Benchmark Results - Need Guidance - New To FFXIV

Hiyas all! So, I just purchased the digital download, installed, and tried to play last night. The game played HORRIBLY. My initial thought is that it is my video card as it is an onboard. I have a card I can install, but need a bigger power supply to support said video card.

I downloaded and ran the benchmark tool. Could someone please take a gander at my system as well as the benchmark and tell me if it is just a video card issue? I can play WoW on mid settings with no issues. Diablo III as well. So I don't think it is my system as a whole (at least I pray to the gaming gods that it is not)

System
System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Model CM1730/CM1830
Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 689 GB
Disk partition (C:) 557 GB Free (689 GB Total)

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics
Total available graphics memory 1919 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 256 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1663 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.863.0.0
Primary monitor resolution 1366x768
DirectX version DirectX 10

Benchmark Results (HORRIBLE)
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Character Creation)
Tested on:9/19/2013 12:56:39 PM
Score:768
Average Framerate:6.344
Performance:Insufficient
-Does not meet specifications for running the game.

Screen Size: 1280x720
Screen Mode: Windowed
Graphics Presets: Custom
General
-Enable HDR rendering and improve overall graphic quality. : Disabled
-Disable rendering of objects when not visible. (Occlusion Culling) : Disabled
-Use low-detail models on distant objects. (LOD) : Disabled
-Cache LOD data only when necessary. (LOD Streaming) : Disabled
-Real-time Reflections : Off
-Edge Smoothing (Anti-aliasing) : Off
-Transparent Lighting Quality : Normal
-Grass Quality : Off
Shadows
-Self : Hide
-Other NPCs : Hide
Shadow Quality
-Use low-detail models on shadows. (LOD) : Disabled
-Shadow Resolution : Low - 512p
-Shadow Cascading : Off
-Shadow Softening : Weak
Texture Detail
-Texture Filtering : Bilinear
-Anisotropic Filtering : x4
Movement Physics
-Self : Off
-Other NPCs : Off
Effects
-Naturally darken the edges of the screen. (Limb Darkening) : Disabled
-Blur the graphics around an object in motion. (Radial Blur) : Disabled
-Screen Space Ambient Occlusion : Off
-Glare : Off
Cinematic Cutscenes
-Enable depth of field. : Disabled

System:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.130801-1533)
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 220 Processor
3839.176MB
ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics(VRAM 1916 MB) 8.17.0010.1083

Benchmark results do not provide any guarantee FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn will run on your system.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Website http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com
(C) 2010-2013 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.

Tweet
http://sqex.to/ffxiv_bench_na #FFXIV Score:768 1280x720 Custom AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 220 Processor ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics

Please no BS or troll responses. Thank you so much, in advance, for any and all help

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Faewyn

My initial thought is that it is my video card as it is an onboard.

---

This is your answer from what I see.

You need a video card... while you're in there swap said factory power supply to support new video card.

Make sure to check the minimum system requirements for FFXIV ARR and compare your own specs to that, to get a general idea of what you need. There won't be much point installing the new card if it still isn't up to snuff.

The graphics card I myself use is an AMD Radeon HD 6450. It was not expensive at all, as far as video cards go, and the 550W power supply that I bought to support it was also fairly inexpensive. Total, I think everything cost me MAYBE 150-200$. My computer runs smoothly with them and my benchmark score was 2132.

You need a better video card and more ram and probably a better processor. Basically you need a decent gaming computer to run FFXIV.

Benchmark Results (HORRIBLE)
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Official Benchmark (Character Creation)
Tested on:9/19/2013 12:56:39 PM
Score:768
Average Framerate:6.344
Performance:Insufficient
-Does not meet specifications for running the game.

You need a computer that meets the specifications. It's not just your video card.

Yeah, your system is pretty low spec. Most systems these days have a minimum of 6-8gb of RAM. A 3000 series card is really old. The game won't even run reasonably well without a midrange 4800 series card. (4850, 4870) This game can take advantage of 4 cores when you only have 2.

Basically you either need to buy a new PC, or the cheaper route would be if you have a PS3 you could buy that version.

Most important facts I've noticed about your setup:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 220 @ 2.8ghz (factory listed speed)
Memory: 4.0GB (speed unknown)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics (integrated graphics)

Just looking at your CPU I can tell you're sitting at right about the bare minimum "CPU" requirements, not to mention all the other things you're missing.

Your Memory is fine, don't listen to people saying you need above 4GB to play the game. Your system would only benefit with more memory (for gaming) if you first had a stronger CPU.

Integrated graphics are a definite out for this game, you need a dedicated Video Card before you even start to think about running it.


What you can do:

• Your CPU is fine, just at the bare minimum.
• You need to get a dedicated Video Card with at least 1 GB of video memory (recommend something in the $150-$200 range for best results).
• If you have a 300-450 watt power supply, you'll need to upgrade it to at least a 500 watt one, just to be safe.

Even after all this, don't expect a huge improvement.

Your CPU will prevent you from seeing any "large" improvements, but I think you could benchmark at least in the 2000-3500 range, which is enough to run the game smoothly at a resolution of 1280x720.

*Thoughts*
Looking up your PC model number, ASUS lists it as coming with a FAR more powerful CPU at bare minimum and I can't find any website that lists it as coming with that AMD Athalon II x2 220 as stock.

Did you perhaps build the PC on ASUS's website or did you get it at a retailer?

If you got it from a retailer for $500-600 you should feel taken advantage of. That PC model lists it as coming with a AMD Phenom II 1065T @2.9ghz, a far superior CPU with 6 physical cores.
(I have a PC with a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, which is just a step above that. It benchmarks the game at 8000...)

I will say, for what it's worth, until yesterday I was running off of 4gb of RAM fine. I upped it to 7GB and didn't see a noticeable different in anything, really. And my CPU isn't much off from that one, either. AMD Athlon II X2 250 @ 3.0ghz My game runs smoothly on desktop standard without having to adjust graphics further than that. My load screens are a tad bit long, for sure, but otherwise, everything else is fine.

The biggest hindrance is going to be that graphics card. It's really way obsolete for any type of modern MMO these days.

On a last note, I will also say that I have to play in the lower populated servers because the congestion tends to crash my game, so and overall overhaul couldn't hurt. To be the most economic, start a little at a time and adjust where needed. Graphics card & power supply should be at the top of the list, followed by CPU upgrade, then RAM.

(PS Looking into eventually upgrading to a solid-state drive from your current hard drive might also warrant a large improvement, or even just tacking it on to your current hard drive.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kittra

Most important facts I've noticed about your setup:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 220 @ 2.8ghz (factory listed speed)
Memory: 4.0GB (speed unknown)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics (integrated graphics)

Just looking at your CPU I can tell you're sitting at right about the bare minimum "CPU" requirements, not to mention all the other things you're missing.

Your Memory is fine, don't listen to people saying you need above 4GB to play the game. Your system would only benefit with more memory (for gaming) if you first had a stronger CPU.

Integrated graphics are a definite out for this game, you need a dedicated Video Card before you even start to think about running it.


What you can do:

• Your CPU is fine, just at the bare minimum.
• You need to get a dedicated Video Card with at least 1 GB of video memory (recommend something in the $150-$200 range for best results).
• If you have a 300-450 watt power supply, you'll need to upgrade it to at least a 500 watt one, just to be safe.

Even after all this, don't expect a huge improvement.

Your CPU will prevent you from seeing any "large" improvements, but I think you could benchmark at least in the 2000-3500 range, which is enough to run the game smoothly at a resolution of 1280x720.

*Thoughts*
Looking up your PC model number, ASUS lists it as coming with a FAR more powerful CPU at bare minimum and I can't find any website that lists it as coming with that AMD Athalon II x2 220 as stock.

Did you perhaps build the PC on ASUS's website or did you get it at a retailer?

If you got it from a retailer for $500-600 you should feel taken advantage of. That PC model lists it as coming with a AMD Phenom II 1065T @2.9ghz, a far superior CPU with 6 physical cores.
(I have a PC with a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, which is just a step above that. It benchmarks the game at 8000...)

---

Thank you for your input. I have a video card waiting to be put in. It is a Radeon HD 6750, I will be purchasing a new PSU off newegg-found a great deal for a 650w. I purchased my CPU brand new, in the box, from Best Buy for $427 the beginning of 2012.

To answer your question about speed, etc...here is the report... I just ran CPU-Z (CPUID)
CPU-Z TXT Report
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binaries
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU-Z version 1.66.1.x64

Processors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors 1
Number of threads 2

APICs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0 0
-- Core 1
-- Thread 0 1

Timers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACPI timer 3.580 MHz
HPET timer 14.318 MHz
Perf timer 14.318 MHz
Sys timer 1.000 KHz
BCLK timer 200.90 MHz


Processors Information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name AMD Athlon II X2 220
Codename Regor
Specification AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 220 Processor
Package Socket AM3 (938)
CPUID F.6.3
Extended CPUID 10.6
Brand ID 12
Core Stepping DA-C3
Technology 45 nm
TDP Limit 64 Watts
Core Speed 803.6 MHz
Multiplier x Bus Speed 4.0 x 200.9 MHz
HT Link speed 2009.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2800 MHz
Instructions sets MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64, AMD-V
L1 Data cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 64 KBytes, 2-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2 x 512 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 4.0x - 14.0x
Max VID 1.400 V
# of P-States 4
P-State FID 0xC - VID 0x0C - IDD 28 (14.00x - 1.400 V)
P-State FID 0x5 - VID 0x18 - IDD 27 (10.50x - 1.250 V)
P-State FID 0x0 - VID 0x20 - IDD 25 (8.00x - 1.150 V)
P-State FID 0x100 - VID 0x30 - IDD 17 (4.00x - 0.950 V)
In all honesty, I don't know what very much of this means, but figured some computer geek ( I use that term lovingly) would be able to decipher and explain.

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

Just looking at your CPU I can tell you're sitting at right about the bare minimum "CPU" requirements, not to mention all the other things you're missing.
Your Memory is fine, don't listen to people saying you need above 4GB to play the game. Your system would only benefit with more memory (for gaming) if you first had a stronger CPU.
Integrated graphics are a definite out for this game, you need a dedicated Video Card before you even start to think about running it.[/LIST]

---

I'll disagree. Games continue to be designed around a single-core.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html Shows the CPU has having a passmark rating of 947
If you check the requirements page, It simply says "Intel Core 2 Duo", without defining which model (Laptop models will be around 1.5Ghz and certainly insufficient, but the single thread of the x220 is 'better' than the first Core 2 Quad Core Intel chip) So it may be sufficient, history has proven that "minimum" requirements are meaningless, and only means that it will run, not run well.

The Video card on the other hand is substantially below minimum requirements.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/mi...ange_gpus.html
Radeon 3000 has a score of 106
The minimum requirements of a HD 4770 (which is a mid-range card of that family) which has a passmark rating of 1,068 ( http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html )
So you need something that is as capable or better.
I can tell you right now that the current mid-range card, the 7770 (which is twice as fast as the 4770), can run the game at maximum settings and get around 24fps.

If I didn't know better I'd say that it sounds like your PC is a frankenbox that someone slapped different parts into. When I check 3DMark's benchmarks, there is in fact a combination matching your configuration.

I have a similar Desktop which was from 2009 using a HD7790 Graphics card on an AMD Athlon X2 5600+ CPU. The game was unplayable which was sitting at 11FPS on average with Low~Med settings 720p res. During the operation, the CPU would report 100% as well as the GPU itself. I swapped the HD7790 into my newer build AMD FX8350 8 core processor @ 4.6Ghz and the game runs phenomenal running the game on Max settings on 1080 with averaging about 40~60FPS. The CPU reports using no more than 30% and GPU at 100%. I think I wouldn't be far off to say that this game is CPU intensive as it is for most MMORPG. Getting a newer GPU would probably help you but with that CPU, I don't think it'll help much unfortunately.

And also about 4GB on RAM... It's true that 32bit games would not allocate beyond its limit but wouldn't the OS allocate floating point in RAM if it's a 64bit? I remember having 32bit OS at post startup (clean install) would reserve no more than 500mb and I noticed the 64bit OS would reserve twice as much. Can anyone clarify this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

I'll disagree. Games continue to be designed around a single-core.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html Shows the CPU has having a passmark rating of 947
If you check the requirements page, It simply says "Intel Core 2 Duo", without defining which model (Laptop models will be around 1.5Ghz and certainly insufficient, but the single thread of the x220 is 'better' than the first Core 2 Quad Core Intel chip) So it may be sufficient, history has proven that "minimum" requirements are meaningless, and only means that it will run, not run well.

The Video card on the other hand is substantially below minimum requirements.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/mi...ange_gpus.html
Radeon 3000 has a score of 106
The minimum requirements of a HD 4770 (which is a mid-range card of that family) which has a passmark rating of 1,068 ( http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html )
So you need something that is as capable or better.
I can tell you right now that the current mid-range card, the 7770 (which is twice as fast as the 4770), can run the game at maximum settings and get around 24fps.

If I didn't know better I'd say that it sounds like your PC is a frankenbox that someone slapped old parts into.

---

LOL! Frankenbox! Love it! I'm a bit irritated as I actually purchased beginning of 2012 brand new, from Best Buy. 2 good things- it is an ASUS -it can be upgraded. I have a HIS Radeon HD 6750 (1gddr5, 1080p full hd, hdmi 1.4) waiting to go in, just need to purchase new PSU for it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Faewyn

Core Speed 803.6 MHz
Multiplier x Bus Speed 4.0 x 200.9 MHz
HT Link speed 2009.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2800 MHz

---

Well... I already discovered something holding you back, lol...

At the time that you ran CPU-Z, your CPU was running at it's minimum clock speed which is 800mhz... This is EXTREMELY slow for any modern CPU. The reason it's doing this is to conserve power, but it also effects performance. It will also do this while you are playing FFXIV (as I discovered with a new PC).

Basicly, the CPU cores run at a stock of 200.9 MHz and it has a multiplier (that 4.0x) to boost it's speed.

However, 4.0 x 200.9mhz = 803.6mhz (Your stock speed is 2.8ghz, which is 3.5 times faster than that.)

This is due to your power settings in Windows which tells your CPU to conserve power in low states of operation. I have found this setting to be flawed while playing FFXIV though... even with a video card.

To fix this go to your Start button >> Control Panel >> Hardware & Sound >> Power Options >> Select Balanced (recommended) >> next to it click the blue words "Change plan settings" >> on this page click the blue words "Change advanced power settings" >> scroll down to Processor Power Management and expand the + >> Change "Minimum Processor State" to 100% >> Change "System Cooling Policy" to Active >> and make sure "Maximum Processor State" is set to 100% >> be sure to click apply before you exit this window.

That should make it so your CPU runs at a constant 2.8ghz, you might notice a significant boost in speed to just about everything. However... you will still need that video card to manage FFXIV.

It's possible this MAY not fix your CPU down-clocking itself due to bios settings... I wouldn't recommend messing with those however, and I can't remember what settings you need to change to make it work. Still, give the power management changes a try, I hope it helps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

I'll disagree. Games continue to be designed around a single-core.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html Shows the CPU has having a passmark rating of 947
If you check the requirements page, It simply says "Intel Core 2 Duo", without defining which model (Laptop models will be around 1.5Ghz and certainly insufficient, but the single thread of the x220 is 'better' than the first Core 2 Quad Core Intel chip) So it may be sufficient, history has proven that "minimum" requirements are meaningless, and only means that it will run, not run well.

The Video card on the other hand is substantially below minimum requirements.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/mi...ange_gpus.html
Radeon 3000 has a score of 106
The minimum requirements of a HD 4770 (which is a mid-range card of that family) which has a passmark rating of 1,068 ( http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html )
So you need something that is as capable or better.
I can tell you right now that the current mid-range card, the 7770 (which is twice as fast as the 4770), can run the game at maximum settings and get around 24fps.

If I didn't know better I'd say that it sounds like your PC is a frankenbox that someone slapped different parts into. When I check 3DMark's benchmarks, there is in fact a combination matching your configuration.

---

True, while companies continue to program around a single-core your PC can still pass the workload off to multiple cores. It's instruction set ultimately determines how effective it is at this.

I run FFXIV on a i7 3770k machine which reports all 4 cores and all 8 threads being utilized at 20-35%. So there is some merit to having more cores, but really it depends the type of CPU whether or not it can actually utilize them all for a single application.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

Well... I already discovered something holding you back, lol...

At the time that you ran CPU-Z, your CPU was running at it's minimum clock speed which is 800mhz... This is EXTREMELY slow for any modern CPU. The reason it's doing this is to conserve power, but it also effects performance.

---

I know someone who had the same problem in another game (and it was also an AMD part, but it was a laptop)

re:frankenbox, is the term used when parts from one machine are salvaged from another (usually dead) one. Hence the point about the CPU mismatch. Maybe there's a configuration that was sold to bestbuy that is not the standard configuration.

Anyway. The CPU speed issue is certainly something that you need to fix. It may involve going into the bios and flipping settings like 'high performance mode' to off and setting Windows power management, and AMD's cool n quiet features to never throttle the CPU.

The Radeon HD 6750 itself is sufficient.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

Well... I already discovered something holding you back, lol...

At the time that you ran CPU-Z, your CPU was running at it's minimum clock speed which is 800mhz... This is EXTREMELY slow for any modern CPU. The reason it's doing this is to conserve power, but it also effects performance. It will also do this while you are playing FFXIV (as I discovered with a new PC).

Basicly, the CPU cores run at a stock of 200.9 MHz and it has a multiplier (that 4.0x) to boost it's speed.

However, 4.0 x 200.9mhz = 803.6mhz (Your stock speed is 2.8ghz, which is 3.5 times faster than that.)

This is due to your power settings in Windows which tells your CPU to conserve power in low states of operation. I have found this setting to be flawed while playing FFXIV though... even with a video card.

To fix this go to your Start button >> Control Panel >> Hardware & Sound >> Power Options >> Select Balanced (recommended) >> next to it click the blue words "Change plan settings" >> on this page click the blue words "Change advanced power settings" >> scroll down to Processor Power Management and expand the + >> Change "Minimum Processor State" to 100% >> Change "System Cooling Policy" to Active >> and make sure "Maximum Processor State" is set to 100% >> be sure to click apply before you exit this window.

That should make it so your CPU runs at a constant 2.8ghz, you might notice a significant boost in speed to just about everything. However... you will still need that video card to manage FFXIV.

It's possible this MAY not fix your CPU down-clocking itself due to bios settings... I wouldn't recommend messing with those however, and I can't remember what settings you need to change to make it work. Still, give the power management changes a try, I hope it helps.

---

Thanks so much!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

I know someone who had the same problem in another game (and it was also an AMD part, but it was a laptop)

re:frankenbox, is the term used when parts from one machine are salvaged from another (usually dead) one. Hence the point about the CPU mismatch. Maybe there's a configuration that was sold to bestbuy that is not the standard configuration.

Anyway. The CPU speed issue is certainly something that you need to fix. It may involve going into the bios and flipping settings like 'high performance mode' to off and setting Windows power management, and AMD's cool n quiet features to never throttle the CPU.

The Radeon HD 6750 itself is sufficient.

---

What KisaiTenshi said pretty much. In the bios it's the Cool 'n Quiet option that throttles your CPU for better cooling/sound management. If you can manage to fix the throttling issue in Window's power settings though, I wouldn't touch the bios, since if you screw something up in there without knowing what it is, it could damage your components.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

What KisaiTenshi said pretty much. In the bios it's the Cool 'n Quiet option that throttles your CPU for better cooling/sound management. If you can manage to fix the throttling issue in Window's power settings though, I wouldn't touch the bios, since if you screw something up in there without knowing what it is, it could damage your components.

---

^^
The setting in windows should, and in most cases will work fine. Once you install your AMD 6750 you should also be able to adjust CPU/GPU core speed via AMD Catalyst Control Center and you'll notice a significant bump in performance for most games. If you ultimately want to get the game running stutter free though, you should look at upgrading your cpu(which will probably also mean upgrading your motherboard, maybe another time perhaps), and in the end your video card as well -if you intend on gaming more frequently/on a heavier basis. 6450 will get you by for most games, but it may or may not be very pretty, depending on the game.

Regardless of what games are "being developed for", Quad core is the way to go(minimum) if you're planning on upgrading a cpu for gaming-you're saving money in the long term, remember next gen is just around the corner for consoles and ports generally tend to put more strain on our systems when they come to pc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

I run FFXIV on a i7 3770k machine which reports all 4 cores and all 8 threads being utilized at 20-35%. So there is some merit to having more cores, but really it depends the type of CPU whether or not it can actually utilize them all for a single application.

---

I don't want to say you're wrong, but that's not how HT works. When a single-threaded (or poorly threaded game, which is most games) is scheduled to run, it's sent to the cores that are not busy. So you'll see all the cores in use at a 100% division of the number of cores. So 4 cores, 25%, 8 cores 12.5%, etc. But HT is not a real CPU core, it splits the CPU in half, so you have either 2 logical cores with half the ALU's or 1 physical core with all it's ALU's. Generally you don't want HT while playing games.

I wrote more here, but I think I'm preaching at the choir. Basically, untick some cores until at least one core is at 100% while running FFXIV and that will tell you how many cores it's designed to use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

I don't want to say you're wrong, but that's not how HT works. When a single-threaded (or poorly threaded game, which is most games) is scheduled to run, it's sent to the cores that are not busy. So you'll see all the cores in use at a 100% division of the number of cores. So 4 cores, 25%, 8 cores 12.5%, etc. But HT is not a real CPU core, it splits the CPU in half, so you have either 2 logical cores with half the ALU's or 1 physical core with all it's ALU's. Generally you don't want HT while playing games.

I wrote more here, but I think I'm preaching at the choir. Basically, untick some cores until at least one core is at 100% while running FFXIV and that will tell you how many cores it's designed to use.

---

Servers are back up!

Ok so I decided to test this in a highly populated area to maximize the strain on my CPU and slowly dropped the core affinity in task manager.

At 8 HT cores (not sure what else to call it) CPU usage was about 30-34% across all 8. At an affinity of 7 (one HT turned off) usage went to 40~% across 7.

At this point I just dropped it to an affinity of 4 so that only the actual "physical" cores of my i7 were processing FFXIV and CPU usage rocketed all the way up to 100% solid.

I added one HT core (for a total affinity of 5) and usage was 95%~ across the 5 cores.


So either the i7 is extremely efficient in passing around the workload, or SE programmed their client with multiple cores in mind.
Another discovery I made is that at below 4 cores FFXIV starts experiencing frame drops.

Found a really good deal on this PC - ...should solve all my FFXIV woes!

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA390 Desktop

Summary
Processor #FX-Series Quad-Core FX-4100 Processor 3.6 GHz (4 MB cache)
RAM 8 GB SDRAM DDR3
Hard Drive 2048 GB SATAIII
Graphics Coprocessor AMD Radeon HD 7750
Graphics Card Ram Size 1024 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 7
Expand
Other Technical Details
Brand Name CyberpowerPC
Series Gamer Ultra
Item model number GUA390
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Windows 8
Item Weight 28 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 19.60 x 7.50 x 16.80 inches
Color Blue / black
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA-600
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Optical Drive Type 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Super-Multi Drive
Audio-out Ports (#) 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kittra

Servers are back up!

Ok so I decided to test this in a highly populated area to maximize the strain on my CPU and slowly dropped the core affinity in task manager.

At 8 HT cores (not sure what else to call it) CPU usage was about 30-34% across all 8. At an affinity of 7 (one HT turned off) usage went to 40~% across 7.

At this point I just dropped it to an affinity of 4 so that only the actual "physical" cores of my i7 were processing FFXIV and CPU usage rocketed all the way up to 100% solid.

I added one HT core (for a total affinity of 5) and usage was 95%~ across the 5 cores.


So either the i7 is extremely efficient in passing around the workload, or SE programmed their client with multiple cores in mind.
Another discovery I made is that at below 4 cores FFXIV starts experiencing frame drops.

---

actually you can run @ 3 cores and get 0 preformance drop.. dual core and single core setups get wrecked even with decent gpu's..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JamieLee

actually you can run @ 3 cores and get 0 preformance drop.. dual core and single core setups get wrecked even with decent gpu's..

---

Well what I meant was, below 4 cores my i7 experiences frame drops, not in general, lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Faewyn

Found a really good deal on this PC - ...should solve all my FFXIV woes!

CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra GUA390 Desktop

Summary
Processor #FX-Series Quad-Core FX-4100 Processor 3.6 GHz (4 MB cache)
RAM 8 GB SDRAM DDR3
Hard Drive 2048 GB SATAIII
Graphics Coprocessor AMD Radeon HD 7750
Graphics Card Ram Size 1024 MB
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 7
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Other Technical Details
Brand Name CyberpowerPC
Series Gamer Ultra
Item model number GUA390
Hardware Platform PC
Operating System Windows 8
Item Weight 28 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 19.60 x 7.50 x 16.80 inches
Color Blue / black
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Count 1
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Serial ATA-600
Hard Drive Rotational Speed 7200 RPM
Optical Drive Type 24x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Super-Multi Drive
Audio-out Ports (#) 2

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I can't find anything wrong with that PC.

Personally I prefer to build them myself, but I've heard good things about CyberPowerPC.

The CPU is fine, it benchmarks better then the "minimum required cpu". definitely GPU issue i think

Heh my laptop scored close to that. I can't afford a new one so i play as is. 700 and change.
Tested benchmark on my mother's laptop, windows 7 and a few years newer than mine. She scored 1800 and change. Envy!
Didn't get to test my dad's desktop but im sure his would have scored 11k or close hah.