Question does playing at 30 fps mean ruining the game?

Retro-pc-user-1

Junior Member
Feb 1, 2023
13
9
41
Do you think playing at 30 fps means ruining the game? or can we adapt? I'm playing a beautiful title and the computer can only reach fps between 30 and 60. Do you think it's ruined like this?
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,363
1,118
106
Depends on whether you're seeing artifacts or are happy with your current game play. Old CRT TV's are around that speed, current TV's though on average are 120 or higher. The only way to really know is try it on a higher fps system.
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
28,272
19,910
146
Obviously it is not enough for competitive titles. For me it depends on the game with single player. There are titles where it doesn't interfere with gameplay, and after playing a little while you get used to it. Others, it will have too much of a negative impact on reaction time in boss fights and such for my taste.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,508
586
126
All the FEAR games work fine at 120fps, i played through them a few years ago.

30 is unplayable to me. I remember Force Unleashed on PC was like that, and I used some third party fix to make it run at 60 at least. Many of these games are console ports that don't even work properly at high framerates.
 

Mai72

Lifer
Sep 12, 2012
11,578
1,741
126
I played Alice: Madness Returns at 30fps. Its a 2011 game, and it ran fine.

Then again, its mostly a platform game. Lots of jumping with some action. Its not a first person game.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
The game is FEAR + 2expansions
(Beautiful game from 2005)

That game should run fine on even older hardware. If you have something from the last 10 years, you should be goldren.

As for 30fps, depends on the game. Back in the day, 30fps was the norm. Back when Quake 1 came out, getting ~30fps was what most people got. I remember when I got a Voodoo 2, and it was able to run the game at 72 fps (engine max), it was crazy smooth.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DAPUNISHER

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
28,272
19,910
146
That game should run fine on even older hardware. If you have something from the last 10 years, you should be goldren.

As for 30fps, depends on the game. Back in the day, 30fps was the norm. Back when Quake 1 came out, getting ~30fps was what most people got. I remember when I got a Voodoo 2, and it was able to run the game at 72 fps (engine max), it was crazy smooth.
If you look at the sig, you can see they play on vintage early 2000s GPUs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Retro-pc-user-1

Racan

Golden Member
Sep 22, 2012
1,101
1,969
136
Why limit yourself to such old hardware though? Games from the era of the graphics cards in your sig can run on modern hardware without much issues and for older games you can emulate retro gaming PCs now anyway.

 
Last edited:

Retro-pc-user-1

Junior Member
Feb 1, 2023
13
9
41
All the FEAR games work fine at 120fps, i played through them a few years ago.

30 is unplayable to me. I remember Force Unleashed on PC was like that, and I used some third party fix to make it run at 60 at least. Many of these games are console ports that don't even work properly at high framerates.

If you look at the sig, you can see they play on vintage early 2000s GPUs.
Exactly!
For now I have Pixel Doubling enabled and I play with everything maxed out (even soft shadows), but with a really low resolution. (1600x1200 divided by 2 = 800x600)
it s a very big 4/3 screen (20 inch) and the result is rather unpleasant. but now i have about 60 fps

Why limit yourself to such old hardware though? Games from the era of the graphics cards in your sig can run on modern hardware without much issues and for older games you can emulate retro gaming PCs now anyway.



I usually use a pc from the same year as the game. In this case the 2003 pc was able to run all the 2004 games with maximum details. So I decided to try a 2005 game.
but I asked too much, it's a problematic gpu
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
Exactly!
For now I have Pixel Doubling enabled and I play with everything maxed out (even soft shadows), but with a really low resolution. (1600x1200 divided by 2 = 800x600)
it s a very big 4/3 screen (20 inch) and the result is rather unpleasant. but now i have about 60 fps

I feel like people these days forget that pixel doubling and interlacing was a thing for a long time. I played a lot of Quake World with interlacing enabled before I got a Voodoo 2.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,839
3,174
126
fps is highly subjective...
if its a turn based game, a table top game, card game, or even RTS with limited animations, 30fps is not game breaking.

If its a First person shooter, third person shooter, or anything which has dynamic enviorments and ray tracing, 30fps will probably make you cry.
 

Stuka87

Diamond Member
Dec 10, 2010
6,240
2,559
136
fps is highly subjective...
if its a turn based game, a table top game, card game, or even RTS with limited animations, 30fps is not game breaking.

If its a First person shooter, third person shooter, or anything which has dynamic enviorments and ray tracing, 30fps will probably make you cry.

I don't think RT has an impact. But the faster the movement in a game is, the more important it is to have a fluid FPS experience.

Even though I have a 165Hz display, I almost never game at 165fps. As the majority of games (That I play anyway) are fine at 60fps.
 

Whirlwind

Senior member
Nov 4, 2006
540
18
81
After getting a 240Hz monitor, I find that 60 FPS really is not all that satisfying after experiencing much higher frame rates....YMMV