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I just bought a new machine recently, an eMachines T3882. I know it's the furthest thing from a gaming box, but money is tight and FFXI is not its primary purpose, just a luxury.
I'm experiencing an absolute unbearable slow down in my frame rate every time I'm near the AH in any city or around a congragation of people. Battle FPS also suffers. I'm talking 2.5-5 FPS... incredibly slow.
I dropped in a new video card and upped the RAM to 512. I changed my BIOS settings to load using the PCI slot as opposed to the built-in onboard video adapter. It had a setting for system RAM to use for the purposes of video, I have tried the minimum and maximum with no change in performance.
Allow me to go through each of the points of the sticky:
1.) You have a compatable video card, check system requirements on box.
I bought a XFX Geforce FX5200 256MB DDR PCI Video Card. I obviously would have gone AGP if I had a slot on my T3882. According to the reviews from NewEgg though, this card should be able to handle FFXI fine if it runs all those FPS games like Doom and HL smoothly. NewEgg review. This card should be compatible.
2.) You have the latest video drivers in the correct language and for the correct operating system.
After trying the most up to date drivers and experiencing this problem, I then downloaded the 56.64 Nvidia drivers as suggested by POL, here for Nvidia FX cards. I also tried downloading the Omega driver package, it did not help. At each step I uninstalled the video drivers fully using their uninstallation utilities.
3.) You have the latest version of DirectX for your computer.
Yes.
4.) You have updated Windows to the latest version with all the critical update patches installed.
I'm running XP SP2 with all critical updates.
5.) You have disabled the Windows Key either by disabling it in Windows via the registry or by prying off the windows key off the keyboard.
Yes.
6.) If you have Windows XP, you have disabled Remote Desktop.
Never even installed it.
7.) You have not installed any ad-ware or programs that causes pop-ups.
None.
8.) You have not installed/enable any remote control programs such as pcAnywhere or Terminal Services
No, I haven't.
9.) Your video card is well ventillated to provide adequate cooling.
It's running cool and I even left the case open to see if that helped, it did not.
10.) You are not infected with a worm or a virus that is affecting performance to such a degree to interfere with your ability to stay in full screen mode.
According to HijackThis, my currently running processes, and Windows performance, I am clean as a whistle.
11.) You have properly installed your video card and its contacts to the motherboard is not loose or damaged.
It's in there all right.
12.) Your AGP arpeture size is set correctly, not too large to cause video problems, but not too small to make performance suffer.
It's a PCI card. Are there arpeture sizes for PCI buses? What the hell is an arpeture anyway? Isn't that in cameras?
13.) Ensure your computer is clean.
New machine, so clean you could eat off it.
Game Settings
I have MIP mapping enabled, High texture compression, compressed on screen maps, no Environmental effects, no Bump Mapping, no sound, and I've tried every possible resolution combination. In game I have set the Clipping Plane to nothing, animation frame rate to nothing, no shadows, no footstep effects, no weather, lowest character model detail. I've turned off all Effects.
I'm a noob when it comes to Video Card settings. Nvidia has a little system tray utility that has a bunch of settings on it. Everything I could find that had a "High Perfomance" setting, I went that route as opposed to "Quality".
What kills me is that my fiance is running the game on a PIII 1.0ghz, 512 mb machine with a Ti4200 128mb and it runs great. Hell, the game ran better (before this update killed Mobility cards) on my IBM T30 with a Mobility 7000! That's 16mb of video memory for those of you playing along at home...
Is it possible that I'm suffering this much just because of the PCI card? What about all those accounts on Newegg of people loving this card for Doom3 and Half Life 2? Is it possible its not the video card?
I started running the Benchmark this morning but had to run to work before it finished. When I get home I will update this thread with my score.
I'm at my wits end, I'm open to all suggestions even the dark arts of the occult. Anything to make this game run. As you can see, I've done my due diligence with regards to the sticky. Please, help me.
Thanks in advance,
Silverwedge
I'm experiencing an absolute unbearable slow down in my frame rate every time I'm near the AH in any city or around a congragation of people. Battle FPS also suffers. I'm talking 2.5-5 FPS... incredibly slow.
I dropped in a new video card and upped the RAM to 512. I changed my BIOS settings to load using the PCI slot as opposed to the built-in onboard video adapter. It had a setting for system RAM to use for the purposes of video, I have tried the minimum and maximum with no change in performance.
Allow me to go through each of the points of the sticky:
1.) You have a compatable video card, check system requirements on box.
I bought a XFX Geforce FX5200 256MB DDR PCI Video Card. I obviously would have gone AGP if I had a slot on my T3882. According to the reviews from NewEgg though, this card should be able to handle FFXI fine if it runs all those FPS games like Doom and HL smoothly. NewEgg review. This card should be compatible.
2.) You have the latest video drivers in the correct language and for the correct operating system.
After trying the most up to date drivers and experiencing this problem, I then downloaded the 56.64 Nvidia drivers as suggested by POL, here for Nvidia FX cards. I also tried downloading the Omega driver package, it did not help. At each step I uninstalled the video drivers fully using their uninstallation utilities.
3.) You have the latest version of DirectX for your computer.
Yes.
4.) You have updated Windows to the latest version with all the critical update patches installed.
I'm running XP SP2 with all critical updates.
5.) You have disabled the Windows Key either by disabling it in Windows via the registry or by prying off the windows key off the keyboard.
Yes.
6.) If you have Windows XP, you have disabled Remote Desktop.
Never even installed it.
7.) You have not installed any ad-ware or programs that causes pop-ups.
None.
8.) You have not installed/enable any remote control programs such as pcAnywhere or Terminal Services
No, I haven't.
9.) Your video card is well ventillated to provide adequate cooling.
It's running cool and I even left the case open to see if that helped, it did not.
10.) You are not infected with a worm or a virus that is affecting performance to such a degree to interfere with your ability to stay in full screen mode.
According to HijackThis, my currently running processes, and Windows performance, I am clean as a whistle.
11.) You have properly installed your video card and its contacts to the motherboard is not loose or damaged.
It's in there all right.
12.) Your AGP arpeture size is set correctly, not too large to cause video problems, but not too small to make performance suffer.
It's a PCI card. Are there arpeture sizes for PCI buses? What the hell is an arpeture anyway? Isn't that in cameras?
13.) Ensure your computer is clean.
New machine, so clean you could eat off it.
Game Settings
I have MIP mapping enabled, High texture compression, compressed on screen maps, no Environmental effects, no Bump Mapping, no sound, and I've tried every possible resolution combination. In game I have set the Clipping Plane to nothing, animation frame rate to nothing, no shadows, no footstep effects, no weather, lowest character model detail. I've turned off all Effects.
I'm a noob when it comes to Video Card settings. Nvidia has a little system tray utility that has a bunch of settings on it. Everything I could find that had a "High Perfomance" setting, I went that route as opposed to "Quality".
What kills me is that my fiance is running the game on a PIII 1.0ghz, 512 mb machine with a Ti4200 128mb and it runs great. Hell, the game ran better (before this update killed Mobility cards) on my IBM T30 with a Mobility 7000! That's 16mb of video memory for those of you playing along at home...
Is it possible that I'm suffering this much just because of the PCI card? What about all those accounts on Newegg of people loving this card for Doom3 and Half Life 2? Is it possible its not the video card?
I started running the Benchmark this morning but had to run to work before it finished. When I get home I will update this thread with my score.
I'm at my wits end, I'm open to all suggestions even the dark arts of the occult. Anything to make this game run. As you can see, I've done my due diligence with regards to the sticky. Please, help me.
Thanks in advance,
Silverwedge
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