Frames Per Second

FFXI has always been running well on my cpu Nvidia Graphics card duo core, it always runs at 29-30 FPS, but now when i login im getting 10-12 FPS WTF is going on? I use GUI launcher is there something wrong with the program?

First things first:
What are your current CPU & GPU?

Asus notebook g72gx series
Processor: intel R core 2 duo CPU p8700 @ 2.53GHz 2.53 GHz
Ram 6.00 GB
64-bit operating system
Windows 7

that's what im running
my game has been running fine but recently my FPS is way low

Are your frame drops immediately upon startup/character selection or are there specific moments or engagements of gameplay that trigger the FPS drop?

It seems strange as your system far exceeds the needs of FFXI to run at maximum framerate even with oversampling background resolution.
My guess at this point is overheating or drivers as per typical situation (especially with laptops), but I am not out-ruling an anomaly that could be causing this.

Another question: Would you happen to be dual boxing?

in the beginning it would just start fine, i would be able to play an go about my business. but when i would flux somewhere in abyssea my FPS would drop drastically not all the time but sometimes. I would just stay still for about 5-6 min an the fps would go back to 29-30. it was doing that for about a month off an on some days it wouldn't even happen, but now its more frequent and now when i go to the ffxi title select screen my fps would be 12ish when its normally 30fps. No i dont dulebox

Bleh, the problem with laptops is you can't exactly test other hardware to isolate the problem as easily as you could on a desktop.
I would start by doing some simple things like exiting any unnecessary applications running in background including firefox and whatnot. Also try Game Booster software a shot, basically does what I mentioned for you in much finer detail.

Also check to assure your GPU drivers are up to date.
I was going to say it sounded like your issue was difficulty accessing a specific piece of data from the hard drive or possibly a corrupt game file, but now that it does this upon startup and character selection, it sounds much more like a hardware related issue.
Checking to defragment the FFXI directory isn't an awful idea either.

Maybe you accidentally set your gpu to power saving mode or it reverted to power saving mode... Happened to me before.

Yeah... Laptops are definitely not my forte.
Good luck on fixing the issue.

This is the Game Booster software I was talking about. It basically puts your PC into gaming mode and shuts down a lot of error checking, driver verification and other crap your OS runs on default to help keep as much of your RAM focusing on the game you're playing rather than juggling something you won't be needing anyways.

If you manage your processes and startup listing to begin with, it won't come across at that significant of a boost. But every little bit helps I suppose. Helps get rid of error checks, network verification, driver verification, and that stupid side bar dash thingy too.
This is more practical for the folks who aren't as savvy with managing their operating system and background applications/processes.

Folks like me, thank you for posting link! :D

See that was what I was thinking too. If he has a corrupt piece of data or perhaps an high res piece replacing it that is difficult to be read consistently from his hard drive, it can cause considerable performance drops, especially after playing for prolonged periods of time with accumulated heat buildup. After all, laptops are significantly more sensitive to such issues due to everything being in one small chassis with limited ventilation.

how do i check this?

I have the ASUS G73jh / 1gb ATI HD5870gpu and my FPS gets really low at the Fluxes too. I have updated ATI drivers, BIOS, and all that jazz.

AT the moment, I just deal with it. Doing some research, seems like the GPU categorizes FFXI as a 2D game and lowers itself to accommodate that.

ASUS G series laptops have always been buggy with games. That is why were is several BIOS updates dedicated to issues with the GPU.