SO ive checked out the benchmark and have the score from that as was run on high res settings. So i am hoping to maybe get some advice from others currently perhaps in beta to get an idea on what ill need to do to gain smooth gameplay, i dont need to max settings etc obviously just looking to where i can have an enjoyable experience without having to really down to many settings.

on high res settings on the benchmark my machine only scored around 1952, when i look at the list on the official page with the benchmark scores i was rather depressed, going just by that i wont really be doign to well come launch as it stands.

My system has a 4890 ati card, 4gigs of ram, win7 64 bit,  an AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz for a cpu.  I have price checked a couple of 5850's i liked the looks of and may consider picking up as a gpu upgrade.

The consensus is that the benchmark is grossly overdemanding. Your current set up will allow you to play the game with graphic options at about medium.

That's according to minimum requirements found here: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/#/about/game_info

The 5850 will definitely give you a sizable boost. Another 2 gig stick or two of ram wouldn't hurt any either. Anything beyond that and you're looking at switching to a new socket series.

Originally posted by DeViLmAn0

SO ive checked out the benchmark and have the score from that as was run on high res settings. So i am hoping to maybe get some advice from others currently perhaps in beta to get an idea on what ill need to do to gain smooth gameplay, i dont need to max settings etc obviously just looking to where i can have an enjoyable experience without having to really down to many settings.

on high res settings on the benchmark my machine only scored around 1952, when i look at the list on the official page with the benchmark scores i was rather depressed, going just by that i wont really be doign to well come launch as it stands.

My system has a 4890 ati card, 4gigs of ram, win7 64 bit,  an AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz for a cpu.  I have price checked a couple of 5850's i liked the looks of and may consider picking up as a gpu upgrade.

well to start i would pick up a new cpu, if your motherboard can use the newer phenom 2 quad cores grab one you can afford.

if your mobo can't use the newer stuff you should think about upgrading mobo and cpu together

I did a little write up about some things to look for when upgrading a motherboard so  you can check it out here.  I tend to get the higher end upgrades to last me longer but it hurts my wallet lol

conclusion:

if you can upgrade to a phenom II quad - do that because your cpu is a big bottleneck

you can't go wrong with a Core i5 or i7 but you will need to spend extra to get a mobo and prolly some ram

I agree that the benchmark has some problems.

I think your system should play FF at reasonable settings without too much difficulty.  Your computer is not that bad at all.

In any case, if I were you, I'd wait until the game is actually released.  Try playing it and if you're not happy with the performance, upgrade.  It's still months ago and prices could drop some more.

I had thought i had read somewhere that the benchmark was a bit.. strict lol  so i figured id ask around here and get word from some players. Ive found one or two 5850's that ive wishlisted through newegg as well as a triple core and quad core cpu, but i chose those based off wha tmy current MOBO could handle, which is only up to 95w cpus. I was mainly looking for minimal upgrade required atm unless i have no choice.  my psu should be good for a bit as its a pretty solid 750w psu.

May be a good idea to see how it goes at launch and try to plan an upgrade from there. Being unemployed its a bit challenging setting $ aside for part ugprades but maybe ill do that so when it launhes i can test, then if i feel i want a boost i wont have to wait to long. Will be a shame if i cant take advantage of my pre order time lol

Honestly, just wait and see.. I mean upgrading ahead when you might be able to run the game just fine with your current setup would just make you feel like a dumbass anyway. And I'm sure when the lowend computer owners get their hands on FFXIV there's bound to be some tweaks etc coming up.

That being said, I couldn't even run the benchmark on my computer so I'm gonna have to buy a spanking new machine for FFXIV, can't say that I haven't been thinking about it though, haha (8 years old but still running) :).

Grab a 5850 and overclock it past a 5870 :P

Beyond that, the next biggest upgrade would be to get a new mobo/CPU and grab a Core i7 920 and OC that to 4GHz.

I would just say upgrade RAM to 6-8 gigs as one of the other guys suggested, CPU if you can upgrade as well. But that is just me I have 8Gigs of RAM, a 9850 black eddition GTX 275 Nvidia running in my system and while my score was not that high I think I will wait and see what I get when the game comes out.

Being that my mobo wont go past 95w cpus chances are for anything better i will need a new mobo to even consider a new cpu.  With cpus would a triple core one be sufficient? im not looking for like insane cpu performance here or ne thing and i build my rigs to last but usually off a bit of a budget, thus ill also go for another amd cpu. Ive had 0 cpu trouble out of my last 2 rigs that used amd so im pretty content there. i am considering 5850 though i imagine id enjoy it quite a bit if i got one. im still just lightly browsing and wishlisting a few parts. tempted to try to get some of them before FF14 launches, or at least set the money aside..

choices choices.

appreciate the input thus far though everyone, thank u all

I'd like some info as well. I have a Q6600 2.4, 4GB ram,Nvidia 8800GT Pre-Overlocked Edition and Windows 7 64-bit. My score on low settings is 3100. I could OC my CPU to 3.0 and that a lone got my score up to 3400. My question is if I keep my CPU overclocked are temps of 60-70 okay because that's what I was getting when I ran the benchmark....I also heard it's safe to OC the CPU with a stock fan just as long as I don't go over 3.0. Next quest is "if" I was to upgrade something else should I upgrade my video card and get a GTX 260 or a SSD hard drive and which would up my score more than the other. Btw I have a 7200 sata 500gb which windows scores at a 5.9. 

Get a better heatsink/fan for that beast - no need to liquid cool. I would say OC your CPU and upgrade the vid card to a 5850 or something (I'm a fan of the 5850 due to price/HUGE overclocking gains). 6-70 isnt BAD for a CPU but I personally dont like to go past 60 as 70 is where you start creeping towards trouble.

That said, if you upgrade your video card, overclocking your CPU to 3GHz might be necessary to prevent it from bottlenecking performance too much.

My system seems to be holding up fairly well, currently running Gigabyte Ma790xU4DP mobo, XfX ati 5770 o/ced (crossfiring before relase) amd phenom x2 955 black edition o/ced to 3.9ghz, 4 gigs Gskill 1066 ram .Im curious if the crossfire will help me enough or if my system may be facing a bottleneck issue. I would prefer to run the game at the high settings ( not neccesarirly max).

I play in the beta i use a hd 4890 OC 1000/1050 and a little intel core i5 750 2.67ghz, 4gig ddr3 ram and I run it on '' high '' in all but shadows and vegetation details ( cant see the difference anyway ) in 1440x900. i only get small lag in crowded area the game looks fantastic too.

p.s i scored 3890points on the low resolution in the benchmark.

I allready can see it happen.... those people that say the benchmark is inaccurate (Without even having access to the game) will be the first ones to complain they have graphical lag and then blame it on the developers.

From beta leaks i have learned that the benchmark and descriptions  is pretty accurate espescially when you wan to play the game without any lag. 

Sp please everyone that says that the benchscores are inaccurate back this up with facts.

I still say that people shouldn't jump the gun and upgrade for this game until after they have it installed. If it doesn't run satisfactorily then they should upgrade. If they are using FFXIV as an excuse to upgrade then so be it, but I still would not advise upgrading soley based on the benchmark and the word of "beta leakers."

Originally posted by mrcalhou

I still say that people shouldn't jump the gun and upgrade for this game until after they have it installed. If it doesn't run satisfactorily then they should upgrade. If they are using FFXIV as an excuse to upgrade then so be it, but I still would not advise upgrading soley based on the benchmark and the word of "beta leakers."

Undestandable, im really not so much looking to jump the gun as really just getting the view of current players that may be in the beta as well as other gamers in general familliar with performance of certain gpus, etc. Being that i dont really have normal income right now jumping the gun to buy parts may not be the wisest thing. Which is why i browse around newegg, and wishlist potential parts. I am guilty somewhat of considering a bit of an upgrade specifically for FF14, but thats because i have high hopes of its potential and already love what ive seen of it so far.. Plus ive noticed i tend to come around wanting a bit of an upgrade every couple of years or so which seems to be the same timeframe as FF14's launch haha.

I know with what i plan on being willing to spend for upgrades i wont have 'lag free' gameplay but thats fine, besides its an mmo, just because a system can run other high end graphic intensive games with no lag its a bit different when u consider mmos arent single player games.. at least thats my uneduacated view. either way, getting assorted input like this does help get ideas of what types of things to consider for upgrades

My post was meant to be directed at Lord.Baccus, I didn't mean to call you out specifically (as I didn't read any of the thread besides that post). ^_^

I'm just holding out hope that they can make FFXIV run decently on somewhat older computers. I'm using a laptop with a 8600M GS, that I bought back in 08 with some Pell grant money I got. This laptop has been able to run any game I throw it. I can understand Square making FFXIV with a look to the future, but I think it's foolhardy to do so at the expense of now.

Originally posted by DeViLmAn0

SO ive checked out the benchmark and have the score from that as was run on high res settings. So i am hoping to maybe get some advice from others currently perhaps in beta to get an idea on what ill need to do to gain smooth gameplay, i dont need to max settings etc obviously just looking to where i can have an enjoyable experience without having to really down to many settings.

on high res settings on the benchmark my machine only scored around 1952, when i look at the list on the official page with the benchmark scores i was rather depressed, going just by that i wont really be doign to well come launch as it stands.

My system has a 4890 ati card, 4gigs of ram, win7 64 bit,  an AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz for a cpu.  I have price checked a couple of 5850's i liked the looks of and may consider picking up as a gpu upgrade.

 since you have win 7 64 bit it wouldn't hurt to add 4 more gigs of ram since it is so cheap anyhow. Then I would upgrade that gpu and the processor. Get at least a 3 ghz quad core or something. 

First step completed. Placed an order this morning for a new cpu. Being that i wanted to limit the amount id have to upgrade being that ive been long unemployed for a spell i wanted to avoid a mobo replacement on top of cpu and gpu. i managed to find what looks to be a very solid cpu for the price and supported by my motherboard. i will be running a fresh benchmark test once its arrived and installed.

What did you end up buying?