Guild Wars 2

I’m not really a hardware guy, though I do seem to always build my own machine because it suits my pickiness for what I want (and for the right price). For the first time, I have a pretty rocking machine. My last computer was getting max of 20 FPS out in the GW2 world, and 3-4 FPS in places like Black Citadel.

So now, I’m topping out at ~100 FPS (in the open world, haven’t gone back to BC yet). However, I’m curious to know why I’d want to limit my FPS to 60 (per an option in the Graphics panel of the game). I tried Googling to see why one would limit their FPS, but was only finding pages about FPS being limited (not by the person’s choice).

With a high FPS (above 60) are there drawbacks? Possibly in the fluctuation of FPS? I guess ultimately I’m wondering if I should limit my FPS to 60, and if so, why.

Thanks!
ps. I don’t overclock and am not overly concerned about cooling – my case has 3 fans on it, my MB has 2 mini fans, my graphics card has 3 fans on it. Hopefully I’m set there.

Why limit? It lowers the work load on the GPU but mainly the CPU assuming you are using a rig that can easily handle 30 or 60 fps. Lower load mean lower heat and power use which may also lower fan noise due to cooling.

Most LCD monitors connected with HDMI or DVI are limited to 60FPS.

Limiting FPS to 60 would probably be better than using Vsync. Both will do about the same to minimize screen tearing, but Vsync artificially lowers your FPS to 30 if it can’t maintain 60.

Screen tearing occurs when your FPS is higher than the refresh rate of your monitor. If you’re running a 60hz LCD and getting 100 FPS, then pan left and right with your character and you will notice a weird tearing.

Sounds like my monitor can handle up to 75 FPS.
Vertical Refresh Rate: 56 – 7kitten
DVI connection.

It sounds like the point is to not unduly tax the computer. That makes sense. I’ll test out restricting it to 60 FPS when I get home.

Thanks

Well, simply speaking, you’ll decrease your pc’s “load” this will transfer to lower voltage, lower temperatures and more stable performance. My old pc f.e. used to crash every two hours, while playing gw2, then I set the frame limit and the crashes went away.

The point of it is, just because you can run 120 fps, doesn’t mean you should, you’re working the system harder than it needs to be, so you should limit the fps. The human eye can’t even detect differences in fps that high so it’s wasted anyway. Might as well extend the life of your system and give up the bragging rights about “zomgIrun120fpsalldayeatitscrubs!”.
oh yeah and the artifact tearing thing, which imo limiting the fps works better and is more practical than v-synch anyway.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

The human eye can’t even detect differences in fps that high so it’s wasted anyway.

every human has different eyes, so those effects can’t be summed together.

The original rule was like “eyes can see up to 25 images a second”, but you can’t compare it with fluid fps. This doesn’t only apply differenty for each person, but also on the differences between the frames. If you display a motion, even the human eye can distinguish between 30 fps and 60 fps in terms of “fluidness”. It’s called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity . But personally I don’t think many humans can see a difference beyond 70 fps.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Might as well extend the life of your system and give up the bragging rights about “zomgIrun120fpsalldayeatitscrubs!”.

Yeah, I’ve met other guys who said “I said down some graphic settings, so I finally have 300 fps again”.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

oh yeah and the artifact tearing thing, which imo limiting the fps works better and is more practical than v-synch anyway.

tearing technically appears if the display rate is not equal to the rendering rate. But due to nowadays possibilities (tripple buffer and such) graphic cards already minimized those in default settings.

@OP
“Fluidness” of digitally displayed motion depends on multiple things:

• Speed of your the eye; 40~70 differences per second.
• Refresh rate your display; 60~75 Hz (common rates, not for 3D monitors)
• Rendering rate of your GPU; 0~1000 fps
• let’s ignore other PC components here.

In science, speed means more energy and therefore a higher stress. It’s pointless to render 120 frames in a second, if your display can only show you 60. It’s pointless to force the display to change 140 times a second, when your eye can’t see half of those.

Even if others don’t like VSync, it’s default [on] for me. I don’t need to brag about 70 fps, when my display is set to 60 Hz. It’d just disorder the frame timings.

I set it to limit to 60 FPS, and honestly I can’t tell the difference. It looks great.

However, both at 60, and at higher levels, I do get something, although based on what I’ve seen online for examples of tearing, I’m not sure what I’m getting is tearing. It’s almost like a ripple. Everything is wonderfully fluid, but as I turn, I noticed something isn’t quite right.

I’m loving the game, so when I get home to play (now that my new system is working, and I can actually do jumping puzzles b/c the game no longer chugs when I swivel) – I honestly don’t think about this post. Heh. I’ll see if I can get a screenshot of what I’m seeing.

I’ll test using VSync to see if that addresses this particular thing I’m noticing.

Thanks for the feedback.

Dayasydal.3562:

I set it to limit to 60 FPS, and honestly I can’t tell the difference. It looks great.

However, both at 60, and at higher levels, I do get something, although based on what I’ve seen online for examples of tearing, I’m not sure what I’m getting is tearing. It’s almost like a ripple. Everything is wonderfully fluid, but as I turn, I noticed something isn’t quite right.

I’m loving the game, so when I get home to play (now that my new system is working, and I can actually do jumping puzzles b/c the game no longer chugs when I swivel) – I honestly don’t think about this post. Heh. I’ll see if I can get a screenshot of what I’m seeing.

I’ll test using VSync to see if that addresses this particular thing I’m noticing.

Thanks for the feedback.

That ripple effect is screen tearing. It’s dropping older frames in the middle of rendering for newer ones.

I turned on vertical synch. Also realized I didn’t install my monitor drivers on my new computer. Game is running great at 60 FPS.

Thanks for all of the feedback.