Upgrading CPU, Advice Needed

[Grit]

The upgrade would help - but not immensely. FFXIV is highly CPU dependant. You would see a huge increase in performance if you had the option to upgrade like an i7, but a quad core Phenom WOULD help, and FFXIV DOES use more than two cores. For example, I have an intel Q6600 quad overclocked to 3.0ghz, coupled with two 250GTS's, which are weaker than an HD 6870 - but I still get a better benchmark score than you.

I also recommend turning your general drawing quality down to 8.

Keep in mind that high resolutions are more dependent on the video card, while a lot of other graphics settings are dependent on the CPU. If you run the benchmark on low, you should be able to tell how much your CPU is bottle-necking you, because your score won't be that much better.