Lack of camera smoothness when panning it left or right

[jorimt]

Responding here due to your DM...

To be very clear, G-SYNC is not a smoothing mechanism, it is a tearing prevention mechanism.

Unlike standalone V-SYNC, G-SYNC only functions with framerates within the refresh rate, and when paired with the V-SYNC option (which is actually part of G-SYNC operation when G-SYNC is active), ensures the tearline is steered off-screen into the VBLANK by dynamically adjusting the amount of times the display's scanout cycle repeats per second based on the current framerate output by the system.

As such, G-SYNC is effectively a 1:1 mirror of system performance, any and all system-side frametime variances included.

Standalone V-SYNC, on the other hand, throttles the delivery interval of every single frame (regardless of their render time) to the scanout time of the current refresh rate.

So assuming the framerate can be sustained at, say, 60+ FPS at a 60Hz refresh rate, even if the render time of the given frame is ~8.3ms, V-SYNC will delay its delivery an extra ~8.3ms until the next scanout cycle (which at 60Hz, only occurs every ~16.6ms). This can result in the perception of increased smoothness, but at the expense of extra latency due to the fact that the frames shown are based on older input. AKA extra buffering, and this scenario applies for any framerate/refresh rate ratio where standalone V-SYNC is concerned.

In other words, asking for the lowest possible tear-free latency is also asking for 1:1 frametime performance depiction, warts and all, so perceivable smoothness with G-SYNC is entirely down to the frametime performance of the given system + game engine + framerate limiter, thus your mileage may vary per game, with some games just being inherently stuttery, regardless of system capability or configuration.

[DrivenCrazy]

Unless someone can help me figure it out I'm giving up on gaming because I lost my patience to it. Most if not all of my time is spent on how to make this work than actually playing the game. Too bad I already wasted money.

Games look working fine, but it's always camera issues! Be it a youtube video or a video game, they always need to judder/stutter/whatever. If that's how it's supposed to work, then I'm out. It's so irritating it's unplayable.

Hard to record a gameplay video with one hand, so here is a map of the game instead. Fortunately, it showcases the issue very well. Look at the district markers and then a waypoint.

phpBB [video]

From 0:00 to 0:04 is what I imagine for a game to look like. Then 0:05 happens. The rest of the map is static, but now imagine if the game does that instead. I can tolerate if it's not "absolute super smooth game flawless" but not if it's shaking like that!

I left the rest of the video accidentally, but I can see the jump in 0:41. FPS drop? It's 60. Frametime graph? Looks flat. Is it flat?

And it's not just Ubisoft game. Installed Alan Wake 2 today and shakes too.

Gonna grab a beer and go to bed. Now that is entertainment.

[yamaci1775]

I feel you friend. Seeing that frame jump/skip makes me shudder. I think our hardware is cursed.

[RealNC]

Does it still happen if you quit Afterburner (and RTSS)? I mean completely quit, not just hide the overlay or minimize them. You might be running into the sensor polling overhead issues shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzyriLXISQo

This applies to all and any software that polls sensors, be it Afterburner, RTSS internal HAL sensors, HWinfo, EVGA Precision, Geforce Experience, Asus GPU Tweak, etc, etc, etc. RGB related software is also known to cause these issues.

[yamaci1775]

Okay but doesn't GPU track its own power consumption regardless of the end user to regulate the GPU power use regarding its TDP? Is it possible that some of us have GPUs with broken power sensors at firmware level? My GPU is gigabyte so it is very possible their firmware is buggy but I don't know how you can troubleshoot/fix something like that aside from getting a new GPU

[RealNC]

Okay but doesn't GPU track its own power consumption regardless of the end user to regulate the GPU power use regarding its TDP?

The overhead is the result of software polling the GPU driver for the sensor values, not the hardware itself monitoring its sensors.

In any event, this is only some generic troubleshooting advice from me, just in case you haven't tried it already. Your issue might have nothing to do with this at all.

[DrivenCrazy]

Does it still happen if you quit Afterburner (and RTSS)? I mean completely quit, not just hide the overlay or minimize them. You might be running into the sensor polling overhead issues

Alan Wake 2:

"Clean" Windows 11 installation registered as a local user. MOBO BIOS updated before. GPU BIOS was also updated with Gigabyte Control Panel ("improved fan stop functionality" they said, I don't know about that one because I feel like they made this shit more broken)

NVME M2 1TB drive. 2 partitions: one with Windows on it (187GB free from 249), second with the game on it (439GB free from 702). All applications besides games are on the first partition.
RAM page file automated by Windows (Recommended 4959MB, set 2048MB). First partition is "controlled by system", second is "none".

NVIDIA driver 31.0.15.5212 (third driver, switched to older one). First driver installation on the system I believe got downloaded automatically. Second with NVIDIA App (I uninstalled the first one). I uninstall with NVIDIA App/Windows installed apps manager (it opens NVIDIA Uninstaller). I always choose "Clean" option.

No GeForce Experience/NVIDIA App currently installed.

Power settings:
- Windows 11 control panel: Highest Performance
- Old windows control panel: Highest Performance (Windows 11 control panel shows a message that the settings can't be changed when maximum performance mode is activated)

Windows specific settings:
- Allow controller to turn on Game Bar: OFF (Game Bar overlay seems to be active because compared to Xbox One controllers, those added a new "Share" button and I keep pressing it accidentally and it's doing screenshots and notifying me about them)
- Game mode: ON
- HAGS: OFF
- Variable refresh rate: OFF
- Windowed apps optimization: OFF

Settings during testing: 2560x1440p DLSS Quality, Low preset, RTX off
Active applications: Windows Defender, Epic Games Launcher, Google Chrome, Notepad, NVCP
Active overlays: Built in display FPS graph, Epic Games overlay, Game Bar overlay(?)
Turned off applications before testing: RTSS (standalone, without Afterburner), Gigabyte Control Panel (with some sensors in Performance tab, dunno if active when minimized), iCUE (basically Corsair RGB software, also with sensors in which I removed all of them). Just turned off. Some, if not all background processess I believe will still remain.

NVCP Settings:
- Global: should be default
- Alan Wake 2 exe profile: Refresh rate: highest available, V-Sync: Use 3D app settings, G-Sync Compatible

Active devices:
- Display
- RGB keyboard & wireless/wired mouse (with charging USB connected to mousepad (wired mode ON and wireless OFF during testing)) & mousepad & headphones. Keyboard connected to mousepad.
- (sadly not RGB) Xbox Series X/S Controller (windows shows as Xbox One)

Testing (panning with Xbox Controller, fullscreen):

G-Sync indicator activated. VRR in display enabled.
G-Sync enabled for fullscreen mode and windowed mode. The option, which is necessary to be enabled for displays without G-Sync module is also enabled.
Refresh rate set in Windows (no in game option). No reboots of the system when changing.

60 refresh rate + Vsync in game off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqmMAGSr8yE
60 refresh rate + Vsync in game on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ScCBZpK5l8
180 refresh rate (maximum) + Vsync in game off & on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxmeMceJX_I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL01X8utIMQ

I'm all ears for any help. I can provide more info, just say what you want. Or what I should try.

As I said, I don't know if the issue is hardware or display or if it is an issue at all. Still, very distracting and uncomfortable to play with.

Side note: If my memory is right I played a different game on a different PC with 75Hz display FreeSync and I remember it (needed to be) capped at 75 doing alright EXCEPT every time when the auto camera moved.

[DrivenCrazy]

I feel you friend. Seeing that frame jump/skip makes me shudder. I think our hardware is cursed.

I'm always cursed. In all aspects of life.

EDIT:

phpBB [video]

Looks exactly the same if not similar. Sadly, the response of one person issue fix is "idk, it just stopped one day"

[DrivenCrazy]

Today I tried (I hope) all possible varations of settings in NVCP with G-Sync compatible enabled in Alan Wake 2. That includes V-Sync, Low Latency Mode, and FPS limit.

I set an FPS limit to 58-60 for each setting variation: V-Sync On/Off, LLM On/Off & Both On/Off. I also tried going without a limit. I did it on a 180Hz refresh rate and then 60.

Be it 180Hz or 60Hz, the screen always jumps when panning (I'm around 100 FPS or so). The only difference is that I have tearing visible on 60Hz (even with FPS limiter going below it) and I need to enable V-Sync to solve that. I don't know if the jumps still happen when the game is tearing. Pretty hard to see. Maybe.

G-Sync should remove tearing, so it defeats the purpose of it if I can still see it. Does the technology work that way? That it only works on the maximum refresh rate? The G-Sync indicator is still being shown when being under it.

I have no idea how displays work and if it's a thing everyone experiences, maybe this display is only good for games where I can produce a lot of frames, which would absolutely suck. Perhaps the VRR range in the display is high and maybe I can hack it to lower it with editing? I don't know how to do that though. Or if it's possible at all. I would take a look at the LFC too.

But then, what could be the use for predetermined different refresh rates available? Only standard V-Sync?

[jorimt]

G-Sync should remove tearing, so it defeats the purpose of it if I can still see it. Does the technology work that way?

G-SYNC only fully removes tearing with G-SYNC on + V-SYNC on; G-SYNC on + V-SYNC off can still tear.

And again, G-SYNC will not fix or reduce non-sync stutter, so whatever frametime issues you're seeing (stutter, etc) with G-SYNC off + V-SYNC off, you will still see with any combination of G-SYNC.

Properly configured G-SYNC removes tearing artifacts, and that is all.

If you're trying to narrow down your cause of stutter, I suggest you start with G-SYNC off + V-SYNC off + uncapped + max refresh rate, and then work down from there; target framerate limit with in-game, then external, etc. Keep syncing methods out of it for now.