2019-06-01_PC_Gamer

PC Graphics Options Explained

HARDWARE

Becauseitdeterminesthenumberof
pixelsyourGPUneedstorender,
resolutionhasthegreatesteffecton
performance.Thisiswhyconsole
gameswhichrunat1080poften
upscalefromalowerrendering
resolution–thatway,theycanhandle

fancygraphicseffectswhilemaintaining

asmoothframerate.Ibenchmarkedthe

ShadowofMordorresolutionstotheleft

(allsettingsonmaximum)ontheLarge

PixelColliderwithtwoofitsfourGTX

Titansactive,toshowhowmuch

resolutionaffectsperformance.

ShadowofMordorresolutionbenchmarks

(2xNvidiaGTXTitanSLI)

1980x720(1/2resolution)

2560x1440(nativeresolution)

5120x2880(2xresolution)

Avg.FPS MaxFPS MinFPS

102 338 30

51 189 23

16 26 10

G-sync and FreeSync

New technology is starting to solve this big mess. The

problems stem from one thing: displays have a fixed refresh

rate. But if the display’s refresh rate could change with the

framerate, we could eliminate screen tearing and eliminate

the stuttering and input lag problems of vsync at the same

time. Of course, you need a compatible video card and display

for this to work, and there are two technologies that do that:

Nvidia has branded its technology G-sync, while AMD’s efforts

are called Project FreeSync.

Initially, Nvidia cards only supported G-sync monitors, but

GeForce cards will now work with some FreeSync monitors.

Adaptive Vertical

Synchronization

The other big problem with vsync happens when the
framerate drops below the refresh rate. If the framerate
exceeds the refresh rate, vsync locks it to the refresh rate:
60FPS on a 60Hz display. That’s fine, but if the framerate
drops below the refresh rate, vsync forces it to jump to
another synchronized value: 30 FPS, for instance. If the
framerate fluctuates above and below the refresh rate often, it
causes stuttering. We’d much rather allow the framerate to sit
at 59 than punch it down to 30.

Vertical sync and

screen tearing

When a display’s refresh cycle is out of

sync with the game’s rendering cycle,

the screen can refresh during a swap

between finished frames. The effect is a

‘break’ called screen tearing, where

we’re seeing portions of two or more

frames at the same time. It is also our

number one enemy after low framerate.

One solution to screen tearing is

vertical sync (vsync). It’s usually an

option in the graphics settings, and it

prevents the game from messing with

the display until it completes its refresh

cycle, so that the frame swap doesn’t

occur in the middle of the display

updating its pixels. Unfortunately, vsync

causes its own problems, one being that

it contributes to input lag when the

game is running at a higher framerate

than the display’s refresh rate.

PERFORMANCE