Problem with locking 120fps.

mxoagentjohnson

mxoagentjohnson

mxoagentjohnson

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696
Hey guys.

So for the longest time i've had a problem with 120fps on my 120hz monitor.

It's an odd situation, so i'll explain.

Some games i achive way over 120 fps, (left 4 dead 2, team fortress 2, DmC) so i wanted to lock my games to 120fps as y'know, 120hz, 120fps is the best option.

Heres the problem that comes along doing this, it doesnt matter the method in which i lock the framerate, and this is gonna sound weird but it kind of micro stutters/very very quickly hitches in some areas in games or depending on whats going on.

Example being DmC, i can be in an open area fighting some demons, and the fps fluctuates from 120, sudden goes to 118,117 or 119, usually 119, and i get this slight stutter, it happens every now and then not always but its a bit of a nuisance.

The annoying thing is, locking the game at 60fps, this problem doesn't happen, why? i have no idea, but if i'm constantly spewing out over 200fps in DmC for the entire time and suddenly lock it to 120fps, it wont have any of that? yet 60 is fine?

same goes for Left 4 Dead 2, same goes for TF2.

I had issues with stutter on these games so i moved them to ssds, didn't help.

Checked temps, temps are A ok. No overclocks, MEMTested for over 10 hours with no faults, everything running smooth as silk.

So why on earth does this happen, i really have no clue and it's kind of frustrating, i can achieve high frame rates yet the game decides that i dont deserve it? Theres nothing i can pinpoint this to.

Dishonored also does this, which is annoying as the game whilst stylized isnt exactly a powerhouse and runs at over 150 always.

Anyone got a solution? i'm pulling my hair out over something that really doesnt make any sense.
 
If you use vsync don't lock the framerate, if you don't use vsync lock at 125 instead to reduced perceived tearing.

Also try adaptive vsync instead if you do use vsync as normal vsync will drop to 60fps momentarily when it can't get a new frame in time which can cause noticeable stutter.
 
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Rroff said:
If you use vsync don't lock the framerate, if you don't use vsync lock at 125 instead to reduced perceived tearing.

Also try adaptive vsync instead if you do use vsync as normal vsync will drop to 60fps momentarily when it can't get a new frame in time which can cause noticeable stutter.
Click to expand...

Vsync is always off, its a terrible thing.
Locking at 125 would only give worse visual quality as screen tearing now comes in to play, and you dont really choose 120hz to increase tearing.

It usually happens within the same area in some games, for example dystopia does this when i walk round a certain corner, shows 119fps for a bit and stutters very quickly, if i do circuits around a map ill get these fps micro freezes in the same areas, same with dmc and dishonoured, but only when locking at 120 and not 60.
 
The only thing i can think is some games just dont like being locked at 120 all the time, and going inbetween areas makes the game stall for just a fraction of a second as things are pulled in. and its more likely to happen at 120fps than 60 because developers dont develop for anything above 60 really.
 
Rroff said:
If you use vsync don't lock the framerate, if you don't use vsync lock at 125 instead to reduced perceived tearing.

Also try adaptive vsync instead if you do use vsync as normal vsync will drop to 60fps momentarily when it can't get a new frame in time which can cause noticeable stutter.
Click to expand...

this. With 120 hz tearing is REALLY reduced. Limiting frame rate to 125 really works. Just try it and see
 
locking FPS to monitor frequently without vsync = bad!

In source games I lock FPS to a figure higher than monitor frequency but still a figure I know I'll be able to hit reliably e.g. 250. I always play at lowest quality on source games anyway so hitting that figure isn't a challenge with today's cpus. I never notice tearing. Probably wouldn't see it at 125 fps either but out of habit I always go for a higher fps. Probably because in Quake 3 engine games hitting certain high fps values (90, 125, 300) increased strafe-jump speed very slightly.
 
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It isnt tearing i am noticing, it's stutter caused in specific areas. and its not like constant stutter, its micro freezes.

its always in the same areas, and ive tested every single bit of hardware and nothing is wrong and nothing has fixed it, so either these particular areas are just bad at 120fps or we have a bigger problem on my computer, which at this point i doubt because i've extensively tested it and used other parts, heck im even on a fresh install now.
 
The stuttering is probably a series of dropped frames. Vsync will correct this (for slight input lag penalty), or just lock to a much higher FPS and live with the probably unnoticeable tearing.
 
I tried this, the locking at 125, but it didnt help, the stutter remains.

Like i say, it never happens as much on 60fps, like, going into a dystopia server for first time, if i fly around with the camera in spectator all arodun its 120 yet keeps stuttering very quickly every now and then going into a new area for like .3 of a second, and ingame it does it in certain places, capping certain objectives, and its frustrating when its a shooter.

DmC does this, DmC will be fighting some demonds it'll micro freeze for .3 of a second and the framerate shows 119.

Same with Dark Messiah, going into newish areas on 120 i get sometimes a slight .3s pause that i dont see as often or atall on 60fps

Sunbed said:
The stuttering is probably a series of dropped frames. Vsync will correct this (for slight input lag penalty), or just lock to a much higher FPS and live with the probably unnoticeable tearing.
Click to expand...

This isnt necessarily true, this is what causes stutter on vsync aswell, its why technologies such as GSYNC have been invented.

The only thing i can pinpoint it down to is stuff loading off the harddrive or something, it happens often in unreal games, but doesnt in sleeping dogs, hitman absoloution, but happens on DmC Devil May Cry, Dishonoured, rarely Bioshock Infinite.
 
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Try locking it at 150 and lower your quality settings until it doesn't ever drop below that. 125 is very close to 120 and if there is a very cpu intensive area of the game it may dip to around 120 as you suggested. This is when you get problems.
 
Sunbed said:
Try locking it at 150 and lower your quality settings until it doesn't ever drop below that. 125 is very close to 120 and if there is a very cpu intensive area of the game it may dip to around 120 as you suggested. This is when you get problems.
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I said in the original post in all these games if i dont have the fps locked i hit into the 200's and 180's and never go below, thats why im locking them in the first place, and the 125 lock isnt helping.
 
OK I'll address your OP

mxoagentjohnson said:
Hey guys.

Some games i achive way over 120 fps, (left 4 dead 2, team fortress 2, DmC) so i wanted to lock my games to 120fps as y'know, 120hz, 120fps is the best option.
Click to expand...

Why have you made that assumption? if you don't get stuttering when you don't lock fps, why would you lock it???
 
The way you're describing the stutters sounds like the game is either loading something or something is CPU intensive thus the fps going down.

I see dips in my FPS when moving around a large map or something, could this be what you're having?
 
ThaReaperGuy said:
The way you're describing the stutters sounds like the game is either loading something or something is CPU intensive thus the fps going down.

I see dips in my FPS when moving around a large map or something, could this be what you're having?
Click to expand...

Yea this is pretty much what i've pinpointed it down to.

Reason i say this is, i've been testing it a lot lately. I did a run through a few games, FEAR3, Left 4 Dead, DeusEx, Dishonoured and a few others.

Some games solid 120fps no problem when locked, others have these odd dips related on something that usually seems to be like accessing RAM or the Hard Drive.

Take example FEAR3, if i lock it at 60fps, the only fps dips i get, or micro stutters is autosaving, or sometimes loading a new area, however when i'm on 120fps, i'll be in combat and fighting and i'll get the fps go from 120 to 119 but w/o the small stutter (maybe i dont notice it, if i look at the screen i dont and look to the side i see it hit 119 for an instant)

However on both Deus Ex and FEAR, whenever i swap between weapons i'll get a micro freeze, the framerate goes from 120fps to 118, freezes for a very very slight second (not enough to completely throw you off) then go back to normal until i swap back and forth on weapons.

However, games like dystopia, this only happens going into certain areas, however being a source game online i assumed everything was loaded into memory.

Since i installed HL2 on an SSD this doesnt happen, same with TF2 now that its on an SSD, the only time tf2 will do it is when i first taunt or change class or respawn now, whereas on my hard drive it would stutter a fair bit more often. (however i tested it on a server i created instead of online as online i never achive 120 fps consistently and lock it to 60 instead)

I dont know if the problem is entirely related to 120fps, or my hardware setup. I can imagine that its just some games arent 100% with 120fps because you get stuff like that, swapping between weapons causing a very slight freeze.

It makes me think it could be the RAM or VRAM, but none of them show any issues in terms of access, heat etc, mind you i could try testing them more, and it happens on my old graphics card too.

I've asked a friend with a similar setup and same monitor to test this for me so hopefully he can shine some light.

I dont mind gaming modern games that dont consistently achive above certain framerates and locking them lower because i know my rig isnt going to ultra everything at 120fps even if i turn the settings to low but it's just making me wonder if theres something in my setup that isnt agreeing on such high frame output.

Take note i never stutter watching videos, browsing online, emulating, playing locked 60fps games (unless its an autosave which is to be expected as its saving to the hard drive)

The fps drops are never a straight up drop to 110, 100 etc from 120, its just a small stutter on some games more than others.
 
overclock your CPU if it's just at 3.4 like in your sig, it'll be good for at least 4.6 with a decent cooler. and get an SSD
 
BS Dave said:
overclock your CPU if it's just at 3.4 like in your sig, it'll be good for at least 4.6 with a decent cooler. and get an SSD
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I've mentioned i have an ssd, it helps in select games.
I've tried that, it doesnt help, mainly because the situation doesnt have to do with not being able to hit certain framerates, its a situation where certain things are occuring more often at higher framerates.
(on oc'd to 4.5, impossible on a non k cpu)
 
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn6dF65osCk

This is the closest i can show.

Whenever i lock my fps to 120 in games, it fluctuates from 120 to 119.7/119.9, I usually notice if it goes down to 119.4 that i get a slight hiccup/stutter, some games dont do this, Half Life 2 being an example, some games drop to 119.7 often but dont visually stutter, sleeping dogs, and some do this where they stutter every time it does it.

But for an annoying reason, when i lock at 60 it never does this, ever, only in tf2 and ultra sf4 does it drop to 59.9 or so, and never stutters (tf2 does for another reason unrelated which is being fixed)

Yet, when i unlock the fps, you can clearly see beyond 120fps being achived, so i dont understand what to do.

Dishonoured does the same thing, so does DmC, yet others dont? I'm really confused as to what it could be.

Any help would be great!
 
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