XV8E9KZ2J

Aside from that try not to worry too much. I've grown accustomed to playing with low fps so take what I say with a grain of salt, but it's an mmo. If your fps drops a little low in busy cities then its not a big deal, mine gets to like 13 fps and it's still very playable. Battles, even big ones seem to run much better and thats the only time your fps really matters anyway

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eder

EDIT: sorry I replied before you told us your PC. I'm afraid the Acer X1930 is really hard to upgrade, it only has a very small 220W power supply and the unconventional casing doesn't help with upgrade parts. People have talked about it here http://www.tomshardware.com/s/upgrade+aspire+x1930/

You'd really be better off buying a new computer :( sorry.

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Ouch yeah, seems you're right, upgrading my pc to where it can use a more powerful card is probably going to cost me enough to where I might aswell start saving up for a better pc. :(

@Madeleine: updating drivers now, I tend to forget that, so thanks for reminding me.

@FrionielHope: my fps drops to 10 and even below that in busy areas. :( And believe me, I'm used to playing with low fps from XI (until I got the aforementioned graphics card, which now isn't adequate anymore lol). It just seems more noticeable in XIV for some reason.

I appreciate everybody's input, many thanks.

Might I ask what resolution you are attempting to play the game at? My monitor's max resolution is 1680x1050 and trying to run the game at that resolution with my specs is a nightmare, as my computer has gone by in age I've come to terms with the fact that just running lowest settings just isn't cutting it anymore and have turned to playing at 1152x720. The reason I ask this is because I am running relatively lower specs than what you are and even though I don't stay above 30fps the frame rate I get is very playable for me.

Just to give you a little insight as to how much of an impact this could have I ran the benchmark at 1680x1050 at almost lowest settings(had some shadow details at normal instead of low and Trilinear texture filtering instead of Bilinear) and again at 1152x720(only changing the shadow details to low and to bilinear filtering) and my scores were 1311 at 1680x1050(10fps avg.) and 2441 at 1152x720(20fps avg.).

So before looking into buying a new computer I would definitely look into lowering the resolution first. Someone earlier mentioned that your card scored a 292 on the benchmark website, my GeForce 210 scored a 185 so your card should definitely be able to push you up to a much more playable frame rate, just at lower resolutions.

Oooh good point Tsudin, lowering resolutions will help. And if a Geforce 210 works acceptably then the OP's computer should too. (I was going off the minimum required video card someone else posted above.) Good luck!

I too am looking for a better graphics card and I think I nailed down which one I'm getting. If you really want to take the time to do some shopping around the best thing to do is go to www.newegg.com Look under video cards and use the side bar to set limits as to what your motherboard/case needs. Then go to http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ to check out the video cards you want to look at. From there compare them on newegg compare prices and what not. Also check to see if your town has a used comptuer parts store or check craigslist to see if anyone is selling computer parts. Thats what I have been doing and so far after buying all the parts and once I get the video card I want my whole rig is costing me just under $600

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tsudin

Might I ask what resolution you are attempting to play the game at? My monitor's max resolution is 1680x1050 and trying to run the game at that resolution with my specs is a nightmare, as my computer has gone by in age I've come to terms with the fact that just running lowest settings just isn't cutting it anymore and have turned to playing at 1152x720. The reason I ask this is because I am running relatively lower specs than what you are and even though I don't stay above 30fps the frame rate I get is very playable for me.

Just to give you a little insight as to how much of an impact this could have I ran the benchmark at 1680x1050 at almost lowest settings(had some shadow details at normal instead of low and Trilinear texture filtering instead of Bilinear) and again at 1152x720(only changing the shadow details to low and to bilinear filtering) and my scores were 1311 at 1680x1050(10fps avg.) and 2441 at 1152x720(20fps avg.).

So before looking into buying a new computer I would definitely look into lowering the resolution first. Someone earlier mentioned that your card scored a 292 on the benchmark website, my GeForce 210 scored a 185 so your card should definitely be able to push you up to a much more playable frame rate, just at lower resolutions.

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Like Eder said, good point - I'll try lowering the resolution and maybe that combined with the updated driver will help some.

@Arikaen: I live in a small town in Norway, and there's definitely no used computer parts store here. :( Buying parts and building/customizing a pc is something I'm absolutely not capable of anyway - unfortunately.