The Mac OS X Client's absymal performance is a joke.

[Tessara]

I've been playing XIV since the beta of ARR, and while I hate that my first forum post will be about this, I too feel the need to chime in. First, my specs:

System Specs:
3.2Ghz i5
24Gb DDR3 RAM
Geforce GTX 680MX 2Gb

I tested several resolutions, with anything from low to high settings. Like others, full screen at native (2560x1440) res doesn't work, as the game sits "high", with the lower third of my screen black, and the upper third of the game UI inaccessible.

Performance is just terrible, and this is the same machine I've been playing the game on via Bootcamp for almost 2 years. I typically get 45-55fps or so with my settings, unless an area is highly populated; Mor Dhona always pushes it lower, but it's still completely playable.

In the Mac client, poking through Ishgard and Western Coerthas, I hover around 13fps, dipping to <10 if basically anything is happening. What I find really odd about the performance is that my average framerate is unchanged regardless of my settings. I see perhaps a variation of 1-3fps between the lowest "laptop" preset the "high" desktop one. I find that very curious, as it's clearly not any setting I can modify to eke some better performance out.

I know it's ported, Wine, Cider, blah blah. I wouldn't have been surprised to see a slight drop, but this is just unplayable. Were it an option to simply load up my game in OS X, the way Blizzard does cross-platform, it would suck, but I wouldn't be as disappointed since it didn't cost me $60 for the Mac version on top of the $60 for the Windows version.

I don't know what has to happen here, but this feels beta quality at best. Aside from miserable performance, while changing visual settings, the game suddenly stopped accepting mouse clicks, forcing me to restart it. I got the "no ground" bug in Ishgard, which, while entertaining, is a problem. Especially when polygons are flickering red and green, and... well, then there's the third screen shot here, which I have no words for:

No Ground
Glitchy Ground
Wut

Since I boot into Windows almost exclusively to play XIV, the thought of being to load it up while remaining in OS X is a wildly attractive proposition. I'm not posting here just to complain, and I don't even want a refund - I want this version to just WORK, and right now it really doesn't.

One last thing I want to say is that I have an insane amount of respect for the FFXIV dev team - I really do. More than I do for any other group of developers. The content, the world, and attention to detail in XIV is second to none. Because of that, I hate to have to come here and post this, but I feel obligated to chime in. Whether TransGaming needs to get themselves in gear, or the Mac version would have to be brought in-house (again, ala Blizzard), I'm not sure. But nothing would please me more than to be able to play this under OS X.

[cybereal]

... the way Blizzard does cross-platform ...

Of course, if it was the way Blizzard does cross platform, it would be excellent and there would not be this constantly growing number of people reporting unacceptable, embarrassingly bad results from this joke of a product. I don't think people appreciate just how great Blizzard's Mac support has *always* been, and I do mean always. This result just makes me want to go play WoW, despite how tired of it I am.

[JavateHut]

Well this clearly is just a bad port and NOTHING to do with settings, if reading all these posts wasn't enough here are my specs, Mac Pro 3.33GHz 6 core Intel chip, 16gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 970 4gb. I also tried on my wifes brand new 5k iMac which is fully upgraded and the same exact results. No matter the setting I get missing polygons and 20 fps at best, most of the time it is sitting around 7 fps (and this is in the starting zones).

This makes me incredibly sad since I am brand new to the game and was playing my trial out on bootcamp with the expectation of the mac client coming out. This really puts a bad taste in my mouth now that I can't play the game on my mac OR bootcamp without dishing out another $60.... Bad form SE.... Bad form.

[mikesol]

Just adding another voice - super bummed out by how horrific this mac client is. I easily get 60 fps with high laptop graphics anywhere on bootcamp ff14. Switch to mac side - barely can break 20 fps with the absolutely bare minimum graphics.

Will be seeking a refund on this order.

Can't believe square enix found this acceptable to be released. Definitely hurting customer trust with this one...

[Madsamurai]

Played about 2 hours on my mid 2012 Macbook Pro. 15-25 FPS on avg. Got crashed out to the desktop once when i am in Dusk Vigil but experienced no graphic glitches yet. Definitely not the best FFXIV experience although i had expected worse after reading all these horror stories of the Mac port. Not going to ask for a refund.. so here's hoping a patch is on it's way to fix and optimise the heck out of this.

[askel24]

I had been using my PS4 to play before the expansion and I decided to get the mac client. Super disappointed and I'm probably going to ask for a refund if they can't help me. They really could have expanded their audience by making it mac compatible but honestly it's just garbage. I think my max FPS was 14.

[Moggei]

Tried on two macs.

Late 2012 27" iMac, 3.2GHz, Nvidia GTX 680MX 2GB. Had to turn nearly every single setting to the lowest and still the game acts like it's overloading. Even out in Middle Limosa, where there's nothing around to speak of, lots of stuttering, delays, etc... Bit painful to look at. Load up Bootcamp and the game is flawless... /boggle

Tried it on my new mid 2015 15" MBP with the dual cards. Again, had to turn everything possible down to the lowest setting and it still sends the computer into a frenzy while the performance is so far under par for any game, it's sad. BTW, when porting to OS X, maybe...I dunno, actually realize keyboards are different mmkay? Yay for changing all the default key binds that do not exist on a MBP. Luckily they do on the iMac, but still...

Also, wasn't aware of an option to see fps, so how're everybody gauging it?

[El-Neko]

Damn I didnt think Mac version was this bad from what I read in this thread.

Also, wasn't aware of an option to see fps, so how're everybody gauging it?

Theres alot of ways to check your FPS but as for Macs I have no idea.

[mikesol]

Also, wasn't aware of an option to see fps, so how're everybody gauging it?

In the menu where you configure your graphics there is an fps counter on the top right. You can go to various areas and open up that menu to see what the FPS is like there.

[Naylia]

This isn't just a bad port...it's possibly the worst port ever. How could they have built something that runs worse than a generic windows VM that has tons of extra overhead in it. I am far better off running Parallels and playing it than running my Mac client. This is the most disappointing experience I have had with FFXIV and I've been playing since 1.0 CE Launch...