1) A MMO should not require the consumer to close all applications during gameplay as FFXIV does. FFXIV's client is still not compliant with today's standards of computer operations (it does not play friendly with other system resources). Not only is the client selfish it is also lacking focus which prevents alt tabbing and various other common MMO client features found within games which are nearly a decade older than FFXIV.
2) The latency issues go hand in hand with the graphical issues. It is commonly known that FFXIV has a horrid client to server delay which effects every aspect of the game. It is most commonly witnessed in the Rank 45 Dungeon Instanced Raids (Into the Dark) where within party members are frequently disconnected from the server nearly every other Raid attempt.
There are several threads explaining these issues in far greater detail than I ever could. Simply put, anything you do in FFXIV is going to require tedious amounts of patience not only combating the games client failures or lack of non-repetitive content but also the clients responsiveness to the server as well. Me and my friends are sick and tired of getting D/Cd while doing common tasks like Behest/Crafting/Leves/Zoning/**Raids**
Yet another example of core mechanics within FFXIV being severely detrimental to the games overal functionality and in turn enjoyment factor.
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09-07-2011 09:21 AM #51Player
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
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- Ul'Dah
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- Mewt Naeun
- World
- Exodus
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- Marauder Lv 100
(0)Living life one day at a time~!
Mending the past with the joys of today!
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09-07-2011 12:05 PM #52Player
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
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- Aion Zwei
- World
- Masamune
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- Gladiator Lv 54
Hey guys, I am using a low-mid end VGA,CPU and also a limited HDD, it runs fine on low-med setting,I can bear the lag. but usually after 1,5 half hours, there is a period which my game stuttering/lag heavily for minutes. what should I check 1st?
(0)Aion Zwei - Masamune
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09-07-2011 01:48 PM #53Player
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
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- Kal Ell
- World
- Diabolos
- Main Class
- Gladiator Lv 50
So i have a question, and this thread seemed to be the best place to post, i dont have a big problem running this game, my fans seem to to kick on high when i do ,so here is my specs, do they seem ok?
...and i was wondering, could i update my i5 to a i7 second gen?
-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Service Pack 1 64bit (build 7601)
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 760 @ 2.80GHz
Number of Processors Logical Core Count 4 Physical Core Count 4
BIOS Default System BIOS
Language English (Regional Setting: English)
Physical Memory 4055.117MB
Virtual Memory 2047.875MB
Page File 8108.430MB
Storage C:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 931.413GB Free Disk Space 737.158GB
Storage Q:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 931.413GB Free Disk Space 737.158GB
DirectX Version DirectX 11
Graphic Device(s) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
+Device \\.\DISPLAY1
+Chip GeForce GTX 460
+Maker NVIDIA
+Video Memory 993.438 MB
+Shared Video Memory 1771.559 MB
+DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
+Display Mode 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
+Driver nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
+Driver Version 8.17.0012.8026
+Driver Date 8/3/2011 5:50:00 AM
+Driver Language English
+Vertex Shader 3.0
+Pixel Shader 3.0
+Vertex Texture Supported
Sound Device(s) SHARP HDMI-1 (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
+Device ID {2AB083ED-2412-47BE-AF2C-3643C2633080}
+Device Name nvhda64v.sys
+Driver Version 1.02.0023.0003
+Driver Language English
+Driver Date 5/25/2011 12:09:17 AM
Sound Device(s) Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
+Device ID {73477389-4EC6-42BA-96CE-7FD637D1EC54}
+Device Name RTKVHD64.sys
+Driver Version 6.00.0001.6132
+Driver Language English
+Driver Date 6/8/2010 3:21:02 AM
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B60-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Mouse
+Notes Axis 3 Button 5 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {6F1D2B61-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
+Name Keyboard
+Notes Axis 0 Button 128 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {C6D46C30-F4F1-11DF-8001444553540000}
+Name 2.4G RF Keyboard & Mouse
+Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {C6D4BA50-F4F1-11DF-8002444553540000}
+Name 2.4G RF Keyboard & Mouse
+Notes Axis 0 Button 573 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {C6D4E160-F4F1-11DF-8003444553540000}
+Name 2.4G RF Keyboard & Mouse
+Notes Axis 0 Button 3 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {C6D50870-F4F1-11DF-8004444553540000}
+Name 2.4G RF Keyboard & Mouse
+Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {C6D52F80-F4F1-11DF-8005444553540000}
+Name 2.4G RF Keyboard & Mouse
+Notes Axis 0 Button 0 Field of View 0
Input Device(s) {77D16100-C43B-11E0-8001444553540000}
+Name FF-GP1
+Notes Axis 4 Button 12 Field of View 1
Thanks for your help(0)Last edited by CK11; 09-07-2011 at 01:52 PM.
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09-07-2011 04:34 PM #54Player
- Join Date
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- Gladiator Lv 54
when you are on tight budget like me what will you upgrade 1st?
- CPU: C2D E4500
-VGa: ATI 5670
-HDD: 250GB 7200RPM
-RAM: 2 x 1GB RAM
thanks(0)Aion Zwei - Masamune
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09-07-2011 05:15 PM #55Player
- Join Date
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- Delsus Highwind
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- Red Mage Lv 86
Its quite simple, he is talking about loading lag, which is the long times it takes to load things like initialy starting the game and character models, which are stored on the client's PC, when the game starts it has to load the huge zones from the HDD, and even the character models it just gets the information for the PC to build the models for example if there is a hyur midlander male with face 2, large body size, a scar on the left eye, brown hair 1 etc etc, this is what the client recives from the server, then the client builds all character models onscreen using that information.
Originally Posted by Rydin
Because of this loading from even a 7200RPM HDD takes time because of the physical limitations of a HDD which when the cost of SSDs come down HDD will be obsolete, yes the client could do with optimising which I will not deny, but loading lag is either HDD read speed, CPU clock speed because or graphics card rendering speed.
Most of what you mentioned are networking problems, but if you look at the network indicator ingame, you will notice not much bandwidth is used by the game, take a character model that usually only takes about 5Mb to download because its the client that draws them.
Btw, if a HDD is almost full the loading lag isnt affected that much, the main problem there could be from a full HDD is fragmented data, because the CPU knows where information related to programs should be even with a full HDD, the CPU knows where all FFXIV data should be when you open the patcher, because the programs are connected.
You are just somone that thinks they know everything, people have taken my advice on a SSD before now and have seen large loading lag reductions, believe me when I have the money I will be getting a SSD when I have the money, even if it is just a small one to put windows and FFXIV on, which is all you need.
My profession makes me need to know how to diagnose problems based on little information, and because the op posted about loading lag, and said they have a decent PC, it is the most logical fix to invest in a SSD because the game has to load so much information from the HDD on the fly, if the op has a SSD I would then suggest a CPU upgrade because of the need for multitasking to play this game.
Also here you mention 6GB as a good amount of RAM which is true but unless you run graphics design software of virtual machines, or other RAM intensive software you dont need it, RAM only slows a system down if you are topping it out by running multiple programs at once for example I have 8GB of RAM in the laptop I play FFXIV on when the system is running just firefox skype and background programs I am using 1.62GB of it therefore I will not notice a slowdown just running FFXIV on top of those, however with 2GB of RAM I would notice a slowdown because the system would be page filing so my system does not crash.
Originally Posted by Rydin
The only way I top out my RAM is when I am running 5-6 virtual machines which I do.
If you want to see the problem page filing has, top out your RAM, and you will notice the symptoms of topped out RAM, 3GB+ RAM you will not notice a slowdown, and it will definatly not increase loading times, and if you have any less than 3GB RAM you should really upgrade.(0)Last edited by Delsus; 09-07-2011 at 05:26 PM.
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09-07-2011 05:43 PM #56Player
- Join Date
- Mar 2011
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- Ul'dah, where else?
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- Delsus Highwind
- World
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Check the graphics card first, then the CPU use atleast an i5 or ATI equivelant CPU ad atleast a 750MB graphoics card
Originally Posted by Aion
I would look at your graphics card first a 460 isnt ideal for FFXIV because it is quite dated now, then move to the CPU your CPU while not ideal should run decent, but the 460 looks like the real bottle neck in your system.
Originally Posted by CK11
Sorry for not editing the bulk of the quote, im in a hurry.
Your whole system seems underpowered, I would start on atleast 2x 2GB RAM chips which you can get cheap, then move to the CPU, C2D is quite old, but this can cost alot of money, finally move to the graphics card, if you have the 1GB model it should not need an upgrade, but if you are using the 512MB model then it will need upgrading for the best performance.
Originally Posted by Aion
(1)
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09-07-2011 05:47 PM #57Player
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- Jenova
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- Lancer Lv 50
You wouldn't see too much of a difference between the 760 and anything else
Originally Posted by CK11
Even the "monster" 2600k, although it benchmarks well, will show very little to no improvement in game.....
Honestly... your graphics card is the only part of your rig that is considered mid range....
the 460 is I believe the recommended minimum GPU according to square enix... at least you have the one with more VRAM though....
You could pick up a used Radeon 5870 and increase your performance quite a bit... and by that I mean play with all settings maxed (No AO and GDQ 8)
well consider your CPU and RAM linked....
Originally Posted by Aion
because if you upgrade CPU, you'll have to get a new Motherboard and RAM....
which isn't bad... but it would cost more than upgrading your video card... both of which would give you a big performance boost
They are actually at about the same level of needing to be updated...
So if you have the cash.... upgrade the motherboard, CPU and RAM...
If you're limited on funds... just pop in a new video card and save up for the big upgrade... let the hard drive be the last thing you upgrade....(0)
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09-07-2011 06:14 PM #58Player
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- Jenova
- Main Class
- Lancer Lv 50
yes... but if you're sharing internet on say a 10mbit connection...
Originally Posted by Delsus
and Another computer is using a bit torrent client... the download could be using 100% of the bandwidth
Also bad ping is bad ping... and if you've got like a 1 second ping to the servers.... you can kiss any type of lag free gameplay goodbye
absolutely not true.... the innermost sectors of an HDD have as little as half the data rate of the outer sectors.. which get written to first....
Originally Posted by Delsus
Yes... when you start the game... it will load faster with an SSD... I'm not denying that....
Originally Posted by Delsus
but faster initial load =/= better performance....
I guess it can be viewed as a performance increase.... in a manner of speaking....
In my profession... I create music... and I've professionally made a few Virtual instruments and sample libraries... in which case, bit rates, data rates and hard drive speeds are paramount in what I do
Originally Posted by Delsus
I disagree with this.... if you have a very old HDD... you can get a modern caviar black AND a CPU for the price of a usable SSD... making it the better upgrade path....
This is actually true... go figure
Originally Posted by Delsus
I can use all 16GB of my machine with one song playing... and all of the virtual instruments that go with it.... there this one... called Vienna... I swear to you it is 500gb of orchestra samples.... purely hi sample rate audio... it's nuts... you running VMware? my buddy does tech work for the City of Miami and he absolutely hates VMware
Originally Posted by Delsus
I also agree... damn... I can't make a habit out of this...
Originally Posted by Delsus
At the end of the day... a gamer with high end CPU, GPU, and RAM and an ok HDD is going to see better performance than a gamer with an SSD and mid range CPU, GPU and RAM.... Even any one of those is more important than an SSD....(Ram size more so than actual speeds, which still matter though)
Take an I7 990x, 12GB of DDR3 2000MHz, an ATI Radeon HD 6990 and an Intel or OCZ SSD....
I give this to you... but then I say one (and only one) of the items has to be downgraded....
Either the CPU goes to a core 2 duo....
or the GPU goes to a GTX8800
or the RAM drops to 3gb
or the SSD drops to a 7200RPM 32MB cache drive...
which one do you choose?
point made(0)Last edited by Rydin; 09-07-2011 at 06:16 PM.
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09-07-2011 06:30 PM #59
I run a I7 laptop 8gb win7 64bit, with only a Nvidia GTS 360m and 7200RPM hd.
The 360m is having a hard time with FF14, especially since I run it full HD through a hdmi cable on a big tele. But I manage to get it smooth enough adjusting the settings to mid and on full HD still looks fine.
The HDD is in use quite often and I seemed to get stuttering out of that everywhere too. I couldn't even play music from Spotify properly in the background because of it.
The I7 isn't doing much with only 20%/30% usage I believe and the mem is never capped out.
So my 360m problems are managed with settings. The rest is good. But I still had to fix my HDD problems. Now I tried a USB stick with readyboost, which kinda helps, but was no holy cure. Then I finally found the fix while tweaking my laptop for audio. And it was a rare find!
My Laptop is also used for recording audio from an external high end sound card & ad/da converter through Firewire. If you want to record audio in high settings like 192khz/32bit and record that to HDD, depending on your system, you will get stutter and these so called drop outs, which you don't want. Scanning professional audio forums I was pointed towards this nice tool:
http://download.cnet.com/LatencyMon/...-75300293.html
Running this tool while doing nothing, or while trying to record audio, or playing some music, all gave some interresting insights in what was causing latency and made my audio stutter and drop out. I noticed this was mostly caused by software/drivers related to my onboard lan port, which was causing huge latency spikes that then caused latency on my 360m and hdd access. This may be a fault in the LAN drivers or hardware. Luck may have it I am on the wireless support of my Laptop, so I simply disabled the LAN port and this fixed my audio recording problems.
Now going back to FF14, my Uld stutter is gone too and I can play audio in the background, alt tab is smooth, generally having a good time. In fact I'm better off in Uld and Grid and surrounding areas now than I am in unpopulated Limsa Lominsa or Bloodshore areas, which are stressing my 360m more, probably because of bigger distances / more details to render by the 360m.
So long story short: Give the latencymon tool a try if you have problems with stuttering. You may find something in your system that is delaying all your other hardware. And seems the FF14 client is the among the more demanding applications to choke on those latency issues if you have them. You may be able to find something and update drivers, remove an app or update specific hardware to get something out of this, but it's worth the look.
To opt : Yes I have felt the general game performance isn't the best and still am aware FF14 is quite heavy on today's hardware. However, with a little research/work I was able to overcome the issues and am able to play quite OK on hardware that isn't that perfectly suited for the game (The 360m graphics).
Still I hate all that tweaking. Hope they do a good job on PS3 or eventually bring it to Xbox360. I'm tired of dealing with PC hardware for games lol
(0)Last edited by ShayAmora; 09-07-2011 at 07:27 PM.
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09-07-2011 06:33 PM #60Player
- Join Date
- Apr 2011
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- Limsa
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- Aenarion Estelvir
- World
- Sargatanas
- Main Class
- Gladiator Lv 50
Unless the consumer have subpar hardware to begin with, not everything is programmed for the lowest common denominator, nor should they be. That said, I do agree with your other points.
Originally Posted by AreeyaJaidee
can't say I've seen this happen personally, I've rarely seen anyone suffering frequent DC in the dungeons, and the few times it happened it was due to ISP problems on the player's side.
Originally Posted by AreeyaJaidee
On the issues of client and hardware, it's obvious that the client optimization is hardly up to par, but at the same time I think some are placing a bit too much of the blame on the client. There are way too many things that can cause the issues that people have talked about, and not many have provided enough information to really figure out what the problem may be, and I suspect not many have done all that much testing themselves either.
hardware, software and OS configurations and settings, parts selection, cooling system configuration and condition, ambient temperature etc. can all have substantial impact on your system's performance.
I personally haven't really run into much issue with the client myself, and I'm running on a decent, but hardly top of the line system (i7 920 @ 4.0ghz w/ 6gb ram, a 580gtx and a couple SSDs for the OS and games). I run the ff14 client @ 1920x1200, with mostly standard (because higher settings don't really provide any noticable improvements anyway) settings and 4x AA, and for the most part the game stays within 45-60 FPS for me. Hell, sometimes I even run ff14 with multiple instances of eve online clients at the same time with no issue. (all in windowed mode).
can't really say much about a direct comparison between HDD and SSD performance for the game, as I've always had SSDs in this system, but I never experienced any stutter or other notable performance issue with the client on my laptop, which has much less power being a c2d p9500 w/ 4gb and only a 4850m gpu, and no SSD - I just had to run the client in a lower resolution in accordance with the less capable hardware. As far as I can see, the SSDs loads the game and zones a bit faster - when I teleport both clients at the same time, it can take a second or two longer to load on the laptop, but otherwise I see little differences between the two.(0)Last edited by Aenarion; 09-07-2011 at 06:38 PM.
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