How to improve FPS in Final Fantasy XIV (PC)
Final Fantasy XIV has come a long way since its relaunch as A Realm Reborn, but it still carries engine decisions from over a decade ago, especially in how it handles other players. With the Dawntrail expansion (2024), Square Enix genuinely overhauled the graphics side, adding improved lighting, DLSS and FSR support, and better load distribution across CPU cores. Even so, the game remains notoriously CPU-dependent in crowded social zones, where hundreds of character models with glamours, mounts, and minions compete for processor cycles. This guide helps you tell which settings actually free up FPS and which just cosmetically tweak the result. The goal is to keep things smooth whether you're at the Limsa Lominsa Markets or in a 24-player raid.
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Calculations based on our FPS model combined with the % gain of each setting (measured in public benchmarks).
1. Quick wins (no visual loss)
Start here. Each one adds a little, but together they give +65% free FPS.
Display Limit for Other Players
This is by far the game's single most important setting. It limits how many other players get rendered with their full model (armor, glamour, mount, minion) around you, replacing the rest with simplified versions or hiding them outright. At the Limsa Markets or during a mass gathering event, this is the difference between 20 and 90 FPS.
Grass Quality
Grass in outdoor zones like La Noscea or Il Mheg renders with a notable density that hits harder than it looks, especially in open Dawntrail zones like Tuliyollal. Lowering it to Low removes a good chunk of that load without the terrain looking flat or empty.
Water Quality / Reflections
Water reflections cost more than expected in coastal zones and Vylbrand, especially with Dawntrail adding larger, more detailed bodies of water. Lowering this option barely affects environment readability during combat.
Radial Blur
The radial blur that appears in certain skill and limit break animations adds nothing to gameplay and consumes resources for no real benefit. Many players disable it also for visual comfort during long fights.
Anti-Aliasing (TSCMAA)
FFXIV offers TSCMAA as its heaviest anti-aliasing solution, with several quality levels. Dropping it from its highest level to Medium smooths edges acceptably without the full cost of the top setting, especially at 1080p and 1440p.
2. Medium impact settings
Here's where most of the FPS is. Minor visual impact, major performance impact.
Shadow Quality
Dynamic shadows for characters and environment are among the engine's most expensive resources, especially in dungeon interiors with multiple light sources. Dropping from High to Medium keeps coherent ground shadows without the cost of full resolution.
Parallax Occlusion / Tessellation
This option adds simulated depth to stone and terrain textures via parallax displacement, but its cost doesn't pay off in most scenes, especially in raids with lots of floor detail. Disabling it doesn't change combat readability at all.
Character Model Quality (Self)
Unlike the other-players limit, your own model quality barely weighs anything since there's only one character to render in full detail. Keeping it high preserves your glamour's fidelity without meaningfully sacrificing FPS.
Real-time Reflections
Real-time reflections on metallic armor and polished surfaces, enhanced in Dawntrail with the new lighting system, have a notable cost on mid-range GPUs. Lowering it to Low still adds shine to materials without the performance hit of the highest setting.
Depth of Field
Depth of field blur in cutscenes and exploration has a small but constant cost, and many players find it annoying during combat since it blurs enemies at the edges of the screen. Disabling it is purely beneficial for high-level raiding.
3. Upscaling (DLSS / FSR / XeSS)
The biggest gain in the game. Compatible with almost any modern GPU.
NVIDIA DLSS
+30% FPSIntroduced alongside the Dawntrail graphics update in 2024, DLSS lets you render at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct the image with AI on RTX cards. It's especially useful at 1440p and 4K to keep high framerates in alliance raids without sacrificing too much sharpness.
AMD FSR
+22% FPSFSR also arrived with Dawntrail and works on any GPU, not just AMD, making it a valid option for systems with older NVIDIA cards or integrated GPUs. The result is somewhat less sharp than DLSS in motion, but it's still a real, noticeable FPS gain.
4. Tips by GPU
NVIDIA
- •Enable DLSS from the graphics menu after the Dawntrail update to gain extra FPS at 1440p and 4K without losing meaningful sharpness.
- •Keep Game Ready drivers updated, since Square Enix usually coordinates performance patches with major patch releases (X.0, X.1).
- •On Optimus laptops, force FFXIV to use the dedicated NVIDIA GPU from the control panel to avoid it defaulting to the iGPU.
AMD
- •Enable FSR from the system options after Dawntrail to offset performance at high resolutions, especially on mid-range cards like the RX 6000/7000 series.
- •Update to the latest Adrenalin drivers before each major patch, since they often include optimized profiles specific to FFXIV.
- •If you use an APU or integrated GPU, prioritize lowering the player limit and grass before touching resolution, since the bottleneck is usually CPU, not GPU.
Sistema
- •Install the game on an SSD (preferably NVMe) to reduce hitching from texture streaming when entering new zones or instances.
- •FFXIV benefits from CPUs with good single-thread performance in crowded social zones; a recent processor helps more there than upgrading the GPU.
- •Close third-party overlays (Discord, parsing tools like ACT) you don't actively need, since they consume CPU cycles that compete directly with the game in scenes with many players.
5. Known game issues
FPS drops at the Limsa Lominsa Markets
This is the game's quintessential social zone and also its biggest CPU stress test, with hundreds of players showing off glamours, mounts, and minions simultaneously. Even powerful hardware can drop below 30 FPS if the player limit is set to maximum.
Framerate drops in alliance raids (24 players)
Content like the Alliance Raid series combines 24 players, multiple enemies, and simultaneous area effects, saturating CPU-side entity processing even on high-end systems. The bottleneck is rarely the GPU here.
Glamour texture load stutter after Dawntrail
The increase in equipment and glamour texture fidelity introduced with Dawntrail caused noticeable microstutters when entering new zones on systems with mechanical storage or slow SATA SSDs.
Estado: Patch 7.05
6. Frequently asked questions
Why does my FPS drop so much at the Limsa Lominsa Markets if I have a powerful GPU?▾
Is it worth enabling DLSS or FSR in Final Fantasy XIV?▾
Which setting should I touch first if I get drops in 24-player raids?▾
Did Dawntrail really improve the game's performance?▾
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Calculate FPS for Final Fantasy XIV →Calculations based on consensus of technical sources and our own FPS model. More about our methodology →