Good to know, actually. I was not familiar with that recommendation.
I think that in my case, i am CPU bound. My CPU is very old (i5-4460) and many times usage will go to 100% while playing OW2 but GPU never goes to that high usage.
Or itâs the gameâs weird optimization and some effects/settings simply not being well optimized for lower-end hardware
I think it may be a cpu bottleneck causing these inconsistent frametimes
So until you upgrade your system, letâs just hope the frame dips arenât too bad to play with
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Weird thing is, OW was working so, so good and so smooth. Since OW2 i am having all these issues. I understand that engine got updated but i donât really see much difference and the game looking that better to justify all the performance issues.
Itâs like how older gpus can run older games better than newer ones
Older hardware used different standards or software that newer games donât need
No need to have more frame per second than your screen capacity. The frame would be rendered by your GPU but not by your screen, so its just a waste of power.
Use sync options to avoid tearing.
For eyes, beyond 70-80fps, it wonât make any difference beside the sensation of smoothness. Your eyes wonât capture more information.
I have a Gsync monitor and the advice Iâd read regarding latency was actually to lock your FPS 2-3 frames below your refresh rate (so 118 for me).
well, kinda, because higher frames does equate to having more information. when the system has to draw the screen, if you have, say 80 frames per second, compared to 200 frames per second, the image at 200 fps will keep the information more âup to dateâ so to speak.
The way i think of it is, imagine if someone runs across your screen from left to right, and it takes 1 second, if you have that image appearing 80 times in that 1 second youll have less information than if that image appears 200 times in that 1 second.
At least thats the way i think of itâŚif im wrong, someone let me know.
hmm, itâs all so confusing, too many people have so many variations.
ive heard some people say to turn OFF Gsync and just run a higher framerate, and others say turn ON Gsync and run close to your monitors refresh.
So, if you have Gsync ON, is it ok to run higher frame rates? so i have a 144hz monitor, if i have Gsync on, is it bad to run the game at 200fps setting?
Second, do you generally get better performance with Gsync ON and running the fps near your monitors refresh rate, or OFF and running higher fps? OR Gsync ON and running your fps higher?
Firstly, OW has no new information to show in 0.005s (unless you wanna see Kiriko kunai moving one meter per frame).
2nd your eye cannot see faster than ~0.13s per frame.
So your eyes will 1 frame among the 2.5 frames your GPU had rendered (and its if youâre superfocused on one point and not watching all the frame). Not mentionning, if you screen can only show 144frames per sec, it means 66 frames per second rendered by your GPU would either not appear on the screen or in a incomplete way.
Youâre basically wasting 33% of your GPU power.
The frame doesnât âstayâ on the screen when it comes up to gaming ; the GPU never stops rendering and sending frames to your screen ; even if nothing moves.
About GSync and Vsync. To be honest, I just try on each game if I encounter tearing. On some games, VSync causes tearing, on some others I need to turn it on. Just donât turn VSync and Gsync on together, its one or the other.
But TL;DR : you need to find a FPS limit that wonât change during your gameplay, no matter what happens.
If your GPU sometimes goes under 144fps, Gsync is probably better than Vsync. If your GPU is constantly over 144fps, Vsync is better.
What Vsync does : it sets your GPU at your screen frequency. If your GPU could render 200 frames but you have a 144Hz screen, VSync will force GPU to rend only 144 frames.
Its like its your screen who decides the number of frames rendered.
What GSync does : it sets your monitor frequency to your GPU rythm : if your GPU renders only 120 frames, your screen will change its frequency to 120 Hz.
Its like its the GPU who decides the number of frames youâll see.
Both have the idea to make only completed frames on the screen to avoid tearing and other weird effects.
But your monitor is 144Hz, it cannot go faster than that, no matter how many frames your GPU can render. Thing to keep in mind, is if your GPU has no limit, it will heat and work at 100% even if the frames arenât rendered, so its basically a waste : you consume more power than you can use and your GPU gonna heat for nothing.
One thing you could want is stability. If you turn Gsync on, but the GPU suddenly lowers its fps, your screen will lower its frequency and you might notice some âslow downâ effect. The gameplay wonât be slower but your eyes might feel it.
If you turn Vsync on, if the GPU suddenly struggles, you might notice like the game âskipsâ frames. But this depends heavily on the game. Some games have âadaptativeâ vsync, meaning if your GPU goes under a limit, it will automatically goes even lower to keep a sensation of sustained speed (like if you have Vsync to 60 but your GPU suddenly renders 50fps, the Vsync will go to 30fps automatically to be sure you wonât miss frames).
But to each their own, Iâve played shooter games at 30 fps without any problem. Some people say under 120 fps, they canât play anymore.
What you want to avoid, in any case, is FPS doing rollercoasters cause you might feel it, and some people are not comfortable with it.
hmm i see. Well first off, i cant use Vsync, in every game ive ever played, if i turn on vsync, it creates a VERY noticeable input lag.
So, if im understanding you correctly, if I want to increase my fps, I need to buy a higher refresh rate monitor? I think what you are trying to say is that, if you have a 144hz monitor, that means, itâs refreshing 144 times a second, and for every draw of the screen, it can only display 1 frame, so, going above 144 fps would be a waste because it cant draw frames between the refreshes, right? 1 refresh pass = 1 frameâŚso at 200 fps on a 144hz monitor, you are still only SEEING 144 frames per second, the rest of the frames are just being dropped?
so, if i want to run at higher fps, then id need to buy a 240hz or above monitor? seems about right?
itâs just that, in most nvidia ads and other placesâŚthey always say âframes wins gamesâ so apparently, thereâs something going on behind the scenes that make higher framerates beneficialâŚeither that or itâs just a marketing campaign designed to sell more stuffâŚ
For a higher framerate you need both a good computer and a high refresh rate monitor, yes.
Yes and no. The monitor can get one and half frame instruction that will cause tearing : one part of the picture doesnât get along the rest. Its like the monitor asks/receive what to show but the GPU is already painting the next frame.
Some of frames could be dropped off. By the time your screen renders 1 frame at 144Hz, your GPU has rendered 1.38 frames at 200fps in the same timespan. Theyâre still rendered by the GPU, they just have no time to reach the monitor output properly.
If your GPU can render more than 144 frame per second, yes. The tiniest frequency between monitor and GPU will dictate the maximum frames per second youâll get.
Its all about marketing.
As I mentionned, human eyes cannot see beyond 70-80fps.
Whatâs happening is a feeling of smoothness in the video but you wonât miss any crucial information. You can test it out, try to play one game at 30fps, 60 and 120fps. youâll notice the difference, yet you wonât miss any information.
The gaming marketing is all about âthings that make you winâ but usually it changes very tiny things which donât really matter to get good at a game. Since OW is kinda a slow game, not really asking for visual reflexes as its more about positioning and audio cues ; you wonât reach GM because of a 240Hz monitor.
You might be surprised in some games like Counter Strike and Starcraft 2, every pro players play with the lower video quality to avoid being distracted by visual effects and guarantee a stable framerate. So basically, 240Hz is for visual âcomfortâ but it wonât make you any better.
i dont think my system is too bad:
im running Intel I7 12700KF processor, RTX 3070 Ti, 32 GB ram, i dont know if thatâs relevant to what todays systems areâŚbut for OW, i guess its ok?
see , i always thought it was because they wanted to increase their framerate⌠i suppose that is incorrect then.
One question im curious about is this.
In my video settings panel in windows, im at the âsetup Gsyncâ tab. on that page, it says:
Apply the follwing changes;
Enable Gsync, Gsync compatible - this option is selected
Enable for full screen mode - this option is also checked
then it has section 2, which shows my monitors
under that is section 3 which is display specific settings
under that it has
Enable Settings for the selected display model - this option is UNCHECKED. Does this mean that i am NOT running in Gsync mode, until I check this box?
I did a little bit of experimenting and this is what I noticed. If I check that box, then go back into game and in the options menu, if I move my cursor around, it appears to be a little bit jittery, like itâs leaving a slight âtrailâ behind it, kind blurry in a way, but not quite smooth. If i tab out and UNCHECK the box, the back to the game, the mouse looks more smooth, not as jittery, not much of a motion trail.
What is this telling me? is this just something that happens in the menus, or is this also an issue in game?
thanks for your time 
(edit) i just checked, apparently, the change is just in the menusâŚfor some reason, with the box checked, it gets a bit jittery in the menus, but in game it seems fine, but with the box unchecked, itâs smoother in the menus, but doesnt appear to be any different in game.
lol, i think perhaps i just need to stop worrying about itâŚitâs likely not even a big deal anyway.
sorry to keep you tied up on this
(edit again)
ok, did some more testing: i sent my fps in game at 144
with the Gsync button unchecked on the screen, i went into practice range and moved my mouse around, and noticed a line across my screen where everything started getting kind of garbled, i guess thatâs âtearingâ. I think checked that box and did it again, same thing, a little bit of garble, then i checked the box at the bottom âenable for selected displayâ and again, the same thing. so it appears that no matter what setting i have checked, it always ends up with a bit of garbled image when i move my mouse around.
so is this something that can be fixed with higher or lower frame rate setting?
(edit 3)
it appears if i ramp my frame rate in game, up to 200, the garbled image clears up a bit.
Best way to know what your computer is capable of is let the GPU run free, without GSync/Vsync. Turn the status info on in game menu to see the FPS counter and watch the numbers.
According to internet , if you play at 1080p ultra, you should be far over 200fps. At 1440p, on ultra, 3070Ti might go between 150 and 190fps. At 2160p, it goes around 100fps.
Its tied. If one wants stable 120fps, theyâll need to lower the settings.
Their computers might go over 120fps but fact is, some people notice the change of framerate if jumps up and down
. Its not they see the frames, its more an overall feeling of smoothness. It can throw of some people, especially if theyâre hyper focused. So Stability over Quality, so the best way is to play competitively is lowest quality possible and be sure you always have 60 / 90 / 120 fps, no matter the number.
You could set a higher framecap but if because of all the effects the framerate lowers during teamfights, you might feel it. So its better to get the lowest FPS number and set it as the maximum so you know your game will always have the same refresh rate.
The comfort of 60+fps is important, in my experience, if you need to spot something that could appear anywhere on the screen. But in OW, you usually know from where people are coming from and most of things donât move that quickly.
About your Gsync setup tab. Maybe a screenshot would be helpful also I donât use Gsync myself. But for what I understand :
Section 1 tells your Gsync is on for fullscreen mode.
So as long as your game is in âFullscreenâ, Gsync will turn on. No matter your section 3. I guess Section 3 is for windowed mode games/ non gaming mode.
If you see an effect in the menu but not in the game, it might come how the menu of the game is coded ; does it use a 3D render or windows-based render ? (I donât know about Overwatch but I know that Operating System donât use the same way of rendering frames than 3D scenery).
The line is what we call a âtearingâ yes.
About the âgarbledâ effect ; its kinda hard to tell without seeing it (and its hard to show it over internet ofc as recording it would add other effects).
It might be âmotion blurâ effect which is an option to uncheck in game. In my experience, there shouldnât be a âtrailâ though. Like if you think you see like 2 cursors or 2 objects in a game scene when you move your mouse, well its frame rendering related indeed. If its more like things are âslidingâ so smoothly it looks like the borders gets blurry, it might be intended by the rendering game engine or its buffer related or even a monitor option, which might try to blend frames together for a âsmoothnessâ feeling (not sure if Computer monitors do it, Iâve seen some TV monitors doing that).
Thing is, if you limit your fps at 144 and then turn on the G-Sync, you ask your GPU 2 opposite things. Not sure how the GPU behaves exactly, but it might cause some variation because as the GPU has to wait because of game setting, it might tell the Monitor to behave differently.
But think this way : GSync your GPU decides the framerate, Vsync/frame limit : your GPU obeys.
About the buffering thing. I donât know how OW handles frames ; but the thing is Vsync/Gsync synchronize your GPU and monitor : your GPU makes sure to have a full frame when the monitor needs one. If it can, it will buffer one (putting one frame ready into its memory so when the monitor asks for one, itâs already there).
For what I looked up on internet, capping the FPS gives turns off video buffer (your GPU paint the frame when needed/asked, the memory isnât read or at least not in the same way). Not sure how OW2 FPS limiter works but it might come from it and the garbling effect might be with/without buffering from your GPU.
Also I donât remember if thereâs a video buffering option in OW2. I remember in early 2000s, framebuffering could have a huge impact on how a game feels. Not sure about today technology and not sure if its still a thing beyond 60, but it might be.
Maybe itâll behave differently if you turn the game into windowed mode/fullscreen windowed.
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I play at 1920X1080 at 144 medium graphics quality.
how do you do this? just turn off Gsync and raise your in game FPS slider to 300? or just set it to automatic?
i cant put links in my posts for some reasonâŚor at least not all the time? mabye only youtube videos are allowedâŚno ideaâŚbut its telling me i cant post linksâŚotherwise, I would post a link to a screen that looks like mine (not mine, but one with the same options)
So I tried. It seems you need to put your slider to 600 and be in a 3D scene ; the menu seems locked whatever my FPS limit is (probably cause the menu uses a different kind of rendering).
Also thereâs buffering in OW2. So it means it should allow buffering when you use its frame limiter. That makes the garbling effect kinda mysterious to me =x
To show FPS : Menu, Settings > video > details/advanced > turn on the 2 first.
To post links, you can delete the dot or use code with ` before and after the text :
www.overwatch.com
Its the </> in the editing buttons when you type a message.
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ok, so i turned off gsync, and set my in game frame rate to 600, and then played 2 games, and while i couldnt really pay attention to the FPS meter, i went back in replay mode and watch it, im assuming its the same thing since itâs coming from the same perspective.
this is what i found: In general, it seemed like it would stay around 300 to 320 fps, when i would get into fights, it would dip down to about 290, occasionally around 270âŚwhen i was real close to someone (i was playing JQ, and i went into a dâva and i was like right up on her very close) and in that instance, i did see it dip down to between 250 and 260, but in open areas with action happening, it would bounce around 290 up to about 320.
again, that was Gsync OFF and in game framerate set to 600
So you know about 240Hz. You could buy one.
Yet Iâm not sure youâd feel a difference. The Vsync/Gsync question would remain as your GPU would be still faster than the monitor. So not sure its worth it.
You could try to tweaks the options between setting framerate to auto ; vsync on or off.
Gsync isnât that interesting for you as your GPU goes faster than your monitor so you might get tearing.
Remember to turn GSync off if you wanna turn Vsync or Framelimiter.
And go with what seems the more comfortable for you (even if its going back to 200fps limit GSync on).
Keep in mind if you play heavier games, which might not reach the 144fps, youâd need to set a specific profile for them through Nvidia Panel to turn on GSync.
If OW2 is the only game going beyond 144fps, its quicker/simpler to build a specific setting for OW and let Gsync on by default (other games will go with the default profile).
thats not exactly true, the difference from 60fps to 120fps is massive
also not true, some games can process more information if more fps are processed, it allows the computer (or the monitor in this case) to choose which frame to present on the screen which gives the player more choices
Gsync would be the most clear and smooth but running at a higher fps than your monitor will reduce latency gsync doesnât function when you are at a higher fps than hz.
Yes. On the render scale thing.
Not ingame though i donât know if amd have a Nvidia control panel alternative but vsync will cap you frames. You want to avoid the ingame vsync setting.
You are the main reason i recommend people set a cap on fps even if itâs above your hz. Youâll get huge dips when windows does something in the background. You will also benefit a lot from a bloat ware free version of windows.
Your eye will receive every frame it has no fps. There are diminishing returns on how useful each frame is but noone really proven the limit.
To put it another way if you visual system as a frame time of 0.13s. you will see multiple frames in that time and the more you see the more accurate your brain will be able to perceive and predict motion.
You do not ignore frames and itâs impossible not to. You may not be able to use that information but test have shown even up to 400 + there is a measurable difference.
So use vsync in Nvidia control panel only. In game setting vsync is terrible and never use it.
Personally, i alway have vsync off. Even though vsync on in nvcp should be better.
Yes but the frames you are seeing are newer so you have a lower system latency. You will have screen tearing and you wonât be able to stop that. Most donât notice it tho.
Donât worry about dips they will happen and the only real issue if you run everything uncapped or if you get dips below your hz like i explained before.
So if you can tell what information you can get at 120fps but not at 60 fps, Iâm curious to know it.
Not sure I understand what you mean there⌠Games processing depending of framerates are usually old⌠back in the day frames were locked. The only exception I know is Dark Souls because From Software programmers⌠arenât the best.
Nowadays, games process informations the same speed no matter the framerate.
The monitor cannot âchooseâ which frame to render⌠Thatâs why screen tearing appears : the monitor is trying to show several frames at once.
Quoth Wikipedia, first line of âscreen tearingâ article :
Screen tearing is a visual artifact in video display where a display device shows information from multiple frames in a single screen draw.
Thatâs why Vsync, multiple buffering and gsync existâŚ