FFXIV Only - Low Benchmark Score and Low FPS on decent settings. Puzzled.

[Bulwarkz]

I just recently built what I thought was a modest, modern gaming rig. I play plenty of modern Shooters and a few MMOs on nice, high settings with good FPS. FFXIV seems to be a different story.

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System Specs:
Windows 7 64bit
Intel E6700 3.2GHz Dual Core Processor
4GB DDR3 RAM Memory ( Mobo Max )
MSi R6450 1GB HD GPU ( OC'd Core Clock 725MHz; Memory Clock 815MHz )
1TB SATA Hard Drive
400W PSU
Diablotek ATX Mid Tower Diamond Case

Benchmark Score on Low: 1025
Benchmark Load Time on Low: 28708ms

My Optimal FFXIV Conig after extensive testing:
Low 20's FPS in congested areas
Mid 40's FPS in non-congested areas

1280x720 or 1600x900 ( Same results )
Fullscreen ( Windowed same results )
No AA
General Drawing Quality: 6
Background Drawing Quality: 3 ( Standard )
Shadow Detail: Standard
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Depth of Field: Off
Disable cutscreen effects: Checked
Enable hardware mouse cursor: Checked
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filtering: Low
Extended drawing: Off
Physics: Off

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I think it's kinda fishy imo because FFXIV seems to have an unneeded 'choppiness' to it and what not. Server latency causes the UI to lag and the loading of NPCs / characters take a while to pop up while the surroundings are just fine. I know my GPU isn't state of the art as it's based on entry level technology within the 6 series, but boy has it got the job done across a broad spectrum of 2009-2011 games. Any ideas?

[ninesunz]

Video card too weak

[Sinzfeldt]

Dual core? Also that is noway near modest, that is low-end at the most.

[Chinook]

The game punishes you for using the word "toons".

[Bulwarkz]

Catalyst Control Center settings:
Anti-Aliasing - Use application settings
Anisotropic Filter - Use application settings
Tessellation - AMD Optimized Unchecked and Use application settings Unchecked; Level Off
Catalyst A.I. - Performance
Enable Surface Format Optimization - Unchecked
VSync - On
AA Mode - Multi-sample AA
Triple buffering - Checked ( Same results )

[Bulwarkz]

The game punishes you for using the word "toons".

Edited. Yeah to be honest with you I never liked it either. I typed this up pretty quick because I'm a bit frustrated.

[Bulwarkz]

Dual core? Also that is noway near modest, that is low-end at the most.

3.2GHz Dual Core = 2 CPUs running at 3.2GHz

Thank you for your reply, how so?

EDIT: The CPU is specifically an E6700.

[HiirNoivl]

Does anyone play this game on Dual Core?

[Bulwarkz]

Does anyone play this game on Dual Core?

Holy moly I never thought I would get a reaction like that. To my knowledge when I made the machine a few months ago, only a rare selection of games were optimized for Quad Core. I was under the impression ( and a hand full of COMP USA tech's ) that Dual Core running at 3.2GHz was one of my best specs. According to the forums the game doesn't run well on Six Core apparently. Does FFXIV specifically require Quad Core architecture to enjoy the game?

[Holy_Dragoon]

You'll find that Processing power is BIG factor in this game.

Current Recommended Specs (this is the official spec), note this isn't maximum settings by any means. You can go up from here quite a bit.

OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core i7 (2.53 GHz)
RAM: 4GB RAM
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
HDD: 10GB of free drive space
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 or higher VRAM 1024 MB
Sound: DirectSound compatible (DirectX 9.0)
Monitor Resolution: 1280 x 720 (32 bit color)
Network: Broadband (constant connection)
Input: Gamepad

Trust me on this one, I was running a Core 2 Duo @ 3.2GHz with a more powerful video card and got all kinds of stutter and a low benchmark of 2800. I bought a new CPU (Intel i5 Sandy)and my benchmark jumped to 5000 with higher in-game settings.

You can get performance out of better video card, but your CPU will kill your performance even if you spend the money. This isn't true with all games, but it certainly is with FF XIV. There is usually a better balance, or most games are GPU heavy. FF XIV is the opposite.