How well will this play

[cschmidt1.1]

First off I have wanted to play this since the day it came out long ago now. My first hurdle was being in Australia, games always come so much later than the US. Second was I moved out after it was released here (here I am thinking it will never come out) and I had no computer to play it on.
Now in 11 days I will have a computer that will be FFXI worthy.
Here are the specs:

CPU: P4 3.0Ghz (Would of preffered a AMD64 3500)
RAM: 1024MB running at 400Mhz
Video Card: Nvidia 6600 (I am not sure what model but I know it's not GT)

All the other bits are standard. I know it will play it but just wondering how well.
Also is it too late to start playing, I would be a complete nooby and wondering if people would tolerate it. Are there certain servers with more noobs?
And last thing is there a more Australian server. Wouldn't mind a more US populated server too, I just don't want to start this game with everyone speaking different languages, it can be a tad overwhelming .

Thanks for any input guys and girls.

**EDIT **I also have a 10Mb/s connection.

[neighbortaru]

Re: How well will this play

that should be pretty smooth for most parts of the game. problem spots might be heavily crowded zones like Lower Jeuno, Dynamis, etc. but most people have problems with those areas (unless you have a really top notch computer).

and lastly, it's never too late to play. there are new players everyday, but being in AU, you'll be stuck playing in JP times. you might have problems finding english speaking parties...

[Omni]

Re: How well will this play

That setup should be more than enough to run the game nicely.

i run a athlon 2100+ 1gb ram, radeon 9800 pro and im at max resolution. no problems.

as far as picking a server, they dont separate servers based on geographic location. so any server you land on will have its share of jp, na and eu players. you will have to play with jp players b/c they reside on all servers and often times they dont speak english. once you get into the game, learn how to use the auto translator function, it will translate items, simple phrases as well as game terms.

[kuu]

Re: How well will this play

It will play pretty well.

FFxi PC draws much of it's power from CPU, RAM, VRAM.

Graphics card can be almost anything dating 4 years back and still play well.

CPU will probably be your most limiting factor, not bad, but big "lag" zones like lower jeuno and dynamis is going to lag almost any computer.

Don't think anything won't lag that..but the new athon-fx(made for gamers that do single thread, ie.-ffxi to the dot) stuff I have never seen first hand on ffxi.

2nd issue is RAM...1 gig should be good enough to load them all. usually anything above 512 will work pretty well for ffxi.

3rd issue is VRAM. Not just playing ffxi, but having it tweaked to hi-rez, relies a lot on VRAM of the video card, rather then the power of it. FFxi makes very little use of the GPU except it's memory(for resolution).

FFxi is a very crude port, so a lot of the more fancy technologies won't even apply to it. It's almost all old fashion power. (You mention AMD64 3500...not quite the same thinking as FX line.)

[cschmidt1.1]

Re: How well will this play

Thanks for the speedy replies, good to know I shouldn't have too many problems. I also wouldn't mind a list of upgrades I could use for it to play top notch since I am now getting a good steady income.
On the server note, if it's all well rounded, is there a difference between heavily populated servers to not so populated if there is such a thing in FFXI (I am thinking back to WoW where it tells you how many people play each server), and would a nooby play better in one than the other?

[Omni]

Re: How well will this play

ffxi doesnt tell you the population of the server like wow does. so the best advice i'd have for you is, if you know anyone that plays, have them get you a world pass so you can go to their server, that way you'd know a someone that might be able to help you out sometimes. if that isnt an option, than any server will do. all have their new players, intermediate players as well as veteran players.

as far as lvling as a new player, there are always people lvling all throughout the lvl ranges. you might need help with getting the hang of things, but you will learn things fast. try to rely on sites such as somepage.com/ffxi or this one to answer questions about quests, where to buy things etc. i do notice that people in ffxi are not as helpful to new players as other games ive experienced. all and all, it isnt that hard once you have gotten over the initial discorvery phase of the game.

[Draco Dagon]

Re: How well will this play

Thanks for the speedy replies, good to know I shouldn't have too many problems. I also wouldn't mind a list of upgrades I could use for it to play top notch since I am now getting a good steady income.
On the server note, if it's all well rounded, is there a difference between heavily populated servers to not so populated if there is such a thing in FFXI (I am thinking back to WoW where it tells you how many people play each server), and would a nooby play better in one than the other?

As addressed, you cannot tell the population of each server. However, you should notice that once you create your character, it will send you most likely (not always however) to the least populated server, whether the least-populated at the moment or overall at all times, I don't know. That's assuming you don't have a character already or don't use a worldpass from a friend.

On another point, good luck whatever server you get.

Edit: And, if at any point you need help on getting anything in-game, you can always ask at the appropiate server forum here at FFXI Online. (For example, you're on Server A, so you can go to the Server A forum.)

[kuu]

Re: How well will this play

Thanks for the speedy replies, good to know I shouldn't have too many problems. I also wouldn't mind a list of upgrades I could use for it to play top notch since I am now getting a good steady income.
On the server note, if it's all well rounded, is there a difference between heavily populated servers to not so populated if there is such a thing in FFXI (I am thinking back to WoW where it tells you how many people play each server), and would a nooby play better in one than the other?

As mentioned, CPU, RAM, VRAM.

While ffxi pc port is specifically made for Intel CPU, and Nividia GPU..don't think it's that big of a deal for AMD chips...which is actually better then intel right now for gaming.

CPU: As mentioned... fancy stuff like 64bit, and duo core is not as reflective on ffxi. It will help you in things like General windows work, and multi-tasking(ie through windower, surf internet, multiple instance, etc).

Purely though, 64 line vs FX line for AMD...go for FX line(they are damn expensive though)

Though since you went Intel side...see whatever pumps out raw info faster...though Intel pretty much sided with Pent D and Duo(only on mac currently)..which are duo core, and probably suck for ffxi.

RAM: Lots of it, and faster is better.

GPU: ffxi makes little use of it. So whatever hits higher in VRAM is more sought after. 128 and up?

[cschmidt1.1]

Re: How well will this play

Ok there has been a very last minute change to the specs...drastic ones at that. Here they are:

CPU: AMD64 3200+ (socket 939)
HDD:160GB
RAM: 512MB DDR (3200) - will be upgrading to 1024MB ASAP and running in dual channel
Video card: Unfortunately a Radeon 9250 with 256MB.

Again I know it will run it and I know it will probably run a bit crappier than the previous specs but it's what I got, so will it run fairly fine? What do you think my max res could be?

My first upgrade will be the ram, then the video card (either 9800 pro, or 6600, which do you think would be better?), the cpu then the mobo.

[Coinspinner]

Re: How well will this play

I started with...

P3 850 MHz
512 MB PC133 RAM (I think)
Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
onboard sound

Which ran just fine IMO. Later I replaced that machine with...

P4 2.8 GHz
512 MB 3200 RAM (I think :p)
same video card
onboard sound again

And it made no difference, haha. :x

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: How well will this play

CPU: As mentioned... fancy stuff like 64bit, and duo core is not as reflective on ffxi. It will help you in things like General windows work, and multi-tasking(ie through windower, surf internet, multiple instance, etc).

Purely though, 64 line vs FX line for AMD...go for FX line(they are damn expensive though)

Though since you went Intel side...see whatever pumps out raw info faster...though Intel pretty much sided with Pent D and Duo(only on mac currently)..which are duo core, and probably suck for ffxi.

Dual core + 64bit wintel systems actually have mroe noticable impact on FFXI than other single-thread 32bit softwares in my experience. Not because its dual core per se, but because the processor itself is just built better and handles the information better. The 64bit... well... FFXI relies heavily on RAM, and Windows X64 has -noticably- better handling with regards to all memmory intensive programs. What little lag I had before switching from XP Professional disappeared after switching to XP x64

Certainly its not worth the differences however, if FFXI is the only reason for getting the new system. But if you have even one program that is 64bit, or can use both cores (In my case Photoshop CS2), then it might be something to consider.