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smooth fps for games?

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Joined
25 Dec 2008
Posts
187
Hi

I was wondering what is a good fps to get smooth gamplay in games? (this would be the minum fps). I am thinking 40 fps would be smooth gamplay?

Reason i ask is would you notice the difference between 40 fps and 100 fps visually? as i think the eye can only register a certain fps.

So is it worth getting a graphics card (for more money) to do 120 fps when you could play a game very smoothly with max setting at 40 fps.

Thanks
 
Depends how serious you are about the game I suppose. If you're a competitive online gamer, the difference between 40 and 120 FPS is massive, and would give an advantage in fast paced games. However, for most people 40FPS is fine, but it is a constant topic of debate as to what the acceptable minimum is.

The problem you can't ignore is that 40FPS may not be a sustained figure - there could be lows of 22 for example, which would be quite distracting.

Your best bet is something that does a minimum of an acceptable frame rate, so say at least 40FPS.

Ideally, you'd like to have a monitor with a high refresh rate and a card that can output a sustained FPS figure over the refresh rate, meaning no stuttering or changing of FPS with vsync on. Most LCD panels are 60Hz now, but 120Hz panels are becoming increasingly available, primarily for the use with 3D tech.

For me, I like at least 40FPS average on casual games, 40FPS min on FPS games or fast paced action games, and a constant 60FPS in racing games.
 
60FPS... I really notice drops below 50FPS. With smoke, ATI cards suck! WaW dropped to aorund 30-35FPS with smoke particles and it was noticeable compared to 150FPS at all other times
 
the higher the better imo i don't like droping under 30 fps on none rpg and i dont like to go under 60 on first person shooters and racing games.
 
40-45fps is the lowest framerate you want in a game if you want it to feel smooth and playable for single player - and 60 is really the lowest you want to see if its multi.

For singleplayer tho ideally a constant 60fps is good - for multi things tend to "match" up better if your pushing out 100-120fps - specially if you have a 120Hz TFT.
 
30 fps is pretty poor really, especially for fast moving action. The argument that TV/Movies are between 24 and 30fps is a poor example, One of the reasons that pan speed is normally very slow on TV is because of the poor frame rate, and for higher speed motion shots, the cameraman will track the movement, and then use a large apature on the camera to make sure the backgrounds are nicely blurred, which masks the low framerate.

Personally I prefer a minimum of 60fps, with as constant a framerate as possible, trying to avoid a system which averages 60fps, but has 10fps minimum etc.
 
cool, am i correct in thinking that if you have a 60hz monitor then you will never see any benefit is have more than 60fps? because the monitor would not be able to display the extra fps?
 
Thats a tricky one...

Rendering more than the monitor Hz (when its at 60) can have some benefits depending on many variables - some games just work better when rendering certain framerates, a lot of games work better online when you have 100+ fps as it results in them being a little more responsive to input, in some cases it can somewhat mask the tearing effect of not having vsync on and theres a few other minor considerations...

but overall you won't actually see any extra data as such in a useable way... its more down to benefits in other areas.
 
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