Refresh rate and fps

(Cerebrate) #1

I’ve got a really crappy monitor, so I cannot set the refresh rate higher than 85 at 1024x768.

Does this mean that my r_displayrefresh cannot/shouldn’t be set higher than 85? If I set it to 100, fps is lowered down to about 50-60. I currently have it at 0 which is default, and the fps reach above 100 some places.

I’m not sure if I completely understand the relationship between refresh rate and fps. Even if cg_drawfps shows more than 100 fps, is it in reality below that because of my low refresh rate?

Help me understand this.

(Depth_Charge) #2

refresh rate is how fast your monitor refreshes so it is the fps of your monitor

(Cerebrate) #3

Which means that even if it tells me that I run more than 100 fps, it’s never more than 85, correct?

(Depth_Charge) #4

85 hertz isnt the same as 85 frames per second i dont think

(Aarsbuds0r) #5

Uhm, if you have over 100fps and your monitor is only 85 Hz, then its no use =] You might just as well do /com_maxfps 85.

Btw, make sure to use r_swapinterval 1. Otherwise, if you have more fps then your monitors refresh, it will make 2 frames on your monitor at once, wich will look ugly (weird stripes on the screen)

(Cerebrate) #6

No, but if the refresh rate is the fps of the monitor… then… what… who…?

Someone please clear this up.

(senator) #7

refresh rate: how often your monitor refreshes your screen

FPS: how often a game calculates the new screen

If you need additional information you have to tell us what exactly you mean by: " then… what… who…?" :lookaround:

(SCDS_reyalP) #8

Refresh rate is how many times per second your monitor draws a complete picture. Assuming vsync (r_swapinterval) is off, this is not related to how often your GFX card draws a complete picture.

r_displayrefresh tries to control your monitor refresh rate in game. Depending on your system, this may or may not work. Also most monitors will only accept certain numbers, like 60, 72, 85 etc.

com_maxfps tries to control how many frames per second your GFX card is told to draw. This is also what is reported by cg_drawfps

Because there are things that depend on FPS, it may be useful to have you com_maxfps different than your r_displayreferesh.

(Cerebrate) #9

So is there any reason to have more than 85 fps if the monitor cannot display more than 85 pictures/frames a second?

If there isn’t, I could just as well cap it at 85, right?

(senator) #10

You can jump higher and further with 125 FPS than with 85FPS… a ‘feature’ of the Quake3 engine :slight_smile: There are some ‘magic’ FPS that give you (slightly) better results than other FPS, 43, 76, 125 and 333 (i think) would be the best FPS settings if you want to try trickjumps.

(Cerebrate) #11

Yeah, I’ve noticed that some top players keep it at 76. What kind of a monster would set it to 333 though? :eek:

(Gimpsta) #12

Take a look at this article for a good explanantion of refresh rate, vsync …

http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=techdisplayadapters&Number=4277176

Gimpsta

(DarkangelUK) #13

If you’re playing a game where fps doesnt effect physics, set the max fps to a lower number and use the rest of the gfx cards power to make the game look good. I think this is the main reason Doom3 caps at 60fps, there’s just no need for more and physics arent effected by fps in that game.

You can set directx to a default hz for all games, click start>run then type in dxdiag. A box will pop up, on the tabs along the top, click on More Help then on the override button. Im sure by default all games are at 60hz

On that note, the 41.09 det drivers for my GF4 Ti4600 allowed me to set my monitors refresh rate to 200 (how i dont know). I used directx override and set it to 120hz (thats as hig as it can go), and even set all my Q3 engine games refreshdisplay to 125 and they all worked fine. Using other drivers only allowed me to goto 85hz and my games wouldnt work. Still cant figure out how it did this. Now ive got a new card and new drivers i can only set to 85hz, and i do notice the difference. I had my display set to 140hz for close to 2 years, now its 85hz my mouse pointer looks and feels jerky when moving it along my desktop. I miss my 140hz :frowning:

(Rain) #14

60hz = bleeding eyes

(B4tt3rY) #15

my monitor only goes as high as 85 hrtz, even though ive got a leet monitor and poeple tell me i can get 100 etc, does gfx card have anything to do with display refresh? cause i have a really shitty gfx card :frowning: