FFXIV Hardware Requirements

[Skeeterxi]

Currently intel is owning amd with respect to xiv performance. I recently got a 1055t and kinda wish I had gone with a 930 or 760 instead. If I could go back I prolly would. Only hope now is that the bulldozers come in an am3 variant that have the parts thubans lack to perform with current intels. I'd love to be able to drop in a new cpu next spring and be rocking, but it's all in the dice now.

The Zambezi(4/8 core) will fit socket AM3.

[TStupified]

Finally decided to order a new rig today for FFXIV, because my old one couldn't even run the benchmark, but because of my current situation with work and such, wasn't able to invest to anything much above the average comp nowadays and of course, had to go the AMD route. But I tried to build a solid, rather balanced comp that wouldn't have any particular bottleneck that would slow the PC down. Here's what I ordered:

Mobo: ASUS M4A87TD EVO
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965BE 3,4GHz (+ Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2)
GPU: Gigabyte GTX460 1gb Overclocked
Mem: 2x2gb 1600Mhz Kingston HyperX
Power: Corsair PSU 550W

And the rest of the stuff don't really matter, just a rather ordinary Antec case with 2 cooling fans, a 1tb hardrive and a basic DVD-RW drive both made by Samsung. But anyways, even it's a rather low budget set, I hope it'll run FFXIV at some level at least, as that'll probably be the only game I'm going to play on PC in the near future.

[mintyice]

Tell us what you get on the benchmark

[TStupified]

Tell us what you get on the benchmark

Yeah I'll be sure to do that once I get the comp.

[mintyice]

LOL THAT's my favorite site!... Yeah def get AMD... I priced out Top line AMD with CPU/MEM/MB for $750.. Add case, HD, video card, power supply, DVD RW... it's around $1400. That was pretty high end as well... depending on what you need/have $750 should do you fine.

Okay, I'm starting to narrow my build idea down a little. I'm pretty sure I want to go with an Intel i7 930 unless someone can convinced me not to. I think I could possible get one on ebay for around $250. Thing is, I probably wouldn't build until around October anyway, in which prices will drop more (I hope.)

As for videocard, the consensus seems to be that the EVGA gtx460 1gb is pretty much the best performance value at the moment. This thing would best through FFXIV no problem, right? (cheaper than gtx470, and pretty much the same right?)

Still haven't figured out mobo yet. SLI kind of interests me. Let's say down the road I want to boost this rig a bit, I could just put in another gtx460 and be golden. There is such a large selection of mobos to pick from, and I don't know where to start. I'd love to overclock both gpu and cpu, so something that does that well would be good (but cheap, don't want to spend a lot of a mobo if it isn't necessary).

As for ram, I have no idea. Think 4gb is good enough, or should I go with 6 to be safe? Any recommendations as to brand, or what?

Also, what about cases, cooling, etc? Any thoughts?

I'm open to suggestions.

[alecrast]

Okay, I'm starting to narrow my build idea down a little. I'm pretty sure I want to go with an Intel i7 930 unless someone can convinced me not to. I think I could possible get one on ebay for around $250. Thing is, I probably wouldn't build until around October anyway, in which prices will drop more (I hope.)

As for videocard, the consensus seems to be that the EVGA gtx460 1gb is pretty much the best performance value at the moment. This thing would best through FFXIV no problem, right? (cheaper than gtx470, and pretty much the same right?)

Still haven't figured out mobo yet. SLI kind of interests me. Let's say down the road I want to boost this rig a bit, I could just put in another gtx460 and be golden. There is such a large selection of mobos to pick from, and I don't know where to start. I'd love to overclock both gpu and cpu, so something that does that well would be good (but cheap, don't want to spend a lot of a mobo if it isn't necessary).

As for ram, I have no idea. Think 4gb is good enough, or should I go with 6 to be safe? Any recommendations as to brand, or what?

Also, what about cases, cooling, etc? Any thoughts?

I'm open to suggestions.

If you get an i7 930, your minimum config will have to have 6GB of RAM because the X58 chipset is triple channel so you install the memory in threes, not pairs. I say 6GB is the minimum because I am hoping not to have to explain why building such a nice system and then gimping it with 3x 1GB sticks is a terrible idea. GSkill has always been my "go to" brand but Mushkin, Corsair, Adata, Kingston, Patriot, Geil, and OCZ are all fine. I've used them all at one point or another - just that I've used GSkill far more.

For motherboards, you just need a board with an X58 chipset (LGA 1366). I'd recommend going with MSI, Gigabyte, or ASUS. A board anywhere between $169 and $269 will meet your needs. You don't need anything more expensive than that unless you're looking at 4-way SLI.

Cases are a matter of aesthetics. That's like asking which outfit to wear. A real basic cheap case with good cooling is the Antec 900-2.

[Adajer]

what happened to going to microcenter for your i7?

edit: gtx 475 & 485 are likely to be out by october or around the corner.

[mintyice]

If you get an i7 930, your minimum config will have to have 6GB of RAM because the X58 chipset is triple channel so you install the memory in threes, not pairs. I say 6GB is the minimum because I am hoping not to have to explain why building such a nice system and then gimping it with 3x 1GB sticks is a terrible idea. GSkill has always been my "go to" brand but Mushkin, Corsair, Adata, Kingston, Patriot, Geil, and OCZ are all fine. I've used them all at one point or another - just that I've used GSkill far more.

For motherboards, you just need a board with an X58 chipset (LGA 1366). I'd recommend going with MSI, Gigabyte, or ASUS. A board anywhere between $169 and $269 will meet your needs. You don't need anything more expensive than that unless you're looking at 4-way SLI.

Cases are a matter of aesthetics. That's like asking which outfit to wear. A real basic cheap case with good cooling is the Antec 900-2.

Okay, well how does the i5 760 compare to the i7 930?

[alecrast]

Okay, well how does the i5 760 compare to the i7 930?

I would take the i7 930 over the i5 760 in a heartbeat, especially given that I can get them for the same price.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

[mintyice]

I would take the i7 930 over the i5 760 in a heartbeat, especially given that I can get them for the same price.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

How?

[Rasengan]

If you live near a MicroCenter, you can pick up the i7 930 for $200. The pricing is only offered at their brick and mortar stores, so it's pretty much local only. Apparently, there's one in North Jersey/Paterson so if that's close, I'd go and grab it if I were you.

[mintyice]

If you live near a MicroCenter, you can pick up the i7 930 for $200. The pricing is only offered at their brick and mortar stores, so it's pretty much local only. Apparently, there's one in North Jersey/Paterson so if that's close, I'd go and grab it if I were you.

Ah I see. Oddly enough, the one in PA is closer (40 mins) while the one in NJ is more like 2 hours away.

[shaddix]

Ah I see. Oddly enough, the one in PA is closer (40 mins) while the one in NJ is more like 2 hours away.

if I was just going to use it for games, I would get an i5

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...do-games-need/

I'm building a new system for my girlfriend for ff14, and I'm getting a 955 BE for her, or a 960T if they come out before release.

Of course since you have access to microcenter, all of that is moot and you should just get an i7 930.

[Rasengan]

The 960T was scrapped; they're not making it anymore. The 955 BE is a good value if you plan to go AM3 though.

[Juhpe]

So from those of you in beta how heavily does FFXIV use the CPU? I know a lot of it falls on the GPU, but how much better performance are people getting with 6 cores etc?

[shaddix]

So from those of you in beta how heavily does FFXIV use the CPU? I know a lot of it falls on the GPU, but how much better performance are people getting with 6 cores etc?

We actually won't know til later today! The 30fps cap has made it hard to identify the bottleneck. For example out in the field on my dual core, both cores are ~60% and my gpu is ~60%. I am not sure which is actually holding me back.
FWIW though, in town my cpu usage will be 90%+ on both cores and gpu usage will be ~30......

[fussel]

So from those of you in beta how heavily does FFXIV use the CPU? I know a lot of it falls on the GPU, but how much better performance are people getting with 6 cores etc?

E6300 @ 1.89 GHz ran the game, but stuck at 100% load for both cores and laggy at times.

Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz ran the benchmark pretty smooth (no servers to test the game on, obviously, did the upgrade yesterday), all cores at about 30% load.

That's with a Geforce 9800GT.

[Nartosar]

I'm building myself an entire desktop, since I only have a laptop for now, for FFXIV. Here's the plan, let me know what you think. Everything's from ncix.com.

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Video: XFX Radeon HD 5870

HDD: Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
SSD: Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive
RAM: Patriot Extreme Viper PVT36G1600LLK 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit

DVD drive: Samsung SH-S223L/BEBS 22X SATA Black DVD Writer Lightscribe

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750 CMPSU-750AX 750W ATX Fully Modular
Case: Lancool PC-K60WB Black ATX Advanced Mid Tower Case 5X5.25 4X3.5INT No PS USB Audio Window
Accesories: nGear SATA Serial ATA Hard Drive Data Cable 18 Inch 7 Pin

Monitor: Samsung P2570 24.6IN Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920X1080 2MS 16:9 70000:1DC HDMI DVI-I
Keyboard: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
Mouse: Coolermaster Sentinel Advance Twin Laser Gaming Mouse 8 Buttons 5600DPI USB with Adjustable Lighting

[Questionable]

I'm building myself an entire desktop, since I only have a laptop for now, for FFXIV. Here's the plan, let me know what you think. Everything's from ncix.com.

CPU: Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
Video: XFX Radeon HD 5870

HDD: Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
SSD: Intel X25-M 80GB 34NM Postville 2.5IN SSD SATA Solid State Disk Flash Drive
RAM: Patriot Extreme Viper PVT36G1600LLK 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Triple Channel Memory Kit

DVD drive: Samsung SH-S223L/BEBS 22X SATA Black DVD Writer Lightscribe

PSU: Corsair Professional Series Gold AX750 CMPSU-750AX 750W ATX Fully Modular
Case: Lancool PC-K60WB Black ATX Advanced Mid Tower Case 5X5.25 4X3.5INT No PS USB Audio Window
Accesories: nGear SATA Serial ATA Hard Drive Data Cable 18 Inch 7 Pin

Monitor: Samsung P2570 24.6IN Widescreen LCD Monitor 1920X1080 2MS 16:9 70000:1DC HDMI DVI-I
Keyboard: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
Mouse: Coolermaster Sentinel Advance Twin Laser Gaming Mouse 8 Buttons 5600DPI USB with Adjustable Lighting

Get the Corsair HX850 for overhead in case you want to CF your 5870.

[shaddix]

full tower case!