Need some advice on what I should do
Posted: 09 May 2017, 11:48
I used to game heavily in Quake and Unreal Tournament on CRT monitors (often overclocked to 75/100Hz).
I didn't switch to LED/LCD until the first 120Hz ones came out. I used a Viewsonic VX2265wm (IIRC, model number might be wrong), then a Hanns-G 120Hz machine. These were... tolerable... compared to 60Hz panels.
I then got the Acer GN246HL (144Hz). Soon after I got it, I got the utility to enable strobed backlight mode on 120Hz. I felt the difference immediately in Quake, even compared to 144Hz. It felt like CRT. I hated motion blur. The darkness of the mode was easy to get used to (especially when enemy skins were bright green).
I then started playing Overwatch when that came out. But something wasn't right. The skins in OW are not like Quake Live, easy to tell apart from the background. Something just felt... off, with my aim.
After tinkering with settings, watching extensive videos on reducing input lag, here are steps I took successfully to improve the situation:
I capped FPS in-game to 154.
I set refresh rate to 144 and took it off strobelight/120 mode.
I adjusted settings to maintain that FPS consistently without dipping.
Before this, I had it on strobelight-120 with FPS uncapped. Though the FPS varied drastically, I didn't feel any stutter. But something was off. That something was clarity... it was blurry. Switching to above settings removed that blurriness and my aim improved instantly because I could focus on objects near the crosshair much better. There was now ghosting/motion blur when turning around and making wide mouse movements, but I've tried to get used to it, it's a trade-off (it makes turning around very quickly unpleasant). At least I can have better precise aim for headshots and the like because my eyes can focus on targets near the crosshair more clearly.
I picked 154fps because anything more than this, and there would either be stuttering or blurriness (I don't know what this blurriness is called and haven't seen it really mentioned online). At 154fps @ 144Hz, it just suddenly "clears up", if that makes sense.
I tried 120fps@120Hz(Strobelight mode), but there's more input lag with lower FPS so I stuck with 154/144. I made this switch around November so there may have been other issues I no longer remember (might have been blurry even at 120/120).
Does my experience make sense to you all?
I've read that the BenQ XL2411 has strobelight mode possible even at 144Hz. Would it be possible to run that monitor in strobelight (they call it Blur Reduction) at 144Hz, cap FPS to 154 as I already do, and maintain clarity like I have now and eliminate ghosting/motion blur when turning quickly? Or is that a pipe dream I should avoid pursuing because switching monitors will open a whole new can of worms now that I've finally gotten a usable setup on my current screen? Is strobelight/BR mode on XL2411 as dark as it was on my Acer GN246HL?
I'd love to go for the 240Hz screens but my computer can't maintain FPS that high and now I'm afraid of stutter/tearing/whatever is responsible for the blurriness which negatively affected my aim. Maybe the 180Hz, but there aren't many to choose from and they're still expensive for only a few frames faster (and I don't want to go 27" for 165Hz). I have a Core i5-2500k @ 4.4Ghz with GTX 1080 so it can do 150-170fps consistently with minimal drop. I'd need a completely new CPU/mobo/ram to get it consistently over 200-220fps, I think.
I didn't switch to LED/LCD until the first 120Hz ones came out. I used a Viewsonic VX2265wm (IIRC, model number might be wrong), then a Hanns-G 120Hz machine. These were... tolerable... compared to 60Hz panels.
I then got the Acer GN246HL (144Hz). Soon after I got it, I got the utility to enable strobed backlight mode on 120Hz. I felt the difference immediately in Quake, even compared to 144Hz. It felt like CRT. I hated motion blur. The darkness of the mode was easy to get used to (especially when enemy skins were bright green).
I then started playing Overwatch when that came out. But something wasn't right. The skins in OW are not like Quake Live, easy to tell apart from the background. Something just felt... off, with my aim.
After tinkering with settings, watching extensive videos on reducing input lag, here are steps I took successfully to improve the situation:
I capped FPS in-game to 154.
I set refresh rate to 144 and took it off strobelight/120 mode.
I adjusted settings to maintain that FPS consistently without dipping.
Before this, I had it on strobelight-120 with FPS uncapped. Though the FPS varied drastically, I didn't feel any stutter. But something was off. That something was clarity... it was blurry. Switching to above settings removed that blurriness and my aim improved instantly because I could focus on objects near the crosshair much better. There was now ghosting/motion blur when turning around and making wide mouse movements, but I've tried to get used to it, it's a trade-off (it makes turning around very quickly unpleasant). At least I can have better precise aim for headshots and the like because my eyes can focus on targets near the crosshair more clearly.
I picked 154fps because anything more than this, and there would either be stuttering or blurriness (I don't know what this blurriness is called and haven't seen it really mentioned online). At 154fps @ 144Hz, it just suddenly "clears up", if that makes sense.
I tried 120fps@120Hz(Strobelight mode), but there's more input lag with lower FPS so I stuck with 154/144. I made this switch around November so there may have been other issues I no longer remember (might have been blurry even at 120/120).
Does my experience make sense to you all?
I've read that the BenQ XL2411 has strobelight mode possible even at 144Hz. Would it be possible to run that monitor in strobelight (they call it Blur Reduction) at 144Hz, cap FPS to 154 as I already do, and maintain clarity like I have now and eliminate ghosting/motion blur when turning quickly? Or is that a pipe dream I should avoid pursuing because switching monitors will open a whole new can of worms now that I've finally gotten a usable setup on my current screen? Is strobelight/BR mode on XL2411 as dark as it was on my Acer GN246HL?
I'd love to go for the 240Hz screens but my computer can't maintain FPS that high and now I'm afraid of stutter/tearing/whatever is responsible for the blurriness which negatively affected my aim. Maybe the 180Hz, but there aren't many to choose from and they're still expensive for only a few frames faster (and I don't want to go 27" for 165Hz). I have a Core i5-2500k @ 4.4Ghz with GTX 1080 so it can do 150-170fps consistently with minimal drop. I'd need a completely new CPU/mobo/ram to get it consistently over 200-220fps, I think.