Overview
These are things I tried to get a good FPS rate.
Introduction
Since you are here, you probably have serious issues with the FPS. I had that too, but now it is almost constant 60 all the time. I will list the things I tried and also tell you what worked, what didn’t. These settings were mostly found on the internet, so kudos go for those who shared them (I’m sorry, I didn’t write down any names to give them credits).
Solutions and effects
I’d like to emphasize: this solution worked for me, there is no guarantee it will work for you too. The main thing made me write this guide is that I found a lot of FPS solutions on the net, but only a few of them worked. So even those which didn’t work for me might work for you.
My rig: i7 3770K, 8GB RAM, 660 GTX Sli
This computer is capabe to run any game at a steady high FPS rate (except FF XIII…)
Quit from everything
Don’t let any programs run in the background, quit them. So no browser on the 2nd monitor, no torrent in the background, etc.
This was the solution which moved my FPS from 10-15 to 60.
Set Nvidia driver to Maximum Performance
Right click on Desktop, Nvidia Control Panel. 3D Settings –> Manage 3D Settings.
Program Settings –> Add FF XIII to the list.
Power Management Mode –> set to “Prefer maximum performance”
Note: You can also set it globally in Global Settings if you prefer it that way. I left it on Adaptive in Global settings.
Without this, the game may slow down to 45-50 FPS sometimes. It is still playable of course, but I prefer to be at 60 all the time.
Basically these 2 things helped me, nothing else. With these I have a stable 60 FPS, even with a Fraps running in the backgroud (mostly I just check the FPS with it, but I did some test captures too and the FPS stayed stable).
These things may work for other people, they didn’t work for me.
- Check driver: I had the latest (344.11) and there was no beta with some magic for this title at the time of writing this guide. UPDATE: The 344.48 driver has no changes regarding FF XIII.
- Set Global Vsync and Triple buffering On in Nvidia driver. It didn’t help at all and I don’t like to do global settings for 1 game. These are Off in my Global settings.
- Set PC power management to Max Performance on Control Panel. Again, it didn’t work and I don’t want to do overall settings because one program is unoptimized.
- Run game in windowed mode. No changes.
- Set rendering to 1 card only (I have Sli and it can cause problems sometimes when the program doesn’t support it). Didn’t help.
I hope Square Enix and/or Nvidia will do something which makes all these hacking unnecessary. Until then, I hope this helps to someone.