Current Events > Question about frame rates

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my 3070 is getting up there in age way sooner than I wouldve expected (mainly due to 8gigs of VRAM not cutting it on brand new titles on high settings), so I cant just expect everything to run at 144 fps

should I just try to aim for as high as possible or should I do a multiple of 12, or 30, or whatever? Would a locked framerate at some random number like 97 feel worse to play than 72fps or 90, for example?

If you wanna maintain 1440p and 144fps, you prob need to upgrade, but if you're fine dropping it to 1080p or dropping it to 100hz or something, you'll probably be fine.

My main monitor started fucking up and it gets feisty if I try to run it at 144hz now, so I dropped it to 100hz and it's ez mode maintaining that, but I do have a newer pc.

discodancer77 posted...

Would a locked framerate at some random number like 97 feel worse to play than 72fps or 90, for example?

A locked framerate gives you consistency, and that's what you want more than anything. I would go with 120 and then 90 if 120 doesn't work.

Do you actually mean High, or do you mean Ultra / Extreme / etc? I have a 3080, and I feel like on High you should probably be OK on most games. Ultra and such are past the point of diminishing returns for what youre trying to do IMO.

Yeah for the titles coming out nowadays Im fine with playing on 1080p or lowering the visual effect settings.

Main question is if a game can only reach, say ~105 frames, should I aim for 100? Or 92, 90, 84, 72, or so on? Or is higher better even if its a weird number like 97? (Assuming it is consistent and stable)

PraetorXyn posted...

Do you actually mean High, or do you mean Ultra / Extreme / etc? I have a 3080, and I feel like on High you should probably be OK on most games. Ultra and such are past the point of diminishing returns for what youre trying to do IMO.

Just a hypothetical for now tbh. Been watching GPU videos lately and Im surprised at how much VRAM new games eat up

discodancer77 posted...

Yeah for the titles coming out nowadays Im fine with playing on 1080p or lowering the visual effect settings.

Main question is if a game can only reach, say ~105 frames, should I aim for 100? Or 92, 90, 84, 72, or so on? Or is higher better even if its a weird number like 97? (Assuming it is consistent and stable)

As long as its consistent I dont see why thered be a difference. There probably is, but youd have to look into Gamers Nexus analysis of frame time etc. to find it. The difference would most likely be in frame time spikes / 1% lows.

I cap my frame rate at 200 on a 144 Hz monitor, but thats because I turn off Vsync and when I was playing Bloodstained it was running at like 650 FPS and causing coil whine that annoyed me lmao.

PraetorXyn posted...

As long as its consistent I dont see why thered be a difference. There probably is, but youd have to look into Gamers Nexus analysis of frame time etc. to find it. The difference would most likely be in frame time spikes / 1% lows.

I cap my frame rate at 200 on a 144 Hz monitor, but thats because I turn off Vsync and when I was playing Bloodstained it was running at like 650 FPS and causing coil whine that annoyed me lmao.

ok you bring up another question I forgot Ive never actually found an answer on:

if your monitor is 144hz, why go for a frame rate of anything above that? Whats the point? Also can you explain vsync to me? I usually just set my games to match my monitor (144hz), so would vsync even matter for me?

discodancer77 posted...

ok you bring up another question I forgot Ive never actually found an answer on:

if your monitor is 144hz, why go for a frame rate of anything above that? Whats the point? Also can you explain vsync to me? I usually just set my games to match my monitor (144hz), so would vsync even matter for me?

I think there is a minor difference as long as youre using adaptive sync to prevent tearing, but I cant remember. Vsync locks the frame rate to your monitors refresh rate to try and prevent screen tearing, but it causes input lag so I dont like it and I only turn it on when a game runs weird without it.

FreeSync / Gync are implementations of adaptive sync and better solutions to the same problem. But some people dont like them for the same reason.

Also, have you tried using DLSS 3 Quality and seeing what FPS you get? In my experience, DLSS3 is good enough that its very hard to distinguish a difference between it and native rendering, so Ill use it in hard to run stuff like Cyberpunk.

As of right now, I haven't actually run too many intensive games on my PC. I built it 2 or 3 years ago at this point and have been focusing on classics via emulators and stuff like Portal and Half-Life, so nothing modern or intensive yet. So I've never needed to tweak settings or use DLSS or anything YET, but I'm just wondering how things will work once I start playing games that were released in the 2020s

discodancer77 posted...

As of right now, I haven't actually run too many intensive games on my PC. I built it 2 or 3 years ago at this point and have been focusing on classics via emulators and stuff like Portal and Half-Life, so nothing modern or intensive yet. So I've never needed to tweak settings or use DLSS or anything YET, but I'm just wondering how things will work once I start playing games that were released in the 2020s

What I suggest is basically this flow chart:

1. Game should auto-detect semi-optimal settings. Turn off Motion Blur and Depth of Field because they look fucking awful.
2. See what sort of performance you get. If its not satisfactory, turn off RT, use the High preset (again, turn off Motion Blur and Depth of Field.
3. If performance isnt satisfactory, use DLSS Quality. See what kind of performance you get.
4. If performance still isnt satisfactory, use the Medium preset. See what kind of performance you get.
5. Basically repeat this process until you are unsatisfied with the result. Then its time to consider an upgrade.

Thats just the basics. Outfits like Hardware Unbixed will also do optimization guides, where they will tell you which settings have the largest hit to performance for the least benefit, so they can be turned down or off to increase performance significantly without much quality loss etc.

I have a 3080 and I think youll be OK for most games. I played Cyberpunk at launch on a 5700 XT at Medium and it was still gorgeous and ran at 60 FPS. Most games are easier to run than that one.

Another question! What software do I get if I want to monitor framerate in games and cpu/ram usage and stuff? Not that I really care about that stuff in the immediate future.

I have MSI Afterburner on my computer but I forget if thats what Im meant to use.

Good to know about Cyberpunk-tier games running well, thanks.

Steam will give you FPS as long as you have the overlay active and the option turned on. I don't know that it's the most effective way, but it works.

Does your monitor have adaptive refresh rate technology? If so you can cap it at any arbitrary number, if not I think you really want it to be either 100% of, 1/2 or 1/4 your refresh rate

discodancer77 posted...

Another question! What software do I get if I want to monitor framerate in games and cpu/ram usage and stuff? Not that I really care about that stuff in the immediate future.

I have MSI Afterburner on my computer but I forget if thats what Im meant to use.

Good to know about Cyberpunk-tier games running well, thanks.

Cyberpunk is harder to run now after the Phantom Liberty update FYI. With a 3080 and Hardware Unboxed Quality I was getting around 90 FPS at 1440p, with drops in Dogtown.

I just use the GPU overlay. With Nvidia it used to be Alt+R or Alt+Q, but I havent checked since I installed their new driver program that replaces GeForce Experience, so Im not sure what the hotkey is now.

AMDs is like CTRL+Shift+O or something if memory serves.

Afterburner lets you try to tune performance and the fan, and it has a logger thing that can help you diagnose issues if youre getting crashes. I dont personally use it though.

DarthAragorn posted...

Does your monitor have adaptive refresh rate technology? If so you can cap it at any arbitrary number, if not I think you really want it to be either 100% of, 1/2 or 1/4 your refresh rate

I forgot about this. This may be right.