General Game Performance - Anyone Else Feel The Way I Do?

[Rydin]

Most of what you mentioned are networking problems, but if you look at the network indicator ingame, you will notice not much bandwidth is used by the game, take a character model that usually only takes about 5Mb to download because its the client that draws them.

yes... but if you're sharing internet on say a 10mbit connection...
and Another computer is using a bit torrent client... the download could be using 100% of the bandwidth
Also bad ping is bad ping... and if you've got like a 1 second ping to the servers.... you can kiss any type of lag free gameplay goodbye

Btw, if a HDD is almost full the loading lag isnt affected that much, the main problem there could be from a full HDD is fragmented data, because the CPU knows where information related to programs should be even with a full HDD, the CPU knows where all FFXIV data should be when you open the patcher, because the programs are connected.

absolutely not true.... the innermost sectors of an HDD have as little as half the data rate of the outer sectors.. which get written to first....

You are just somone that thinks they know everything, people have taken my advice on a SSD before now and have seen large loading lag reductions, believe me when I have the money I will be getting a SSD when I have the money, even if it is just a small one to put windows and FFXIV on, which is all you need.

Yes... when you start the game... it will load faster with an SSD... I'm not denying that....
but faster initial load =/= better performance....
I guess it can be viewed as a performance increase.... in a manner of speaking....

My profession makes me need to know how to diagnose problems based on little information, and because the op posted about loading lag, and said they have a decent PC, it is the most logical fix to invest in a SSD because the game has to load so much information from the HDD on the fly, if the op has a SSD I would then suggest a CPU upgrade because of the need for multitasking to play this game.

In my profession... I create music... and I've professionally made a few Virtual instruments and sample libraries... in which case, bit rates, data rates and hard drive speeds are paramount in what I do
I disagree with this.... if you have a very old HDD... you can get a modern caviar black AND a CPU for the price of a usable SSD... making it the better upgrade path....

Also here you mention 6GB as a good amount of RAM which is true but unless you run graphics design software of virtual machines, or other RAM intensive software you dont need it, RAM only slows a system down if you are topping it out by running multiple programs at once for example I have 8GB of RAM in the laptop I play FFXIV on when the system is running just firefox skype and background programs I am using 1.62GB of it therefore I will not notice a slowdown just running FFXIV on top of those, however with 2GB of RAM I would notice a slowdown because the system would be page filing so my system does not crash.

This is actually true... go figure

The only way I top out my RAM is when I am running 5-6 virtual machines which I do.

I can use all 16GB of my machine with one song playing... and all of the virtual instruments that go with it.... there this one... called Vienna... I swear to you it is 500gb of orchestra samples.... purely hi sample rate audio... it's nuts... you running VMware? my buddy does tech work for the City of Miami and he absolutely hates VMware

If you want to see the problem page filing has, top out your RAM, and you will notice the symptoms of topped out RAM, 3GB+ RAM you will not notice a slowdown, and it will definatly not increase loading times, and if you have any less than 3GB RAM you should really upgrade.

I also agree... damn... I can't make a habit out of this...

At the end of the day... a gamer with high end CPU, GPU, and RAM and an ok HDD is going to see better performance than a gamer with an SSD and mid range CPU, GPU and RAM.... Even any one of those is more important than an SSD....(Ram size more so than actual speeds, which still matter though)

Take an I7 990x, 12GB of DDR3 2000MHz, an ATI Radeon HD 6990 and an Intel or OCZ SSD....
I give this to you... but then I say one (and only one) of the items has to be downgraded....
Either the CPU goes to a core 2 duo....
or the GPU goes to a GTX8800
or the RAM drops to 3gb
or the SSD drops to a 7200RPM 32MB cache drive...

which one do you choose?
point made

[Delsus]

yes... but if you're sharing internet on say a 10mbit connection...
and Another computer is using a bit torrent client... the download could be using 100% of the bandwidth
Also bad ping is bad ping... and if you've got like a 1 second ping to the servers.... you can kiss any type of lag free gameplay goodbye


absolutely not true.... the innermost sectors of an HDD have as little as half the data rate of the outer sectors.. which get written to first....



Yes... when you start the game... it will load faster with an SSD... I'm not denying that....
but faster initial load =/= better performance....
I guess it can be viewed as a performance increase.... in a manner of speaking....



In my profession... I create music... and I've professionally made a few Virtual instruments and sample libraries... in which case, bit rates, data rates and hard drive speeds are paramount in what I do
I disagree with this.... if you have a very old HDD... you can get a modern caviar black AND a CPU for the price of a usable SSD... making it the better upgrade path....



This is actually true... go figure



I can use all 16GB of my machine with one song playing... and all of the virtual instruments that go with it.... there this one... called Vienna... I swear to you it is 500gb of orchestra samples.... purely hi sample rate audio... it's nuts... you running VMware? my buddy does tech work for the City of Miami and he absolutely hates VMware



I also agree... damn... I can't make a habit out of this...

At the end of the day... a gamer with high end CPU, GPU, and RAM and an ok HDD is going to see better performance than a gamer with an SSD and mid range CPU, GPU and RAM.... Even any one of those is more important than an SSD....(Ram size more so than actual speeds, which still matter though)

Take an I7 990x, 12GB of DDR3 2000MHz, an ATI Radeon HD 6990 and an Intel or OCZ SSD....
I give this to you... but then I say one (and only one) of the items has to be downgraded....
Either the CPU goes to a core 2 duo....
or the GPU goes to a GTX8800
or the RAM drops to 3gb
or the SSD drops to a 7200RPM 32MB cache drive...

which one do you choose?
point made

Yes there is the problem with people downloading, slowing your internet connection down, but I can talk on skype while playing FFXIV and not get a noticable lag increase

And its actually the inner sectors that get written to first, and because the inner sectors are smaller it takes slightly less time for the head to get to the right sectors, but not much more.

We are talking about loading in general not performance character model loading, zoning after a tele etc all need loading, so a SSD will make all those load faster, it takes a very small amount of data to be downloaded for character models, but it needs to load a mass from the HDD, which will be faster with a SSD loading lag =/= general framerate problems.

I can imagine you would use alot of RAM using that software, but the average user only needs 4GB of RAM to run what they usually do.

As for your last comment I would drop the 12GB RAM its just not needed.

[Rydin]

Yes there is the problem with people downloading, slowing your internet connection down, but I can talk on skype while playing FFXIV and not get a noticable lag increase

thats why I always ask what type of internet connection and are you sharing it...

And its actually the inner sectors that get written to first, and because the inner sectors are smaller it takes slightly less time for the head to get to the right sectors, but not much more.

Sorry my friend... but the outer sectors get written to first... and due to ZBR they are considerably faster
That is the premise behind Short stroking your hard drive (I swear to God I'm not making this ups, haha)
at the time of format, you generally allocate a partition 1/10th the size of the drive and only use that... making the other 9/10ths unusable, therefore increasing the speed of your HDD... i personally think its pointless... at that point you might as well get an SSD... but the theory is sound

We are talking about loading in general not performance character model loading, zoning after a tele etc all need loading, so a SSD will make all those load faster, it takes a very small amount of data to be downloaded for character models, but it needs to load a mass from the HDD, which will be faster with a SSD loading lag =/= general framerate problems.

Here is my issue though... Times where that would be a problem, it is more often than not reflected in your frames per second.
SSD's can improve game performance... BUT that performance is reflected in your FPS.
When your GPU can't handle something,.... your FPS definitely drops
When your CPU or HDD can't handle a certain gaming task, your FPS will most probably drop
When your bandwidth is the issue... the frames probably wont drop

So... If someone is getting stuttering above 30 frames per second... there is always a chance it is network related... Could it be hard drive related... possible.. but asking questions about someones network before advising them to spend 300 bucks might just be a good idea... I'm just sayin...

I can imagine you would use alot of RAM using that software, but the average user only needs 4GB of RAM to run what they usually do.

I know... I just wanted to tell a cool story

As for your last comment I would drop the 12GB RAM its just not needed.

You cheated.... i should have never put the RAM in there. I was about to take it out... but honestly I'd drop the SSD over the RAM but I guess it just depends on your usage....
My thing is, without the RAM, without the CPU, without the GPU, there are things you just can't do...
without the SSD, it takes a little longer to load... worst case scenario....

Look, I'm not saying SSD is bad... it has proven benefits over conventional hard drives... the numbers show that SSD is clearly the future
I just think its a personal choice for everyone....
If someone came to me and said I want a gaming machine on a budget...
Even on that budget... I would try to get high end everything... just no SSD

Now if you've got the cash and you want the best of everything... hell yea, I say go SSD... It's just one of the least important components in my opinion....
so if you are building a gaming machine at or under 800... no SSD for you
If money is unlimited... you'd be a fool not to pay 3k for one of those 1tb OCZ PCI express doohickeys

Its just a personal choice figuring out where you fall somewhere in the middle
But I know if someone gets the budget gaming system with like a Phenom X4, Radeon HD 6950, 4GB of DDR3 1333 and a 640gb Western Digital Caviar black (and mobo, ODD, etc.) for under 700 bucks (Without the monitor) and they ask me if not having an SSD will limit what they can play or do... I will tell them no... not at all... not in the slightest