Running at 55-60fps but if you looked at my screen you'd guess 10-15. Anyone else?

[Drako]

i also have some shutter without fps drop on a GTX 295, but im almost sure its lag related.

[Vexerus]

I was aware of the drivers and have the latest but I was actually not aware of a FF profile. Do you use this? I'll certainly the FFXIV profile going if it'll help in any way.

You bet I use em.

sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx

So the first link is the driver package. Two links below is ATI Catalyst Application Profiles. Just download and install. It contains all game profiles to date including FFXIV. Let us know if this increased performance so we know the profile is actually doing something lol.

[YukonWildAss]

Thanks for the url, I got the profiles installed. I didn't do any sort of formal comparison but just looking at it visually it appears like performance improved a bit. I think it must help since I also upped my background draw quality to 5 from 3 at the same time I installed the profiles, so if it did nothing I would have expected performance to drop a bit. At the very least it doesn't seem to do any harm. Still lagging a bit when my fps drops below 60 though, which has always been the case.

Edit: This isn't related to the profiles since its been happening for a while, but FFXIV often crashes and I get a message saying "Display driver AMD driver stopped responding and has successfully recovered." I hope my card isn't dying
Edit 2: Changed the OC on my 5870 to 850/1200 and it seems to have taken care of the problem. Not sure why this was necessary but I'm ok with it.

[Rammses]

Game stutters/drops frames in specific "spots" or certain small areas for me since the November update. These spots are frequent enough that it usually happens at least every 20 seconds on the fields, and much more often than that in towns. If you run around in circles in an area with none of these "spots", the game will run smooth. Run back to a spot, and the game will stutter at the exact same point. Does not show up on fraps.

I've tried Radeon 5750 and Radeon 6850, same exact thing. I'm not sure it's graphics related however. Could be loading or lag related, although it would be an issue with the client as I've tried different HDDs and had no network problems before the Nov. update. It's extremely annoying, causes headaches and makes me not play the game. I'd have the laggy UI back over this.

@OP: Do you use Speedfan (application) by any chance?

[Sign]

It sounds like your spots are around borders between different servers. I have noticed that the loading/buffering as you near the imaginary line is very poor, it is almost like it doesn't even start attempting to load the new info until you already need it and then you are stuttering while the system catches up.

[Vexerus]

Using catalyst control center to overclock the 5870 causes crashing within 10 minutes of play every time. I have no experience overclocking however so not sure if it is user error or ffxiv.

Also, I have crashed at these multi server spots as well, though only a few times.

Conclusion: your card is not dying, game is just wack atm.

EDIT: Forgot to mention; I do still experience some stutter only during rain, when the card starts running a little hotter.

[YukonWildAss]

Game stutters/drops frames in specific "spots" or certain small areas for me since the November update. These spots are frequent enough that it usually happens at least every 20 seconds on the fields, and much more often than that in towns. If you run around in circles in an area with none of these "spots", the game will run smooth. Run back to a spot, and the game will stutter at the exact same point. Does not show up on fraps.

I've tried Radeon 5750 and Radeon 6850, same exact thing. I'm not sure it's graphics related however. Could be loading or lag related, although it would be an issue with the client as I've tried different HDDs and had no network problems before the Nov. update. It's extremely annoying, causes headaches and makes me not play the game. I'd have the laggy UI back over this.

@OP: Do you use Speedfan (application) by any chance?

Hey there, I do not use Speedfan. Would you suggest it?
In regards to the lag spots, I'm going to pay special attention for them. If this is the case then I think every gathering location is one of those spots, since I always experience lag while gathering.Thanks for the post, every one I read about people experiencing similar issues puts me more at ease.

Using catalyst control center to overclock the 5870 causes crashing within 10 minutes of play every time. I have no experience overclocking however so not sure if it is user error or ffxiv.

Also, I have crashed at these multi server spots as well, though only a few times.

Conclusion: your card is not dying, game is just wack atm.

EDIT: Forgot to mention; I do still experience some stutter only during rain, when the card starts running a little hotter.

Yeah lowering the clock instantly fixed all the crashing I was experiencing, that was a relief.
On an unrelated note, I tried changing the General Draw Quality from 8 to 10 and it dropped my fps from 60 to 2... 8 it is!

[Rammses]

Hey there, I do not use Speedfan. Would you suggest it?
In regards to the lag spots, I'm going to pay special attention for them. If this is the case then I think every gathering location is one of those spots, since I always experience lag while gathering.Thanks for the post, every one I read about people experiencing similar issues puts me more at ease.

Nevermind then. Speedfan 4.42 made my game stutter alot for some reason, when the GPU activity was >95%. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't the same issue. It could be GPU activity related however, going by your description of stuttering in fields when fps is lower than 60. When in towns, GPU activity will rarely be maxed out since every CPU on the market will bottleneck performance when there are lots of player characters around. Same goes for 60 fps, performance is bottlenecked by the FFXIV 60 fps hard cap, so your GPU won't be pushed to the max then either.

If you run FFXIV in windowed mode (who doesnt?) try disabling Windows Aero, as its tiny demands on the GPU can actually make quite a big difference on top of the 99% that FFXIV frequently requires.

[YukonWildAss]

I'm going to try disabling Window Aero today and let you know if I notice an improvement in performance, thanks for the suggestions.