GPU Question

[SweDDishB]

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?

[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.

[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.

[Vorpal_Spork]

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.

[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.

[Krindor]

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.

[Lexxuk]

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).

[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.

[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.

[KitanaiKoneko]

You could also hold out a bit until AMD's 300 series comes out and see what their cost is.