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FFXIV Benchmark fails but minimum requirements are met?Follow

#1 Aug 07 2010 at 1:38 AM Rating: Good
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OK, I should start out by saying I know virtually nothing about computers and rarely play PC games. I have a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop that I bought about two years ago, and have upgraded a few things on it but essentially it is the same PC that I originally bought. The System Properties lists:

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
2GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB GDDR2
Windows XP SP3
350W PSU

It looks like it meets the minimum requirements on the FFXIV site to me but when I run the benchmark I get around 500, which is nowhere near the "2000-2499 - Slightly Low Performance" score that I'm shooting for.

I don't care what it looks like, I don't care if I have to turn the resolution & every single effect to the lowest possible setting, I just want it to be playable until March when I'll be buying the PS3 version. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Edited, Aug 12th 2010 7:43pm by Nainz
#2 Aug 07 2010 at 2:09 AM Rating: Default
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Minimum usually means the bare minimum for a computer not to explode while trying to install. Very few games are actually playable at the minimum specs. That applies to almost all software in general to be honest.

Drop at least another gig of RAM into your system as well as a new(better) graphics card and you should be good.
#3 Aug 07 2010 at 3:04 PM Rating: Good
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Do you have a beta access account? Because the FFXIV beta forums would be the best place to ask, there is a whole forum with technical info and help provided.
https://dev-na.ffxiv.com/

I'd say you are probably running into some video card issues though. Do you have the latest drivers for your card? What operating system are you running?


The game runs well on my setup:
Windows XP SP3
Intel Core Duo 8500 3.16GHz
3GB RAM
2x Geforce 8800GT 512MB driver updated in January 2010.
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#4 Aug 07 2010 at 6:39 PM Rating: Good
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I do have Beta access, but the Beta is apparently closed until mid-August. I didn't install it before because I only had 1GB of RAM and I knew it wouldn't run. Ironically, the ATI 4350 IS the new and better graphics card. Before I was using the ATI 2400 which shipped with the PC. I didn't want to spend a lot of money since I'm only planning on playing for six months, and I assumed that the 4350 would work fine since the minimum is an ATI 2900 and 4350 is, like, 1450 better right? (Remember when I said I didn't know a lot about computers?)

I have installed all the latest drivers and am running Windows XP SP3. I'll buy another GB of RAM and see if that helps anything. I can't really justify another video card since I just put in the other one YESTERDAY >.<

Thanks again for your help. I guess I'll just have to wait for the Beta 3 to start and see what happens.
#5 Aug 07 2010 at 7:14 PM Rating: Good
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Well, I ran the benchmark on my system just to see. 2918, Standard, can run game on default settings. Pretty much what it felt like during Beta Phase 2. The benchmark is the opening FMV for character creation. I did notice that when I was actually playing it was a lot smoother than the benchmark (had a few drops in FPS that weren't there in the actual game).

The forums are still open, even though it's in transition between Phase 2 and Phase 3. You can still access the troubleshooting forum which does have some help on configuring things to run well.
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#6 Aug 07 2010 at 7:27 PM Rating: Decent
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According to this, the 4350 is severely underpowered compared to just one 8800GT.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=585&card2=544
#7 Aug 08 2010 at 2:30 AM Rating: Good
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It's become apparent that buying the 4350 was a major *****-up. At least I've learned that a higher product number does not necessarily mean a better card. This is why I prefer gaming on a console, I hate having thousands of variables to pay attention to & tinker with!

I've decided I'm going to return the 4350 and get this Radeon HD 5670. I'm limited by my 350W power supply and this is the best card that I could find using GPU Review (thanks, Linku).

So, that combined with an additional 1GB of RAM should take care of it...right?
#8 Aug 08 2010 at 3:57 PM Rating: Decent
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Well the 5670 still seems kind of weak. Any particular reason you're sticking with ATI? I'm kind of hesitant to suggest anything more powerful with you only having a 350W PSU. I was on the game with a 250GTS, but I wouldn't go much lower than that if you want smooth gameplay.

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=623&card2=606

As you can see, the GTS250 almost doubles the 5670 in pixel fill rate, and triples the 5670 in texture fill rate.
And the GTS250 is available on frys.com right now for 60AR. http://www.frys.com/product/6159169?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Only thing is, you would most likely have to upgrade your power supply in order for it to work.
#9 Aug 09 2010 at 7:43 AM Rating: Good
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Quote:
So, that combined with an additional 1GB of RAM should take care of it...right?


RAM is likely fine. I'd look in to getting a better PSU and in turn a better card. Not sure if you can fit a standard ATX PSU in your case, but there are aftermarket replacements that should fit https://shop.pcpower.com/products/description/Silencer_500_Dell/index.html - is not cheap, but it's from one of the finest PSU manufacturers out there.

The second hurdle you'd have is finding a card that'd fit your case, since I doubt you have room for a full-length board or whatnot. The GTS250 is fine for some things, but in terms of modern features - like DX11 - nVidia has basically nothing below the ~$200 range, whereas a 5770 or something would be nice from ATI. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-radeon-hd-geforce-gtx,2676-7.html has a decent hierarchy, and some recommendations at price points if you backtrack through the article (though I expect it will be updated soon for August).
#10 Aug 09 2010 at 1:37 PM Rating: Good
I've heard rumblings from folks in the beta that you need the max 4 gigs on a 32 bit OS to get acceptable performance, and 5+ on a 64 bit OS.

I'd definitely go ahead and upgrade to the 4 gigs of RAM, and see about a better PSU, even if you don't get a new video card. I have a 650 watt PSU feeding my GeForce 9600, and haven't had any problems.
#11 Aug 12 2010 at 12:12 AM Rating: Good
Here is my specs. I get a 924 on the benchmark. where's the bottleneck?

CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3 Mhz

OS Win 7 (64-bit)

Ram: 6 GB

GPU Nvidia 9400GT 1GB vid memory
#12 Aug 12 2010 at 6:48 AM Rating: Good
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While your system as a whole is likely a little dated, your major bottleneck is your GPU.

If you have a desktop though, you could likely swap up your CPU too without changing motherboard/RAM/etc...one of the nice things with AMD.

Edited, Aug 12th 2010 8:49am by Isiolia
#13 Aug 12 2010 at 8:41 PM Rating: Good
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I bought the new graphics card, and am now getting a score of over 2500 on the benchmark! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. New specs are:

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
3GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5
Windows XP SP3
350W PSU

Thanks again for your help everyone. And I don't know why I have it stuck in my head that I need an ATI...I guess because the Radeon HDs seem to be a little more straight-forward than the hundreds of variations on the Nvidia GeForces. For someone who doesn't know much it's a lot less intimidating when you have a smaller pool to choose from.
#14 Aug 12 2010 at 9:31 PM Rating: Good
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Addyyuna wrote:
Here is my specs. I get a 924 on the benchmark. where's the bottleneck?

CPU: AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3 Mhz

OS Win 7 (64-bit)

Ram: 6 GB

GPU Nvidia 9400GT 1GB vid memory


Probably your video card. I think Kao explained in another topic the GeForce number meanings. I think it boiled down to the 100s in the number are the important one. The 8800 being better than the 9400, etc.
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