Ok so I'm bad at computer stuff and....

[Bacent]

Windows 7 home Premium 64-Bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.160121-1718)
Intel(r) Core(TM) i7-3820 @ 3.60 GHz
AMD Radeon HD 8870 (VRAM 2027 MB)


Yeah, went ahead and looked at the benchmark, since mine wasn't listed above the chip type thing.

Snippity snip goes the crab

I'm actually bringing my comp tower to my dad's place June 14th for that, he's worked with computers and airplane parts in his line of work, so he'll be doing that for me while I do some yard work/gardening for him

Thanks for the tips though, I've never really used compressed air before, so that's some good stuff to know.

[Aethaeryn]

That score is about right for that video card and cpu.

But yeah, you should be fine for Stormblood anyway. Not gonna be 60fps everywhere at max settings, but it should be playable.

[Bacent]

That score is about right for that video card and cpu.

But yeah, you should be fine for Stormblood anyway. Not gonna be 60fps everywhere at max settings, but it should be playable.

Awesome sauce, thanks~

Though any suggestions on inexpensive parts down the line I might be able to get to help my gaming performance?

[savageink]

Awesome sauce, thanks~

Though any suggestions on inexpensive parts down the line I might be able to get to help my gaming performance?

More ram, a better video card, and an SSD would be the three things that would improve your performance...cheap is a matter of perspective.

[Aethaeryn]

Awesome sauce, thanks~

Though any suggestions on inexpensive parts down the line I might be able to get to help my gaming performance?

Video card would be the easiest if you have an adequate power supply. You can grab a gtx 1060 or an rx480 for under $300, or spring for a gtx 1070 to get more mileage. You're still probably not gonna have 60fps in busy places (like current idyllshire/limsa levels of busy if your server is anything like mine) with that cpu, but a cpu upgrade would almost definitely mean new RAM and motherboard too.

I'd personally just keep saving up for a whole new build at this point and buy parts when they're on sale around the holidays or something, but that's honestly up to you.

[File2ish]

That is a good score, should still be able to handle the game no problem. I'm not sure if you ran the benchmark at max settings, but that is a good score nonetheless. If you're happy with the settings you're running at, you're golden to play the game when Stormblood hits. Don't really need to worry about the performance.

That said:

If you're looking for better performance in the form of higher graphics settings, assuming you're using a desktop PC: the quickest and easiest upgrade for better performance would be to replace your video card. Though that will depend on if you're willing to spend money on one. If you're not willing to or are unsure if you want to spend money on an upgrade, don't worry about it. You can play the game just fine as is.

And to note: an Intel Core i7 3820 CPU is more than enough for the game, and 8GB of RAM is just fine (honestly you don't really need more unless you're looking into building a high end gaming computer or workstation). You wouldn't get a performance bottleneck from either for FFXIV.


As for choosing a video card, it would depend on your budget. I'm going to go ahead and assume you wouldn't want the top of the line $700+ card, so a ~$200 video card like Nvidia's GTX 1060 or AMD's RX480 (and RX580) will likely give you scores of *in Vegeta's voice* over 9000 at 1080p maximum settings, which should equate to a smooth frame rate that will rarely dip below 60 frames per second in FFXIV (and should be consistently at 60fps or above when not in highly populated zones).

There are cheaper cards sub $150 on the market as well, such as Nvidia GTX 1050ti and AMD RX460, but the performance would likely be only marginally better than your current video card, if not the same performance (honestly I haven't looked into the AMD HD card series in years so I don't remember any specs), and perhaps not worth the upgrade.

*EDIT* (Sorry, I know I have a habit of getting kind of technical with stuff, hope I didn't do it in this post despite it's length).

And on the topic of cleaning out the dust from your computer and heatsinks: It's also a good idea to replace the thermal compound between your CPU heatsink and the CPU every few years if you still run the same computer. It can do wonders for thermal performance, especially if replacing thermal paste that had gaps form between the contact of the components. If you can have that done at your dad's place when you go (as per your comment) you'll have a lower chance for the CPU to thermal throttle itself and/or cause the computer to freeze (if a CPU gets too hot, it will throttle itself down so it doesn't overheat).

And another upgrade for your computer would be to install a Solid State Drive (SSD) for the game to be installed on. SSD's are much faster than Hard Disk Drives (HDD) in pretty much every way. Many people install our operating systems (like Windows) on an SSD instead of an HDD because the boot up time is significantly faster. Games on an SSD will load very noticeably faster than it would installed on a hard drive.

[KisaiTenshi]

I was wondering if any could provide some tips for me getting my computer to run a bit better for Stormblood. I got about 8300 for my score ...

The three things you can do to improve the score marginally (like in maybe double digits)

1. Turn off the computer wait about 30 minutes, blow the dust out with compressed air, slowly. Don't use a vacuum, and don't hold compressed air down too long or it will freeze components. If anyone smokes, has pets, or just has an exceptionally dusty environment, you need to clean it out more often.

2. Just close the web browser honestly, when you leave it running, things like ads, videos, and javascript (eg twitter, tumblr, reddit, disqus) will just keep bleeding your computer for memory. If you have a mobile phone or tablet and need to keep checking things, use that instead.

3. Uninstall software overlays. Geforce Experience, Steam, MSI Afterburner, etc. Basically anything that overlays also adds input latency due to the compositing requirement. It's very tiny, but noticeable when you turn on video capture.

More to the point, if you are trying to squeeze more out of the same hardware, just upgrade the cooling system. Most OEM systems (Dell, Alienware, etc) use the cheapest parts possible, that's why they make so much noise. If your system doesn't sound like a jet engine, then you're good. If it sounds like a jet engine taking off when the game runs, then the CPU/GPU is working too hard and probably needs a better cooler. That's the cheapest thing you can do.

Anything else involves replacing the GPU. That then may require replacing the Chasis and PSU if you pick something too big.

You can get a little more performance if you use a tool to change the CPU affinity for the game to avoid hyperthreaded cores, but that's so trivial that it barely matters except for people on i3 systems.

[File2ish]

More to the point, if you are trying to squeeze more out of the same hardware, just upgrade the cooling system. Most OEM systems (Dell, Alienware, etc) use the cheapest parts possible, that's why they make so much noise. If your system doesn't sound like a jet engine, then you're good. If it sounds like a jet engine taking off when the game runs, then the CPU/GPU is working too hard and probably needs a better cooler. That's the cheapest thing you can do.

Upgrading the cooling system in an OEM built computer isn't always feasible, many OEM motherboards don't use the standard mounting brackets for the CPU heatsink that are generally found per socket type on ATX and ITX motherboards. Also Dell owns Alienware :P



On a separate note, after looking at the computer specs again when not dead tired after work; it seems he's playing on a laptop (I don't recall there ever being an AMD HD 8870 video card, and the i7 3820 fits Intel's naming scheme for mobile CPUs).

There is no easy upgrade path for a laptop, the best way to get more performance out of a laptop would be to install an SSD (if you have a free 2.5" drive port) as your game drive to improve loading times. And, going back to my previous comment about thermal paste: if you know someone tech savvy enough THAT YOU TRUST WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT to tear down your laptop, you can have them clean off and replace the thermal compound on the heatsink copper pipe brackets mounted to the CPU and GPU. This will help with the thermal issues when running games on a laptop and likely help it so the cooling fan isn't ramped up to 100% all the time. Neither of these will give you direct performance gains, but it will help your laptop in the long run.

That's the best advice I can offer outside of purchasing a new laptop outright. But your benchmark score is good for the game, no need to upgrade unless you really really want to play with higher settings.

[Yurimi]

Snippity

Based on the naming and configuration he is running an Alienware Aurora R-4 Desktop PC, which is their "top end" desktop model and not a laptop. The 8870 was included in some OEM cards

Edit,

upon quick glance it seems this was the top end PC of theirs from 2013 though with the Radeon card rather than the GTX series (most likely for cost reasons?)

Looking up specs from the time it seems these were the mid range options of the R4 initial lineup from early 2013

[Aethaeryn]

On a separate note, after looking at the computer specs again when not dead tired after work; it seems he's playing on a laptop (I don't recall there ever being an AMD HD 8870 video card, and the i7 3820 fits Intel's naming scheme for mobile CPUs).

Nah, there's a desktop version of the 8870. They basically just went in Dell's computers (and he has an Alienware - Aurora R4 is a desktop PC). Performance wise, it's basically an HD7950 with higher clock speeds but less memory and memory bandwidth.