FFXIV & m17x CF 5870

What is the general consensus here with regard to FFXIV and the M17X? I’ve been going around in circles trying to figure out if it is worth it to go with the M17x with CF 5870s? This seems to be about the best notebook, but I keep seeing posts about how Alienware/Dell doesn’t update drivers often enough and such, but there seem to be work arounds?

I’m not looking to run at max res and actually I am looking at going with the lower res 17” @ 1440 x 900, but would like to have some features set to high. Anyone in Beta that can shed some light if maybe the M17X can handle this? I’ve been debating the CF 5870 option, but it only works in full screen. I know wow kicks you out of full screen every time you tab out and you have to go back into settings to get back to full screen, but does CF (crossfire) switch on/off that easily?

Lastly, I’m looking at the CPU, for the price, I’d rather stick with the I7 820QM @ 1.73GH. The I7 920XM @ 2GH is just so expensive.

BTW, so everyone knows why I am opting for a notebook, the wife and I both plan to play and we are in an average apartment so there is not a lot of room for two desktops in the living room. Would also be nice to do like the old days (FFXI) and have the option of heading to a friends house for a FFXIV lan party.

My current system is an ASUS G50 with a 9800m and it gets a breath taking 989 on the low FFXIV benchmark, I’m not going to post a screenshot, you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’m not even going to list the high score (hooked up an external monitor).

Anyhow, if there are any webOS Pre/Pixi users, I’m working on an app to tell time and such in FFXIV. Just look up Eorzea in the app catalog. There is also a guy working on an Android app and another messing with an iPhone version… Eorzea Clock for Android - Official Launch :: Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) :: ZAM

 

I would say, in my opinion, FFXIV is unoptimized garbage and will never run well on anything.

Their developers dont know how to optimize code and just vomit out something with some kind of semblance of a game.

The art team then works their butts off to try cover the mess with shiny graphics.

I dont think any notebook you could buy would run the game well. Especially with the issues currently experienced with the M17x, which is atm the fastest notebook available.

I would recommed getting a SFF desktop instead.

-Ash

 

I hear what you are saying about SE and their hap hazard way of optimizing, but there has to be someone in the beta who can confirm that the 5870 mobile (CF or not) will run the game fine at lower resolutions,again I'm shooting for 1440 x 900. Back in the days of FFXI, I was running 1024x768 even though there were hacks and such to make it go higher and my system could handle it higher. That size was just a sweet spot in MHO.

 

The game should def run fine on those reso's and high to Ultra settings. It really isn't that tough to run. The benchmark isn't a really good guide as to how the game will run on your system either. If you check around online you will see people with top of the line systems like 5k or more worth with all the latest hardware and OCed. They too don't score very highly, eg around 3 - 4k are the highest scored runs around so far. Once the game is out later next month then it should be seen how exactly well it runs with newer and optimised drivers further down the track.
For your situation with you and your wife the machine should perform great for FF and many other titles. Cheers.

PS/ I've run the benchmark and scored around 2500 - 3800 on my system specs.
High RES setting and low reso being the higher score.

 

Heya, i'm actually playing the Beta at the moment with Catalyst 10.7 and the game is actually playable with 20-60fps (cap@60) with forced AFR-Crossfire-Profile at 1920x1200 resolution. Note that Dual GPUs are not officialy supported yet in the Beta. I think another issue at the moment is the lack of optimized game code and driver compatibility with the ATI cards. Most of the lag i would blame on connectivity aswell, where many people are crowded in certain areas, so server stability might be an issue aswell at the moment. Though i'm not that concerned yet, that the game will not play correctly on release in a month. If they can further optimize, what we already have in Beta, then we will have a beautiful and intense MMORPG to enjoy. That's what i hope