Inexplicably low fps in FFXIV with Nvidia GeForce GTX 960

[FeenIsLit]

Hi!

I have been playing FFXIV for a few months now; I'm still a fairly new player.
My desktop PC was built about 3 years ago, and I was on a low budget, so the specs are limited -- however, I was running the game just fine at a constant 60fps for the start of my playtime.
After I had bought the complete edition of the game and installed it, I was greeted with an unplayable 8 FPS in Limsa Lominsa. At this time I had the game on High (Desktop) graphics settings and was using DX11. Changing the graphics to the lowest settings possible, disabling Vsync and moving into a less populated area still didn't help my FPS as much as I hoped: I had around 20fps.
However, I fixed this issue by changing to DX9. I once again had a stable 60fps, until early April when I renewed my subscription. This is when my fps problems resumed.

Currently, on the lowest possible graphics settings in-game, my GPU (Nvidia GeForce GTX 960) settings for the game all at the lowest with Vsync disabled, with the newest Graphics drivers, playing in Borderless Windowed mode (Fullscreen doesn't fix the issue) and on DirectX9 (Even though I have DX12 installed, booting into DX11 has an even lower FPS and usually gives me a "fatal directx error" after a few minutes of playing), my FPS is lower than 20 in Revenant's Toll and Limsa Lominsa, just under 30 in low populated areas and the same in dungeons; I feel that moving on from casual content when it becomes available will be impossible with how the game is running.

On startup, ff14 runs at over 100fps for a solid 5 minutes, and gradually decreases to 60 at which it takes a huge drop all the way to ~30.

My specs are the following:

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 960
• Windows 10, latest version
• Intel Core i5-6400 CPU
• 1920x1080 60HZ display

I believe these specs are fully capable of running the game at a higher FPS than I am at now, especially since I have no other applications open when playing, I could run at 60fps before and running the Shadowbringers benchmark in the same environment gives me a score of 9671 (Extremely High). I might be delusional, and this might be the highest my current pc can go, but I doubt it.

I have been looking on the forums for a while and have found multiple people with the same issues, but I can't seem to find definitive fixes for what is happening to me. I have tried pretty much anything I can find or think of that doesn't involve me touching or replacing the internal parts of the PC, or messing in the BIOS, as I am not experienced with these things.

Any help would be very appreciated. I know I have said a lot here, but I wanted to get the information in the original post so that people are informed of my situation and don't have to spend too long trying to figure out the issue

Thanks,
Feen

[Einmimiria]

Good afternoon and thank you for posting on the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums.

Do you recall when this started happening? Did anything change/update on your PC that coincides with this?

Can you submit a Final Fantasy XIV system report? Simply go to the 'Config' option on the Final Fantasy XIV launcher and to the right of 'System Information' click on 'Display.'

Additionally, can you list the things you've already tried to alleviate this problem? Did any of these have any affect on it?

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

[FeenIsLit]

Hey Einmimiria,

The problem started happening just after I had bought the full version of the game at the beginning of March. It then went away for a month from changing to DirectX9, but then returned in April following a Windows update from what I can recall.

I've already tried to reinstall my drivers with DDU, configured my GPU and in-game settings, ran numerous benchmarks for ARR and Shadowbringers which all gave me Extremely High scores, disabled Game Mode, DVR and Game Bar, closed all other applications, disabled my antivirus while playing, deleting unused programs to fill up space, disabling Vsync, making sure FFXIV was actually running on my GPU, went back to a previous version of my drivers, disabled certain processes that were interfering with my GPU, CPU and RAM usage and switching between DirectX versions.
The only change that made any difference was changing from DirectX 11 to DirectX 9, but that fix was only temporary.

My system report is as follows:

-=-=-=-=-=-=- FFXIV Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

MyDocument C:\Users\Daddy\Documents
FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix
FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn Language 1 Region 3
ProxyEnable 0
ProxyServer unspecified
ProxyOverride unspecified


-=-=-=-=-=-=- System Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

SYSTEM_OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit (6.2, Build 9200) (17134.rs4_release.180410-1804)
SYSTEM_CPU Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
SYSTEM_CORE_NUM SYSTEM_CORE_LOGIC 4 SYSTEM_CORE_PHYSICS 4
SYSTEM_BIOS 0603
SYSTEM_LANGUAGE English (Regional Setting: English)
SYSTEM_MEMORY 8120.859MB
SYSTEM_VIRTUAL_MEMORY 134217727.875MB
SYSTEM_PAGE_FILE 10501.047MB
SYSTEM_STORAGE C:\ SYSTEM_HARDDISK_DRIVE SYSTEM_TOTALDISC_SPACE 930.204GB SYSTEM_FREEDISC_SPACE 279.056GB
SYSTEM_DIRECTX_VERSION DirectX 12
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DEVICE \\.\DISPLAY2
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_CHIP GeForce GTX 960
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_MAKER NVIDIA
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_VRAM 2007.625 MB
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_SHARED_VRAM 4060.430 MB
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DAC Integrated RAMDAC
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DISPLAY_MODE 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_b49751b9038af669\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_b49751b9038af669\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_b49751b9038af669\nvldumdx.dll,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_b49751b9038af669\nvldumdx.dll
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_VERSION 26.21.0014.3086
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_DATE 5/22/2019 01:00:00
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_DRIVER_LANGUAGE English
3.0
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_PIXEL_SHADER 3.0
SYSTEM_GRAPHICS_VERTEX_TEXTURE SYSTEM_SUPPORT
SYSTEM_SOUND Headphones (Realtek High Definition Audio)
SYSTEM_SOUND_DEVICE_ID {C6454EE2-4B05-4C58-B7D9-B69F81ECA479}
SYSTEM_SOUND_DEVICE_NAME RTKVHD64.sys
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_VERSION 6.00.0001.7543
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_LANGUAGE English
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_DATE 6/23/2015 00:00:00
SYSTEM_SOUND Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
SYSTEM_SOUND_DEVICE_ID {75DCAD23-8946-490A-A93B-C55BC49B7EA0}
SYSTEM_SOUND_DEVICE_NAME RTKVHD64.sys
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_VERSION 6.00.0001.7543
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_LANGUAGE English
SYSTEM_SOUND_DRIVER_DATE 6/23/2015 00:00:00
SYSTEM_INPUT {6F1D2B60-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME Mouse
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 3 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 8 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {6F1D2B61-D5A0-11CF-BFC7444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME Keyboard
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 128 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {7ECAC1A0-0825-11E9-8001444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME USB Keyboard
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 3 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {7ECAC1A0-0825-11E9-8002444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME USB Keyboard
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {3135D300-E961-11E7-8001444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME Blue Yeti
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 1 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {4739A810-6277-11E6-8001444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME USB Laser Game Mouse
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 4096 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {4741BE60-6277-11E6-8002444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME USB Laser Game Mouse
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0
SYSTEM_INPUT {7ECAC1A0-0825-11E9-8003444553540000}
SYSTEM_INPUT_NAME USB Keyboard
SYSTEM_INPUT_REMARKS SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_AXIS 0 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_BUTTON 897 SYSTEM_GAMEPAD_FOV 0


-=-=-=-=-=-=- Application Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

FFXIVLauncher
Inexplicably low fps in FFXIV with Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 - Google Chrome
Mail
Inbox - Gmail ‎- Mail
Settings
Settings
Films & TV
Films & TV
Microsoft Store
Microsoft Store
Origin
Origin
Origin
Origin
Origin
Origin


-=-=-=-=-=-=- Install Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

Canon MG3600 series On-screen Manual
Canon MG3600 series User Registration
Canon My Image Garden
Canon My Image Garden Design Files
Canon Inkjet Printer/Scanner/Fax Extended Survey Program
Canon My Printer
Canon Quick Menu
Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector EX
Canon IJ Network Tool
Canon IJ Scan Utility
Visual Studio Professional 2017
Canon Easy-WebPrint EX
Football Manager 2019
Google Chrome
CM 03-04
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LonelyScreen 1.2
LonelyScreen 1.2.16
Magic Set Editor 2.0.0
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Open Broadcaster Software
Origin
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Sid Meier's Civilization V
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Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64) - 12.0.30501
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vs_filehandler_x86
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Microsoft .NET Framework Cumulative Intellisense Pack for Visual Studio (ENU)
FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn
Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 4.0
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 Targeting Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 SDK
Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86) - 11.0.61030
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Microsoft NetStandard SDK
Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 x86 Additional Runtime - 14.12.25810
Microsoft Portable Library Multi-Targeting Pack
Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 x86 Minimum Runtime - 14.12.25810
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Office 16 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component
Office 16 Click-to-Run Localization Component
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Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 x86 Minimum Runtime - 11.0.61030
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Lightworks
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CM 03-04
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 x86 Additional Runtime - 12.0.21005
QuickTime 7
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CPUID HWMonitor 1.40
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Git version 2.20.1
Mozilla Firefox 67.0 (x64 en-US)
Mozilla Maintenance Service
Microsoft Office 365 - en-us
Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus - en-us
Empire: Total War
Terraria
Europa Universalis IV
Rocket League
Cuphead
Robocraft
Choice Chamber
Total War: WARHAMMER
Undertale
Slime Rancher
The Jackbox Party Pack 3
VRChat
Bloons TD Battles
Football Manager 2018
Football Manager Touch 2018
Football Manager 2018 Editor
Pixel Worlds
Going Nowhere: The Dream
Sid Meier's Civilization V
WinRAR 5.31 (64-bit)
iCloud
Canon MG3600 series MP Drivers
Elgato Game Capture HD
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 x64 Redistributable - 10.0.40219
Java 8 Update 141 (64-bit)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 x64 Additional Runtime - 14.12.25810
Malwarebytes version 3.5.1.2522
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Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x64 9.0.30729.6161
Epic Games Launcher Prerequisites (x64)
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Microsoft Visual Studio Installer
Office 16 Click-to-Run Licensing Component
Office 16 Click-to-Run Extensibility Component 64-bit Registration
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 x64 Additional Runtime - 12.0.21005
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2017 RC Office Integration Language Pack (x64) - ENU
Microsoft System CLR Types for SQL Server vNext CTP1.6
Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 x64 Minimum Runtime - 12.0.21005
Microsoft HEVC Media Extension Installation for Microsoft.HEVCVideoExtension_1.0.2512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe (x64)
NVIDIA Ansel
NVIDIA Control Panel 430.86
NVIDIA Graphics Driver 430.86
NVIDIA Optimus Update 37.0.0.0
NVIDIA PhysX System Software 9.19.0218
NVIDIA HD Audio Driver 1.3.38.16
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Update for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB4023057)
Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 x64 Minimum Runtime - 14.12.25810
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icecap_collection_x64


-=-=-=-=-=-=- Proccess Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-

C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe 0000151C
C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin\QtWebEngineProcess.exe 00000878
C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\boot\ffxivlauncher.exe 00001F84
C:\Program Files (x86)\SquareEnix\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\boot\ffxivsysinfo64.exe 00001854
C:\Program Files\BullGuard Ltd\BullGuard\BullGuard.exe 000028E4
C:\Program Files\BullGuard Ltd\BullGuard\BullGuardTray.exe 00001D64
C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA\RtkNGUI64.exe 00001804
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_11904.1001.1.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\WinStore.App.exe 00001568
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ZuneVideo_10.19031.11411.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Video.UI.exe 0000201C
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.11425.20190.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\HxOutlook.exe 0000136C
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_16005.11425.20190.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\HxTsr.exe 00000DC4
C:\Users\Daddy\AppData\Local\DiscordCanary\app-0.0.238\DiscordCanary.exe 000003F4
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE 00001918
C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\ShellExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\ShellExperienceHost.exe 00001E14
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ApplicationFrameHost.exe 00001694
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DllHost.exe 0000221C
C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel\SystemSettings.exe 00000A9C
C:\Windows\System32\GameBarPresenceWriter.exe 00001EA4
C:\Windows\System32\RuntimeBroker.exe 000026F0
C:\Windows\System32\SystemSettingsBroker.exe 00001F68
C:\Windows\System32\smartscreen.exe 00002694
C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe 00001EB4
c:\windows\system32\sihost.exe 00000A18
c:\windows\system32\svchost.exe 00001AB8
c:\windows\system32\taskhostw.exe 0000181C

Thanks very much for your reply,
Feen

[FeenIsLit]

I have self-diagnosed the issue and it appears to be with thermal throttling; my GPU fan is faulty and I will be buying a replacement.

Please close this thread.