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I've been playing it now for 6 hours on my stock i5 MBP. If you set everything on minimum, its very playable. Just make sure to run it windowed in 1280x720, set multisampling to 1, and shadow details to minimum. Turn off ambient occlusion and depth of field, and once you're ingame, turn off player shadows completely. The game still does look great, don't worry. You'll have to live with jaggies though.

I've partied with 6 people and it runs pretty good for not meeting SE's steep requirements. So if you think of playing it on the i5 MBP, good news, it does work. :p
 
I've been playing it now for 6 hours on my stock i5 MBP. If you set everything on minimum, its very playable. Just make sure to run it windowed in 1280x720, set multisampling to 1, and shadow details to minimum. Turn off ambient occlusion and depth of field, and once you're ingame, turn off player shadows completely. The game still does look great, don't worry. You'll have to live with jaggies though.

I've partied with 6 people and it runs pretty good for not meeting SE's steep requirements. So if you think of playing it on the i5 MBP, good news, it does work. :p

That is awesome! I think I have the same model as you (2.4 GHz Core i5 MBP with 4GB RAM and nvidia 330m w/256MB VRAM) and I'm very interested in playing FFXIV on it. When I first saw that the minimum FFXIV beta specs required a GPU with 512MB VRAM, I even thought of putting together the cheapest PC possible that would run FFXIV. But if it seems to run reasonably well on the base i5 MBP, that's a huge relief.
 
I felt the same as you, and wanted to buy / build some cheap gaming PC just for FFXIV. But hey, it does work on the i5, and it doesn't even stutter (yet). Just make sure to turn down / off any effects and anti-aliasing. Your MBP will last for playing FFXIV at least until the PS3 version comes out in March 2011, which will then be my main FFXIV gaming system anyway.
 
I've been playing it now for 6 hours on my stock i5 MBP. If you set everything on minimum, its very playable. Just make sure to run it windowed in 1280x720, set multisampling to 1, and shadow details to minimum. Turn off ambient occlusion and depth of field, and once you're ingame, turn off player shadows completely. The game still does look great, don't worry. You'll have to live with jaggies though.

I've partied with 6 people and it runs pretty good for not meeting SE's steep requirements. So if you think of playing it on the i5 MBP, good news, it does work. :p

Fantastic news! I am wondering though, since this game relies heavily on the GPU, and the stock i5 only has a 256mb. If this is the case then it appears it should be able run on a 13" MBP which also has a 256mb GPU, correct? Especially since a 13" MBP exceeds all other minimum requirements (The min is 2.0 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM).

Nonetheless I will still try this out, even though it ill be a pain to go through all the trouble of boot camping windows 7 just to discover the game is unplayable on that machine. I have another computer that are easily capable of running this, along with a PS3. I am trying to get this playable on my girlfriends 13", since I would love for her to try this!

Speaking of which, the Collectors Edition comes with a Buddy pass... think this is allowed to be used immediately (aka the 8 days early play :D)?
 
For what it's worth, I have the newest 13-inch MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz, nVidia GeForce 320M 256MB, 4 GB RAM, etc.) and I score a 790 on the benchmark. I was quite dissapointed as I was really looking forward to this game, but I have to ask myself if the benchmark is really that accurate.

My laptop runs Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls IV, Civilization IV, Crysis etc. all flawlessly. Even the actual benchmark video ran great for me, no lagging and great video quality. I have heard the benchmark is not terribly accurate, does anyone else have more details?
 
I don't remember exactly, but even on my MBP I only got something like 1000 points and as I said above, it runs pretty OK. I'll do the benchmark later tonight again.
 
I tried FFXIV on a MacBook Pro with 320M, and it doesn't run that good, BUT if you set the frame buffer size to "half", its pretty OK, it does have a strong impact in the visuals though. If you're really desperate in playing FFXIV, it's possible on 320M Macs.
 
so now that there is hope of this running on the macbook pro here is my question-

I have a macbook pro configured with all the extras to be damn near $3000 off the apple website and because my gf doesn't want to give it up i've felt ive had no choice but to build 2 new computers since we are both playing (i was intending for us to have a ps3 and a computer ) so my question is- if the game is playable on an i5

what is the estimate that I can expect with the :

nvidia 512mb
i7 2.66ghz ?
4gb memory

i mean it's going to kill me but if I can play at maybe slightly below medium I might hold out until march when the ps3 version launches
 
well they fixed the ati bug and now on my 2007 alu. imac 256mb card i was getting on average 15-18 fps. very much playable.

this game is still not clicking with me though. I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the very slow mage progression or the whole combat system in general.
 
well they fixed the ati bug and now on my 2007 alu. imac 256mb card i was getting on average 15-18 fps. very much playable.

this game is still not clicking with me though. I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the very slow mage progression or the whole combat system in general.

I assume you are playing the Beta, and probably played FFXI... I understand that much of the game mechanics have changed, but is it really that much different then XI? I bought the CE just to get in early, and I'd hate to be disappointed!
 
well they fixed the ati bug and now on my 2007 alu. imac 256mb card i was getting on average 15-18 fps. very much playable.

this game is still not clicking with me though. I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the very slow mage progression or the whole combat system in general.

so whats the average amount of frames you would want when playing a game, like 30 right ? do you think my 512mb nvidia will get it there ? i know im a noob but pc gaming has never really been my thing seeing as I was able to run ffxi on a radeon 64mb nicely i've never had to really worry about it, its the only game i've ever PCed for
 
I don't think that FFXIV would start on Parallels...
I highly doubt that it even runs on a 2010 MBP w/ 256 MB vRAM.

Actually despite a low benchmark score of 1,142 on low resolution the game itself runs decently well on the 2010 MBP. It's simply not AS pretty and has some minor slowdown issues mostly tied to loading.

As far as running under Parallels, it should run fine as the game is designed to require only DirectX9c. Performance is another story, but it should run decently well.

One thing people seem to forget is that back when FFXI came out 8 years ago it's performance requirements were virtually off the charts high. A high end $500+ video card and brand new system would net you in the range of ~3,600 on High Res (FFXI looks horrid at low res and I consider it to be unplayable much like the PS2 version. That's just my personal stance.) When it came out state of the art was a ~3ghz P4 and nVidia 5950 series card. It wasn't till a number of years after the game was released were systems eventually able to catch up to the game.

With that in mind the current 2010 MBP will run the current FFXI benchmark in High Res at a whopping 7693, while my 3.6ghz quad core w/ nVidia 8800GTS runs it at a blistering 10,168. That exact same quad-core system running the FFXIV benchmark barely eeks out 2,273!

The problem isn't with the cpu, but the graphics cards. In short, FFXIV is a graphics beast unlike anything seen before. FFXI was skewed differently. FFXI benefited drastically from processor bumps and to a lesser degree by video card changes. It seems FFXIV is the inverse (you still need a good recent CPU mind you). In short if you want FFXIV to run very well you're likely going to have to get a cheep PC and a really nice video card... or buy/use a PS3.

FFXI on the PS2 IMHO was unplayable because the low resolution simply lacked too much detail. You could be walking and not know what was in front of you till after it attacked you. FFXIV on the PS3 shouldn't have any such issues. Then again, you must also remember that the "Low Resolution" setting on FFXIV is 720P! This is by no means a low resolution, simply a lower resolution than the full 1080P.

In summation, FFXIV on a 2010 MBP is perfectly playable, but not quite a totally fluid experience that many would like/expect. It's ALL about the graphics card here.
 
Actually despite a low benchmark score of 1,142 on low resolution the game itself runs decently well on the 2010 MBP. It's simply not AS pretty and has some minor slowdown issues mostly tied to loading.

As far as running under Parallels, it should run fine as the game is designed to require only DirectX9c. Performance is another story, but it should run decently well.

One thing people seem to forget is that back when FFXI came out 8 years ago it's performance requirements were virtually off the charts high. A high end $500+ video card and brand new system would net you in the range of ~3,600 on High Res (FFXI looks horrid at low res and I consider it to be unplayable much like the PS2 version. That's just my personal stance.) When it came out state of the art was a ~3ghz P4 and nVidia 5950 series card. It wasn't till a number of years after the game was released were systems eventually able to catch up to the game.

With that in mind the current 2010 MBP will run the current FFXI benchmark in High Res at a whopping 7693, while my 3.6ghz quad core w/ nVidia 8800GTS runs it at a blistering 10,168. That exact same quad-core system running the FFXIV benchmark barely eeks out 2,273!

The problem isn't with the cpu, but the graphics cards. In short, FFXIV is a graphics beast unlike anything seen before. FFXI was skewed differently. FFXI benefited drastically from processor bumps and to a lesser degree by video card changes. It seems FFXIV is the inverse (you still need a good recent CPU mind you). In short if you want FFXIV to run very well you're likely going to have to get a cheep PC and a really nice video card... or buy/use a PS3.

FFXI on the PS2 IMHO was unplayable because the low resolution simply lacked too much detail. You could be walking and not know what was in front of you till after it attacked you. FFXIV on the PS3 shouldn't have any such issues. Then again, you must also remember that the "Low Resolution" setting on FFXIV is 720P! This is by no means a low resolution, simply a lower resolution than the full 1080P.

In summation, FFXIV on a 2010 MBP is perfectly playable, but not quite a totally fluid experience that many would like/expect. It's ALL about the graphics card here.


do you suspect that with the i7 and 512mb that i could attain 30fps ?... most likely im just going to build a pc...
 
I just want to see the new battle system in action. The alpha battle system was slow and irritating.

Really though, this is pretty pathetic. We haven't even started the beta testing yet, we only tested 1 city and 1 area in the alpha. So if the game comes out with bugs, which it will, do not blame the testers, because we really had nothing to test.


I will see how the beta runs on my imac before I decide to purchase this or just hold off and wait and just continue with 11.
 
what is the estimate that I can expect with the :

nvidia 512mb
i7 2.66ghz ?
4gb memory

i mean it's going to kill me but if I can play at maybe slightly below medium I might hold out until march when the ps3 version launches

You should be able to play it windowed just fine with no slowdowns.

well they fixed the ati bug and now on my 2007 alu. imac 256mb card i was getting on average 15-18 fps. very much playable.

this game is still not clicking with me though. I can't put my finger on it, maybe it's the very slow mage progression or the whole combat system in general.

Don't worry, it will get faster. I can assure you that.

I assume you are playing the Beta, and probably played FFXI... I understand that much of the game mechanics have changed, but is it really that much different then XI? I bought the CE just to get in early, and I'd hate to be disappointed!

FFXIV has like NOTHING to do with XI except character designs and enemy names.

so whats the average amount of frames you would want when playing a game, like 30 right ? do you think my 512mb nvidia will get it there ? i know im a noob but pc gaming has never really been my thing seeing as I was able to run ffxi on a radeon 64mb nicely i've never had to really worry about it, its the only game i've ever PCed for

i7 with 512 MB video RAM will run it just fine, as stated above.

FFXI on the PS2 IMHO was unplayable because the low resolution simply lacked too much detail. You could be walking and not know what was in front of you till after it attacked you.

In summation, FFXIV on a 2010 MBP is perfectly playable, but not quite a totally fluid experience that many would like/expect. It's ALL about the graphics card here.

I played XI from 2002 to 2005 on my Japanese PS2 and it was excellent. Never had a problem with it...

do you suspect that with the i7 and 512mb that i could attain 30fps ?... most likely im just going to build a pc...

Maybe not 30 in all areas, but very close to it.

I will see how the beta runs on my imac before I decide to purchase this or just hold off and wait and just continue with 11.

Well, feel free to try, the servers are now up at least for 30 days, 24/7
 
I've overclocked the 330M by quite a lot, and now it runs even better. I'm currently at work so I cannot tell you by how much exactly I oc'ed it, but it was a good chunk. Improved my FPS by 10-15 overall, so I get mainly 25 FPS all around the beta except in the city, where it dips down to 15.
 
Will the new iMac Quad-Core 2.8GHz Core i5, 4GB (two 2GB) memory and ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB verison do great running FFXIV this will be the only game i will be playing using bootcamp on this computer or will i be better off buying a ps3?
 
I've overclocked the 330M by quite a lot, and now it runs even better. I'm currently at work so I cannot tell you by how much exactly I oc'ed it, but it was a good chunk. Improved my FPS by 10-15 overall, so I get mainly 25 FPS all around the beta except in the city, where it dips down to 15.

How'd you manage to overclock? I have a geforce 8600m gt that I wouldn't mind trying to overclock.
 
Will the new iMac Quad-Core 2.8GHz Core i5, 4GB (two 2GB) memory and ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB verison do great running FFXIV this will be the only game i will be playing using bootcamp on this computer or will i be better off buying a ps3?

FFXIV will run fine on that Mac with medium to high settings.
Remember that the PS3 version will come out in March 2011 or even later.
 
Will the new iMac Quad-Core 2.8GHz Core i5, 4GB (two 2GB) memory and ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB verison do great running FFXIV this will be the only game i will be playing using bootcamp on this computer or will i be better off buying a ps3?

just ran the bench mark.

imac i7 2.93 ghz 4gb ram. got like 1700 on 1920 x 1200.

On 1280x 720 or whatever other resolution you get. the score i got was 3371.
 
FFXIV will run fine on that Mac with medium to high settings.
Remember that the PS3 version will come out in March 2011 or even later.

will it be better if i just bought a PS3 and Mac Mini then Buying the Imac? Im not really planning on going crazy with 3D animation i have a macbook pro for my hobbys the mac mini will just be on the tv in the living room to edit lil family videos and i know the mac mini cant handle FFXIV so thats where the PS3 will come in unless of course the Imac can take care of everything at top quality meaning FFXIV gameing
 
Core i7 3.6GHz + ATI 4850 scored 3900 on 1280x720. I would have ran the 1920x1200 benchmark, but because its windowed mode and I have dual screens, the very right edge ends up on my secondary monitor, which makes it run horrible.

I have a Radeon 4850X2.

The benchmark only uses one of the 2 GPUs apparently, as the first GPUs clockspeed was at 625MHz, with it running at about 65 degrees and the fan was revving up, where the second one was idling at 44 degrees, and the fan was at 10%, as well as the clock speed at 500MHz, which is the idling speed.

Is there plans to add CrossfireX support to the engine before release?

Big EDIT ---

Apparently, by a combination of using a modified DLL file for full screen placed in the games directory, as well as renaming the benchmark to 3DMark06.exe, which forces both GPUs to render it in AFR mode, I achieved much higher scores.

See below pictures for both. It would not let me screen cap in full screen. :(

img20100807222650.jpg
720p Low

img20100807222010.jpg
1080p High

I apolgize for the funny looking images, this was done on my Sony GDM-FW900, which needs to be recalibrated which I'll end up doing next week once I get paid to buy the cable.
 
will it be better if i just bought a PS3 and Mac Mini then Buying the Imac? Im not really planning on going crazy with 3D animation i have a macbook pro for my hobbys the mac mini will just be on the tv in the living room to edit lil family videos and i know the mac mini cant handle FFXIV so thats where the PS3 will come in unless of course the Imac can take care of everything at top quality meaning FFXIV gameing

Well, I'm pretty sure that FFXIV will look better on the iMac in question than on the PS3. Not to mention that you would have to wait more than half a year until the PS3 version comes out...

If I were you - I would get the iMac.
 
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