Graphics Card For Modern Gaming And FFXI?

Hi folks,
I'm building a new PC and want to play some of the newer direct X 12 games that are available ...but FFXI is still on direct X 8.

Does anyone here use a modern graphics card and play FFXI at the same time?

I've generally heard that AMD R2xx/R3xx series cards are better at supporting FFXI (but might not play as WELL on some newer games). Also, the power consumption of AMD cards is a lot higher. I would prefer nVidia, but will go AMD if I can ensure I can play FFXI on highest settings..and have to tweak down my modern games. :/

Can anyone confirm nvidia GTX 960/70/80 or Titan while also playing FFXI? Do you have special or high-end graphics settings disabled?

Thank you!

GTX 980 owner here. It plays reaLLY well, with all max settings, and I can stream at the same time with no lag. I am not much into details though, some might have more specific comments/input.

Thank you sir! Excellent. Do you also use an Intel CPU? Do you run multiple instances of FFXI?

(I see lots of posts about people complaining about issues with FFXI on nVidia cards. What driver version are you using?)

Thanks again!

Running latest drivers (they update quite frenquently), on intel 6700 (non-k).

I havnt tried to dual/triple box ever since I came back to the game, but I highly doubt it would be a trouble.

GTx 970
Intel Core i5 2500k OC to 4.6GHZ

4 instance of ffxi. one of them running with 60hz enabled
run with no issues. i even do background multithreaded compression ( at low cpu priority.

if you do get issues with lag from multiple ffxi running you can install my program Project Mercury. it boost cpu priority of your foreground applications so its runs more smooth under heavy background load.
You can find it in the Tech support area of tthe forum

Cool! I guess Windows doesn't natively support CPU affinity? Is that why you built project mercury?

I am looking at some of the set rigs people have and I hope people are playing more than ffxi, some of those rigs and ffxi is like hunting mice with a bazooka. (Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't kick one of those rigs out of bed for running linux)

Anyway, lots of the more recent can handle direct x 12, you can even date back to the GTX 430, (I wouldn't personally recommend it) and run directx 12.

I have seen laptops with 680m run ff14 on high settings and no lag until the laptop overheated from the guy playing 9 hours straight.

Personally I run a GTX 760sc and can run Batman Arkham games, DBZ, Diablo 3, Tom Clancy Seige, FFXI, and FF14 at the same time with minimal lag on max settings. (Every time I load a new game I try to run everything at once.) When I run just 1 or 2 games at a time I get zero lag on max settings.

Yes my 760sc is outdated, I even considered bumping up to the 970, but the breaking point for me was why invest that much if I am not needing it. Yes the 4k reso would be nice, but that means more money to spend.

Personally to me it would boil down to how much you would like to spend and if you want that 4k or not.

Thank you, I was specifically looking at setup similar to yours (5930 X99 ITX and GTX 980 or Titan X....I want something a few years future proof :) )

Thanks again!

My Advice:

You shouldn't invest in something as expensive as Titan X at this time. Just get a GTX 980ti at most and you should be good. Or even something a little lesser like GTX 980. If you wait a few more months they will be announcing the Next Generation Pascale Technology which uses NVLink and will challenge the PCI-Express bus channel technology and exponentially surpass the expensive Titan X card. Here are some links:

Your text to link here...

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Just wait a bit more to really "Future Proof" yourself. The moment that technology is announced, Titan X may even drop in price tremendously as well. I wouldn't be surprised if you can even grab the TitanX for half the price.

All the best on your approach bro. See you in game! ^_^)y

That's mainly conjecture, though there is an issue with nVidia drivers where they can occasionally randomly crash out then recover kicking you out of the game.

But I have to ask; any would anyone ever buy an ATI/AMD Card? nVidia all the way.

A GTX 980 is good enough for all current games, get a 'Ti' to push the performance; but don't bother with one of the Titan series - the gains you'd get aren't worth the performance:dollar ratio

Every driver issue I've ever heard of with FFXI has been an Nvidia driver issue.

Also, from what I recall, FFXI's performance is primarily limited by how much of its graphics processing is actually offloaded onto the CPU. It is unfathomable that a graphics card that sells currently for more than $100 would ever be the bottleneck for FFXI. It's a PS2 game.

"Future proofing" a PC is a fool's errand. If consumer electronics follow Moore's law, then a GPU that's slightly better now will simply be slightly less completely outclassed by the next cards, while probably costing twice as much.

There is very much a price:performance sweet spot, and the 980 is very much out of it. 970s are great for the price, as they're essentially just 980s which didn't come out of the manufacturing process perfect enough to be sold as such. To put it another way, 980s are the +1 Nvidia is trying to pump out for profit and 970s are the NQ that Nvidia sells for peanuts.

As far as why people buy AMD cards, it's because they massively outclass Nvidia in price for performance. Multi-card AMD setups won't beat a multi-card Nvidia setup, but they can sure beat a single-card Nvidia for less money.

For me, I find that I have the complete opposite experience as everyone else in regards to Nvidia drivers. They've been crap for the games I play (even if they're advertised on the box) and have only gotten worse over time.

When everyone thinks performance, they're looking for most FPS on a high resolution. For me, I need most consistent FPS while not crashing, throwing artifacts my way and least amount of input lag while I practice. Basically, I need my games to be as "arcade-perfect" as possible without any worries.

ATI/AMD drivers have been the most consistent for my games while also being much better on FFXI. Nvidia throws too many bells and whistles in that cause problems for me and cause new problems when I turn them off. There's no point in me having <1 frame input lag monitors and TVs if my graphics card is throwing lag at me.

Running multiple instances of FFXI on a 960 here without any issues whatsoever.



I'm not sure Moore's Law even applies anymore, not to the casual gamer anyway. Take a look at how small the gains were for Intel's 6th generation/Skylake chips as compared to previous generations. Unless you're the type of person that absolutely needs to have the latest and greatest technology, in which case you'll be spending $1000+ per graphics card, there's nothing wrong with future proofing your PC so you can get a few good, worry-free years using the same system. My i7 920 lasted me a good six years and it still performs well.



That's silly, neither company wins consistently in a price to performance ratio. They both have their pros and cons, though you wouldn't know it by the market share numbers.

Windows support natively CPU affinity but you have to set it manually. same as with cpu priority.

Some program adjust their own priority but a lot don't, which is why i made Project mercury as it basically just keeps an eye out for what you are doing and making sure what you are doing in the current moment is getting the higher priority and thereby reducing lag experience from any background task.

Oh and also, PlayOnline now has no characters. Everything that is supposed to have test on PoL is gone.

Failure to follow directions for applying dgVoodoo2.