Help! The FPS is broken on FFXIV.

[crc0427]

Hi there, same issue. It's NVidia's drivers. No driver for my GTX1070 or GTX1080ti work for XIV past 3/28/18.. 391.35.

I'm wondering if this is an XIV issue or NVidia issue.

[crc0427]

By the way, if you need a copy of the march driver, I luckily recovered the exe file out of a backup. I can send it to you if need be.

[Ultra-Zed]

Thank you for the update Ultra-Zed and I apologize for the delay in our response.

From what you've told me so far, it doesn't sound like the GPU itself is your problem (unless your 1080 and 960 happen to have the exact same issue). However, the motherboard issue may be contributing to it somewhat. As you mentioned, you may want to try the other graphics card slot. My thought is the one you are using may have an issue that might throttling Graphics memory bandwidth (this usually isn't an issue with FFXIV, I don't see why you would be hitting a memory bandwidth unless something is damaged).

I'm not sure if you have tried it already, but you might want to try a clean boot. Simply open the task manager and select the 'Start up' tab. Disable everything here and restart the PC. This will make sure that no background processes are interfering with the game. When you start the PC again, don't start any other programs or open any overlays (Steam overlay, Geforce Experience, etc.).

Please let us know if your other solutions changes your situation.

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

To start this off, first let me say I’m terribly sorry for my late reply. I had many a busy day and finally I was able to get some light on my situation, as I had recently taken my PC down to my local PC repair shop.

What info I’ve gathered here, may interest you.

Here’s what happened.

Switching Ports

I first started changing my GPU over to the other port on the motherboard, what happened from there is that, it didn’t post after Windows loaded up. But upon switching it back things we’re back to normal (as in I could reach the desktop, not the game xD)

Conclusion

Mainly we realised the reason why It didn't post probably was because the second port on the motherboard is slower, therefore it’s mostly for using SLI or Crossfire. We also (just to make sure) put in another GPU alongside my GTX 1080 in the first port and device manager was able to read it no problem. So mainly the motherboard’s port is not a problem.

Updating the BIOS to latest version.

It was very simple to do, but did it fix the problem with FFXIV’s FPS and my GPU usage hitting 100% when doing 144fps at cap? Nope!

Re-installing GPU and CCleaner.

I then tried the third method, the best one I could think of. Uninstalling the GPU via Display Driver Uninstaller and giving the PC a good brush with CCleaner.

(apparently I learnt that CCleaner will not load in safe mode so I had to do it in normal mode unfortunately)

I did this all offline, since uninstalling a GPU, Windows just gets in the way and installs its own GPU driver in the background (very annoying). But it did not fix my situation. The results were the same.

This left me feeling absolutely stumped.

Trying other hardware, mainly RAM.

FFXIV still did not work even with less and different RAM.



Now beyond here, is where things gets very interesting.

Because my local PC shop is very nice. They offered me to test FFXIV on one of their flashy gaming PC’s on display along with my monitor (I use a Displayport cable) and my GTX 1080 connected to it (because they didn't have a GPU with it). This other computer, was fully updated in Windows 10 so the build was at 1809 and had the latest Nvidia version on it.

After 3 straight hours of waiting (and talking to the other folks who came in and out of the shop) FFXIV also didn’t work on their PC on display!

So this means that even though I put FFXIV on the other PC (which had different components to my own, maybe more later hardware) the game acted completely the same as it did on my own PC with poor FPS!

Further Experimentation

We then tinkered around with things like “what if it could just be the monitors or the cable”, so what we all did was try a Normal HDMI cable at 60hz and the game at 60fps was very stable at that frame rate.

After trying the HDMI cable, we then put it on another monitor, FFXIV was a stable 60fps at 60hz. Then we spiced things up a bit by trying a HDMI 2.0 cable (which can go beyond and to my monitor’s limit 144hz) It was the exact same as using the displayport cable, FFXIV did not like being played at 144hz, the fps cap couldn’t go above 48fps when the game was capped at 72fps. And stayed at over 110fps in non-busy areas of the game when capped at 144fps. (on any graphical setting btw)

This was all the same results back on my own computer after using the shops computer.

So all n all,

the problem might be on Square Enix’s end. Where they might need to look at fixing the fps limiter (since I am seeing others with the same problem).

or if my paranoia is correct and to be blunt, it might be Nvidia’s evil way of making their older graphics cards slower, so we all need to buy their flashy and expensive new ones. No offence to Nvidia users though. However, I do not see AMD GPU users having this issue. (maybe because AMD GPUs have different architecture which plays differently?)

Maybe Microsoft needs to be urgently contacted to look into the problem, I remember in early 2018 and prior from that FFXIV had no problems with GPU driver updates until some Windows update might of came around somewhere and messed things up a bit, making any graphics drivers once installed, not seem to work smoothly on certain rigs.

I did enjoy doing this a bit, who know's, maybe this research will pay off and make FFXIV more enjoyable for others, so they won't fall into the same problem I, as well as some others are in now? ^_^

[Ultra-Zed]

Hi there, same issue. It's NVidia's drivers. No driver for my GTX1070 or GTX1080ti work for XIV past 3/28/18.. 391.35.

I'm wondering if this is an XIV issue or NVidia issue.

Yeah. I bet one day, the best option would be to switch over to an AMD GPU to have less problems., who knows? lol

I also feel that there needs to be some questionnaire, if people are having this problem, what type of GPU they have, especially what make their Motherboards are e.t.c.
it might be a problem with a certain make of motherboard, like an ASRock, which I have. (I think the other motherboard that I tried FFXIV might of been with the same make also, but I don't know).

[crc0427]

Let me know if you want me to try to get you a copy of the working driver from last March. I’m curious if it solves your problems too.

[Ultra-Zed]

Let me know if you want me to try to get you a copy of the working driver from last March. I’m curious if it solves your problems too.

The plan now (I think) is to ask my local PC shop what make the motherboard is on the second PC, because maybe FFXIV might not like ASRock or something?

Then again it does bring me to the problem how FFXIV stops working properly after a certain Nvidia patch, which means 2 things.

It’s on Square Enix’s end

Since you’re having somewhat if the same problems as mine (and I’ve also tried FFXIV on another PC), I am guessing it’s on SE end. Proof of that might lie in this Forum Post about “GPU Utilization Issues” since patch 4.3 or it might be in between 28 March 2018 till it’s release in May 2018 when the problem was more common.

Nvidia is being Nvidia

Now I have heard the word on how Nvidia can be somewhat of a dodgy company (I’ve seen the memes about it lol). The later releases of their drivers will slow down the GPU, until we buy a nice and shiny RTX 2080.

But in the end, comparing your specs to mine, I assume that this is more of a problem on Square Enix’s side, if other games seem to run okay without needing a third party piece of software to keep the game running smoothly.

(I’m Also looking at Neir Automata also, needing Borderless Gaming to play it in Borderless Windowed mode because Full Screen on some PC’s for that game is messed up and it’s also a SE title from Japan lol)

[Ultra-Zed]

I’m also still waiting for a GM response, since I’ve got updates on my conundrum.

Topic: In-game FPS limiter not working properly.

Example: My monitor is at 144hz (I normally play FFXIV like this), I want to play it at 72fps but when setting the cap, it will not stabilise at 72fps and instead goes down to 48 or lower, at any Graphical setting.

I’m gonna put a quick list of what I did

What did not work

*Swapping GPU ports.
*Flashing the BIOS to the very latest version
*Uninstalling the GPU using DDU, then using Ccleaner
*re-Installing GPU driver (391.35) again.
*Having less RAM
*Having 1 stick of different RAM
*Trying FFXIV in another computer (and it still having the same problem)
*Useing a HDMI 2.0 cable and running FFXIV at (144hz)

What did seem to work

*Using a HDMI cable with Hrz running at 60, instead of a Display Port cable
-The game’s FPS cap worked properly as FPS was stabilised at 60fps.

*Using HDMI cable on different monitors.
-same, FPS was stabilised at 60fps

Then again, I still want to use my display port cables to have other things higher than 60fps lol

[Einmimiria]

Thank you for the update Ultra-Zed.

It seems you were able to get a consistently higher frame rate by using the HDMI cable, correct? I'm assuming this was locked at 60 FPS? If you were to remove any frame limits and v-sync, does the fps increase like it should? Or does it exhibit the same issues as the display port cable? Was this the same display port cable that you used for every scenario?

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

[Ultra-Zed]

Thank you for the update Ultra-Zed.

It seems you were able to get a consistently higher frame rate by using the HDMI cable, correct? I'm assuming this was locked at 60 FPS? If you were to remove any frame limits and v-sync, does the fps increase like it should? Or does it exhibit the same issues as the display port cable? Was this the same display port cable that you used for every scenario?

We hope we can be of assistance in helping you enjoy the exciting world of Final Fantasy XIV!

"It seems you were able to get a consistently higher frame rate by using the HDMI cable, correct? I'm assuming this was locked at 60 FPS?"
Yes I was able to get a consistently high 60FPS when on a normal HDMI cable (Limit 60hz) and yes this was locked at 60FPS also.

"If you were to remove any frame limits and v-sync, does the fps increase like it should? Or does it exhibit the same issues as the display port cable?"
The FPS was completely fine with no problems (except for normal screen tearing after taking the limit off), on the normal HDMI cable it displayed no issues.

"Was this the same display port cable that you used for every scenario?"
on HDMI 2.0 (where I can push the Hrtz to 144hrz so I can get the very smooth 72fps) the problems were still there the same as the Display Cable.

What I do not understand is that FFXIV used to work completely fine at 144hz and now on my PC, even the other PC that I installed FFXIV to. They both act the same. with HDMI 2.0 and Display Cable.
So it seems that FFXIV might not like higher Hz rates now?

I don't want to go back to having my display at 60fps, because I like being at 72fps since it is smooth.

Furthermore, this isn't just me having this problem where FFXIV FPS limiter fails to do it's job properly.

[crc0427]

Did you give the March 2018 drivers a shot?