Platform: Windows 7
ISP: Verizon FIOS
Type of Internet Connection: FTTH
Internet Connection Speed: 25/25
Date & Time: 8 June 2011, 8:10 AM EDT
Frequency: Always
Character Name: Jayne Cobb
Race: Roegadyn
World: Trabia
Class/Skill Rank: Lancer 10
Physical Level: 24
Area and Coordinates: Ul'dah, 6, 3
Party or Solo: Solo
In-Game Time:

As I'm idling in Thanalan hoping to get the The Seventh Moon achievement, I've turned down my quality settings in FFXIV so that my PC doesn't melt down.

Previously I was using:
Windowed
Window Size: 1600x900
Multisampling: 8xQ MSAA
General Drawing Quality: 10
Background Drawing Quality: 5
Shadow Detail: Highest

I changed to this:
Windowed
Window Size: 1024x768
Multisampling: None
General Drawing Quality: 1
Background Drawing Quality: 1
Shadow Detail: Lowest

And now all the labels on PCs and NPCs are pretty much unreadable.

Since the labels are all flat 2D surfaces, and the game engine already prevents more than a handful of PCs/NPCs from appearing at any given time, I think it would be appropriate if the nameplates were exempted from the graphics settings, as the performance impact would be negligible and having the information readable is pretty important.