FFXI & Intel HD5500 GPU

Hello everyone,

Just bought an HP spectre x360 laptop, which comes with an I7, 8Gb DDR3, 128Gb SSD and Intel HD 5500 GPU.

I'm getting really low FPS, even with min settings. I've tried some drivers with no luck.

Anyone with similar issues?? Thanks!

I've observed that with the HD4000 in my Surface Pro as well. Far as I know, it's either an issue with Intel drivers in 8.1, or some other issue with older DirectX versions in 8.1 (for example), or a combination of that. I haven't seen a true fix.

The GPU itself should be more than adequate, and similarly-dated games (UT2k4 for instance) run great - though that has a DX9 native renderer to use.

Thanks for your fast answer! So, it's a Win 8.1 issue? Installing Win7 would fix that?

Problem is, im not sure there are drivers for Win7 AND I guess is not made for touchscreen laptops...

Any other possibly fix without installing Win7?

Thanks!

I haven't tried Windows 7 to fix it, and have similar concerns regarding driver support/etc. Plus, for me anyway, I bought the Surface to draw on, and running FFXI to the extent I can log in for points or whatever if I go out of town for the weekend is fine. It just runs like crap is all.

Similarly though, I haven't tried Windows 10, which also may fix things (or make new problems).

If it works fine in a VM, that'd probably be the way to go.

When you say "min settings", have you tried the following?

There's more info here.

Inside FFXI config:
Turn ON mip mapping
Try a lower screen resolution
Try a background resolution of 512 x 512
Environmental Animation OFF
Bump Mapping OFF
Texture Compression HIGH
On-Screen Maps COMPRESSED
Under Misc, Enable hardware mouse cursor and check Graphics Stabilization.

supersampling OFF

Intel HD graphics settings.
Disable any kind of Antialiasing (AA) or Anisotrophic Filtering in your GPU settings. (if turned on)

In game, Config > Misc. Misc. 2, etc.
Turn Shadows OFF,
Weather OFF,
Footsteps OFF,
Animation Frame Rate should be Max.
Make sure your Background Aspect Ratio is appropirately sized for your screen resolution
If needed, lower the amount of character models displayed.

From my experience ffxi has a ton of issues with intel gpus. I have a HD 3000 and for a couple of years the newest drivers were incompatible with the game. Had to downgrade the drivers to a version that worked. Fortunately, current ones work also.
You might try to insist on other\outdated drivers.

An other thing that helped me is to prioritize the gpu performance on the energy settings, when the computer is plugged.

I have a way inferior laptop and the game goes (more or less) smoothly at a config that is not close to the minimum. Yours should be able to move it easily.

Thanks both for your answers, the problem is that I cannot downgrade the drivers because the GPU is new, and since the release there's been only 2 drivers...

Trying to install driver from another GPU (ie HD4000) but it's nearly impossible... Running out of ideas :S

Newer architecture doesn't like older versions of directx. It's not an issue with the capability of the GPU or windows 8.1, the problem is ffxi. You can try installing a legacy version of directx or use a virtual machine like others do.

Thanks but, what you mean by installing a legacy version of directx? How can I do that?

There are versions of directx 8 available online, it's not the route I'd take, though.

I know others have had luck with the wddm drivers, maybe take a looksee around, also the game works great in a win7 VM, vmware player should suffice (there's a free version) I throw each of my VMs 2GB of ram (overkill I know, but I have 32).

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/search?keyword=Intel%C2%AE+HD+Graphics+5500+for+5th+Generation+Intel%C2%AE+Core%E2%84%A2+Processors

is the intel driver download page, give it a whirl?

As for directx, here's the full package:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

However I believe that's the winxp/vista/7 one, but it's worth a shot, make a restore point before you change anything, that way you can always revert.

yes, I keep the directx redistributable package bookmarked, don't ask.

Is there multiple internet users where you live? Could it be just slow internet causing it? I know some people who play this game that when family members or w/e use internet in other places in house it makes them lag. Happens a lot in EU it seems at least from what I have seen/heard from others. If its a new computer it should not be the graphics card but I guess depends on how good of a graphics card is installed. I play with windows 7, and the lag is minimum (if I lag it is usually server related).

It's the Intel integrated GPU. There isn't a real GPU inside your device, it's a low power extremely limited graphics processor that's barely more then a frame buffer. To further complicate the matter FFXI is a DX8 game that modern OS's use a wrapper to render with DX9 since, that alone cause's all sorts of issues.

Honestly there isn't much you can do if turning shadows off and setting background resolution to 512x512 doesn't fix.

I know the GPU isn't a powerhouse, but I can play GTA V on lowest settings at 25-30fps, same for FFXIV.

So definately I should be able to play XI... Thanks everyone for helping, i'll try to uninstall the current directx then install the 8.

Won't be possible, there are no DirectX 8 binaries for newer versions of Windows. DX8 has been gone for a long time and is emulated by DX9 which then is interpreted and translated into DX11 by your graphics drivers. ATI (now AMD) and nVidia both have fairly decent DX9 compatibility layers built into their drivers and so can handle older Direct 3D language. On the other hand Intel's compatibility layer is very hit or miss which is why I never recommend anyone use just an Intel iGPU for playing FFXI regardless of what other games it can play.

I have had directx issues with FFXI several times. I have a WoTG collection disc and it has a directx setup (can't remember which but must be 8). I used that setup to fix the issue every time while the system (windows 7) was actually using DX11 (didn't need to uninstall it). Difference is this was on an nvidia gpu so can't say for sure whether it would help with an intel one. I am not that tech savvy, but I would say give it a try. You should be able to grab a dx8 setup somewhere.

Here is the FFXI Direct X 9.0c binary

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9033

There is nothing else OS wise you can use, Intel iGPU's just have very poor support for previous DirectX versions.

Thanks for the link, but as you said, it changes nothing...

I cannot even downgrade to win7 since there's no AHCI compatible drivers yet for the 9 series chipset, im fkcd :S

People have had this issue before with intel integrated gpus, here's one of the threads:

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/40556/windows-8-and-ffxi/

if that still doesn't work, use vmware player and throw a win7 vm together, just install the tools and you get direct3d acceleration, and you'll be fine.