Console runs smoother than PC in 30fps, why?

[Nedkic]

Hi guys, I'm a PC gamer who switched from console 3 months ago. My 970 is getting the job done and I'm very satisfied with it

However I find something weird is that when I play batman Arkham knight in which I locks at 30(constant fps drops is disgusting if I lock it at 60 thanks to WB optimization), console feel a lot smoother than PC, both in 30fps. I have tried turning on all motion blur/blur but still PC in 30fps is very choppy compared to console.

I compare PC vs console side by side(I have 2 monitors, not monitor vs TV), testing with witcher 3, gta5, shadow of mordor, batman Arkham knight. PC in 30fps feels so laggy and console 30 feels smoother.

My question is why console feels smoother than PC both in 30 fps? I have googled it and somebody is suggesting PC frame time is a lot longer than console in which I cannot understand. Thanks guys for reading appreciate your help!

 

[Dunlop0078]

Motion blur mostly. They tune the motion blur just so on console games so you cant really feel the jerkiness that is 30fps without very good motion blur. I noticed the same thing when I first got a gaming pc. Could be just general optimization as well, console developers know the game will only run at 30fps so they are going to tune the game to look as best it can at 30fps. On pc you may be anywhere from 30fps to 165fps depending on your monitor refresh rate and how many fps your system can push so they cant really optimize for smoothness at any particular frame rate on pc games.

 

[02david]

V-sync adds latency if you are using it. I personally find that using a mouse instead of a game pad brings out the low framerates and you feel it.

 

[Nedkic]

Strangely, when I turn off vsync and the fps is 60-90, its stuttering like crazy and the screen tearing is horrible as well

Also, how can I play 30fps on PC smoothly? Want to enjoy my batman AK...damn
Thanks guys for answering tho

 

[Dunlop0078]

Strangely, when I turn off vsync and the fps is 60-90, its stuttering like crazy and the screen tearing is horrible as well

Also, how can I play 30fps on PC smoothly? Want to enjoy my batman AK...damn
Thanks guys for answering tho

That game is a big pile of steaming crap you may never get it running properly. Do they have an option to turn on motion blur? If so turn it on high.

This may help: http://www.shacknews.com/article/90173/5-batman-arkham-knight-pc-performance-optimization-tips

 

[gamerk316]

The main difference is the console maintains an almost constant 30 FPS, with one frame drawn every two monitor refreshes. Compare that to PCs, where there is really no correlation between created frames to monitor refresh. As a result, even with Vsync enabled, you have a lot of duplicated/skipped frames, which makes the games on the PC appear less smooth.

Variable Refresh Rate monitors will fix a lot of this issue, but that's still a few years from being standard.

 

[Nedkic]

I've gone thru those fix but they did not appear to work haha...such a broken game

Re gamerk316, but when I console on a monitor, isn't its refresh rate fixed at 60hz?

 

[gamerk316]

I've gone thru those fix but they did not appear to work haha...such a broken game

Re gamerk316, but when I console on a monitor, isn't its refresh rate fixed at 60hz?

Sure, but Consoles are specifically coded in such a way so one frame is sent to the screen every two monitor refresh cycles.

The is how a console refresh cycle works:

Frame 1 Created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 1 sent to monitor
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 1 sent to monitor
Frame 2 Created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 2 sent to monitor
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 2 sent to monitor

Rinse and repeat. 30 Frames over 60 seconds, with one frame ideally being sent to the monitor twice in a row to maintain a steady 30 FPS.

Now lets look at a PC that's getting 60+ FPS:

Frame 1 Created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 1 sent to monitor
Frame 2 Created
Frame 3 Created
Frame 4 Created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 4 sent to monitor
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 4 sent to monitor
Frame 5 Created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 5 sent to monitor
Frame 6 created
Frame 7 created
Frame 8 created
Monitor requests new frame
Frame 8 sent to monitor

Here, we have 8 frames being created by the GPU over 5 monitor refresh periods. Over those 8 refreshes though, only four unique frames actually get displayed, and one even gets displayed twice. But your FPS counter reads 96 FPS, but the game looks choppy as hell. This is also why you get mouse lag when you enable Vsync, since the monitor can display repeat frames if the GPU falls behind, resulting in delay in mouse input being reflected on screen.