THE OFFICIAL FFXIV INFO: (Retail Updated First Post)

[Enneisevoli]

lol crazy i uninstalled my driver to fix the sli patch problem, installed the newest drivers, didn't overclock at all and got a 3525 score. Almost 500 increase alone from updated driver lol. Also checked that list you posted DA, it seems even though my system is like 2 years old already, my processor is still in the first tier. So i guess i don't really need to upgrade much. Maybe il just take advantage of the 64 bit and upgrade the ram to 8 gigs instead of 4.

one question i have though is, i have gforce x280 and i have 3 of them in SLI. Would upgrading to a new 400 series be a downgrade if i just bought 1, or would that still be an upgrade? What about 2? I'm assuming 2 of the new ones has to beat 3 of the older ones. Whats do you guys think?

[Phane]

one question i have though is, i have gforce x280 and i have 3 of them in SLI. Would upgrading to a new 400 series be a downgrade if i just bought 1, or would that still be an upgrade? What about 2? I'm assuming 2 of the new ones has to beat 3 of the older ones. Whats do you guys think?

The only 4XX series nvidia cards that'd be superior to the GTX 280 would be the $350 GTX 470 or the beefy $500 GTX 480, unless you go ATI and have a crossfire capable motherboard. Going with 2x 480s might still give you a boost but 2x 470's would probably break even. No single card will do.

Looking at benchmarks, I would guestimate that switching to 3x 470's would net you a 25% boost and 3x 480's would give you 60%. Not much considering the price.

[Phane]

I just realized that in most of these insane benchmarks, people are using the d3d9.dll trick that makes the benchmark run in fullscreen. I thought that was cheating, so I didn't mention it before, but that 10k score guy was using it (apparently Crossfire doesn't work at all in windowed mode while SLI does).

Obviously, fullscreen is more efficient. My fullscreen scores were 3620 HQ and 5115 LQ.

If you want to try the fullscreen hack, here's the .dll for it. Put it in your /data directory.

Also, if you're using 3D Vision, you should disable stereoscopic 3D outright. It gives me a 25% performance hit even when I have 'Hide stereoscopic 3D effects when game starts' check marked.

I'm not sure if you should be expecting too much with that SLI patch, the 258.96 drivers already have optimized defaults for FFXIVBenchmark, and I read it's more for applications that have been released AFTER the 258.96 driver and don't have any defined optimizations.

[Enneisevoli]

Thanks for the info Phane. Il just upgrade my ram and that's it I guess. Probably not worth upgrading my graphics. Appreciate the help .

(also might look into a motherboard upgrade. But not sure if i want to undertake the physical construction of that type of upgrade lol. Ram is easy, just snap in and start haha.)

[Phane]

If you upgrade the motherboard, you'll have to upgrade the CPU. Also, unless you have one of those newer DDR3 LGA775 motherboards, upgrading your motherboard will mean you'll have to replace the memory as well. The more research I'm doing, the more I'm uncertain if LGA775 actually hurts your GPU performance as much as I thought. On LGA775, the PCIe still came through the north bridge, so the motherboard can change how many PCIe lanes you have. If you have enough lanes to run at least 8x PCIe 2.0 on all 3 slots, your performance should be adequate. If you post the exact model / manufacturer of your motherboard, I can try and figure that out for you.

The LGA1165 and LGA 1366 mostly eliminiate the north bridge and channel PCIe lanes directly to the CPU. This speeds up the PCIe interface but would bottleneck you on the LGA1165 side by limiting the computer to 1 16x slot, 2 8x slots, or 3 4x slots *AT THE SOCKET*. Having to run all of your cards at that bus speed can hinder your performance in certain games and have no effect on others, so it's your call. Note, it doesn't change how fast your GPU renders, but how fast the GPU can get texture and geometry information from the CPU. So applications that use large amounts of textures can slow down, and apps that use very little will run the same.

Here's a good article explaining all that.

[Phane]

I forgot to ask, but with us starting on Ultimecia server, which city-state should we all start in? I think it's supposed to be like FFXI where you choose the nation you start in and might not be able to travel between them easily until later in the game.

[Enneisevoli]

To be honest, i have no idea. Are there "home towns for races" like in XI? I'm going to be a lallafel/taru (of course haha). Maybe eowyn can suggest a good starting zone,i think she did beta it seems.

O and phane, here's my motherboard info. Let me know what you think.

Nvidia NForce 790i Ultra SLI (3-way sli sci express 2.0 intel FSB 1600)

also right now i have 4 gigs of ram, i'm looking to upgrade that. Can my motherboard handle 4 gig ram chips so that i can get a total of 16 gigs? Also do i need all the ram to be exactly the same size and speed, or do the just need to match in sets of 2 and be in corresponding slots on the motherboard? thank for the help, i appreciate it . I"m terrible with hardware, i don't even know how to find out all this "bottleneck" stuff haha.

[Phane]

Nvidia NForce 790i Ultra SLI (3-way sli sci express 2.0 intel FSB 1600)

That motherboard isn't going to be a problem. You have DDR3 memory running at a pretty fast clock, so you wouldn't need to toss your memory even if you did decide to upgrade right now, nor would you see a significant boost in your memory's performance if you did. Your CPU is already top tier, so I wouldn't worry about that, either.

The way that one works for 3x SLI is that the first two SLI slots are full PCIe 2.0 x16 and the third is fed to the south bridge as PCIe 1.1 x16. That third one is the equivolent of PCIe 2.0 x8, which isn't worth getting upset over. My motherboard only runs the two at PCIe 2.0 x8, so even your weakest card is getting roughly the same bandwidth as my strongest. This setup shouldn't be bottlenecking your graphics cards any more than any machine running at stock clocks would.

If you want to improve your system performance overall, you can read up on tweaking your memory timings, as that can boost performance significantly without even voiding any warranties. Just be aware of where your CMOS reset dip switch is and be prepared to use it if you set them too low and can't boot.

You can read up on overclocking your CPU as well, you may even want to try OC'ing your GPU, but I honestly don't think your GPU is going to be a problem. Your graphics cards are probably at least 50% faster than mine and I can run Bad Company 2 at 1920x1080 with all settings cranked and 3D Vision enabled (so each frame is being rendered twice) and it still runs pretty smooth.

Speaking of which, if you happen to have any of those old fashioned red and blue 3D Glasses sitting around, you may want to give 3D Vision Discover a whirl. It's free and your system should be able to handle it with no sweat.

[Enneisevoli]

not sure if this is a factor, but I'm guessing it might be. but is one reason im seeing only 3000 or so scores with such a high end PC because i have a 31 inch monitor and i usually max out my resolution? Or would that not factor in too much. Does the benchmark run the same on everyone computer or are the high/low resolutions listed dynamic with what type of screen it has to work with?

[eowynn]

Good question about the starting cities. Its hard to say if we will be able to travel freely from the start. I always loved the thrill of my first run to jeuno and having a tiger eat me lol.

Currently Limsa is the only city we have access to and I know it and the surrounding area all too well. It has a pirate-like theme to it. The NPC's are like "Arg matey, 'ow bout ye kiss me arse". I honestly don't care which city we start in. Limsa would be less of a learning curve. All we know about Gridania and Uldah is what they have released on the official web site.

So with that in mind what do you guys think?

I am really looking forward to seeing you all again!!