Final Fantasy XIV news

[C']

No, my Benchmark score for my new PC built in May was around 2000.

This is with an Intel Core i7 2.67GHz. With Rep's help I did some overclocking yesterday up to 3.8GHz and it didn't change the score one bit so we think the GPU may be bottlenecking performance. To be honest, that was expected. When we built the PC was hoping to get an Nvidia GTX 260 but they were out of stock everywhere as they were out of production as the 400 series was imminent. My plan is to get a GTX460 in the next few weeks which should improve matters immensely.

At the moment I can run the beta but need to turn off some of the advanced graphic settings (Ambient Occlusion and Depth of Field) and lower the shadow detail.

Don't think I've ever said my PC wasn't all that great mind. Consider what I spent on it (cheap GPU aside ) I hope it's pretty damn swish.

[abigsmurf]

What's the graphics card DJ?

[shafropuff]

Is it worth getting a GTX 460 over a HD 5770? The Nvidia cards seem to be much more expensive but looking at the Graphics Card Hierarchy on tomshardware.com they seem to be around the same or worse then an ATI card which is like £50 less or so... what is the big difference?

Also if I plan to later crossfire two graphics cards is it a good idea to get a PSU that can handle that now or upgrade when I actually get the second graphics card?

[abigsmurf]

The GTX 460 performs oddly on FFXIV, gets near identical performance to the 5770. I'd guess there's an issue with either the benchmark code or the drivers behind it.

Outside of FFXIV, the GTX seems to give you 30-50% higher frame rates. I would easily judge that worth a £40 premium (7% increase in overall system price for 30-50% gaming performance increase).

If you're playing 1080p you need 1gb vram, whichever you choose. You'll save money getting a higher capacity PSU now rather than buying one and replacing it. Swapping a PSU is also a PITA, there's always some connector you forget or miss.

[mikewl]

Is it worth getting a GTX 460 over a HD 5770? The Nvidia cards seem to be much more expensive but looking at the Graphics Card Hierarchy on tomshardware.com they seem to be around the same or worse then an ATI card which is like ?50 less or so... what is the big difference?

Also if I plan to later crossfire two graphics cards is it a good idea to get a PSU that can handle that now or upgrade when I actually get the second graphics card?

The GTX 460 is a good card, got one the other week and im pleased with its performance, its actually closer to the ATI 5850 so its a solid mid range card.

I've played a fair bit of FFXIV with it now and it will cope with it just fine, I have tried with the ambient occlusion and depth of field options turned on and it runs solid, though I prefer to turn them off as they don't look that good and in turn bump up the AA.

Personally the two cards I would go for would be the 460 or 5850, the ones above are too expensive for what extra performance you get.

[Rep]

It should also be noted the 400 Series drivers make FFXI near unplayable.

I wouldn't be suprised if the whole game (XIV) is poorly developed, been saying it all along.

[C']

The 400 series seem to have major performance issues with with FFXI too. Builds that should in theory be capable of running multiple instances of XI without breaking a sweat are slowing to a crawl with only a few characters on screen. Have to presume it's a major driver issue.

Whether this is related to its XIV performance I'm not sure.

[mikewl]

It should also be noted the 400 Series drivers make FFXI near unplayable.

I wouldn't be suprised if the whole game (XIV) is poorly developed, been saying it all along.

Strange that it has issues with FFXI, it runs FFXIV fine, I guess if your gonna be playing both then best to go with an ATI card.

[Rep]

Which server are you ladies playing on?

[djtickle]

Scored 1600 on the bench mark now with some driver updating and OC'ing. That will do for me until ps3 launch.

[C']

Which server are you ladies playing on?

I'm on Shadowlord.

Put a few hours into it again last night and it's all starting to click into place. It is VERY different to FFXI that coming from one to another is a major culture shock. Even how the character 'handles' under your control feels totally different. I've always played FFXI via keyboard as it felt more intuitive to me that way than with a pad but keyboard controls in this felt totally alien whereas pad felt spot on.

Apart from the early Levequests I've been mostly playing the Treasures of the Main questline which is basically an extended tutorial but does a fantastic job of introducing the different mechanics to you bit by bit.

There's a lot of instancing as well. Not just dungeons either. I had an escort quest where I actually had to go out into the field. As soon as I stepped out of the gates of Lamsa Laminsa I entered an 'instance' of the standard field map except no other players were presents and the only monsters that appeared were those relevant to the quest. Seemed really strange.

Playing as a Conjurer. Trying to avoid melee jobs in this. If it follows FFXI, being a melee job will be a major disadvantage come endgame.

[Rep]

Beta testing for FINAL FANTASY XIV will be conducted follows:

Test Schedule

Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 from 2:00 (GMT)

As of 2:00 (GMT) on Thursday, July 29, beta test servers will be online 24 hours a day. This signifies the shift to Phase 2.
Beta testers from any region will be able to log in at any time. Announcements for maintenance etc. will be posted in advance.

My update at 33% with about 4 hours to go in, taking forever.

[djtickle]

Nice update rare. I have been meaning to ask some questions you already answered.

How does the game work for EXP'ing? Also how does it work for NMs? E.g random amount of hours wait etc, or pop NM like 11.

Does it look like there is going to be alot of Solo stuff? Or could you play through it either way?

Are you guys going to be able to keep your chars from the beta? Or was it just the alpha chars that get removed.

[C']

Hmm, every time I've tried to get online since the weekend the servers have always been available so I assumed beta test had entered the 24 hour stage already.

A lot of the questions you've asked Dj is far more advanced than I've experienced really. Everything I've done so far has been solo and most of the EXP I've earned has been via quests. Not done any "grinding" at all (sheer volume of players in the starter areas means it would be near impossible anyway).

Guildleves are selected at the Faction base in the main city and you can activate multiple at a time. You then have to go out to the appropriate camp that they apply to and activate the Aetheryte. There you will be given a list of guildleves you you have chosen for that camp and can activate one to complete. At this point you are asked to select a difficult from 1-5 stars with each difficulty seeming to apply to different size player groups from 1 (solo) to 5 (alliance). Every guildleve so far has offered a solo choice but I wonder if later high level leves will be designed for groups only.

And I'm not expecting the characters to transfer from beta to full game. They did that for the Xbox 360 FFXI 'beta' but that was nothing more than a glorified demo anyway so different circumstances.

[Rep]

Does it look like there is going to be alot of Solo stuff? Or could you play through it either way?

I would imagine "Passive mode" is going to make solo (at least like XI) difficult, as a players movement speed is reduced when engaged.

The fact every XI NM has been given a resist bind and grav trait in the last 2 years doesn't help either.

Which starter area did you choose Rare? Hopefully I'll be on later.