FFXIV Temps on GTX460

[Coldfire]

Watercooling is the ideal way to cool parts that normally are problematic: HDD, GPU, SB, Mosfet.
But it's pretty expensive 'cause of the low demand. My cooling system is pretty old already. I upgrade some parts from time to time though. If you want to build your own silent highend system it's definately worth looking into.
So it's the same as a case basically. It can last several years and is easily upgradable/extendable.
Btw the CM HAF and Antec 1200 are designed for watercooling :P

[origamikitsune]

I run a 460 as well. Had the same problem. I run everything at max with AO off. I was borderline uncomfortable with the temp. I lowered General Draw Quality from 10 to 8, I lost over 10degrees C, saw a HUGE performance increase, and noticed absolutely no decrease in draw quality.

The reason is this: General Draw Quality 8 = renders the full resolution. 9 renders 1.5 times your resolution and re-sizes the image. 10 renders 2x your resolution and re-sizes. The effect of this is essentially anti-aliasing through resizing, and nothing more (its a bit more complicated, but that's the general idea). If you have 16AA on (or even 32 if you do it through the nVidia control panel) I will be very, very, very, surprised if you noticed the quality difference between 10 and 8 general draw.

In short, Turn AO off, and crank every other setting except General Draw. Tweak in the nVidia Control Panel if you want to eek out every last drop of quality without loss of performance (only thing I have on is forced vsynch).

[Khalus]

If you want to build your own silent highend system.

Antec 1200 are designed for watercooling :P

True , but I like my Antec 1200 on air...my GPU temps are great as I already posted them, and my CPU temps even on full load barely register at 45c.

As for the noise that fans make...I never quite figured out why so many complain about it. Even when I have my 580 whirling away at 85% it sounds like a typical fan. I do however have a 7.1 speaker system, so maybe the gaming noise has drowned it out, but all-in-all its never bugged me. I guess those that have their PC in rooms where other family members are and they have headphones on, it may bother them...dunno

[Acerimmer]

Seems normal, my 460 gets fairly hot also, 80c or so around Gridania. Settings are all high / standard for drawing quality.

[Eunys]

Playing in windowed mode took 10c off the temps, so far so good also seems to have stop the jerkyness that i was getting in the game.

[Beeli]

If anyone is willing to lend me some advice, I need some help with my game setup using the GTX 460.

I've made a few characters in different locations, but I can't seem to shake the lag I've been getting in game. I run the game on Windows 7 64-bit, with DirectX 11.0, and I have the Nvidia GTX 460 (driver up-to-date). My computer specs are: i7 930, 2.80 GHz, 9GB RAM.

I'm currently using these settings in game:
Windowed 1440x900 (1280x854 if there's too much lag)
Multisampling 8x CSAA
General Drawing Quality 8 (standard)
Background Drawing Quality 3 (standard)
Shadow Detail High
Depth of Field checked
Texture Quality High
Texture Filtering Highest

From what I've read online I should be able to run things at a higher level, but if I try anything greater I get massive lag. With my current setup I still get some pretty bad lag, and I haven't even ventured into a busy area yet.

Any advice is much appreciated!

[DAOWAce]

Does not compute. Define 'lag'.

No wait, you don't have to, because I know you really mean 'the game becomes sluggish' or 'my FPS drops', but we now live in a world where 'lag' means anything that goes slow, even if what's going slow is running as fast as it can. In terms of computer hardware; that's not 'lag', that's weak processing power, which can only be remedied by purchasing more powerful hardware.

But I digress, I don't mean to attack people, so don't take it as an attack; I just hate what the term 'lag' has turned into after the year 2005.

That said, you have 3 options, ordered in terms of performance gains.

1) Overclock (or upgrade) your processor. - FFXIV is console oriented, many things are done in software and require a powerful CPU. 3.33GHz should be minimum speed for your 930, even on stock cooling. Aim for 3.5GHz or 3.8GHz (some people run 4.3). Pushing near this requires more knowledge of tweaking individual settings. Google is your friend here, so are quality heatsinks, cases, and good airflow.

1a) I can't stress enough how much CPU performance matters. Look there before you look at the GPU. Also, I need to remind you that overclocking voids your warranty and can damage your components along with increasing heat and power consumption. You do so at your own risk, but also at your own benefit for higher performance in the end.

2) Run fullscreen. - Windowed mode causes the game to feel sluggish at times, despite alright FPS. This seems to be independent of DWM (Desktop Window Manager) running or not. Even on my 4.5GHz i5-2500K and Dual GTX 460's (811 core), the game still randomly runs sluggish in windowed mode, preventing me from enjoying a windowed fullscreen experience (tabbing out).

3) Drop AA (even though it appears to do nothing at times, try testing different levels), disable DoF, maybe drop shadows to normal. Could try disabling 'distance rendering/drawing' ingame too. - These all cause drops in FPS more than most of the other options.


A single 460 cannot run the game at higher settings with a comfortable framerate, especially without a fast CPU. You'd be very surprised at what a difference 1,000MHz makes in FFXIV.

Note: This is all assuming you're getting below 30FPS, as you never posted any numbers. Even your system with those settings should run 60FPS in the wilderness. While your lower resolution and claims of slowdowns is questionable, I really need hard numbers to give accurate feedback.

[Coldfire]

100% agree with previous post but it should also be mentioned that what some people call "lag" is also the stuttering they get when the game loads content from HDD(especially in town). A faster HDD(modern small HDDs are usually fast, or SSDs) reduces this.

[Beeli]

Thank you both! I'm am sorry about not defining what I meant by "lag," I was unaware there are nuances in meaning revolving around the word. But now I know, thank you. : ) For me, with no other programs running in the BG of my computer, at points my FFXIV screen will literally stop for a moment while one corner of it rushes over the rest of the screen to refresh the image. Sometimes it's very noticeable, other times it's just a flicker.

I did not post my FPS because I never figured out where to find that onscreen, or whether it was in the same location as FFXI. My guess was in the top right-hand corner, but I didn't just want to guess, so I am sorry about that.

I will tweak the game settings to your suggestions. It's a little sad, since I actually got a new computer just for this game, and it's still not playing as smoothly as I'd hoped. But hey! That's life.

Hmm, also, I've never run a benchmark on any of my computers before, but now that I'm exploring that option it looks like I'll need to download software to do it. Do you have any suggestions for this?

And I have another question: would you suggest I get another GTX 460? My system can fit two. Though I would be hesitant to overclock my processor because I have an amazing 5 year warranty on this system, if you think I would be able to safely overclock my i7 930 at 3.33GHz I would be willing to give it a try. : )

Thank you again!

[Coldfire]

Imho there's absolutely no point in having multiple graphic cards unless you have too much real life gil or work in a sector that profits from it <.<
About the fps:
Don't think there is any ingame dispaly for fps (the stuff in the corner is your sent/received kbits/s). You will have to use an external tool to measure it (fraps should work).
But from your description this really might be the stuttering you get from HDD reading. Better invest the money in a fast HDD (or SSD) instead of a second GPU :P