Good PC? Then Why Am I Lagging? Help!

Hey there. 

Recently I had decide to come back to FFXI (after FFXIV disappointment). Thinking it would run better, I had decided to buy the PC version rather than play the 350 version I already owned. 

Though it looks considerably better than the 360 version, I get a lot more lag on the PC. I find it strange because I feel with my PC I shouldn't be getting this much lag. It's mostly in higher populated areas, Jeuno and WG. But what irritates me is when I am running (anywhere really) I can "feel" the lag. I feel like I'm not running as fast as I should, sometimes I'll run more quickly for a second or two then I'll go back to running slowly. I feel like there is a "resistance". I apologize if I sound crazy, so I hope you know what I mean there. 

I also need to point out that I can run FFXIV in high (without ambient occlusion) on 1680x1050 without any lag. Not even in populated areas, it runs great. Is it odd that FFXIV runs better on my PC than FFXI?

Anyways, here is my DXdiag. I really hope someone can help.

System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100608-0458)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: GN553AA-ABA m9040n
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q6600  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3326MB RAM
 Page File: 774MB used, 6116MB available
 DirectX Version: DirectX 10

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 460
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 2146 MB
Dedicated Memory: 738 MB
Shared Memory: 1407 MB
Current Mode: 1680 x 1050 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll,nvwgf2um.dll,nvwgf2um.dll
Driver Version: 8.17.0012.5896 (English)
DDI Version: 10.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 7/10/2010 05:37:00, 9818728 bytes
     

frames, ffxi frame settings match your current ones on your new pc?
that can cause lag too. lot's of simple things can actually.

Old game, newer hardware, newer software and newer drivers. Computers are changing, they are made to do things differently and FFXI is a game that focuses most of the work on the processor, and at that, only a single processor.

Best bet is probably to experiment with various drivers and settings and see what happens. Certain combinations work and some don't. You may find some people who have similar hardware who were able to get it to work and they can show you what they did or what is different.

And well... Vista...

You can try a older driver version first to see if that works, however, the version that is supposed to work with ffxi is a really old one.

64 bit
http://downloads.guru3d.com/ForceWare-175.16-Vista-64-bit-WHQL-download-1921.html

32
http://downloads.guru3d.com/ForceWare-175.16-Vista-32-bit-WHQL-download-1920.html

Remove your current drivers and try those out. If it doesn't work, reinstall your current drivers. Also, I see you have your system to share memory with your video card. That kinda sucks the resources since PC RAM is shitty in comparison to Vid card RAM.

The only thing I've found with this is when you have a browser open at the same time you're playing. If you have the main page of ffxiah.com open while playing for example, your pc can lag exactly like you're describing. Any page other than the main page seems to be fine but the playonline news section on the main page loading news updates has been causing lag for myself and my friend. As soon as we didn't have the main page open while playing, problem free! :)

I thought I would let you know about that as in both cases we were looking for a solution in an area that didn't have a problem to begin with (pc specs etc.). I hope this solves your similar issue, if not, I hope you find the problem asap as lag with those specs is surprising to me. Have a good day :D.

It's worth pointing out that lag, and a bad framerate, are too completely different things.

Idk my comp has similar specs to yours and I can run 2 ffxis fine unless I'm trying to run ffxiv at the same time too lol

There are other drivers in between the ones I posted, and the ones you currently have. So just try out the ones with the WHQL in the name. Those are official and recognized by windows to be official drivers.

I hate using windows update for drivers. I've had problems with them. Like getting rid of ones that work fine and replacing them with ones that don't at all...

Upgrading to 7, or downgrading to XP would help lol.

Yeah, do not use the windows update system, just check out the ones I posted, or try some that are in between like I said. But first try those :o

The Nvidia 400's have issues with Final Fantasy XIV and XI for some reason, you could try the 260.63's, but anything older for the 400's don't seem to run FFXI well.

It's an 'up'grade either way really...

Has nothing to do with his OS etc etc

It's the GT400 series cards, they have a hard time with DX7/8 games (Which FF XI happens to be a mishmash of 7, 8 and 9 lol) I have 2 470s in SLI and can't run XI at anything better then 10FPS. Had to pop in my old 8800 GTS to play XI.

There are new beta drivers out that /may/ fix this, but I have not tried them out yet.

These are the latest drivers for Nvidia.
64 bit
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-260.63-Win-Vista-%7C-7-(64-bit)-download-2618.html

32 bit
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Forceware-260.63-Win-Vista-%7C-7-(32-bit)-download-2617.html

These guys

32-bit Beta drivers

64-bit Beta drivers

From the release notes:

Improves compatibility for older PC games (DirectX 7 to DirectX 9) running on Windows 7 (examples: Gothic, Gothic II, Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, Links 2003, Independence War II - Edge of Chaos, and X2: Wolverine's Revenge).

Doesn't specifically list FFXI though, which is why I'm not sure if they work and haven't tried them.

Thanks for the replies. It's definitely appreciated.

Ok. So I'll play around with drivers tomorrow and see how that goes. Though I can't say I'm looking forward to it. I hate messing with drivers.

Is there a way to not share my RAM with my video card? Is sharing RAM a bad thing?

As for the solution about running the website in the background. Is this assuming I am playing in windowed mode? I am playing in fullscreen. But I will definitely give that a look-see.

Right now, I do have my background resolution in the game set to twice my screen resolution size (which I was told would cause multisampling and make the game look beautiful. Which it does). And I also have textures uncompressed. My goal was to make the game look as nice as possible because I assumed my computer could handle it (again, FFXIV looks and runs great). But as you might be able to tell though, I'm not too computer smart.

What concerns me though is I have heard there is a different client
that is more compatible for Windows Vista? I'd assume that's the client I am running as I bought the Ultimate Collection (the most recent retail client?) from D2D last week. I'm hoping I am right because if not I would have to reinstall. And obviously that is a last resort (yay patching).

I need to also point out that I am connected to the Internet through a wired connection to a router (I'm not using wireless). But that has never effected me before in any MMO (AoC, Lotro, WoW and FFXIV included). And like I said, I don't have this problem on my 360.

Anyways, your quick responses are greatly appreciated. Obviously if I cant fix it I will just play on my 360 or just deal with it. But I'd rather not, haha.

Thanks again guys.

Hmm the drivers seem to work great for FPS... but windower seems to have broke, gonna reset and see if that fixes it.

@Firewall- Do those drivers exist for Vista? I'd look myself but again, in bed on my iPod. Lol

Also, I really wish I could upgrade to 7 or downgrade to XP. But I am broke. Christmas is coming though! Haha.

My GTX 460, even with the supposed "fix" still has ***framerate. Got two PCI Ex 2.0 slots on your mobo? Just put in an old video card, this game is not that intensive~

If that didn't work, try one of the older drivers I posted.

It's an issue with all the 400 series drivers. There's a huge thread on nvidia forums about it.

None of the old drivers I tried ever worked, and since so many others have reported this issue I'm inclined to believe none do.

Yeah, I have read about this issue as well. *** Nvidia slacks so bad with their drivers =/

FFXI works best with 8.1 FOR ATI video card so :) i think the same you should use a less video card they don't update that for anything :( for ffxi i alway had 8.1version with me then other one just to play a better this year type game.

Err...

If you're using an SLI capable motherboard, make sure that it has more than just 16 PCI-E lanes and/or have no other GPU connected and it's setup to allocate all 16 lanes of PCI-Express to your graphics card.

I am aware that recent motherboards may offer 16x on both slots at the same time but check for 16x PCI-E being enabled is something you might want to check.

Try this tool to see how your GPU is communicating at 16x with the rest of the system:
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

If you can run the game while it's windowed you can also use that tool to monitor the graphics subsystem performance. Including heat and power consumption.

It might lag slightly more with it running but it will give you a good view of what's going on with your GPU while you are playing.

It's important to mention that FFXI and FFXIV do render the bulk of their graphics on the CPU and GPU is only used on final passes of the rendering to apply effecs so most time FFXIV will never get past 30% of GPU processing use on, for example the GTX280 card I'm currently using.

I know that the GTX280 card has no problems with FFXI or FFXIV but I'm just mentioning as I mean to say that poor configuration of the PCI Express bus might put the GPU in a poor performance situation with certain motherboards (operating at 8x PCI-E without being able to enable/use SLI)...

So when I was testing SLI on my system I had poorer performance with FFXI/FFXIV because it was using single card and it was using only 8 PCI-E lanes to communicate with it.

it's windows vista, switch to windows 7 asap, i had the same issue

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/14748/poor-game-performancelow-frame-rate-lagging-effe#886118

I just wanted wanted to let everyone know that these drivers completely fixed my problems. Now the game looks and runs beautifully! Thanks for the help :)

Yeah... it fixed the FPS problems. Now it just randomly freezes my computer :x
There doesn't seem to be a reasonable solution aside from just dealing with the low frame-rate. That means I can't do Campaign or anything else that requires more than 3 or 4 people.
With the old drivers the frame rate was so low, I couldn't do a 6 person party in the Dunes.

Anyone know if at Geforce 9800 GT will have this same problem? If not, I'm just considering reinstalling my old card.

I am getting sick of people blaming vista for every *** thing god damn