Capping 144hz to 120hz

[infamous070605]

Good day guys, Just wondering if any of you guys got input on this, so i got this 144hz monitor but i dont get 144+ fps on games while i get constant 120+ fps should i just change the refresh rate of my monitor to 120hz since i like to use vsync and triple buffering of nvidia? need some inputs guys. thanks a lot!

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

No, there is no benefit by doing so. You still benefit from the faster pixel times even if you can't push the full refresh rate in frames. Faster pixel times means less ghosting, and more responsive game play as a frame is refreshed faster at 144 Hz than it is at 120 Hz.


All the best!

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

using Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Catalyst/Crimson you should have the option to cap the frame rates at 120fps. but still leaving the display's refresh rate at 144Hz.

 

[mrmez]

I've limited mine to 100.
Works great.

Takes a little load off the gxf card during less demanding times, and I think the constant and matching fps/hz looks better.

 

[infamous070605]

Thanks for responding guys, I dont know if its just me but every time i switch to 144hz and it dips to lets say 125ish or 130 it doesnt look as smooth as getting full 120 locked fps (Playing BF4) any thoughts?

 

[photonboy]

Hey,
I suggest you learn when and where to use the following:

1) Adaptive VSync
2) Half Adaptive VSync
3) VSync Off

Before the example, please note:
a) VSync off is often unacceptable due to SCREEN TEAR. It's up to you how much that bugs you.

b) VSync on causes STUTTERING if you can't achieve the refresh target (i.e. at least 144FPS for 144Hz monitor).

So...
This is why Adaptive VSync exists.

Example:
Problem- can get about 90FPS average in a game, screen tear sucks, but can't get to 144FPS all the time without dropping quality below acceptable.

Solution- force on Half Adaptive VSync

1) Start game
2) VSync OFF
3) FRAPS ON (or Steam FPS tool)
4) Tweak resolution/settings for optimal until you rarely drop below 72FPS

5) open NVidia Control Panel
6) Manage 3D Settings
7) add game
8) select "Half Adaptive VSync" and SAVE

9) Open game and observe FPS is locked to 72FPS

???
Basically the game now toggles VSYNC ON and OFF as needed. You just need to adjust the game settings to a position that's optimal for you, depending on how bad the screen tear is. If too much, drop the settings a bit to raise the average frame rate.

Other:
This also works with RadeonPro using Dynamic VSync.

Other:
None of this is needed with GSync or FreeSync.

 

[infamous070605]

Hey,
I suggest you learn when and where to use the following:

1) Adaptive VSync
2) Half Adaptive VSync
3) VSync Off

Before the example, please note:
a) VSync off is often unacceptable due to SCREEN TEAR. It's up to you how much that bugs you.

b) VSync on causes STUTTERING if you can't achieve the refresh target (i.e. at least 144FPS for 144Hz monitor).

So...
This is why Adaptive VSync exists.

Example:
Problem- can get about 90FPS average in a game, screen tear sucks, but can't get to 144FPS all the time without dropping quality below acceptable.

Solution- force on Half Adaptive VSync

1) Start game
2) VSync OFF
3) FRAPS ON (or Steam FPS tool)
4) Tweak resolution/settings for optimal until you rarely drop below 72FPS

5) open NVidia Control Panel
6) Manage 3D Settings
7) add game
8) select "Half Adaptive VSync" and SAVE

9) Open game and observe FPS is locked to 72FPS

???
Basically the game now toggles VSYNC ON and OFF as needed. You just need to adjust the game settings to a position that's optimal for you, depending on how bad the screen tear is. If too much, drop the settings a bit to raise the average frame rate.

Other:
This also works with RadeonPro using Dynamic VSync.

Other:
None of this is needed with GSync or FreeSync.

Wow thats really informative man, Thanks! so is it a better combo to use adaptive vsync + triple buffering? or adaptive vysnc only and turn off triple buffer?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

You won't notice screen tearing at 120 FPS.

 

[photonboy]

Thanks for responding guys, I dont know if its just me but every time i switch to 144hz and it dips to lets say 125ish or 130 it doesnt look as smooth as getting full 120 locked fps (Playing BF4) any thoughts?

The problem with this is the STUTTERING I mention above.
More specifically, the monitor is actually refreshing 144X per second but you are hitting and missing the target (from the GPU). That 130FPS for example is an average and some of those are 1/144th of a second and some are 2/144th of a second.

So you are getting DOUBLE the frame times mixed with normal frame times and that causes things to not look smooth.

If you LOCK the frame rate to 120FPS but can output at least 120FPS then your frame times should be mostly equal, though it sounds like VSYNC is OFF so you'd get screen tearing.

There's no perfect solution since every game varies, so maybe dropping to 120Hz if possible makes sense to you (120Hz on the monitor not 120FPS locked).

I hope this makes more sense.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

my display stays clocked at 70Hz but I cap all frame rates to 65fps. always with vsync off. always looks perfectly smooth; no tearing, no stuttering.

 

[photonboy]

You won't notice screen tearing at 120 FPS.

That's just not true.
You can see screen tear on any synchronous monitor that isn't using VSYNC.

The amount of screen tear can vary from not very noticeable to very annoying. There are many factors that affect it including:
1) current refresh rate
2) current frame rate
3) anti-aliasing method
4) amount of horizontal or vertical lines
5) direction of movement
6) how quickly one is moving

 

[photonboy]

infamous070605,

As to your question above, my answer is simply to EXPERIMENT!

The best solution is GSync/FreeSync but that requires a new monitor.

Otherwise, with your 144Hz monitor which I assume is a normal synchronous monitor there are PROS and CONS to everything you do. Adaptive VSync attempts to mitigate some of these issues but you need to get your head around what's going on with the screen.

I don't recommend Triple Buffering for one thing. It's an attempt to make things smoother by adding more buffering (hence more lag) to the scenario.

Experiment as I said with Adaptive VSync, or the "Half" version or VSync off completely as applicable.

(Adaptive method will cause some tear in cut scenes if they are below the target such as 30FPS videos when synched to 72FPS)

 

[photonboy]

Adaptive Vsync: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync

(Watch the video and read the info)

 

[infamous070605]

Adaptive Vsync: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync

(Watch the video and read the info)

it seems to work much better than before when i tried adaptive vsync on 144hz while i get 130+fps average on my 980ti, do you still think that its much better to use this settings than changing my refresh rate to 120hz? since my 980ti can manage 120fps constant?

 

[photonboy]

Adaptive Vsync: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync

(Watch the video and read the info)

it seems to work much better than before when i tried adaptive vsync on 144hz while i get 130+fps average on my 980ti, do you still think that its much better to use this settings than changing my refresh rate to 120hz? since my 980ti can manage 120fps constant?

For THAT specific example, first let's make something clear:

*Adaptive VSYNC toggles VSYNC ON and OFF depending on whether you hit the target or not.

So if your average is a bit over 130FPS it sounds like you must be toggling VSYNC ON and OFF quite often. Any time you can't output 144FPS (not sure how many frames it takes) it becomes identical to VSYNC OFF. Probably not ideal because you would see screen tear then not see it, then see it, as well the latency (lag) is probably slightly different though at that high a refresh rate I'm not certain how obvious that would be.

You might have VSYNC OFF between 20% and 60% of the time! (I just can't tell based on the average). All that's certain is you must be ABOVE 144FPS average for Adaptive VSync to make sense (such as 155FPS average and dropping below 144FPS 10% or less).

So...
Maybe if you enable 120Hz on the monitor AND force on Adaptive VSync that would work better for you.

You would stay at 120FPS VSYNC'd for the most part and for those times you drop you'll just get screen tear (not sudden stutter). You say you never drop below 120FPS though I suspect that's not true (sudden drops are easy to miss but can still cause stutter). There's no drawback to Adaptive VSync aside from CUT SCENES possibly having screen tear.