Dawntrail—the next expansion for Square Enix’s masterfully designed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV—doesn’t release until July 2, but fans can get a taste of what’s to come right now. The official benchmark for the game is available as of April 14, and will let players experience some of the expansion’s most anticipated features, such as a graphical overhaul and the introduction of a new race to the character creator. Here’s what you need to know.

The FF14: Dawntrail benchmark is only available for PC players of the MMO through the link here, as is first and foremost a tool for players to gauge if their system can handle the coming expansion. Of course, it’s also a bit of an extended teaser for the next chapter of the online RPG. During the benchmark you will get a good look at the new tropical location of Tural, which is rendered in much higher quality than you’ll have been used to.

That’s because Dawntrail will mark the release of a long-overdue graphical update to FF14. The benchmark shows it off with gorgeous foliage and more detailed character models, and for those with a fancy enough monitor, the game will look even better as Dawntrail introduces 4K HD support. Keep a close eye out during the combat scenes of the benchmark and you’ll also get to see the new Viper and Pictomancer jobs in action. Old jobs shown off also have new gear and actions on display.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the biggest draws of the benchmark is the introduction of female Hrothgar to the character creator. The big furry cat ladies will be let loose during Dawntrail’s official release, but the benchmark’s character creator allows players to make female Hrothgar characters right now. Any character created in the benchmark can be saved and used when the full expansion releases

When players finish running the benchmark, they will be given a score that indicates how well Dawntrail will run on their system. A full breakdown of the scoring scale is available via Square Enix, but a score between 4000-5999 is ranked as standard performance. Square Enix has also released updated minimum and recommended system requirements for the expansion. They are as follows:

Minimum requirements

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit, Windows 11 64 bit
• Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 or higher
• Memory: 8 GB or higher
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or higher, AMD Radeon RX 480 or higher
• Storage: HDD 140GB or more

 

 

 

 

 

Recommended requirements:

• OS: Windows 10 64 bit, Windows 11 64 bit
• Processor: Intel Core i7-9700 or higher
• Memory: 16 GB or higher
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or higher, AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT or higher
• Storage: SSD 140 GB or more

In addition to the graphical update and introduction of female Hrothgar, players can look forward to what is being called the “summer vacation” expansion of Final Fantasy 14. After wrapping up a dramatic decade-long story with Endwalker, it’s about time the Warrior of Light got a break, and the tropical vibes of Tural seem like it will offer that in spades.

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