60fps - no longer smooth?

[Hatisherrif]

I don't know if it's my PC or my eyes, but it just seems that 60fps is no longer smooth for me in certain games. For example, Far Cry 2 is very known for its sluggish performance and spikes even at high fps, and I find the game choppy at everything under 90fps. Minecraft is another example where I actually need 150+ fps to be silky smooth. Another thing I noticed is that this usually happens in FC2 after around 10 minutes of gameplay. No spikes or anything, FRAPS showing up normal, it just doesn't feel smooth.

What I was thinking: is the GPU maybe getting too hot and kind of starting to stutter? I find this unlikely since I cleaned my entire graphics card a week ago and max temps don't exceed 80c even in Crysis. Also, it is a good framerate so I do not know what to think. Maybe my graphics card is just getting old?

If anyone experienced anything like this (sluggish movements in shooters and other games that don't "feel" like 60fps), please report. Maybe it's just me

PS: I also have two 60HZ monitors that should be fine with over 60fps, and I get the same feel on both.

 

[Stuka87]

Whats the response rate on your monitor? If it has a higher response rate, any FPS is going to look non-smooth due to the ghosting caused by the monitor itself.

 

[Puppies04]

I would love to know how you can tell the difference between 60fps and 120fps on a 60hz monitor.

 

[Hatisherrif]

Whats the response rate on your monitor? If it has a higher response rate, any FPS is going to look on-smooth due to the ghosting caused by the monitor itself.

Interesting. The new monitor is Dell Professional series 23 (not sure of the exact model number), supposedly with a response time of 5ms (standard, right?). I've never experienced this issue before, though.

 

[Hatisherrif]

I would love to know how you can tell the difference between 60fps and 120fps on a 60hz monitor.

My problem lies in that I'm sorry, not trying to sound stupid or like I'm trolling, but this is something I noticed, consistently.

 

[toyota]

I would love to know how you can tell the difference between 60fps and 120fps on a 60hz monitor.

just because he technically cant see framerates above 60fps does not mean the game itself cant feel smoother at high framerates. with just an average of 60fps that could mean lots more dips then at a higher framerate. some games like Far Cry 2 can certainly feel stuttery if the framerate are not well above the refresh rate the whole time.

 

[Gloomy]

I was playing Blades of Time the other day and I had to turn Fraps on to check and see if it was meeting VSYNC at 60 FPS. That game just feels choppy to play.

 

[Hatisherrif]

Well okay, thanks for the input! I will do some testing and perhaps film Far Cry 2 on high (where I get around 90fps) and low (200s) to show you my point.

More opinions would also be appreciated.

 

[SickBeast]

OP maybe you need a 120hz monitor and dual GTX 680s.

 

[SHAQ]

Try it for yourselves. Set a frame rate cap at 60 in a FPS and play for a bit then set it to 120 and replay. I believe it is more of an issue of lag since a 60hz monitor can't display more than 60 fps.

 

[Hatisherrif]

OP maybe you need a 120hz monitor and dual GTX 680s.

Well I certainly need to get rid of the HD 4890. It's done its time

Anyway, no, this is not what I want and my expectations clearly aren't that high. But I know what smooth is and I want it at a high framerate. Lag is not an issue here: it's more like what the other poster described. Something like ghosting that makes it feel sluggish/weird when I move my mouse to point at another place (like it's doing nearly unnoticeable micro-stops while I move my gun). It's still quite fast in those moments either way, but it's like comparing silk to cotton

 

[Puppies04]

just because he technically cant see framerates above 60fps does not mean the game itself cant feel smoother at high framerates. with just an average of 60fps that could mean lots more dips then at a higher framerate. some games like Far Cry 2 can certainly feel stuttery if the framerate are not well above the refresh rate the whole time.

This is neither what I said or what the OP said, he was talking about frame rates not average frame rates or minimum frame rates which i'm sure we all know are completly different.

So my point stands. If you can tell the difference between 60FPS and 120FPS on a 60hz monitor then something isn't quite right, or am I missing something?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

From my experience, if you get 60 FPS and it isn't smooth, then it can be anything/everything but not the graphic card.

Go for 1600+/1866+ RAM CAS9 or better.

Future CPUs like Ivy or Haswell may be smoother at stock despite slightly lower or even similar FPS.

Your HDD/SSD may be responsible.

Some games aren't very fast at 60 FPS, like Quake 3.

Many such reasons.

But it is NOT your GPU.

And I assume that we are talking of minimum 60 FPS and not average 60 FPS.

Going to 3930k should help a great deal.