A thread for those with weak Nvidia GPUs using Vsync Half Refresh to stay alive

[Xenphor]

Ok I've been reading more about the issue at hand trying to get a better understanding of it and made some changes. I decided to try forgoing half refresh altogether and instead see how normal vsync + forced triple buffering would work. I didn't try this approach at first because there seems to be much confusion about how triple buffering works on the internet.

From my understanding, triple buffering only ever works with vsync and basically adds a gradient of values for which the game can sync to, in between the normal values of monitor's refresh rate. I have read that somehow triple buffering may be used without vsync but that seems false. Triple buffering also can add input lag and eats up some video memory. Now, adaptive vsync on the other hand is a response to triple buffering that's supposed to work universally. Of course all of this may be completely untrue.

Now the huge problem with this approach is that it is completely non-standardized for whatever reason. D3doverrider seems to be the most popular way of forcing the implementation of triple buffering but doing it in that way is prone to even more issues.

Regardless, I tried simply using vsync - either from the CP, in game, or through D3doverrider and combining it with triple buffering from d3doverrider. Taking the same games, Metro 2033 and Crysis, I was actually somewhat impressed with the results. For the first time, I think I saw the benefits of triple buffering. I got smoothness of vsync as my FPS seemed to hover near 60 and as I encountered slowdown, there was not as much terrible stuttering as there would be with normal vsync. As I said before, it's like triple buffering adds a gradient or curve.

Well that's about it. There's no guarantee this method will work with any other game and so I'll be back to step 1 with a screen full of tearing in the foreseeable future. It is really unfathomable that this problem has not been solved yet.

 

[tweakboy]

BF3 is the only game where if you put ULTRA high settings,, you need a 580 or 680


every other game,, high settings .... gl

 

[Xenphor]

Actually Battlefield runs alright on ultra settings. It does drop frames quite a bit but triple buffer helps with that. Unfortunately I think I do notice input lag with it on. I found Metro to be the worst of all the games I've tested so far, followed up curiously by Stalker Call of Pipryat. For Stalker I've found that Adaptive Vsync actually does a decent job of giving a good image with moderate-low tearing. Trying to use triple buffer or regular vysnc results in a choppy image -- I'm guessing because of the drops in frames.

 

[pandemonium]

I'm glad you're finding some decent results playing with settings. I'd love to hear if you're able to resolve it. As for me, I've spent so much time trying that I've simply given up.

As long as you have fun troubleshooting it. ^^

 

[Xenphor]

Well not exactly fun, more like obsessive. As I said in my prior post, I really can't believe that this problem still exists. For the longest time I thought that either my hardware wasn't performing properly or something else was amiss. Reading about how D3d handles buffering does make me think that maybe the issue might've been different with glide on Voodoo cards because my Voodoo2 did well at 800x600...

I have another round of games coming up that I'm going to test. First I'm going to try Crysis 2, which hopefully either has the built in frame limiter that Nexuiz has (sys_maxfps?) or performs well with forced triple buffering. It's pretty sad that I'm not even playing these games but just testing to see how vsync works. There should be a completely external solution to solve this problem because relying on either a hack or sometimes unreliable graphics card drivers isn't a good future.

Even after all that said, a pc game with a fluctuating framerate will still never compare in image stability with console titles, even with all these fixes. Perhaps the only game in recent memory that became unplayable due to frame rate was Shadow of the Colossus on PS2, but other than that, I've played many sub 30 fps titles on n64 on down and those have always at least managed to maintain some level of consistency. The fact that so much powerful (albeit budget) hardware is going to waste rendering in between frames is sad. I shouldn't have to buy a 680 just so I can reach my refresh rate. I would be completely fine with a consistent 30, 35, 40, or 45 fps.

edit: I had a question. All this talk about 120hz monitors somehow eliminating tearing is totally bogus right? How would being at 120hz help at all? If anything it would make things worse because then you would have to maintain 120fps just to get a good vsync. If your fps dropped beneath that then wouldn't you just get the same type of stutter you would get if your fps dropped from 60 on a 60hz display? Furthermore, if you took vsync off, wouldn't you still get the same tearing you would get on a 60hz display? If I try to cap my framerate below 60 fps and leave vsync off, I know I will still get tearing.

edit: Wow just got Crysis 2 running at 30fps limit with triple buffering. Using DX11 Ultra settings with High Res textures. This is definitely more impressive than any other game so far. The triple buffering seems to be working well when it dips under 30.

 

[Xenphor]

I've just downloaded Nvidia inspector and am playing around with the frame limiter in that. I don't understand some of the options that cap the framerate below the refresh rate (58?) but I guess it helps with input lag? I tried both 30 fps cap and 58 fps cap and both seemed to work well in Metro. My framerate still tanks though especially in the intro sequence.

Is Radeon Pro the equivalent application for ATI devices? Does it work as well as Nvidia Inspector? I'm wondering because it has some feature like force triple buffer/vsync in directx. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it has a frame limiter. I think I may be at the point where tweaking by a game by game basis gives decent enough results that I could consider amd cards, if there are similar options like Nvidia has. The important thing is that the available options actually work and work well every time for each game. So far with all my adjustments in the Nvidia drivers (except for half refresh), things have worked like I've expected them to.

 

[pandemonium]

RadeonPro is indeed a very versatile program giving you an easy GUI to run forced settings on certain games, with several profiles for just about every game out there. I used to mess with it, but haven't bothered lately since my recent hardware update has allowed me to not worry about finnicking with settings to achieve a decent framerate.