Should I cap my fps

Talk about NVIDIA G-SYNC, a variable refresh rate (VRR) technology. G-SYNC eliminates stutters, tearing, and reduces input lag. List of G-SYNC Monitors.
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Modin
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Joined: 02 Jul 2018, 09:52

Should I cap my fps

Post by Modin » 05 Mar 2019, 04:26

Here's a graph from 5 minutes of gaming on Apex Legends : Image

The min was around 80, the highest is 177 (I have a 180hz monitor, capped to 177 with rtss), the average is around 120. I didn't notice any frametime spikes - nothing that makes it obvious I should change something.

I'm new to gsync and, while in-game I don't really notice anything (the point of gsync, really), I'm wondering if I'm not inadvertently throwing my aim off. Is my sensitivity changing ever so slightly when my fps moves from say 160 to 80 or 80 to 160 ? Should I cap my fps and if so to what ? Should I try reducing video settings even more (they're already at low-medium) ?

Thanks.

Edit : a lot of people seem to dislike frametime fluctuations for their aim. I'll try capping to 120 and try to see if it's better.
Edit2 : Image at 120 fps cap using the in-game limiter, but I had huge stutters for no apparent reason so I'll try using rtss - also deactivated my monitor's oc back to 144hz since I didn't need 180. I can't say whether it was better or worse with the stutters, but seems like fps is stable-ish. Lowest was 87.

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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Should I cap my fps

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 05 Mar 2019, 05:13

Framerate stability can be superior for aiming -- it depends on the game -- but an in-game frame rate limiter can sometimes not always do a good job. Try RTSS too, it will probably be smoother. RTSS might be slightly laggier -- or not -- it depends on the game and how the in-game capping mechanism functioned.

Strange you see more stutters despite better graphs.

Usually stutters are well correlated with graphs, but there can be some strange divergences when it comes to VRR displays:

This might not be the cause, but strange effects like mysteriously amplified stutter from glassfloor graphs can occur when there's a severe decoupling of gametime away from refreshtime.

In rare cases, amplified stutters from frame rate capping despite having flatter graphs -- is suggestive of a decoupling of gametimes away from refreshtime. GSYNC displays work best when gametimes are in sync with refreshtimes. A very erratic delay between gametimes and refreshtimes (to stabilize a frame rate) can exacerbate stutters. The gametime clock (the game world 3D positions) must stay in sync with refreshtime clock (pixels beginning to output from GPU). This is one situation where erratic frametimes can be more stutterless than glassfloor frametimes -- some frame capping algorithms can accidentally exacerbate stutters from a decoupled gametime-versus-refreshtime effect. A gametime with a short frametime being forced to wait longer versus a gametime with a long frametime waiting shorter.

It's better to have:
"Very erratic frametimes perfectly in sync with very erratic refresh times" = less stutter
Than to have:
"Less erratic frametimes out of sync with less erratic refresh times" = more stutter

In other words, synchronized erratic framerates on a VRR display can be smoother than unsynchronized less-erratic framerates. A mind numbing topic for those who don't understand how VRR displays work, but needless to say,m

Nontheless, keep experimenting and see if a different frame rate capping algorithm makes the stutters disappear.
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