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Getting more FPS than your monitor refresh rate is a bad thing?

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10 Feb 2011
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Hi me again so sorry :P. Any way as title says if I have a 60hz tv and if I cap frame rate above 60 is that bad for TV or graphic card? I have had it with vSync on as get really bad acceleration with it on. I have tested several times over past couple of weeks and it is Vsync what is casuing this problem. I also get bad screen tearing with it off that why I want to try and cap it at say 100fps. I just wanted to no if it would hurt the card or TV if I say cap it at 100FPS using GPU tweak on a 60hz TV?. I don't want to buy a new Monitor just yet because I have spent too much this year and want to save a little more first and get as much as I can on what I got. Thanks again all.
 
It's fine. Won't hurt either. There's not much point capping at 100 if I'm honest. Leave it sync off and let it go above. Only thing capping it will do is hold the card back if it goes that high.
 
"really bad acceleration"

What do you mean by that? Do you mean input lag?

I cant really tell what it is. With Vsync on in NVidia control panel and games and desktop when I move my mouse it seems to accelerate and lag. When I turn it off in NVidia or games it goes away and is normal speed. I have been trying to figure out what was causing as thought it had to do with bios settings at first but no it was vsync all along. I also get controller lag using a controller. Its so annoying trying to get it right. I would get a new monitor and not wait if I knew for certain that 144hz plus would remove the screen tearing completely. Would love to try be for I buy.
 
capping frame rate often causes some kind of untrue mouse reactions.

also on a 60 hz screen getting over that fps often causes ripples. used to do my head in :p

best thing is moving from 60hz - 120 or 144hz. its a world of difference.
 
Wouldn't capping frame rate make the card run cooler? If so would it allow a more consistent frame rate as it would be less likely to have to down clock during the more demanding parts of games?
 
More framerate than monitor refresh rate isn't a bad thing. The only times I ever turn V-sync on is for games where I get screen tearing. I can't see much of a solution other than a monitor upgrade. Higher refresh rate or even freesync/G-sync. G-sync does wonders but costs high.
 
Wouldn't capping frame rate make the card run cooler? If so would it allow a more consistent frame rate as it would be less likely to have to down clock during the more demanding parts of games?

Yea it does, if the card is capable of running 60FPS then your gpu may run around 70-80% instead of leaving it uncapped making it run 90-100% which will make it run few more degrees hotter. the GPU usage could be lower on other certain games.

I do this in GTA and for me the game is much more smooth, instead of getting high 70s FPS then dips down to low 50s or high 40s when say a few cars explode etc then for a couple of seconds you will feel that drop but when your at 60FPS you don't feel it as much. Also for me i don't seem to get such low drops now too, as if the card is more capable of dealing with with more activity on screen such as explosions.

This may be due to GPU utilisation being lower because it doesn't have to render as many FPS at once, so it has room to handle other stuff when it comes along. instead of when its uncapped it is dropping some frames to render, to handle other stuff. If you know what i mean?
 
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More framerate than monitor refresh rate isn't a bad thing. The only times I ever turn V-sync on is for games where I get screen tearing. I can't see much of a solution other than a monitor upgrade. Higher refresh rate or even freesync/G-sync. G-sync does wonders but costs high.

well its not a good thing either. You don't actually see those extra frames because the monitor is unable to refresh faster enough to show them. So all your doing is making your GPU work harder than it needs too.

But unless you don't have any negative impacts like some people find when their FPS tops their refresh rates then just leave it as, well... It doesn't really have any impact lol.
 
While it's true you wont see the extra frames that don't mean its bad thing to do.. Running with the frame rate unlocked will make your game feel much more responsive, Less input lag and even better hit detection on some games Source Engine I know is one.

The only real side effect is screen tear and on 60hz is much worst then 120 or 144hz

O and more heat from making the GPU work harder.
 
more frames than the monitor can display can result in you seeing 'fresher' frames (expanding on shanks post).

To illustrate I'll take things to extremes for a moment - obviously a stupid example. Imagine your screen could only display 1 image per second, but your card could create 1000. If you tell your card to only create 1 it'll have finished creating that frame very quickly and will be sitting, saving power and heat, for most of the second - good work by it. However, by the time your screen even starts to draw the frame, regardless of the screens input lag or response times, the frame is already nearly a second out of date. Had we let the card draw as many frames as it could we can use the latest one which is barely a millisecond old so can reflect the latest changes in whatever game you're playing.

Screen tear will happen unfortunately, though you'll not avoid it capping at 100 either and actually if the framerate is much higher it's generally less noticeable as you'll have several small tears rather than one larger one.
 
If you are gaming on a TV you probably have a lot of input lag, try turning on "game mode" if it's a samsung. TVs do too much processing.
 
On the other hand, if ya using multiple AMD GPUs, frame capping can save your computer room from turning into an oven.
 
My screens are 60 refresh rate. I lock it down at 60fps, the cards are noticeably cooler and they don't hit that annoying hum at 70c.

Some TV's with a refresh rate of 60 actually show just 30 frames but they show each one twice, this may just be a console thing, I half remember some material I came across while researching refresh rates for a monitor upgrade. The possibility exists that locking at 30fps would be the same, still need vsync to stop that tearing though never noticed it until I capped.

I may yet go back to unrestricted fps, I'm not really sure how it is affecting my online play in shooters.
 
Im pritty sure the input lag is from Vsync not actually capping the FPS at 60 with tools such as afterburner for example. Also i never felt a more responsive feel on a 60Hz monitor with FPS going above and beyond the refresh. Only noticed the responsiveness when i got a 120Hz monitor and the FPS then went above 60!
 
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