Game stutters if there's players

[ESCUDO]

UPDATE: Apparently buying an SSD fixes the problem. If you want to buy one just for this game, then go ahead. Alternatively wait™ until SE optimizes the game.


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Game runs normally in areas where there are not much people (always 60fps), if i go into a city it stutters a lot. If i go to a camp it stutters as well if there's people, but not that much.

While on a city it stutters and keeps stuttering if there's players. If there are no players it won't stutter.

No other games stutters like this, i play all my games with 1080p and at least 16xAF and 8XAA and there's no stutter whatsoever even at stock speeds.

This game is a stutter fest.

I'm trying to enjoy the game but i can't, not because of the game itself but because this stutter is getting on my nerves.

System Specs: http://i.imgur.com/yMdef.png

Intel Q9550
nVIDIA GTX 570
Drivers are nVIDIA Forceware 285.27 Beta

Some benchmarks:
Stock CPU speed: http://i.imgur.com/Ex8EV.jpg
Dynamic Overclock to 3.8Ghz: http://i.imgur.com/UGomw.jpg
Always 3.8Ghz Overclock: http://i.imgur.com/M0Fbc.jpg

Also it doesn't matter at all which settings i use in the config because it seems they do nothing at all to help, except Ambient Occlusion (which in this case affects the game globally and not just if there's players) and if i put the textures to Standard it helps a little but still happens. Shadows also do nothing to performance.

Anyone knows how to fix this? Thank you very much.

[Digirotta]

Slow HDD, i'd say. Installing the game to a fast SSD should get rid of most hiccups. I had the same problem even with 2 raptors in RAID0. I have an OCZ SSD now, and game runs really nicely, even when in a crowded city, like Ul'dah.

//EDIT: Oh right, the reason for stuttering, is simply that all the visible items, like weapons and armors other players are wearing, are loaded from your HDD. If you have a single HDD with your O/S and softwares, including FFXIV on it, you are having quite a hard time, due to quite limited search speeds and transfer capacity of a mechanical hard drive, compared to a SSD.

[Medura]

woot, an ssd would fix it? I got an extreme computer, but it still stutters a bit, guess il get an ssd too ^^ Btw, how to use an ssd for this? Do you have to transfer the other hdd over or something?

[Digirotta]

Well, at simpliest, you buy a SSD, install it, and re-install your FFXIV on it.
While all the other programs still run normally from where you installed them in the first place, the SSD is used solely for XIV.

While a SSD doesn't get rid of all the problems, like world hunger and bad economy, it's still a HUGE jump from a traditional, mechanical hard drive.

[Medura]

So il just go for a cheap ssd only for ffxiv, got it! Il put it in the fastest port on my motherboard too ^^

[ESCUDO]

Slow HDD, i'd say. Installing the game to a fast SSD should get rid of most hiccups. I had the same problem even with 2 raptors in RAID0. I have an OCZ SSD now, and game runs really nicely, even when in a crowded city, like Ul'dah.

//EDIT: Oh right, the reason for stuttering, is simply that all the visible items, like weapons and armors other players are wearing, are loaded from your HDD. If you have a single HDD with your O/S and softwares, including FFXIV on it, you are having quite a hard time, due to quite limited search speeds and transfer capacity of a mechanical hard drive, compared to a SSD.

I'm sorry but that's just nuts. The game is poorly coded. I have games that require much more read such as oblivion with texture, distance quality and graphic mods and it's not near as bad as this.

I've read reports that people say stutter started to appear after patch 1.18, i can't tell it because i got the game this week. If this keeps like this Square will never fix the game, because you know, that's not with such a demanding game that they'll get more people, because most people who play MMROPGs don't have a nice PC because these games are not demanding, and with a PC like mine i should be able to run this at the max without any problems, but happens even with standard settings.

I can also play GTA4 (extremely poorly optimized port) with iCEnhancer and i don't have these problems, and there's always people and cars and stuff loading all the time.

I'm sorry if i offended anyone but this is completely dumb, people need to buy an SSD because square doesn't know how to code games for PC? God.


Best part is the requirements

[4500-5499] High Performance
Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.
[3000-4499] Fairly High Performance
Capable of running the game on default settings. Consider switching to a higher resolution depending on performance.

I can't run the game normally in any of those settings, hell i can't even run the game in standard without stutter.

No arrow keys can be bound, few graphic options, available graphic options always have the same performance (bad) no matter if they're on standard, low or high. Pathfinding while going down makes the unit shake. At least i could use my PS3 controller, but still. -_-

I'm trying so hard to play this game and i like it, but this stutter makes me really mad. I hope they optimize this stuff or else it won't matter at all how many updates they release if it's unplayable.

[Esk]

What is the load on your GPU/CPU/Ram when your playing?
I agree its probably the HDD traffic, but there are other possible causes too.

Its a combination of a lot of factors I would think really.
People expecting more out of a Pc then is realistic at times, bad code on SE's Part, Internet... yada yada yada
Yes an SSD will solve some issues, but that's true of any game/program that loads large amounts of data like this. But I do agree that FFXIV seems to handles it badly in this area as well as others.

A last gen SSD is a good investment for anyone with a 1/2 decent Pc though imo, but I do understand the cost issue, I only just jumped up to them as I'm finishing off my new rig to put off a huge liquid+air hybrid cooling project for my GPU's.
(by 1/2 decent I mean a 2nd gen Dx10 card and a good dual core or better)

I did had stutter Pre 1.18, although it does appear to be worse now in some areas.

[ESCUDO]

What is the load on your GPU/CPU/Ram when your playing?

http://i.imgur.com/tH1wQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Pd8u3.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yauAq.jpg

...

Hope you understand why i'm a bit mad.

[Krin]

I've noticed the same. It's only when loading either NPC or player models. However, there seems to be a caching mechanism. After running around Ul'dah for about 10 minutes, the stuttering almost completely stops. Zone out and back into Ul'dah, and it starts all over again.

It only showed up in the last week or so on my computer. Not sure what changed, though I did fiddle with the video settings for an hour to no avail. GPU/CPU/Ram loads are normal (<50%). Also, seems the multi-threading doesn't bridge cores very well. Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GTX 250S, 4 GB Ram, 2 1 TB 5400 RPM in RAID0 (Win7 Software RAID).

Nice to know it isn't just me though. Knew that hard drive was coming back to bite me at some point. Lol.

[ESCUDO]

Well i'd gladly buy an SDD that has at least 500GB, there's 480GB SSDs but those cost more than 1000.

I'm not going to buy an SSD just for a a game or a few games, if i'd buy one i would want the whole system on it. :\

PS: Sorry for the offtopic, but it's better than create a new thread:

Can i have more than a class in the same character? Like Archer, and Goldsmith etc?