Final Fantasy 16 PC Demo Benchmarks and System Requirements

Final Fantasy XVI just released a PC demo as well as system requirements in advance of the September 17 release date. While there is some good news regarding support for things like FSR 3 and DLSS 3 frame generation, there is also some bad news like stutters, uneven frame pacing, and a 30 FPS cap during the numerous cutscenes. In this video I do some initial testing on the minimum GPU (GTX 1070), the recommended GPU (RX 6700 XT) and even an RTX 4090. However, I have not played enough of the game to say if the section of the game I am testing is representative of more demanding scenes in the game. But this isn't the final release, so I am hoping for some improvements before launch.

Test system specs (ResizeBAR/SAM ON):

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Chapters:
0:00 There is a free demo on steam, release date, pricing
0:31 Final Fantasy 16 PC system requirements
2:15 RTX 4090 4K max settings
2:51 There's stutters, and its not just shader compilation
3:20 30 FPS cap during cutscenes, can still have frame pacing issues
4:13 Combat RTX 4090 4K Max settings
4:30 DLSS 3 FG, FSR 3 FG, and XeSS 1.3 supported. Also Dynamic Res Scaling
5:50 RTX 4090 4K Max native res with frame generation on
6:23 RTX 4090 4K Max DLSS Quality
6:45 RTX 4090 4K Max DLSS Quality with frame generation
7:31 GTX 1070 1080p Low
8:41 GTX 1070 1080p Low FSR Quality
9:36 Turning off upscaling to compare visuals
10:04 GTX 1070 1080p Low Dynamic Resolution target 60 FPS
10:48 With turning on 60 FPS framerate cap
13:00 GTX 1070 1080p Low FSR 3 Quality with Frame Gen
13:35 GTX 1070 1080p Low FSR 3 Quality
14:08 GTX 1070 1080p Med 30 FPS cap
14:59 RX 6700 XT 1080p Med
17:00 RX 6700 XT 1080p Med native with Frame Gen
17:35 Testing a different game area (more demanding)
19:20 A few final thoughts- do you want more testing?

[garytallowin]

In this day and age it takes a lot of guts and faith in your product to release a demo like this.

It could easily make or break peoples enthusiasm.

[Yanquii]

I appreciate the fact that they put a demo with all these graphical options because i remember the FF7 Remake pc port… its was something

[Littahe]

I'm VERY VERY surprised that it's only $50.
Square Enix still wants $70 for the stuttery FF7 remake port, which was a PS4 game.

[MANDYBLINGZ]

is that a Gibson Mr. Owen? Teacher, Rockstar, PC news, what's next astronaut doctor lawyer? lol

[saynotomanifestv]

Why are devs STILL refusing to use FSR 3.1, come on now

[sauhamm]

there are lots of things to work out but the difference in visual quality over the ps5 is monumental. moving and panning the camera in 4k at over 100fps is just amazing. black myth and ff16 demo on the same day feels like a holiday where you get a raise and free ice cream!

[ehcor]

The game tanks its performance by changing graphic settings in game for some reason. A restart fixed that.

[theemulationportal]

Make sure you're on the latest Nvidia driver or this demo is completely broken performance wise (It's a stuttering mess). Overall though had a great time with this demo although it's a tad blurry even using DLAA at 1440p. 30fps cutscenes and no UW support needs to be fixed though for launch...

[slayrsaber]

Cutscenes in this port are atrocius. Its killing this game for me if they don't fix it. I mean... This game runs at 60-80fps (max setings, 1440p on 4070ti) and suddenly cutscene at 30fps but it does not feel like 30. It stutters and for me looks like 20fps or less but the counter stays at stable 30...

[Aznhmgl]

use lossless scaling for the 30fps cutscenes. night and day difference

[brzimtrco]

6700xt 1080p medium??? Man wtf is going on with these games, this card was running games at 1440p high not so long ago, games that look better than this!

[sirgareth]

So the game is now prettier while crisper, smooth quick cam pans, responsive and not blurry. A joy to play with dlss dlaa and FG. Would wish 60fps 4k for the ingame sequences.. its far better now than on the PS5. 4090/13900ks

[wangsoft]

I love the "Binding Arbitration and Waiver of Class Action" (.14 in EULA) applies to customers and not towards Square Enix itself - VERY COOL

[whatashame]

just tried it. these 30 fps in cutscenes looks absolutely horrible. main problem that you get huge stuttering when game lowers fps. and they forgot to lock mouse inside window when you play. not tested it in fullscreen, only borderless window. and game looks all fuzzy in 1080p, even without upscalers.

upd. i played for 2 hours, and when long cutscenes started, my screens turn off because of 10 min default windows timer. so they even forgot to ignore windows power settings... and when i touched mouse, window with "operation successful" appeared and game closed. i was in fullscreen mode, so game was always active.

[harmonictie]

My PC is pretty beefy. Ryzen 9 with a 4090. The cutscenes were locked to 30fps which I didn't mind but the rest of the game felt like I was still playing 4K 30fps. This game really needs more optimization I should be able to hit 4K 120fps easily.

[FantasyNero]

It's not surprising to see modern AAA Games running low fps even on the most expensive gaming Geforce RTX4090 Card, blurry screen + lower fps than 60fps

[marcelo.bassalo]

I was thinking about picking up this game on PC but I'm not so sure about the optimization right now. May wait for a sale and some patches.

[dakbassett]

It's good they are releasing demos now in games. It can help too smooth out issues before the full game launch and I appreciate the chance to see games before release from the buyers perspective.

[fried_funk]

Japanese developers and games lacking optimization: name a more iconic duo.. PS: for those complaining about Wukong, come here and see this mess...60 fps on a 4090 with no RT...

[Adromelk]

Another unoptomized SquareEnix pc port, wow I'm so shocked. >_>