Poor performance from a high-end build?

[Dieadre]

I run fine with a steady 40 FPS on a GTX 460 I7 quad core (3.8GHz) and 6gig ram, have had almost no issues and no drop's in FPS. (This is at MAX video settings and 1080P resolution)

Would I like a better vid card and 60FPS yes but i can't buy one now. so... now the real question is do you run ANY programs in the background (like the one that monitored your max/min FPS)... im no rocket scientist (though I do work in IT) but that can have a REAL effect on the game, also there are other factors besides poor programming (which I've seen no evidence of poor programming in this game so far). Also how often do you turn off your PC (it does help to power off some times and clear your ram).

I quite agree your rig should handle this game at max settings though solid 60 FPS might not be quite there (but id say no lower than 35-40 by my estimate) as there's more to what happens on your screen than sheer teraflops of proccessing from your GPU

I hope you find a solution this is not meant to belittle your problem! Computers are complex and so are the programs that run them so finding a fix could be hard, keep up the good fight (and talk to your resident IT friend he might be able to help)

[Raist]

I've been overclocking processors since 1996... I'm talking those flimsy 486DX/75's and such, with heatsinks that couldn't even pass as a light duty paperweight. Did my share of Athlon and Duron overclocks too. NEVER burned out a CPU before I had a need to upgrade/rebuild for more horsepower to keep up with the workload I needed.

I've had that E8400 overclocked from 3 GHz to 4GHz since somewhere in 2009, it was pushed to 3.6 GHz day one when I got it in late 2008. And it would be on all day/night at times (mostly bazaaring in XI, but I would periodically tweak something and run Prime95 for 24 hours or so to test it), all day sessions on the weekends, and played more intensive games without fail at 4GHz (was playing the new Wing Commander for a while, was considering getting in on Roberts new MMO, but just couldn't resist XIV after the new trailers were released). It's main use now has been encoding/reencoding videos and archiving (only system I have with a Blu-Ray burner in it, and a fast 1TB Hitachi hard drive).

That thing runs this game SOLID at 4 GHz STILL, after 5 years of steady abuse, even with the "outdated" ATI 4870 512MB video card in it and Windows XP.

The trick to a stable, long term overclock is getting things set up right in the first place.

[Mizuhoe]

im working with GX titan graphics card and i get slow to laggy frame rate to i dont understand it/ My SSD had over 60 GB free for 120. and i cant figure out whats slowing me down. Only thing i cant think of is that i play on 50" TV

[Slynk]

I'll admit I only skimmed this so forgive me if this has already been said but how do you know it's an fps drop and not a ping drop? Also, when do you experience the lag? Is it when there are 20+ people on the screen in the middle of a fate?

I have a gen 1 i3, a gtx 570, and 12 GB of RAM with no fps drop (at least, none that I can perceive.) This is on max settings mind you. Sounds to me like bandwidth issues. But without more info, I couldn't say for sure.

[VeeGeeTea]

Before you go and spend your savings on new computer components, consider getting yourself adequate power supplies and cooling.
Add exception in anti-virus/anti-adware for FFXIV.exe or the FFXIV folder altogether.
Put Windows 7 in performance mode so you're not wasting resources on the actual o/s look and feel.
Update to current graphic adapter driver.
Turn off all background software that you may have running (Skype, utorrent, etc.)

Also try pulling out a stick of ram to see if that is the cause, if you're lagging even more then it means you're in need of more ram.

SSD doesn't affect gameplay at all, it only affects loading time between maps and instances.
SSD won't be able to perform if you lack ram or cpu power as well.

Make sure you have enough power going into your pc, plug directly to the wall outlet rather than going through a power bar (power bar has wattage limitation).
If you don't have enough power, you won't be able to drive any power hungry pc components like cpu and gpu.

Apply new thermal paste every 6 months or so and clean out the dust from your PC as it will cause venting problems.
If your pc isn't venting, then the components would be easily overheat, thus slowing down performance.

[SiriusErad]

Before you go and spend your savings on new computer components, consider getting yourself adequate power supplies and cooling.
Add exception in anti-virus/anti-adware for FFXIV.exe or the FFXIV folder altogether.
Put Windows 7 in performance mode so you're not wasting resources on the actual o/s look and feel.
Update to current graphic adapter driver.
Turn off all background software that you may have running (Skype, utorrent, etc.)

Also try pulling out a stick of ram to see if that is the cause, if you're lagging even more then it means you're in need of more ram.

SSD doesn't affect gameplay at all, it only affects loading time between maps and instances.
SSD won't be able to perform if you lack ram or cpu power as well.

Make sure you have enough power going into your pc, plug directly to the wall outlet rather than going through a power bar (power bar has wattage limitation).
If you don't have enough power, you won't be able to drive any power hungry pc components like cpu and gpu.

Apply new thermal paste every 6 months or so and clean out the dust from your PC as it will cause venting problems.
If your pc isn't venting, then the components would be easily overheat, thus slowing down performance.

It's quite obvious you don't know very much about computers. Most of the stuff you're spewing is completely irrelevant, or the textbook answer that a tech support agent would read off from their script. The other portion of your comments are completely off base and dead wrong/stupid.
OPs power supply is perfectly fine. You don't need 1000w to run most computers. Your 1000w PSU is overkill for your machine. Also, if you're plugging your $500-$2000 computer directly into the wall, you're a complete numbskull and don't deserve to own a computer. Get a quality APC SURGE PROTECTOR, not a "power bar" from the dollar store.

Reapplying thermal paste is not necessary unless you're having cooling problems, or you have taken off your heatsink. And the only reason you have to(you actually don't HAVE to) change it after removing your heatsink is to ensure that you have enough compound still there when reinstalling the heatsink.

Airflow is also a non-issue. Unless OP is getting overheating problems, he should not have to check and make sure hes cleaned the dust from his machine. A proper suggestion would be "check to make sure you're not overheating" Then if he is, you can suggest thermal paste/airflow/dust checking.

You mentioned in another post the need for more RAM. Being as that most games (including this one) are 32-bit, it is limited to up to 4GB of ram access. It simply has no clue that there is more RAM there to use. So your 32GB of ram is not going to perform any better than OP's or my 8gb of ram while playing FFXIV.

There's so many other things you've said in this topic that I would love to touch upon.. but I just don't have the time or motivation.

To other readers, don't listen to a thing VeeGeeTea says regarding technology. Apparently his VeeGeeTea is making him loopy. helluva drug.

[EmphaticGamer]

I'd just like to point out that you just meet the recommended requirements, all this means is that you will be able to play the game on recommended settings with an avg of 30 fps the default setting I believe is High(laptop) so if you go up from there your going take hits in your performance, main problem this game has is with rendering, turn on culling in the options and double your fps, you may experience a micro stutter hear and there when loading into areas but its all up to personal preference -30 fps everywhere or +30 fps everywhere and a micro stutter when loading large amounts of objects, also this game loves its shadows, try turning the shadow resolution down. if you want 60 solid fps everywhere I recommend buying an 8 core chip and a second video card, if not invest in some cooling and crank that i5 up to 11 and hope for the best. I never liked the i5 tbh it never seemed to perform as advertised.

[Tanukki]

If you get enough creatures or players moving around on your screen, the framerates will tank. Mostly due to dynamic shadows, I imagine. Little bit more optimization in this area would not hurt, this game is pretty and all, but an MMO is supposed to be accessible. You shouldn't need enthusiast hardware to run it smoothly.

Here's some benchmarks BTW: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnFkM1_JharvdGlIc0dwMmcyWDVoR1gzTGp2UlJUVmc#gid=0

The game does appears to support multi-core setups quite well, but the gains from hyperthreading (i7 vs i5 processors) are not that significant, as is typically the case for games.

[Kyle_Ragnador]

Since last Patch AMD USERs are foreced to increase their maximal allowered TDP on their card.

You have to set "Power control settings" to +20 to have nearly the same performance like before. (mostly on cards using overclock -> overclocked by manufacturer ,too)




Example Powercolor HD7870 PCS+ vortex II

Other Games like BF3, Smite, and programs like 3dMark runs normal like before.

before patch
Power control setting: 0 --> 55-68 fps

after Patch
Power control setting: 0 --> Card clocks with only 450 mhz results in 20-30 fps on max settings
Power control setting:+20 --> Card clocks wizh 1150 mhz results in 50-63 fps on max settings


Same with Catalyst Control Center 13.4 and 13.8 beta 2

[Inosaska]

Since last Patch AMD USERs are foreced to increase their maximal allowered TDP on their card.

You have to set "Power control settings" to +20 to have nearly the same performance like before. (mostly on cards using overclock -> overclocked by manufacturer ,too)




Example Powercolor HD7870 PCS+ vortex II

Other Games like BF3, Smite, and programs like 3dMark runs normal like before.

before patch
Power control setting: 0 --> 55-68 fps

after Patch
Power control setting: 0 --> Card clocks with only 450 mhz results in 20-30 fps on max settings
Power control setting:+20 --> Card clocks wizh 1150 mhz results in 50-63 fps on max settings


Same with Catalyst Control Center 13.4 and 13.8 beta 2

Everyone with an AMD card who is getting poor performance needs to do this because it improved my performance by a very large amount. It also helped that my video card maker Diamond fixed the CCC so that I could do this in AMD Overdrive.