Performance Discussion, suggestions maybe

[tymora]

1) 64 bit client - With the usual performance benefits assuming FFXIV can be optimized for it. (Memory limitations removed, more registers to do arithmetic...etc etc)

-> Most hardware sold nowadays support 64 bit.
-> Pave the way for an OSX port? Maybe...

2) Memory - Memory use appears to be rather conservative. I know some people complain of "too much" memory usage but that's not really the point here.
Watching the allocations on ffxivgame indicates the SE tries to keep system consumption to around 1GB.

-> This more or less means anything above 4Gb (give and take enough for other applications and the OS) is essentially a waste of $$$. This is half the limit of a 32 bit app.

My message to the developers will be to...Use our RAM!
Perhaps add an option in the configuration application? For those of us who are not breaking the ToS (botting/multi-boxing), there is plenty of room here.

3) Disk -
The first thing anyone will notice about the FFXIV game directory is that it has a lot of files...a lot of tiny tiny files...
[Benefits]
1) Easy to update
2) Easy to load into memory

[Problems]
1) Frequent disk reads - Character animation scripts, textures, models are frequently read from the drive. (Zones are read once)
2) Prone to directory fragmentation - The disk has to work harder to load all the components necessary to say...load a character
3) Space wastage - Any file smaller than the file allocation unit (typically 4kb) will still take up 4kb.

The issues I mentioned can be easily investigated using Windows 7 in-built resource monitor. Running through Uldah can easily hit 2-3+Mb/sec. This is already above the typical random read performance of a 10k rpm drive. (Can look around for disk benchmarks)

Because of the disk "problems", FFXIV can be disk-drive bound in crowded areas or when loading a new zone. This is an often overlooked bottleneck by gamers. (GPU is the in-thing)

-> An SSD of course will not be subject to issues #1 and #2.

4. GPU
On 470 GTX, 1440x900 Windowed, system overclocked, ~55fps, idling in the Uldah Markets
CPU Utility - Display Size, Background Size, Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, DOF
~35% - 1, 1, Highest, On, On
~45% - 8, 5, Lowest, Off, Off
~45% - 8, 5, Highest, Off, Off
~55% - 8, 5, Highest, Off, On (Depth of field adds about 10%)
~100% - 8, 5, Highest, On, On
~100% - 8, 5, Highest, On, Off
~80% - 8, 5, Highest, On, Off + Desktop Compositing turned off
~95% - 8, 5, Highest, On, On + Desktop Compositing turned off

On the side, turning on Multisampling didn't make much of a dent so I am ignoring that here.

Biggest Performance Culprits as is probably well known:
=> Ambient Occlusion adds more than 60% usage on my system...makes sense? This might be partially due to the fact that more hardware AO optimizations come in at DX10 and later.
=> Aero/Desktop Compositing...yes turn it off while playing... (Forum reference)

*The numbers will increase if you have a larger display.

Hope there are new information in this post for all you forum readers. I do know of at least half a dozen threads across a couple of different forums mentioning the above problems and workarounds.

Cheers.