FFXIV Dawntrail benchmark and graphical updates

[porina]

 

I know there's more than a few FFXIV players here. It has been announced the Dawntrail stand alone benchmark will drop tomorrow (14 April), 7AM UTC, midnight PDT.

 

I'll jump to the most interesting technical update: support for FSR and DLSS!

 

 

FSR 1.0 will be the default option. User has a slider for 50% to 100% render scale.

 

 

There is an option for dynamic resolution. In the above screenshot the dynamic resolution setting, while not selected, shows it could be active when below 60 fps. Be interesting what other options are there as they weren't shown.

 

If DLSS2 is selected, the game takes over resolution scaling and dynamic resolution. I'm not sure about this and static user settings outside of dynamic resolution would have been nice.

 

Dumb upscaling has the potential to look horrible for a game like this, but I expect they do it right. Only the 3D parts of the world should be upscaled (characters, NPCs, monsters, the world itself) and not UI related parts (e.g. name indicators). 

 

The benchmark usually exposes the same graphical settings as the game, so it should be possible to test some things out once it is released. I was originally thinking it'll be a simple comparison vs Endwalker benchmark, but this could get a lot more involved as it becomes a bigger quality vs performance tradeoff that wont be static if dynamic resolution is used.

 

A reminder of the updated requirements from the graphical update:

 

 

[porina]

CPU	GPU	Ram	Res	Preset	Average	Minimum
7980XE	3070	3x 16GB 2R 2133	1440p	Max	77.6	33
11700k	4070	2x 8GB 2R 3200	2160p	Max	89.4	62
11700k	4070	2x 8GB 2R 3200	1080p	Max	195.7	81
5800H	3070 Laptop	2x 16GB 2R 3200	1080p	Max	126.4	60
7940X	1080Ti	4x 8GB 1R 2133	1080p	Max	120.8	45
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	720p	High Desktop	93.2	42
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	720p	Max	87.7	39
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	1080p	Max	47.4	26
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	1080p	High Desktop	53.3	31
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	1080p	Standard Desktop	95.6	45
5775C	980 Ti	2x 8GB 2R 2400	1080p	Max	99.0	57
5775C	980 Ti	2x 8GB 2R 2400	1440p	Max	65.3	38

 

I've done some runs on Endwalker benchmark which will serve as a reference. Note these are single runs. I didn't repeat them to check stability.

 

I'm debating what testing to do, on which systems. I guess the first question is, what sort of results do I get under comparable settings on Dawntrail benchmark. The Endwalker "recommended" GPU is now the Dawntrail "minimum" GPU. CPU requirements have also been uplifted but it is a lot less clear there.

 

Note the A380 is technically under DT's minimum, with the minimum 970 being about 20% faster. The 5775C CPU is also below minimum although my gut feeling is it'll be fine. I also have a 1650 somewhere that's close to the A380, but I'm out of systems to put it in.

 

Certainly trying dynamic resolution scaling will be interesting especially on the lower end GPUs, and harder to quantify what the graphics quality impact is. I should dust off my capture device.

 

Edit: I found a problem with my 7980XE/3070 system. I ran the bench at 1080p so I have 1080p results for all systems. It gave almost identical results to 1440p. Repeatable. Looked at CPU usage. Thread 3 was stuck at 100%. That core wasn't boosting in clock either. Dunno what to do from here on that system specifically. I'm running the actual game right now. Guess what? Thread 3 is 100%! I'm wondering if this is a system thing I can tinker with somehow.

[porina]

					EW		DT
CPU	GPU	Ram	Res	Preset	Average	Minimum	Average	Minimum	Ratio
11700k	4070	2x 8GB 2R 3200	2160p	Max	89.4	62	63.1	38	0.71
11700k	4070	2x 8GB 2R 3200	1080p	Max	195.7	81	169.5	76	0.87
5800H	3070 Laptop	2x 16GB 2R 3200	1080p	Max	126.4	60	107.3	55	0.85
7940X	1080Ti	4x 8GB 1R 2133	1080p	Max	120.8	45	102.1	42	0.85
5775C	980 Ti	2x 8GB 2R 2400	1440p	Max	65.3	38	42.4	22	0.65
5775C	980 Ti	2x 8GB 2R 2400	1080p	Max	99	57	66.6	35	0.67
5775C	980 Ti	2x 8GB 2R 2400	720p	Max	134.1	55	107	52	0.80
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	720p	High Desktop DR off	93.2	42	65.1	34	0.70
12100F	A380	2x 4GB 1R 3200	720p	Max	87.7	39	54.3	29	0.62

 

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/benchmark/download/

Benchmark is up. Above are my initial results. I'm withdrawing my 7980XE system results because it is hard CPU limiting for some reason, which I'm not seeing on other systems. At an initial glance perhaps there's ball park 30% average fps drop between Endwalker and Dawntrail benchmarks where the system is more GPU limited. I think at the higher fps it is more CPU limited so the apparent drop is lower.

 

On the 7980XE I'm still seeing thread 3 still getting maxed out. I tried turning on XMP (it was off for other reasons) and messing around with Windows power plans but they had no significant impact.

[Exorion]

Please Labs team, add this benchmark to your roster !