The Best Laptop for FFXIV (2023)
Over the last couple of decades, there have been a lot of games coming and going. With the culture of gaming shifting from loving one thing and quickly moving on to the next. But one of the genres that manage to stick around and constantly improve upon itself is the MMO. And there are so many different MMOs out there now that you can find one that appeals to your tastes. But today, we’re focusing on Final Fantasy XIV, which is definitely the next MMO you should try out. Want to try it out? Check out our Best Laptop for FFXIV Guide for more!
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Best Laptop For FFXIV Guide
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO set in the rich and diverse world of Final Fantasy and allows you to play through several campaigns with your friends. Teaming up to take down huge bosses and exploring the vast map. And luckily Final Fantasy XIV isn’t really that taxing for most devices these days so you can comfortably play this game on the laptop of your choice. But there’s the tricky part since there’s a lot of choices out there. This is why we’ve put together a list of some of the best laptops that you can get right now!
Lenovo Legion 5
- Resolution – 15.6” 1920 x 1080
- Memory – 16GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor – AMD Ryzen 7 4800H
- Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti
- Battery Life – Around 5 hours
Next up we’ve got a great mid-range laptop for those that want to get something that can keep up with more modern gaming. We’ve gone for this gaming laptop from Lenovo for the great power you get for a reasonable price. Lenovo products are often built to be rather simple looking machines. There aren’t really any thrills here either, you get a laptop with a solid black color scheme and little pieces of Lenovo branding dotted around. But aesthetically it’s a little boring and either you’ll be into that or it might be a little disappointing for some of you.
But the one place where this laptop isn’t boring is under the hood because we’ve actually got a pretty good system here. Starting off with the screen which is a 15.6”, 1080p screen that offers a very crisp display and also a 144Hz refresh rate.. Which is something you’ll want when playing a pretty hectic session of Final Fantasy XIV. Then we have 16GB of RAM which is a really nice amount of memory for a laptop. It’ll help the system run a lot smoother if it’s handling a lot of tasks at once. The CPU here is an AMD Ryzen 7 4800H which is specifically designed for laptops. It’s a great processor, especially for the mid-range which is where we’re at right now. The GPU is a GTX 1660Ti which is arguably one of the best mid-range GPUs you can get right now. Which means it’s a fantastic choice for Final Fantasy XIV. The battery life here isn’t really all that great, being able to last around 5 hours. Which means you should probably keep the charger close by. This is also quite a hefty laptop so you might not want this for a portable machine.
Pros:
- Good Specs
- Great Screen
- Great Mid-Range Laptop
Cons:
- Average Battery Life
- Fairly Heavy
HP Pavilion Gaming
- Resolution – 15.6” 1920 x 1080
- Memory – 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor – Intel i5-9300H
- Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
- Battery Life – Around 8 hours
For our next option, we’ve gone for something that might be a little more familiar to some of you. We’ve chosen this HP gaming laptop for its great specs at a fairly low price. With this laptop, we’ve reached the point in the list where they aren’t so subtle anymore. We’ve got a chunky laptop here with a snazzy black and green combo that stands out among the rest of the simpler devices. And if you’re someone that wants something that straddles the line of professional and colorful, this is it.
But let’s take a closer look at what this thing can do and if you’re looking for a good budget gaming machine, you’re in luck. We’ve got a really nice 15.6” screen that outputs at a 1080p
Resolution. Which is going to make those hectic moments in-game a lot easier to keep track of. A pretty good CPU with the Intel i5 processor. Which still isn’t designed for very complicated tasks but you’ll still get some good performance out of it. The GPU is a GTX 1050 which is a fairly lower end card these days. But you’ll still be able to get a lot of use out of it for Final Fantasy XIV. We’ve also got 8GB of RAM which is about the minimum we want for gaming on a laptop. The battery life here is going to vary wildly depending on what you’re using it for but around 7-10 hours is what you’ll be getting. Which is some pretty good battery life, though if you’re going to be doing some hardcore gaming, keep the charger somewhere near. Overall this is a great option for gamers who don’t want to spend a fortune on their next gaming laptop.
Pros:
- Affordable
- Great Screen
- Great battery Life
Cons:
- Large Build
- Not for Modern Gaming
Acer Predator Helios 300
- Resolution – 15.6” 1920 x 1080
- Memory – 16GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor – Intel i7-10750H
- Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
- Battery Life – Around 6 hours
For our next option, we’ve taken a step further and gone for something that will appeal to the more hardcore gamers out there. We’ve gone for this gaming laptop from Acer for its great performance and aesthetics. Right away you can tell that this is a gaming laptop and that’s due to a couple of things. Firstly the shape of the laptop is a lot more angular than you’d find on most devices which is purely an aesthetic choice. Though it does look good and the added touch of an RGB backlit keyboard is also pretty nice. It all goes towards making this laptop stand out against the rest.
The stuff on the inside of the laptop also stands out because this is a very good laptop for gaming. Again, starting with the screen we’ve got a 15.6”, 1080p display that has a 144Hz refresh rate. It looks great and makes Final Fantasy XIV really pop when there’s a lot going on at once. In terms of RAM we’ve 16GB to work with here which is a really nice amount of memory. It should stop the laptop from chugging too much when handling a lot of tasks at once. The CPU here is an Intel i7 and it’s a great processor. It’ll be able to handle more complicated tasks with relative ease and with Final Fantasy XIV that’s a big positive. The GPU here is an RTX 2060 which is a fantastic graphics card. It’ll run Final Fantasy XIV, as well as any other titles, with ease. The battery is above average though it still isn’t great. So be sure to keep the charger close for those longer gaming sessions. Overall though, this is a fantastic laptop for those serious about their gaming performance.
Pros:
- Great Specs
- Great Screen
- Made for High-end Gaming
Cons:
- Average Battery Life
- Fairly Heavy
Razer Blade 15
- Resolution – 15.6” 1920 x 1080
- Memory – 16GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor – Intel i7-10875H
- Graphics Card – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
- Battery Life – Around 6 hours
For our final option on this list, we’ve gone for the best of the best in the world of laptops. We’ve chosen this gaming laptop from Razer for its fantastic performance and great style. Razer products almost always have this clean sort of look to them and this laptop is no different. With its simplicity and streamline nature front and center. Though the simple nature of the laptop is spiced up a little bit due to the full RGB backlit keyboard. Which looks great when contrasted against the plain black body.
The performance on this laptop is exceptional and if you’re serious about gaming you can’t really go wrong with it. Starting off with the screen, we’ve got another 15.6” screen that outputs at 1080p with a 300Hz refresh rate. This display looks fantastic and will make whatever you’re looking at be crisp and vibrant. We’ve got 16GB of RAM here and for a laptop that’s a really good number to have. It’ll avoid major chugging issues when the system is busy with a heavy task. The CPU is another Intel i7 processor and this one is really good. It’s on the higher end and is designed for laptops that need to pump out a lot of performance. The GPU is an RTX 2070 which is a fantastic graphics card that can get you some really nice visuals. And with more and more games supporting ray tracing, getting an RTX card is a really good idea. The battery life is fairly average, which is to be expected considering the amount of power it needs to run. So pack a charger wherever you go. But as far as laptops go, you really can’t go wrong with this one.
Pros:
- Fantastic Specs
- Great Screen
- Made for High-end Gaming
Cons:
- Average Battery Life
- Quite Heavy
ASUS VivoBook 15
- Resolution – 15.6” 1920 x 1080
- Memory – 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Processor – Intel i3-1005G1
- Graphics Card – Intel UHD Graphics
- Battery Life – Around 4 hours
For our first option on this list, we’ve gone for a laptop that will be perfect for those that are operating on a budget. We’ve gone for this laptop from ASUS for its affordability and good functionality. And even though this is more of a budget laptop, at first glance you wouldn’t realize it. Aesthetically the VivoBook is definitely riffing off the Macbook. So we’ve got a very simple and streamlined design here. With a great black and grey color combo to accompany that simplicity. This is a very professional looking laptop so if you want something that can be used for gaming and work, it’s great.
But if we take a closer look at what this laptop can do we might start to notice a couple of the issues. First, let’s talk about the good stuff! We’ve got a nice 15.6” 1080p screen here which is perfect for a game like Final Fantasy XIV. Plus we’ve got a good amount of memory at 8GB. So those two things are pretty good but then we start running into some potential issues. The CPU is an Intel i3 that is designed for notebooks and smaller laptops. These are suited to fairly casual computing tasks and though it should be able to run Final Fantasy XIV just fine, busier moments in-game might be a little laggy. This laptop also doesn’t have a dedicated GPU for gaming, instead of utilizing the integrated graphics card. So you won’t be getting more demanding games running on this machine. Also, the battery life on this laptop isn’t very good either, only lasting somewhere around 4 hours. So if you travel with it be sure to take the charger with you.
Pros:
- Affordable
- Great Screen
- Great Design
Cons:
- Not Designed for Gaming
- Below Average Battery Life
See Also: Best 120mm AIO Guide
Best Laptop for FFXIV Buying Guide
If you’ve come this far down the list and you still aren’t quite sure which laptop you should buy, don’t worry! In this section, we’ll be giving you some extra information that should help you out with your purchase.
The System Requirements for Final Fantasy XIV
Luckily for most gamers out there, Final Fantasy XIV is a pretty old game. Released initially all the way back in 2013 with the ‘A Realm Reborn’ edition of the game. What this means is that the game doesn’t need the most powerful machines around to run at a smooth framerate. And anyone with a decent rig can really get a lot of good performance here. But anyway let’s take a look at the specs you’ll need to run Final Fantasy XIV:
Minimum System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.0 GHz) / AMD Athlon X2 (2.0 GHz)
- RAM: Windows XP: 1.5 GB or Windows Vista/7: 2.0 GB
- OS: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista 32-bit/64-bit or Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit
- GPU: 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600 series / ATI Radeon HD 2900 series or equivalent
Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel Core i7 (2.66 GHz) or faster
- RAM: 4 GB
- OS: Windows 7 32-bit/64-bit
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 with 768 MB VRAM or equivalent
So as you can see the system specs that you’ll need to run the game really aren’t that intensive. Though, because it’s an MMO, things can get pretty intensive pretty quickly. Especially when doing huge team battles against large bosses. So you really want to make sure that you have a decent CPU that isn’t going to buckle under the pressure. Otherwise, you won’t be much help to your friends if your game is stuttering and lagging. But overall, you shouldn’t have much issue running this game on most modern machines.
Pick a laptop that fits in with your lifestyle
One of the most important aspects when deciding to buy a new laptop, or any bit of tech really, is how it’ll fit in with your day today. Spending your hard-earned cash on something that’s actually making your life harder is a little bit backward really isn’t it? So you need to pay careful consideration to whether a new laptop will fit in with what you do. For instance, if you travel a lot and use a laptop on the go, you don’t want anything big and bulky. You want to aim to get a laptop that is light and portable with a good bit of battery life. But if you need a machine to work from home but don’t want to be stuck at a desk with a PC you can be a little freer with your choice. Aim to get a laptop that packs a lot of power and don’t be afraid to get something with a bigger screen. Battery life is less of an issue here if you’ll be home since you can charge it anytime.
What is the Cheapest Laptop That Can Run FFXIV?
Your experience when playing FFXIV will definitely vary based on your hardware. While you want the best possible laptop to take this great game on, there are viable budget options to be aware of. Our favorite low-budget option is the Acer VivoBook. While you give up performance, this laptop gives you the bare minimum you need to get the game up and running.
Buying Tips
- Final Fantasy XIV, like many other MMOs, is designed to be played with a mouse. So be sure to invest in a good gaming mouse to optimize the way you play. See our guide to the Best Mouse for FFXIV for more info.
- Final Fantasy XIV has been out for a long time now and there has been a ton of content released for it. Check out some beginners guides to the game online to make sure you’re all caught up.
- If you’re going to be mainly using the laptop at home, make sure you get a laptop with a big screen. The bigger the screen the easier the game will be to play. But if you’re looking for something that is more easily portable, aim to get a smaller laptop that still has a good screen.
Verdict
That’s been our list for The Best Laptop for Final Fantasy XIV. If it helped you out at all, please feel free to let us know in the comments below! Thanks for reading.
