[SOLVED] FPS capped at 144 while playing Black Desert Online

thejiang

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CPU: i7-9700k
GPU: nvidia 1080 gtx
RAM: 32 gb
Monitor: VG278Q (144hz)

Things I have already done:
  • Updated to latest driver
  • Disabled v-sync
  • Disabled g-sync,
  • Turned off both monitors.
  • Playing in full screen mode.
  • Reformatted PC twice in the last 2 months
  • Reinstalled fresh clean drivers over 6 times. (deleted drivers, then installed brand new fresh driver)

Max FPS never seems to go above 144 fps.
There are people with lower PC specs, but are hitting 250-300 FPS. I have no idea how they do it. What is the problem? Or what may be causing my system to cap my FPS, even though I've tried many "uncap" methods?

Here is a screenshot of my CPU and GPU when BDO is online



As you can see my base clock sits at around 3.6 GHz, while my usage is very low still, that's really abnormal for this game. Since it uses an incredibly high amount of resources from the CPU/GPU.
 
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Solution
My friend mentioned that my system isn't going into full screen exclusive mode, and windows is refresh capping me, somewhere a vsync is turned on, but I have no idea where that "somewhere" might be. It's really frustrating!

I've also reformatted my PC twice in the last 2 months. And reinstalled fresh clean drivers over 6 times.

Its not your hardware nor a driver issue. So stop reformatting lol I couldnt Imagine doing all that 6 times lol.

However yes it seems to be an issue with the game itself and how windows transports your monitors refresh rate to the game. Which in that video when he said, for some people setting the fps cap below ur monitors refresh rate unlocks the fps cap.

It really is a strange situation but since I...
CPU: i7-9700k
GPU: nvidia 1080 gtx
RAM: 32 gb
Monitor: VG278Q (144hz)
Updated to latest driver, disabled v-sync, disabled g-sync, turned off both monitors. Playing in full screen mode.
Max FPS never seems to go above 144 fps.
There are people with lower PC specs, but are hitting 250-300 FPS. I have no idea how they do it. What is the problem? Or what may be causing my system to cap my FPS, even though I've tried many "uncap" methods?

Some games, like apex, have a hard limit set in the game itself. For example apex does not go above 144 fps. UNLESS you edit the launch commands for the game which has a certain code you enter with a value following (usually 0 for unlimited fps) and this allows Apex to go above 144fps.

For apex the command is +fps_max 0 .. this allows apex to go above 144fps or to any fps within 300fps. Instead of 0 you could set say, 200 to limit it to 200 but still unlock the max of 144.

So my question would be, which launcher do you use for this game? And can you google on how and if you need a launch command for fps higher than 144hz?

If there is no hard limit in the game that cannot be bypassed with a command, do you possibly have a frame limiter on anywhere else like MSI Afterburner or anything?
 

thejiang

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Some games, like apex, have a hard limit set in the game itself. For example apex does not go above 144 fps. UNLESS you edit the launch commands for the game which has a certain code you enter with a value following (usually 0 for unlimited fps) and this allows Apex to go above 144fps.

For apex the command is +fps_max 0 .. this allows apex to go above 144fps or to any fps within 300fps. Instead of 0 you could set say, 200 to limit it to 200 but still unlock the max of 144.

So my question would be, which launcher do you use for this game? And can you google on how and if you need a launch command for fps higher than 144hz?

If there is no hard limit in the game that cannot be bypassed with a command, do you possibly have a frame limiter on anywhere else like MSI Afterburner or anything?
There is no launcher option it seems for BDO to disable capped FPS.
I don't have MSI afterburner and don't have a frame limiter on anything else... not that I know of? I've only ever used msi afterburner but I've uninstalled it.


Find the launcher exe for the game and under compatibility tab try uncheck fullscreen optimisation.
I've already tried that, does not change my FPS.
 
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There is no launcher option it seems for BDO to disable capped FPS.
I don't have MSI afterburner and don't have a frame limiter on anything else... not that I know of? I've only ever used msi afterburner but I've uninstalled it.



I've already tried that, does not change my FPS.

Does the game use a launcher? If so which one?

If not, the game could have a hard fps cap within the game itself and people found a way to edit the cfg files to unlock that fps. I would look more into that route than trying to mess with windows.

Does your fps stay at 144fps the entire time or does it drop down? I ask this because if it stays 144fps the entire time then your system is fully capable of pushing more fps and theres most likely either a command line or a cfg file option to unlock the hard cap within the game itself.

EDIT: Is it a competative style game where you need more than 144fps to get better frametimes or something? Why do you want more than 144fps?
 

boju

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IMO Full screen opt. does not affect fps caps.

I suggested it because of this post.


It appears this game is affected by some feature in Win10. Thought full screen opt with it's borderless full screen optimisation could force cap fps to the refresh rate.

Seems since the last couple Win10 updates brought this issue.

Make sure to check dates on any fix videos or posts.

As a test, change monitor Hz and see if fps is limited to the refresh rate.
 
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thejiang

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Does the game use a launcher? If so which one?

If not, the game could have a hard fps cap within the game itself and people found a way to edit the cfg files to unlock that fps. I would look more into that route than trying to mess with windows.

Does your fps stay at 144fps the entire time or does it drop down? I ask this because if it stays 144fps the entire time then your system is fully capable of pushing more fps and theres most likely either a command line or a cfg file option to unlock the hard cap within the game itself.

EDIT: Is it a competative style game where you need more than 144fps to get better frametimes or something? Why do you want more than 144fps?

Yes the game uses a launcher, Black desert online Launcher
Having more FPS allows me to cast skills faster, and have animations complete faster. It's very important in a heavy pvp-based game. my fps goes from 140-144.

Here is a video showing how to unlock the 144fps cap.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SahV-a2GX0k

Already done everything in this video, doesn't change my FPS.
 
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I suggested it because of this post.


It appears this game is affected by some feature in Win10. Thought full screen opt with it's borderless full screen optimisation could force cap fps to the refresh rate.

Seems since the last couple Win10 updates brought this issue.

Make sure to check dates on any fix videos or posts.

As a test, change monitor Hz and see if fps is limited to the refresh rate.

The video I linked actually addresses those issues with windows being the limiting factor with the monitors Hz rate.

Why is windows 10 so good but so bad!
 
Yes the game uses a launcher, Black desert online Launcher
Having more FPS allows me to cast skills faster, and have animations complete faster. It's very important in a heavy pvp-based game. my fps goes from 140-144.



Already done everything in this video, doesn't change my FPS.

Well then this may be out of my realm of help haha.

What is your monitors refresh rate?

Also have you double checked that you did everything properly the way the guy said in the video? Its only a 2 month old video but IDK if theres been updates that could affect his solutions or not since then.
 

thejiang

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Well then this may be out of my realm of help haha.

What is your monitors refresh rate?

Also have you double checked that you did everything properly the way the guy said in the video? Its only a 2 month old video but IDK if theres been updates that could affect his solutions or not since then.

My monitor's refresh rate is 144 hz.
Yeah I went through it several times to ensure I did the right thing, it's very simple, disable g-sync, disable v-sync, turn on full screen. Nothing works for me.

I appreciate your help regardless, because it's still baffling that people with a lower graphics card AND CPU (i7-7700k, and a 970) is able to pull 200+ FPS, and I can't even break 144 fps.
 
My monitor's refresh rate is 144 hz.
Yeah I went through it several times to ensure I did the right thing, it's very simple, disable g-sync, disable v-sync, turn on full screen. Nothing works for me.

I appreciate your help regardless, because it's still baffling that people with a lower graphics card AND CPU (i7-7700k, and a 970) is able to pull 200+ FPS, and I can't even break 144 fps.

Its not your hardware its something to do with the game itself and how it uses drivers and your monitors refresh rate to dictate the cap in game.

Since I do not own the game myself, IDK much as far as troubleshooting. I figured that video would do it but tbh Im dumb for thinking that you didnt already look into videos like that. But some people dont so I figured Id post it.

It has to be a super simple solution you probably overlooked maybe.
 

thejiang

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Its not your hardware its something to do with the game itself and how it uses drivers and your monitors refresh rate to dictate the cap in game.

Since I do not own the game myself, IDK much as far as troubleshooting. I figured that video would do it but tbh Im dumb for thinking that you didnt already look into videos like that. But some people dont so I figured Id post it.

It has to be a super simple solution you probably overlooked maybe.

My friend mentioned that my system isn't going into full screen exclusive mode, and windows is refresh capping me, somewhere a vsync is turned on, but I have no idea where that "somewhere" might be. It's really frustrating!

I've also reformatted my PC twice in the last 2 months. And reinstalled fresh clean drivers over 6 times.
 
My friend mentioned that my system isn't going into full screen exclusive mode, and windows is refresh capping me, somewhere a vsync is turned on, but I have no idea where that "somewhere" might be. It's really frustrating!

I've also reformatted my PC twice in the last 2 months. And reinstalled fresh clean drivers over 6 times.

Its not your hardware nor a driver issue. So stop reformatting lol I couldnt Imagine doing all that 6 times lol.

However yes it seems to be an issue with the game itself and how windows transports your monitors refresh rate to the game. Which in that video when he said, for some people setting the fps cap below ur monitors refresh rate unlocks the fps cap.

It really is a strange situation but since I dont know more about the game and how it works Im afraid I cannot help. I mean I could have you do a buncha nonsense but it seems like you already did all the nonsense.

Until you can find something with your exact issue at this time, Im not sure anyone here will be able to help you unless someone with your exact issue stumbles upon this post with a fix.

... If it was me, I would keep playing around and making sure Ive watched every video and read every article on similar issues on google until I either found it, or didnt.

TBH Sometimes Ive spent months researching an issue to find I overlooked a simple solution that I didnt do properly but thought I actually did it properly. Sometimes its right in front of our eyes man lol.
 
Solution

thejiang

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Jun 16, 2014
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See this

Alright tried this too, not the fix, apparently The Fall Creator's Update (v1709) had an update to the way the Desktop Window Manager and Game Mode worked which bugged out vsync implementation in quite a few games. Updating your system normally to the Spring Creator's Update or the newest doesn't fix it as it's considered a personal setting during the update process. The only way to fix this bug is to install the most recent version of Windows 10 from scratch using an ISO.

Do you think this may be an option? I found this in a performance guide for BDO.