FFXIV: low budget rigs possble?

[reminiscence]

Hey BGtech long time lurker here just looking for some general FFXIV computer tech info. With such short notice of the FFXIV release literally just right around the corner I think it's time to shell out for a few rigs. Now I don't intended to purchase any rigs until the beginning of September.

Basically I want to build a few low budget rigs ($400-$700) that can run FFXIV at standard settings at least. I'm just looking for bare parts so I can save the most money as possible.

Any insight that is offered is highly appreciated!

Thanks so much BG!

[Ryuushin]

Check the benchmark thread in FFXIV discussion. It has a chart of the processors/video cards with the score. That should give you an idea of what to aim for.

[Cephius]

I really want to blow up that stupid benchmark thread, there's so much misinformation and e-peen stroking it makes me want to cry.

First of all, benchmarks have to be taken with a grain of salt. There's a point where having a higher score is pointless, because you'll never notice it when you're actually playing. Typically they stress your system more than the game ever will. My point is, if you look at that thread, you might assume you need an overclocked i7 with a top of the line video card to run FF14. You won't.

You'll probably want a Core 2 Quad or better, and a video card around 9800/4870 or better to run the game comfortably. I wouldn't really justify spending hundreds more dollars for a i7 or 480/58xx just for FF14.

[reminiscence]

I really want to blow up that stupid benchmark thread, there's so much misinformation and e-peen stroking it makes me want to cry.

First of all, benchmarks have to be taken with a grain of salt. There's a point where having a higher score is pointless, because you'll never notice it when you're actually playing. Typically they stress your system more than the game ever will. My point is, if you look at that thread, you might assume you need an overclocked i7 with a top of the line video card to run FF14. You won't.

You'll probably want a Core 2 Quad or better, and a video card around 9800/4870 or better to run the game comfortably. I wouldn't really justify spending hundreds more dollars for a i7 or 480/58xx just for FF14.

Yeah digging through this benchmark thread I can't find very much information. A few months ago I stumbled across a PC setup for $500 that could run Crysis at 40-50 FPS.

Will this be possible with FFXIV? Because I'd really like to stay under $2000 for 3 decent rigs.

[sruon]

I really want to blow up that stupid benchmark thread, there's so much misinformation and e-peen stroking it makes me want to cry.

First of all, benchmarks have to be taken with a grain of salt. There's a point where having a higher score is pointless, because you'll never notice it when you're actually playing. Typically they stress your system more than the game ever will. My point is, if you look at that thread, you might assume you need an overclocked i7 with a top of the line video card to run FF14. You won't.

You'll probably want a Core 2 Quad or better, and a video card around 9800/4870 or better to run the game comfortably. I wouldn't really justify spending hundreds more dollars for a i7 or 480/58xx just for FF14.

I think an official thread with everything explained in the OP by budget / needs should be made, because the threads will just keep on popping.

[reminiscence]

I think an official thread with everything explained in the OP by budget / needs should be made, because the threads will just keep on popping.

Agreed. I think it would be great and prevent a lot of future threads.

[Cephius]

I'll work on one once the beta comes out, which should provide a better idea of actual requirements and as close to the actual retail (in terms of graphic detail and game engine, anyway) as we're gonna get.

[reminiscence]

I'll work on one once the beta comes out, which should provide a better idea of actual requirements and as close to the actual retail (in terms of graphic detail and game engine, anyway) as we're gonna get.

Sounds awesome I'll keep an eye out. Can't believe its already time to start planning for this yet again.

[Cephius]

Also to answer your question and to give an educated guess, I'd say a good FF14 system will run you between 700 and 900 dollars. Good meaning, playing the game without lag on medium-to-high settings. For bare minimum but still playable? Probably around 500-700.

[Knyghtmayre]

You can most definitely build a budget rig for FFXI. Ceph's not too far off on his prices either. I shopped around and insisted on getting the best deal possible and built a PC for $660 after shipping that gets about 4.5k (720p) on that FF14 benchmark depending on how much it's OC'd. And according to SE, the 4.5k zone is absolutely fine for playing this game on Med-High.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2GHz (Deneb)
Board: ASUS M4A78T-E AMD 790GX
GPU: Sapphire HD 5750 1GB DDR5
Ram: 4GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR3 PC3-10600 1333mhz
HDD: Hitachi 1TB @ 7200RPM

http://i45.tinypic.com/14in0qh.png

[Kaylia]

Yeah digging through this benchmark thread I can't find very much information. A few months ago I stumbled across a PC setup for $500 that could run Crysis at 40-50 FPS.

Will this be possible with FFXIV? Because I'd really like to stay under $2000 for 3 decent rigs.

I paid mine 600$ last year and was running crysis at 30fps (physics was the only one not maxed). It's lagging a bit in the alpha, but it should run the game at a slightly lower quality without any issue. That pc you mentioned should be fine (at standard graphic at least) .



Anyway, the beta is starting next week or so, and they are giving us a ton of graphic options. It will be a lot easier to give you an answers at that time if you can wait.

[Kurp]

Tom's Hardware did a $550 budget gaming build last month.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...lock,2659.html

It uses a triple core Athlon II, HD 5770, and 2 GB RAM.

[Nyanta]

+1 for the Athlon II x3 (which will most likely unlock to an X4, and if you're lucky have l3 cache as well) and the 5770, very well performers for their price range, I actually had this combo before I upgraded. I got the X3 + motherboard for $80 from frys and the 5770 for $124 after MIR from there too

[reminiscence]

I paid mine 600$ last year and was running crysis at 30fps (physics was the only one not maxed). It's lagging a bit in the alpha, but it should run the game at a slightly lower quality without any issue. That pc you mentioned should be fine (at standard graphic at least) .



Anyway, the beta is starting next week or so, and they are giving us a ton of graphic options. It will be a lot easier to give you an answers at that time if you can wait.

I can definitely wait as I won't be ordering the rigs until early September or so. It is very exciting to see that it can be possible to run FFXIV at atleast decent settings with a machine only costing $550-$600 or so so I will for sure be picking up a couple.

[Metafox]

In a couple months, I was planning to build a new computer for ffxiv. I wanted to make a thread in order to get preliminary suggestions, but if that's looked down upon then I'd rather not spam up the forum. Since the topic here already wandered a little towards forum spam, I thought I'd ask if I'd be justified in making my own thread. It's the first time I've built a computer, so I want to ask about all of the choices that I made. (I'm not trying to build a budget PC, so my goal isn't just to barely run ffxiv on high settings at a decent framerate, thus the beta performance analysis wouldn't help much)

[Akiyama]

I have a HD4850, Phenom II X3 720 (not oc'd even though supposedly, it OC's really wel), 4GB RAM, and what not.. and I scored about 2500+ on 720p (low) so it says I should run it okay, but probably on Medium at best. D: That system cost me around 850 or so since I had to get a Monitor as well.

[sephir]

I'm still calling shenanigans on the benchmark. My laptop can run Crysis on full settings but somehow can't break 315 on the FFXIV benchmark.

[Celeras]

I'm still calling shenanigans on the benchmark. My laptop can run Crysis on full settings but somehow can't break 315 on the FFXIV benchmark.

Single gpu DESKTOPS still can't run Crysis at greater than 60 FPS maxed out. Who are you kidding ;p

[reminiscence]

I'm still calling shenanigans on the benchmark. My laptop can run Crysis on full settings but somehow can't break 315 on the FFXIV benchmark.

Highest my laptop could go was 600ish. Has there been any proof that the benchmark is crap?

[bluefan]

Not crap, but a tiny bit misleading. Take it with a grain of salt. Wait until the beta performance numbers start rolling out, then we'll get a better picture.