60fps games; Lightboost or plain 144Hz?

[notorioussquirrel]

First, thank you Mr. Chief Blur Buster for all your articles. Your contributions at another forum and your website convinced me to get the Asus VG248QE around the time it launched last year.

I've been using 120Hz Lightboost for a long time when gaming, even though I haven't always gotten 120fps consistently. I'm using a GTX 570. Recently, with the release of Metal Gear Rising on Steam, I was stoked to play it, only to find out that it doesn't support borderless window mode nor anything higher than 60Hz at full screen. Using nVidia control panel to force it to use highest available refresh rate uses 144Hz instead of 120Hz lightboost, so I opted to remove 144Hz and only use 120Hz lightboost and 111Hz regular refresh rates. This has cause some annoyances with the latest nVidia driver and how I can't seem to go back to unstrobed mode.

Anyway, those are minor niggles. There are a few games that I play that are locked to 60fps like fighting games Street Fighter IV, Injustice, King of Fighters, etc. and Metal Gear Rising. All the other games besides MGR is able to run at 120Hz, 60fps no issue. My main concern is, for games that are locked at 60fps, which is fine by me, would I get any benefit running the game at 120Hz lightboost instead of 144Hz unstrobed in game mode? Would there be less input lag running them in unstrobed mode?

[Chief Blur Buster]

First, thank you Mr. Chief Blur Buster for all your articles. Your contributions at another forum and your website convinced me to get the Asus VG248QE around the time it launched last year.

Thanks for your compliments!

I've been using 120Hz Lightboost for a long time when gaming, even though I haven't always gotten 120fps consistently. I'm using a GTX 570. Recently, with the release of Metal Gear Rising on Steam, I was stoked to play it, only to find out that it doesn't support borderless window mode nor anything higher than 60Hz at full screen. Using nVidia control panel to force it to use highest available refresh rate uses 144Hz instead of 120Hz lightboost, so I opted to remove 144Hz and only use 120Hz lightboost and 111Hz regular refresh rates. This has cause some annoyances with the latest nVidia driver and how I can't seem to go back to unstrobed mode.

If you installed 111Hz regular refresh, then switch to 111Hz to turn off LightBoost. That still works, right?
Or re-run Strobelight-setup.exe and re-install 120Hz strobed.

If you are using a Custom Resolution Utility (NVIDIA, ToastyX, PowerStrip), then reduce Vertical Total to 1125 to turn off LightBoost, increase Vertical Total to 1149 to turn on LightBoost. This assumes you've already run the "Initializing monitor..." stage of strobelight-setup, which unlocks the LightBoost feature of your monitor since you last unplugged your monitor. (LightBoost is a two-stage activation -- a one time unlock after plugging in monitor, then a custom resolution to trigger).

You can instead create a 1920x1079 120Hz resolution using ToastyX Custom Resolution Utility (not ToastyX Strobelight) using Vertical Total 1149. Make 120Hz the only refresh rate available for 1920x1079. That way, for stubborn games that tries to switch to 60Hz, you simply just switch to 1920x1079 and then the game is totally forced to run at 120Hz LightBoost.
While leaving your regular 1920x1080 mode working fine.

To undo the mess you are in right now:
-- Rerun strobelight-setup.exe and reset all refresh rates
-- Reinstall drivers (if still not fixed)
-- Reinstall strobelight. Make sure it works reliably like it used to.
-- Download ToastyX Custom Resolution Utility. Create 1920x1079 at 120Hz refresh rate -- 1 pixel less than 1080 -- using Vertical Total 1149. Change "Auto" to "Manual" to let you change Vertical Total.
-- Now whenever you play most of your games, your 1920x1080 can easily be used with Strobelight ON/OFF. It will work normally with your co-operative games.
-- Whenever you play your "stubborn games" that stubbornly run at 60Hz, or otherwise refuse to run 120Hz LightBoosted, simply switch to 1920x1079 (or configure the game to run 1920x1079). Viola. Your game has no choice but to run 120Hz LightBoost.

Anyway, those are minor niggles. There are a few games that I play that are locked to 60fps like fighting games Street Fighter IV, Injustice, King of Fighters, etc. and Metal Gear Rising. All the other games besides MGR is able to run at 120Hz, 60fps no issue. My main concern is, for games that are locked at 60fps, which is fine by me, would I get any benefit running the game at 120Hz lightboost instead of 144Hz unstrobed in game mode? Would there be less input lag running them in unstrobed mode?

Try 120Hz non-strobed for your 60hz games. (VSYNC ON, or double VSYNC ON may work better too).
You may get more microstutters playing 60fps games at 144Hz, because of the harmonics/aliasing effect between 60 versus 144.
However, occasionally a game will have some nasty stutters at random moments with 120Hz for 60fps games due to imperfect sync, but usually if you use VSYNC ON during this situation, it will be pretty smooth (and lower lag than using 60Hz).
GSYNC can also be very helpful in this situation, too.

Thanks
Mark Rejhon
Chief Blur Buster

[masterotaku]

for games that are locked at 60fps, which is fine by me, would I get any benefit running the game at 120Hz lightboost instead of 144Hz unstrobed in game mode? Would there be less input lag running them in unstrobed mode?

If the game runs at 60fps, the frequency must be equal or integer multiple of that number of fps, or else you'll have tearing and stuttering (because fps can't synchronize).
As the Chief said, create a custom resolution that has 120Hz as the only possible frequency (that works for games like Crysis, that always try to run at the lowest possible frequency). Then use what you prefer, 120Hz unstrobed or 120Hz with Lightboost (motion blur vs double image because 60fps=1/2 of 120Hz).