what fps is good for a game ?

Placebo

fps = frames per sec, not first person shooter :P
We`ll ive bought the 64 ATI RADEON MOBILITY 9600, And i was reading through a website and it said that this card would run halflife 2 at around 35+ish !

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.html?i=1866&p=9

35 Frames per second, is that any good ? or what should the frames per sec be to look good ?

P.s : that card came with my laptop, so i cant get a new card or anything.

Karl Hungus

35fps is perfectly playable if you're playing single player, but if you were a multiplayer man, then you'd want about 60fps. It can make the difference when you want those headshots!

Placebo

thanks alot man,
wohoooooooo halflife 2.

neokenzo

Sorry for asking such a stupid question but how do you check fps on your pc for each individual game?

tuxy

if you download http://www.fraps.com/ and have i running while you play a game it will display the fps
btw Placebo laptops arnt ideal for serious game players the card u have yours is good for a laptop but desktop pc's will out proform it

Karl Hungus

Originally posted by neokenzo
Sorry for asking such a stupid question but how do you check fps on your pc for each individual game?

Usually there's a console command like /showfps1 or suchlike.
Just google for the specific game's command, and you'll be roaring!

tuxy

Originally posted by AngelWhore
Usually there's a console command like /showfps1 or suchlike.
Just google for the specific game's command, and you'll be roaring!

ya but just downloading fraps will save him having to find the commad for each game

weemcd

i heard that the in game fps counters are always more reliable, and that fraps is always out by a few. im nitpicking of course just thought id mention that

Placebo

Placebo laptops arnt ideal for serious game players the card u have yours is good for a laptop but desktop pc's will out proform it

man, i cant carry my desktop to college or to LANS,
that card i have is pretty good, best i could find in the price range of <1,800, only thing better than this card would be one in the new dell inspiron, specially made for gamers 2,200 euros !!!!!!

my laptops 1700.

Amd 64 bit 3000
512 ram
40 gb
dvd/cd rw
ATI RADEON Mobility 9600
3.5 kg eeeeeeeeeeeeeeep !

Pugsley

AW, your fps has VERY little effect on your aiming as long as its 30+, the main reason people liked higher in games like Q3 or half-life + MODs was for using other techniques, Bunny Hopping for example, any less than 60fps would SERIOUSLY bugger up the speeds you can reach using Bunny Hopping, the same applies to strafe jumping in Quake.

As for checking fps, depends on the game, I know half life was cl_showfps 1 or net_graph 3, in Quake its /cg_drawfps 1.

Giblet

125 fps to be exact in Quake3, (or 333 if ya can get it, and it's not locked)

77 in Quakeworld.

You'd want 125hz and 154 hz! respectively.

Oh and FPS does matter when aiming, you need rock steady frame for constant aim, which is why you should cap your FPS to a value that it wont go under.

Pugsley

The only way a non rock steady FPS will effect your aim is if it goes from 70 to 10, a change from 50-120 will have VERY VERY little effect on your aim (i repeat 'VERY' once more).

btw the FPS cap in Quake3 is 255, which is pretty much pointless however, as your eye only actually picks up 70'ish, and any FPS over 100 is more than enough to get max strafe jump speed.

Big Chief

125 is the "perfect" setting for q3 pugs, play ra3/cpma/q3f etc and you will see that, especially for ramp jumps as you get the most distance with this setting... try it and you will see

60-75fps is generally what im looking for in most games. I play with it capped on 30 in vice city though to stop those lil "stutters" that happens when it is switching mp3's/radio stations (whats that about anyway?)... fps games im unhappy if it drops below 40/50... and generally like it to be locked around 60/75 solid depending on the refresh rate lock on the game..

BKtje

Im guessing it depends a lot on the game!

I play UT and used to have fps of around 40. At the time it was fine but once other peoples pcs got better you noticed that you started dying a lot more and couldnt seem to keep up. (thot hat could be people getting better as well of course).

Then got a new pc and suddenly had 85fps. It made it so much easier to kill people.

What im saying is that if everyone has low fps than you wont notice it. Once people have a lot more fps than u u begin to notice it. Same with 2k4 now. I get 40fps and i dont notice it at all but i bet ina couple years when ppl are all getting 100+ and i still have 40 ill notice it a **** load.


Also if your used to a high amount in a game and then suddenly get a low amount you'll notice it a lot more than if u get low all the time. Stability is important

zAbbo

Originally posted by Pugsley
btw the FPS cap in Quake3 is 255, which is pretty much pointless however, as your eye only actually picks up 70'ish, and any FPS over 100 is more than enough to get max strafe jump speed.

sigh

ive playe with 333fps, which as Giblet sed is the best, The OSP(which we all use) mod has it capped at 142(i think), i myself play with 120fps and 120hz. And yes FPS does affect ping.

Pugsley it has feck all to do with what your eye perceives as being smooth, play q3 competitvely and you will see. Anyone wanna get that FPS > Speed Diagram on quake3

quarryman

Originally posted by Big Chief


60-75fps is generally what im looking for in most games. I play with it capped on 30 in vice city though to stop those lil "stutters" that happens when it is switching mp3's/radio stations (whats that about anyway?)... fps games im unhappy if it drops below 40/50... and generally like it to be locked around 60/75 solid depending on the refresh rate lock on the game..

how do you cap the FPS in Vice city? or any game for that matter?

so is the cap the upper or lower limit?

Giblet

Originally posted by Pugsley
The only way a non rock steady FPS will effect your aim is if it goes from 70 to 10, a change from 50-120 will have VERY VERY little effect on your aim (i repeat 'VERY' once more).

btw the FPS cap in Quake3 is 255, which is pretty much pointless however, as your eye only actually picks up 70'ish, and any FPS over 100 is more than enough to get max strafe jump speed.

This has all been debated, tested, etc etc.

You aren't even much of an active player, so I don't know were you are getting these crazy figures from.

You sensitivity at 50 fps, will be different to what it is at 125, your movement will be aswell, so if its constantly changing, you won't be able to play at the same level through the game.

You'll get your ass kicked if you think a shakey fps won't affect the consistancy of your aim.

And the limit for FPS on ANY windows based games is 999.9 fps, unless it's been locked by the software.
You can't get higher than this due to the actual inner workings of windows.

monument

Originally posted by Placebo
man, i cant carry my desktop to college or to LANS

I carried mine all the way from Ballina to Gamecon, but then again the bus carried it most of the way

Pugsley

Originally posted by Giblet
You aren't even much of an active player, so I don't know were you are getting these crazy figures from.

You cant comemnt on my activeness considering
A) I have never played on-line with you
we are in diffrent server and game communities

My time in the Quake community is small because the engine seriously limits people on any conenction loewer than 512k, my ISDN simply doesnt cope well enough to bother trying to play it half seriously, its also why my on-line esperiance with BF1942 is very limited, its also not recommended for any ISDN'ers/modem'ers, while it is playable having to aim half a srceen infront of people gets highly frustrating. I prefare to stick to more ISDN friendly games, ie: half-life, my 5years +experiance of it is pretty much all of my on-line FPS experiance, however Ive dabbled in most games on-line, but until the internet in my area gets out of the stoneage and I get ADSL installed, half-life is where Im staying for now.

I got them 'crazy figures' from the in-game fps viewer (draw_fps), it never goes above 255.

play with it capped on 30 in vice city though to stop those lil "stutters" that happens when it is switching mp3's/radio stations (whats that about anyway

When you switch radio station it has to load up a whole new mp3 file for that radio station, soem are quite big and can put a short strain on your cpu giving you a short lapse of FPS.

how do you cap the FPS in Vice city? or any game for that matter?

Diffrent in each game, for half-life however it is fps_max *fps limit*

edit: I was grouchy as feck when I wrote this so I edited quite a bit out and changed most of the rest of it. sorry

po0k

For any sort of 3D/fastmoving action or simulator game game, 60FPS min.
For 2D strategy, platformers, RPGs, ~35fps+

Basicly, if you miss a shot or a crucial click because you couldn't see the action moving fast enough, your framerate is too low.

It's all subjective too btw, some people play excellently on crappy fps and high-ping conenctions.

po0k

Originally posted by Pugsley
I have limited play of quake because the on-line engine is dire for anything below cable and I prefare to stick to games which cope with my limited bandwidth better.

That's what Gib means by "not an active player" [in the quake commuinity].

When you switch radio station it has to load up a whole new mp3 file for that radio station, soem are quite big and can put a short strain on your cpu giving you a short lapse of FPS.

Enable DMA, and it would ahve more to do with Memory bandwidth and management than CPU speeds.
MP3 decoding uses SFA cpu time on a modern cpu.

Big Chief

Originally posted by Pugsley

When you switch radio station it has to load up a whole new mp3 file for that radio station, soem are quite big and can put a short strain on your cpu giving you a short lapse of FPS.

i have a XP3000+ barton chip and 1gb of PC3200 ddr ram, so why does it stutter?

how do i enable dma then syxpak? seen the option before i think but cant remember where

if i take the fps cap limit off Vice city i noticed textures dont render right from a distance until you are up close (although they render fine at that distance when capped) it will run at about 100+fps but with those lil stutters while changing radio stations/mp3 (which ive even noticed happening with it capped now) and the texture thing ive stayed on the capped for time being.

how would i irradicate the radio station/mp3 thing?

Giblet

Well to set DMA go to
Control Panel> System > Devices > IDE controllers

Select properties on both channels, and select advanced. See if DMA if available is enabled.

Oh video card settings might have something to do with the textures blurring. Set it to Gl_mipmap_linear, or something. Probably called High Quality OpenGL under the ATI/Nvidia control panels.

Big Chief

yeh i have everything set to high quality in the ati settings, will check the FSAA and anistorpic filtering settings tonight when i get home and see if possibly that has anything to do with it

as far as i know though everything is set to highest detail/quality in my ati settings but will double check that

po0k

Might have something to do with the LOD Bias.
www.guru3d.net or .com
Take a look there, should ahve some sort of "hidden features" tweaking proggie for Radeons.

Big Chief

i noticed last night it only seems to happen when the cdrom has been idle for a lil while and it starts spinning back up again it stalls for a brief second so it isnt a graphics problem as far as i can see (plus every other game i have runs as smooth as..)

checked the dma settings and everything was fine as far as i could see (didnt see any 32 bit option though, im on win xp pro if thats of any help)