Sudden massive slowdown

[HiroSeven]

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster here. I played the game briefly during the beta, picked it up last September and played until the end of October. I returned this past week and will most likely be playing for a while... if I can solve this nagging problem I'm having.

I searched the forums for my topic before posting this, so apologies in advance in the event I missed this topic posted elsewhere.

PC Specifications:

Before I go into my issue I would like to point out that my PC is a bit on the low end in terms of the requirements, but I've been able to play the game it on lower settings in the past without any problems and have made no changes to my PC, first here are my specifications of interest:

> Windows Vista 64 bit (Service Pack 2)
> Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz
> 4 GB RAM
> NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GS 512 MB DDR 2

Main Issue:

When I start up the game, everything is normal and playable. After about 2-3 minutes of gameplay however, I experience massive slowdown in-game to the point where it begins to look like stop motion animation. This slowdown persists until I shut the game down and restart it, whereby the cycle continues. This occurs even on the lowest possible configuration settings so graphical settings do not seem to be related to the issue.

Please let me know if anyone else is having this issue and can provide me with some help! Also, let me know if there is any other information I can provide.

Much appreciated in advance!

- hiro

[Alita]

Sounds very much like an overheating issue. Check your temps and make sure your fans are all running. HWMonitor is a good program for looking at temps.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

You might want to mention your HDD specs. The game can be pretty heavy in randomly accessing information, to the point where it may be advisable to use a free USB stick for ReadyBoost while playing XIV.

The Config program has a function that lets you copy/paste all pertinent system information (and a whole lot of other stuff you probably don't need to worry about).

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Also: try having Task Manager (what you get from hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del) running in the background while playing in windowed mode. When you start having issues, it can usually show you where you have a bottleneck (if any) and what application is causing the problem.

[HiroSeven]

Sounds very much like an overheating issue. Check your temps and make sure your fans are all running. HWMonitor is a good program for looking at temps.

Thanks for the suggestion, that program is very useful. The temperature increased quite a bit when playing the game... the fan is also making slight noises now, so I might have to clean it! (or get a new video card)

You might want to mention your HDD specs. The game can be pretty heavy in randomly accessing information, to the point where it may be advisable to use a free USB stick for ReadyBoost while playing XIV.

The Config program has a function that lets you copy/paste all pertinent system information (and a whole lot of other stuff you probably don't need to worry about).

Also: try having Task Manager (what you get from hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del) running in the background while playing in windowed mode. When you start having issues, it can usually show you where you have a bottleneck (if any) and what application is causing the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried the ReadyBoost option with an 8GB USB that I had and the problem still occurs, and I don't seem to observe where there might be a bottleneck when using the task manager.

Here are the HDD specs from the ffxiv config:

Storage: C:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 582.825 GB Free Disk Space 392.202 GB
D:\ Hard Disk Drive Total Disk Space 13.344 GB Free Disk Space 13.255 GB

The config also says that I'm running Direct X 11, not sure if that would make too much of a difference.

- hiro

[Laraul]

If you suspect overheating type /shadow to disable in game shadows.

[HiroSeven]

If you suspect overheating type /shadow to disable in game shadows.

Hey Laraul, thanks for the tip! I play with shadows disabled, actually I play with many of the graphical enhancements disabled (physics, dust effects, etc.).

I took my system to a computer shop since it was experiencing some slowdown in other areas, the technician there found that the fan on my current video card was not working, which might be the problem? (As you can tell, my PC knowledge is novice at best) I informed them of all the suggestions you guys have given me too and they said they are really good suggestions, so thanks!

I've been holding off on getting a new video card, so I guess it might be a good idea to get one. Most likely it will be the NVIDIA GTX 550i or 460, or perhaps one of the ATI ones... will have to get a new power supply too!

Thanks again, I'll come back after installing my new video card and let you guys know how things are going.

EDIT: So I purchased the NVIDIA GTX 460 and a new power supply which had its own fan. Not only did all of the problems go away, the graphical quality is much improved and it's much easier to play the game now.

So in summary: Had massive slowdown while playing the game, possible overheating was suggested (much appreciated for that!), went to a PC technician, bought a new power supply/video card, problem solved.

Thanks again for all the help. See you guys online sometime! =)

- hiro