yeah, I know its a crap computer, but....

[Celebrindor]

****caveat to those who will write "get a new computer"*****

I'm a family man with a wife and 18 month old daughter, so most of my discretionary income goes towards the ladies in my life, leaving little to none for upgrades to my computer. Nonetheless, I'd still like to think that considering the age of the game and the technology available at the time of the game's release that I should be able to get respectable playability in Dynamis and large-scale battles/events (Einherjar, HNM, etc). Here are my specs:

P4 with Hyperthreading 3.00GHz
2GB RAM
Onboard Sound card (haven't seen a need to update yet)
40GB HD
Nvidia GeForce 5200 PCI Video Card (256MB, running 162.18 Driver currently)

Now for the problems I face. I got this computer when I was merely a console single player gamer, so I saw little to no need to get a computer that was better designed for gaming. Of course, I then got involved in FFXI, and desired better performance as I progressed towards endgame and larger scale events where lag became a serious issue. As a career mage, and an often CS-stunner and other critical roles, lag is absolutely killing me at endgame, and hurting my enjoyment of the gaming experience. I have to turn off all effects, reduce character models displayed, reduce my clipping plane, and often turn my back on the battle in order to even function partially.....let alone ever seeing the battle itself or god forbid claiming at endgame.

My gimptastic motherboard does NOT have AGP or PCI-e slots, so PCI is the best I can do. I tried using an ATI-Radeon in my comp first, but my craptastic Dell Dimension 3000 will not agree with ATI cards (as per multiple attempts of my own as well as forum browsing of Dell users), hence the Nvidia card.

I have bumped my RAM up from 500MB to 2.00GB last summer and saw little improvement in gameplay (and have read on here and other forums that this is because the game is so processor dependent that my RAM upgrade did very little for my actual gaming performance).

I have contemplated swapping out my motherboard for one with at least an AGP slot in it, however again via Dell forums of actual Dell users it seems the Dimension3000 is quite annoying when it comes to swapping Motherboards, as nothing honestly fits that well into the tower. And if I'm going to replace a graphics card, motherboard, and tower...well hell I'll save up another 300 bucks and just do the whole thing in a year.

....ok my question(s).

1. what are some things I can actually do to improve performance in large lag events software/setup wise? In other words, the freebee fixes....such as an older version of Video card drivers, or is running Windower w/ Distance and TParty plugins killing me that much?

2. would a sound card help lessen the load on my CPU and thus make gameplay better?

3. would a dedicated high speed HD with only FFXI related files (the game, windower, plugins) on it assist in gameplay? I ask only because I am nearing the time to either update to a larger HD or getting a second one (photos of an 18 month old add up quickly folks, just a heads up!).

4. any other suggestions that don't involve a motherboard swap or a new computer? This one is only about 2.5 years old and convinving my wife that I need that nice and shiny Alienware isn't going to go over well :D

I appreciate any time spent on my questions- I know the real answer is just to get a better computer, but when that option isn't an option, any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[Anderian]

****caveat to those who will write "get a new computer"*****

I'm a family man with a wife and 18 month old daughter, so most of my discretionary income goes towards the ladies in my life, leaving little to none for upgrades to my computer. Nonetheless, I'd still like to think that considering the age of the game and the technology available at the time of the game's release that I should be able to get respectable playability in Dynamis and large-scale battles/events (Einherjar, HNM, etc). Here are my specs:

P4 with Hyperthreading 3.00GHz
2GB RAM
Onboard Sound card (haven't seen a need to update yet)
40GB HD
Nvidia GeForce 5200 PCI Video Card (256MB, running 162.18 Driver currently)

Now for the problems I face. I got this computer when I was merely a console single player gamer, so I saw little to no need to get a computer that was better designed for gaming. Of course, I then got involved in FFXI, and desired better performance as I progressed towards endgame and larger scale events where lag became a serious issue. As a career mage, and an often CS-stunner and other critical roles, lag is absolutely killing me at endgame, and hurting my enjoyment of the gaming experience. I have to turn off all effects, reduce character models displayed, reduce my clipping plane, and often turn my back on the battle in order to even function partially.....let alone ever seeing the battle itself or god forbid claiming at endgame.

My gimptastic motherboard does NOT have AGP or PCI-e slots, so PCI is the best I can do. I tried using an ATI-Radeon in my comp first, but my craptastic Dell Dimension 3000 will not agree with ATI cards (as per multiple attempts of my own as well as forum browsing of Dell users), hence the Nvidia card.

I have bumped my RAM up from 500MB to 2.00GB last summer and saw little improvement in gameplay (and have read on here and other forums that this is because the game is so processor dependent that my RAM upgrade did very little for my actual gaming performance).

I have contemplated swapping out my motherboard for one with at least an AGP slot in it, however again via Dell forums of actual Dell users it seems the Dimension3000 is quite annoying when it comes to swapping Motherboards, as nothing honestly fits that well into the tower. And if I'm going to replace a graphics card, motherboard, and tower...well hell I'll save up another 300 bucks and just do the whole thing in a year.

....ok my question(s).

1. what are some things I can actually do to improve performance in large lag events software/setup wise? In other words, the freebee fixes....such as an older version of Video card drivers, or is running Windower w/ Distance and TParty plugins killing me that much?

2. would a sound card help lessen the load on my CPU and thus make gameplay better?

3. would a dedicated high speed HD with only FFXI related files (the game, windower, plugins) on it assist in gameplay? I ask only because I am nearing the time to either update to a larger HD or getting a second one (photos of an 18 month old add up quickly folks, just a heads up!).

4. any other suggestions that don't involve a motherboard swap or a new computer? This one is only about 2.5 years old and convinving my wife that I need that nice and shiny Alienware isn't going to go over well :D

I appreciate any time spent on my questions- I know the real answer is just to get a better computer, but when that option isn't an option, any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Well, I'll try to answer to your questions...

1. No idea, but I doubt.
2. Nope, sorry.
3. Yeah, but it would pretty much have to be 10k rpm HD, and those cost a shitload and they are usually 10-40gb of size. And it would only make the loading times faster (ie. zoning, booting windows etc.)
4. No, I'm afraid not. If you are using the computer for gaming, PCI-E, or at least AGP, is pretty much a must. Graphics card is the biggest factor in games, the next being ram and then cpu.

Sorry, I know that wasn't very helpful.
But the cold fact is, that hardware gets outdated really fast these days. :\

[Cephius]

Some small things you can do to improve performance...

1) Defrag the hard drive - makes accessing memory faster.
2) Disable as many programs from starting up with windows as possible. Even though they're not "running", their processes are, which takes away processing power that could be used towards FFXI.
3) Uninstall programs you don't use anymore, and generally try to free space up on the hard drive.
4) Run spyware removal tools such as adaware. Even if nothing major is found, clearing out cookies and whatnot does improve performance slightly (a lot if you have some major spyware tool hiding somewhere)

It never hurts to go into the FFXI config and sacrifice some graphics for performance as well.

If you're still experiencing major lag after doing all this, try opening up the task manager and view your running processes. Check anything that seems like it's using a lot of memory and turn it off if you can. Hope this helps.

[Isiolia]

1. what are some things I can actually do to improve performance in large lag events software/setup wise? In other words, the freebee fixes....such as an older version of Video card drivers, or is running Windower w/ Distance and TParty plugins killing me that much?

2. would a sound card help lessen the load on my CPU and thus make gameplay better?

3. would a dedicated high speed HD with only FFXI related files (the game, windower, plugins) on it assist in gameplay? I ask only because I am nearing the time to either update to a larger HD or getting a second one (photos of an 18 month old add up quickly folks, just a heads up!).

4. any other suggestions that don't involve a motherboard swap or a new computer? This one is only about 2.5 years old and convinving my wife that I need that nice and shiny Alienware isn't going to go over well :D

1. As you do have a GeForce 5x00 series you might benefit from older drivers...but usually the problems people swap drivers for are bursts of lag on BRD songs or Firaga spells. If you have generally playable performance, there's probably not much you can do.

2. Doubtful. I mean, on a technical level, you'd probably be able to find a card with lower CPU utilization than onboard. But as for a difference you'd notice, eh, likely not.

3. Again, technically it'd help, but it's just not where your bottleneck is. 10k RPM is not all that uncommon now, but you will pay a premium for it. 15k RPM is where the real specialty size/pricing is at now, not 10k RPM.
I don't tend to see FFXI stopping and loading from the hard drive much anyway, not compared to other PC games. Figure, like with the 56k modem compatible networking, the disk access is probably designed around the PS2 drive, which isn't all that zippy.

4. Not really, no. You don't need an Alienware to get a good gaming machine, and you really don't need a ton for FFXI. However, your major performance issue right now is that you have basically one of the crappiest 5x00 series chips on a PCI card, which has a fraction of the bandwidth of AGP/PCIe. Everything else about your system is fine for the game (I played for years on a P4 2Ghz with 512MB of RAM, 'cept a GeForce Ti4400 and later a 6800).


Hate to go to the "buy a new computer" suggestion, but logically it's probably your best route. Most likely you'd need a new case/PSU along with a motherboard, and of course a video card as that's the point of it all. With quality parts, probably looking at $200-300 easily. Actually, more, because your Dell OEM license Windows won't install on a non-Dell mobo, and you want a new HDD to boot.
You can buy a reasonably decent computer in the $500-600 range, so it just doesn't add up to spend hundreds on upgrading.

[Celebrindor]

Some small things you can do to improve performance...

1) Defrag the hard drive - makes accessing memory faster.
2) Disable as many programs from starting up with windows as possible. Even though they're not "running", their processes are, which takes away processing power that could be used towards FFXI.
3) Uninstall programs you don't use anymore, and generally try to free space up on the hard drive.
4) Run spyware removal tools such as adaware. Even if nothing major is found, clearing out cookies and whatnot does improve performance slightly (a lot if you have some major spyware tool hiding somewhere)

Thankfully I do all of that frequently, but I do appreciate the confirmation if nothing else that I'm doing what I can!

To others- yeah I knew the real issue was the PCI card instead of the AGP/PCI-e....and Isiolia thanks for letting me know I've got crap for a graphics card ^^ Any suggestions in the PCI world that would be better? Knowing Dell's issues with Radeon I think I'm probably stuck with Nvidia, but if there are any that people can suggest that would be better that might be an "easy" boost I can do for the next year or so. Will be entering grad school (yay being a 29 year old grad student with a family^^) in the spring and can probably swing the "need" for a new comp then when it comes to Christmas presents :D

Thanks for your help nonetheless, even if it was sadly what I was expecting to hear.

[Isiolia]

There's no real point in trying to push the PCI graphics further. The chip, low end as it is, already exceeds what the interface is capable of. (for conrast, PCI is 133MB/sec...even AGP 2x is 533MB/sec, and the modern PCI-express x16 is 4GB/sec).

If you anticipate being able to get a new system around Christmas time, don't toss money at your existing system, except perhaps a new hard drive as you mentioned. You can always move that into a new system, and, given that you have a 40GB drive now, you'll probably be able to just copy the entire contents of your system drive to it when you do (since the typical lower end size now is 160-250GB).
A consideration with that might be an external drive, depending on what your current machine has an an interface inside. Modern machines tend to have mostly SATA connections available for hard drives. Yours might not.

[Celebrindor]

nope, do have SATA- saved money at the time by going for a smaller HD (40GB instead of 80-120GB) in lieu of more RAM and getting the better (albeit smaller) HD.

Thanks for the direct comparison of data transmission rates of PCI vs. AGP vs. PCI-e. Definitely cleared things up for me.

[Shuemue]

I have to agree with the rest of the posters, you'd be far better served saving up a bit of cash and buying a new board, graphics card and case. Your CPU is perfectly serviceable as will be your RAM. You could most likely pick up a board for $40-50, case for a similar amount and then as much as you can spend on the graphics card. Your HD is rather small, but it's not a priority upgrade as long as you're efficient about maintaining it.

To quantify what I'm saying about your CPU and RAM being worth keeping, I'm personally running a 3ghz hyperthreaded chip like yourself, with only 1gb of RAM. My only real differences are a 160GB HD, and a slightly newer motherboard with PCI-E support, onto which I've thrown a $150 mid range nVidia which works pretty well.

So yeah, you don't need a whole new PC, but you could really do with spending $250 or so and shopping around.