Choppy experience at anything under 60FPS

chivs688

chivs688

chivs688

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So I'd just like to preface this by saying I'm far from picky when it comes to graphics in games, and much prefer a smooth experience to having the best textures and shaders etc.

That said, when playing any game, as long as the framerate remains at 60FPS (I use the Adaptive V-Sync in the Nvidia control panel to cap it at 60) then it is beautifully smooth and all is good.
However, if the framerate drops to anything from 59fps to below, the game instantly gets very choppy and 'laggy'.

Now I also play on consoles, and the majority of games on them run at 30FPS, and honestly I'm not bothered by it much at all, don't even really notice it. Yet 30FPS on my PC is far from the same. I've tested it by capping games at 30 on my PC, and it is not nearly as smooth as it is on consoles.

Like I said, I'm not picky and am not an expert in graphics or anything, so anything small I wouldn't even notice, yet even when the framerate falls to just say 57 from 60, it is very and instantly noticeable.

I see people playing games where their framerate will hover between say 30 and 50 FPS, and it seems perfectly fine for them, and watching it looks pretty fine too. But I could never play a game like that on my PC, every time I turn it's just so choppy it's frustrating. Yet at 60 everything is perfect..

So, do I have some sort of issue? A wrong setting somewhere?

Specs:
LG W23361V monitor (60Hz)
i5-2500k
GTX 480
4GB Ram

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
 
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LOL, what an advice :)

CHoppy games is not because of 30, 45, or 57 FPS - but because of frame rate drop. As soon as it's constant 30, 45 or 57 fps - it's fine for "fluent" experience.

So everything you need to avoid - is to get rid of framerate drops (fluency shortage). In newer games you need to have more VRAM (yes), so - for example - instead of GTX 480 with 1.5 GB of RAM it would be better to have GTX 660Ti with 2 GB of RAM. It won't help in all games, of course, but it's one of many clues. More VRAM - the better, because games won't need to load textures & other stuff to VRAM from RAM so often, which = less framerate drop.

VSync is definately something good, but to have it working perfectly, you must have appropriate hardware (quicker than games requirements for 60 FPS). It means in peak/raw test in-game you must have minFPS>60 go have VSync worked fine. nVidia tried to develop new technique called AdaptiveVSync (available with newest drivers), but it creates more issues like input lag or minimal stutters due to framedrop to 30 once 60 FPS can't be remained. Try this, in some games maybe it will work fine, or at least better than "normal" VSync.

Another thing to consider is your CPU power saving options. They are turned on by default in motherboard BIOSes, so as soon they are on = CPUs try to get to lower freq when available; it creates another spikes invisible for an eye, but during continuous gameplay with 60FPS it might give you stuttering impression, depending on CPU workload during code execution. It is EIST and turbo = try to turn them off (CPU multiplier = constant) first and see if gaming experience is better.

In drivers you've got some options to set up for your personal requirements, like Triple Buffering, EnergyManagementMode (turn it to "maximize efficiency"), or MaxFrameRenderLimit (sometimes it helps to set it to "1" or "2"). Some games, like BF3 - as far as I know - do have some similar issues resolved with some game config file ammendments, or putting some additional options from console - just try it :)

At the end - don't forget gaming on PC will never be like gaming on console. PC is hardware with OS installed on it (WIndows, LOL). Windows & x86 = IRQs, so remember - sometimes it might happen that your OS will need to break up your CPU arrangement to do something *really* special and important.. huh, so it might create some lags, spikes or stutters just because :) It's not an Amiga where programmers were able to.. disable interrupts ;)
 
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biuro74 said:
LOL, what an advice :)

CHoppy games is not because of 30, 45, or 57 FPS - but because of frame rate drop. As soon as it's constant 30, 45 or 57 fps - it's fine for "fluent" experience.

So everything you need to avoid - is to get rid of framerate drops (fluency shortage). In newer games you need to have more VRAM (yes), so - for example - instead of GTX 480 with 1.5 GB of RAM it would be better to have GTX 660Ti with 2 GB of RAM. It won't help in all games, of course, but it's one of many clues. More VRAM - the better, because games won't need to load textures & other stuff to VRAM from RAM so often, which = less framerate drop.

VSync is definately something good, but to have it working perfectly, you must have appropriate hardware (quicker than games requirements for 60 FPS). It means in peak/raw test in-game you must have minFPS>60 go have VSync worked fine. nVidia tried to develop new technique called AdaptiveVSync (available with newest drivers), but it creates more issues like input lag or minimal stutters due to framedrop to 30 once 60 FPS can't be remained. Try this, in some games maybe it will work fine, or at least better than "normal" VSync.

Another thing to consider is your CPU power saving options. They are turned on by default in motherboard BIOSes, so as soon they are on = CPUs try to get to lower freq when available; it creates another spikes invisible for an eye, but during continuous gameplay with 60FPS it might give you stuttering impression, depending on CPU workload during code execution. It is EIST and turbo = try to turn them off (CPU multiplier = constant) first and see if gaming experience is better.

In drivers you've got some options to set up for your personal requirements, like Triple Buffering, EnergyManagementMode (turn it to "maximize efficiency"), or MaxFrameRenderLimit (sometimes it helps to set it to "1" or "2"). Some games, like BF3 - as far as I know - do have some similar issues resolved with some game config file ammendments, or putting some additional options from console - just try it :)

At the end - don't forget gaming on PC will never be like gaming on console. PC is hardware with OS installed on it (WIndows, LOL). Windows & x86 = IRQs, so remember - sometimes it might happen that your OS will need to break up your CPU arrangement to do something *really* special and important.. huh, so it might create some lags, spikes or stutters just because :) It's not an Amiga where programmers were able to.. disable interrupts ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great reply :) Very informative.

One thing though, I tried using the 'Adaptive (Half refresh rate)' V-Sync option to cap my games to 30FPS, so I don't experience any drop or fluctuation in framerate at all, yet playing like this borders on unplayable because it's just so choppy and frustrates me like crazy. Yet I can then boot up my console and play a game at 30FPS and it feels just fine, not as smooth as solid 60fps obviously, but a damned sight nicer than 30fps on my PC :/
 
+1 for that information,i too get simiiar problems when playing fc3,whilst everything is super smooth when i hit a constant 60fps(v sync on but no aa)occasionally i will get a drop in fps and even in the 50 fps it will have microstutter,cant help but think its a windows thing,i might set too high performance on the power options.
 
Don't get to carried away by consoles don't forget they aren't as capable as PCs so are highly optimised to be playable at 30FPS

Maybe try reducing some settings so FPS doesn't to below 60
 
dacads said:
Don't get to carried away by consoles don't forget they aren't as capable as PCs so are highly optimised to be playable at 30FPS

Maybe try reducing some settings so FPS doesn't to below 60
Click to expand...

^ This really, try jigging the settings around, without v-sync on, you'd expect some stuttering, i've noticed that it's still quite choppy on consoles even locked at 30fps. Maybe an hardware upgrade could help as well?
 
Yeah the frame rate drop is a good explanation. That's what I'm noticing in Sleeping Dogs. When my FPS goes from being 60FPS to suddenly 40FPS... I notice stutters and spikes.
 
Far cry 3 has an option were it will buffer frames in advance
And it caunters microstuttering very well
But it kills frames per second
If you have the hardware that option will make the game run smooth at 30fps
From 50fps with 3 frames buffer in advance the game is smooth at 30 fps but vram usage is mental
 
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