Possible to use more computer resources?

[tymora]

The game is terribly optimized

To fix this statement...it is optimized for the system in the recommended specs, just not what people may own.
-> Little scalability with hardware.

People we're complaining that the game was using 99% of their GPU, and people are complaining that it's now not using the remaining 99% of there CPU? 99% of my brain is being used trying to see past the irony... and 99% isn't enough.

The problem is that FFXIV places an artificial limit on itself on Windows. After a certain point, no matter what you do to upgrade your system, it can no longer speed up anymore because of it.

FFXIV runs with 4 cores (so quad-core makes sense) on my system but only ~700MB of RAM - Windowed Mode + 1400x900.
The 700MB doesn't vary much over the course of a game.

The HDD issue is related to this memory usage. Keeping memory usage constant while you move around implies you are freeing up RAM all the time (which isn't bad by the way). So if you move X distance forward such that the things behind you gets removed from RAM, and then you reverse direction to move X distance, the game has to reload all the same data from the HDD which is painfully slow (small cache).

Then there is the issue where the game's self-limitations depends on the maximum resolution of other people's computers. Notice how it uses 1.5GB on systems at 1920x1080 and only 700MB at 1400x900? Given that the max memory addressing on 32 bit is 2GB (the "large address aware" flag is not set), there appears to be a maximum resolution that the engine is capable of but that max. may not be on your system. The point is that the remaining RAM that could have been used on my system, is not used.
-> The 4GB RAM recommendation is 2GB for game + 2GB for everything else. This recommendation is based on a 32 bit Windows though.
-> If the game runs too close to the 2GB limit, you'll probably crash. See this old thread - http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...dressing-Limit

For memory limits:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...mits_windows_7
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...=vs.85%29.aspx

[Laraul]

I have a 24 core MacPro... I have to physically limit the game to just 15 cores or else it will crash at boot. So, no it's not limited to four cores.

64bit addressing on Windows under Direct3D 9 is probably slightly more demandng than 32 bit addressing, as D3D9 requires a context switch between each opteration. BTW, the physical RAM limit in WIndows is 4GB. Though it can address up to 64GB. And each user process can use 4GB of that. 32GB is not limited to 2GB. Windows XP limits the usermode to 2GB, and the kernel mode to the other 2GB. Vista/7 I beleive increase it to 3GB for the user partition.

If you have enough RAM (like 8GB+) the game will take advantage of Windows disk cache. This will automatically cache the files on the HDD in RAM for quicker access. So there isn't much need for an SSD.