FFXIV Temps on GTX460

[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

[Beeli]

Well, I decided to tinker with my settings first. I lowered a couple things, but I just noticed something new: http://beelibuzz.com/random/Bee-Shadow.jpg What is causing these blocks of shadow on my character's face? In game, it's all over the place and very annoying. Is it the shadow setting? It's pretty distracting, and I'd at least like to alleviate that graphically.

[Coldfire]

That's the bad implementation of the self-shadowing or shadow maps in general. SE was probably too lazy to implement some complicated technique like PSSM. So the only way to reduce that is increasing the shadow resolution or completely disable shadows (ingame options).

[Beeli]

Augh, that's terrible. :/ Oh well, I'll see what I can do.

I should mention though, I just went in game to check out some of the new settings I changed, and the lag/stutter/sluggishness/whathaveyou is much, much worse in full-screen mode for me. All at once different sections of my screen are refreshing the image at different rates, so I've got these patches everywhere that are jittering. I'm going to try it in windowed mode again and see if that makes a difference.

[DAOWAce]

snip

I understood it from your original reply, but your last confirmed it more.

Hopefully this screenshot is self explanatory enough for you to understand.

http://daow.net/images/NVCPVSync.png

Try running fullscreen again.

If it's resolved, you can turn your settings back up.

Note: If this solves it, and you experience a new issue (fps randomly tanking, specifically; from 60 FPS to 30 FPS with no variance in between), then let me know; you'll have to force Triple Buffering to resolve that and it can't be done through the Nvidia Control Panel.

Also, as someone said above, measure your FPS with FRAPS: http://fraps.com

[Coldfire]

Fullscreen issues are in 99% of the cases caused by the settings in nv control panel/amd control center(not only the settings there but also the profiles). That's because all those settings only get applied to games that run in fullscreen mode :P
That's just my observation though. Might have been coincidence.