FFXI - Game stutter on character load with HD4850Follow

hi, I've got a question, maybe a possible problem with FFXI.

I've played the game for quite some time on the same setup, and everything seemed fine. Recently, I upgraded my graphics card however,from a GeForce 7600GS to a shiny new Radeon HD4850 and it runs great... for other games at least.

Here's my specs.

WinXP Professional SP3
2GB DDR2 RAM
AMD Athlon64 X2 4600+ 2.4Ghz
Radeon HD4850 512MB PCI-Express (running Catalyst 8.10 hotfix)


Other than the card, nothing has changed in my machine, although I also upgraded my internet connection to a higher speed of DSL, though the same provider (Qwest)

Anyways, going and checking the various performance boosts I received on my games, I came back to FFXI and noticed something a bit odd.

For the most part, the game runs smooth as slik. However, whenever character models load (typically players), I notice a very slight, split-second stutter in the game as they appear. After they've loaded, it's fine, but it gets incredibly noticeable in areas like the Whitegate AH where a lot of players are loading one by one. I don't remember if I got this on the old card, but the game didn't run perfectly smooth with that either.

Does anyone else get this? I haven't noticed any other stuttering type behavior, only on character loading, most noticeable when moving or panning the camera. My hard drive was defragged yesterday, no viruses or malware found, all windows updates installed, AMD's Dual Core Optimizer installed, pretty much everything I can do to squeeze as much performance out of my machine without overclocking. No other games seem to exhibit anything unusual like this. Also, FFXI's ports are all forwared properly.

I could try putting the old card back in while I still have it for the sake of diagnostics, but I don't plan on keeping it in there if the current card is the problem. I might make it aware to ATI if it is though.

Edited, Oct 25th 2008 5:07pm by JediKitsune

Edited, Oct 25th 2008 5:07pm by JediKitsune

Edited, Oct 25th 2008 5:07pm by JediKitsune

EDIT: I was right, it wasn't just me, actually.

I reinstalled my old video card briefly, the 7600GS, using the latest drivers from Nvidia, no other differences in hardware or software other than that, and ran FFXI, running through the same area as before and experienced no stutters. I think it's safe to say that this is an issue with FFXI and the 4850, probably the drivers, which tend to be glitchy at best.

Edited, Oct 25th 2008 1:16pm by JediKitsune