I have a hardware Question.

It seemed to me int he last few years that playing a game maxed out seemed to be less taxing on a high end system then lowering the settings to try adn get a few extra frames. The biggest example of this being Doom 3. When it came out I was still using a P4 3.2ghz processor but I had an HD2500 ATI card with DVI>HDMI hook up. I've since upgraded but on Doom 3 If I didn't run it at highest specs the game actually ran choppier and slower then if I just maxed everything out.

Is the same true for most people playing XIV? I've yet to find the happy sweet spot in my settings for XIV and my current hardware (Phenom II x4 955B at 3.4ghz, HD5770, 4gb of Ram, 800PSU, Gigabyte AM3/+Mobo) and I've been trying to determine what the best possible settings might be for both looking decent but also getting the best FPS possible.