PC Lag (Huge, Repeating FPS decrease); virtually unplayable

[Slainne]

I played this game on release, and even despite the server issues with their big launch, FFXIV was great. It was beautiful, and ran well as long as the servers were up and my internet held out. However, since $14 a month does add up (not to mention it distracts me from other things I have to do), I left it alone with the hope that I'd go back in a few months and play again.

I bought it during the steam sale for 2 reasons:
1) It was on sale for $15, and I had that much in my steam wallet, rather than having to deplete my bank account for a month's sub for a game I really wanted to play again.
2) I had to reformat my hard drive a few weeks ago when I got a new wireless card, so the previous game download was no longer on my computer.

ANYWAY.

I'm having MAJOR issues with lag. This is just about every 2-3 minutes, lasts for about a minute or more each time, and happens FOR SURE every time I come in contact with more than one enemy at a time. My fps goes from its fair quality at 30/40-some to 4 or 5 fps, and it's incredibly taxing and annoying. This pretty much guarantees that dungeons and boss battles will be like that, which means I'm going to be a liability to my party.

I've lowered all of the graphics settings to the bare minimum. Aaaaaaaall the way down. Everything that COULD be rendered down, is down. I updated my graphics drivers, and did this helpful idea, but it's still not fixing my problem.

Here's my specs:

• Windows 7 x64
• NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT video card (fully updated drivers as of 2/23)
• Intel Core i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
• 8GB RAM

(not sure if there's anything else I should put here; I'm not that great with computers)
Please help!

TL;DR Played opening month, ran fine with no lag. Bought for steam sale to play again, lag everywhere; virtually unplayable. FPS from 30/40 down to 4 or 5. Turned all graphics settings down, tried variety of different solutions which haven't helped. It's for sure not an internet problem. Boss battles/dungeons will be difficult without fixing this. HALP PLS.

[Nekodar]

Check all in-game settings and see what can be disabled... Like the weather effects they added with 2.16...

[Slainne]

Everything in graphics settings is off, and hasn't been helpful.

[Nekodar]

Check again after tomorrows hotfixes.

That said, the graphics card you're using is quite old and outdated... You may want to consider upgrading.