Looking for ways to improve frame rate.

[Turaven]

The game generally runs pretty well, but I would like to render the game at something like 5120x2160 to help with aliasing (currently run at my monitor's native res of 3440x1440), since the only options for AA is FXAA which is pretty close to useless. I'm also running the game in full-screen mode.

Specs:
Intel i7 4790k, stock 4.0 GHz (4.4 GHz turbo) clock speed.
x2 EVGA Superclocked GTX 980 in SLI
8GB of ADATA 1333 MHz RAM
Samsung 850 PRO SSD

I currently run the game off a single GPU instead of with SLI enabled, I get random frame chugs to like 50FPS in areas where it has no reason to happen. I tried forcing alternate frame rendering 2 mode, but that didn't have any discernible effect. Are there any hoops I can jump through to get SLI to provide a performance boost? With that I should be able to bump up the resolution quite a bit and get some jaggies to go away.

Secondly, since MMOs tend to be pretty hard on the CPU, would I see any performance gains from overclocking? FF14 seems to only utilize 3, maybe 3 CPU threads, so it doesn't seem very well optimized in the first place, so I'd imagine I wouldn't see massive gains from a modest overclock.

Anyone have ideas?

[Etiken]

When you say "frame chugs" are you meaning temporary stuttering? Or are you getting permanent frame drops until you leave that specific area?

Why aren't you running SLI?

Your CPU is fine imo.

[Turaven]

When you say "frame chugs" are you meaning temporary stuttering? Or are you getting permanent frame drops until you leave that specific area?

Why aren't you running SLI?

Your CPU is fine imo.

Permanent lower frame rates until I move elsewhere or turn the camera around or something.

I get lower framerates when I run both cards, so I have SLI turned off.

[Etiken]

You could try running a couple different old drivers for the cards. I have had to do that on multiple occasions to correct frame dips. I keep auto updates off for my graphics drivers and only update them when I need to. If I am getting my ideal performance and have nothing to complain about, I don't want anything changed lol. I assume with your setup and your concern of dipping to 50fps your goal is to simply never dip below 60 right?

Report back after trying that if you want and I can keep working with yuh to see if we can figure it out. If that doesn't work I would then try changing all hardware to the default clock speeds (to weed out overclocking as a culprit). Try one thing at a time.

Unfortunately I don't have too much experience with SLI setups because every time I've tried it I have been disappointed.

[Judge_Xero]

Until we get the DX11 Client, your best bet is to play with Maximum Settings, but then disable

- Disable Rendering Objects when not Visible (Occlusion Culling)
- Use Low Detail Models on Distant Objects
- Cache LOD Data only when necessary

Then there's another LOD for Shadows that you can turn off as well.

-----------------------------

Then you should be able to get smooth frames with SLI, playing in Full Screen Mode.

Overclocking your system Ram may help as well, since FFXIV seems to like high Memory Bandwidth.

If you type CMD in the Search bar on your start menu, then right Click and Run CMD as Administrator

then type winsat mem and hit Enter.

You'll probably need at least 26000 MB/s to push two 980's a good amount.

[Etiken]

Personally I feel like lowering settings is just a cop-out. His system should handle the game perfectly. (It is by most human standards tbh lol. Most people don't even notice a difference between 30 - 60fps. Unfortunately people with insane gaming rigs are usual elitists when it comes to this sort of thing haha)

The cop-outs imo are the rendering and detail models settings. I wouldn't touch those, but you can try the Cache LOD data.

Can I get a more detailed breakdown of your computer? What mobo, psu etc.

[Judge_Xero]

The settings I suggested lowers the CPU bottleneck where you would see a single core running 100% and the rest at 70%, 40% etc. (And your GPU at 40%)

It seems that the rendering of players in highly populated areas that are not visible is not coded well and taxes a single core too much instead of being multithreaded.

[Etiken]

Ah so I my interpretation of Occlusion Culling must have been incorrect? I had always thought for some reason that the setting would basically limit the distance at which you can see objects by not rendering them before you can see them. So basically my thought has been that if you get the objects rendered before you can even see them, then by the time you get to the point in the game where you :can: see them, you will see them ":that:" much sooner, (because they have already been rendered before you even knew you were about to see them).

LOL does that make sense?

Thanks for the clarification on the reasoning behind the setting.

[Judge_Xero]

I think your interpretation is correct for the most part. That pre-rendering prevents stuff from suddenly popping into view and you will see it a lot sooner (slightly further draw distance)

IMO it is kind of useless for a modern system since things are rendered so fast, there is no need to pre-render items not in view.
Especially with such detailed info in an MMO for player NPCs

[Etiken]

useless for a modern system since things are rendered so fast

Ahhhhh true that.