Would the 4.0 benchmark be dropping this week?

[LalaRu]

... there is no other hint on upcoming graphical improvements. Except if Yoshi kept this reveal ...

One of the big changes may be the Mac version kissing goodbye OpenGL ad move to Metal. FPS on par with Windows version, oh the dream of running the benchmark on a Mac...

[Vurtney]

Once 1080ti is released i'll make the jump to 4k. Even at 1600p there's shimmering and jaggies so good riddance for that. I've waited this for so long and Stormblood is a perfect excuse.

As for any visual improvements, doubt there's any. Higher poly assets maybe but that's likely it.

[KrenianKandos]

I'll be very curious to see if there are any graphical updates for SB that may make my wife's PC obsolete. She's running a Radeon 7790 which barely is able to run the DX11 stuff. She doesn't necessarily lag in anything at all, including Idyllshire, but I'm expecting that it might be a bit more intensive come SB.

As I have a PS4, I may have to get a copy of it over on that as money is tight right now and I don't have the funds to upgrade a PC...

I know for a fact my RoG with the 980m card will destroy it so I'm not fretting about myself, but the Mrs is as much, if not more, of a gamer than I am.

I'd be curious to see the SB benchmark just to see just how long the PC can hold up until we absolutely need to change it.

[Anzaman]

I know my PC will easily be able to run Stormblood, but I'm mostly interested in getting new benchmark as previous one is lacking many new hairstyles etc.. in it's character creation.

And I like to play with character creation on laptop when I've no access to PC.

[Reinha]

I'm a bit concerned about this, as I'm currently running almost all settings on the lowest option and I still get some graphical lag and long loading screens.

[seekified]

They did say in Las Vegas that they've tweaked their lighting engine a bit, but that's really all that was said. Nobody knows to what extent and if anything else has changed.

To be fair though, the new system requirements are very inline with what I'd expect for any game in 2017, and I'm not surprised. That said, my girlfriend's laptop with an i7-4700MQ and a 740M can run Heavensward on Low with around 25-30 FPS, which is fine. I've done EX farms myself on that computer without any issues. If they do make the game more demanding, it'll definitely struggle... but it is over three years old.

Tips for those of you who struggle on low settings: Definitely run the DX9 mode (the effects in DX11 that can't be turned off make the improved threading a moot point for weaker systems), and make doubly sure that Shadow Cascading and Glare are turned off. The game looks like crap without those settings enabled, but you'll gain another 5-10 FPS.

[Fevelle]

The Mac requirements cite GTX 750M as capable of running the Stormblood expansion in Medium settings for Mac, so MAYBE 860M will still do well for Windows?

[EdwinLi]

Will my computer be able to handle this new Minimum requirement with a Gefore GT 530?

I'm playing the game just fine now but with this new requirement for min I am concerned.

[Claviusnex]

I would like to know when they are going to come out with the AMD processor and GPU requirements. The announcement says it is in test and will be updated later. My assumption is I am running HW just fine today so it should be fine with SB but it would be nice to know before preordering.

[Enjuden]

Will my computer be able to handle this new Minimum requirement with a Gefore GT 530?

I'm playing the game just fine now but with this new requirement for min I am concerned.

Even if it was enough, just saying your graphics card and not your processor/ram at the very least is like saying you only need to use a knife to make toast.