FPS and Monitor Refrash rates

[poopa]

If I see a benchmark of, let's say, UT2K3 and on Radeon 9800Pro they got, let's say 150 FPS,
and, let's say, my monitor highest refrash rate is 100 mhz, does it mean I dont see all the frames?

 

[RussianSensation]

Precisely, implying that your videocard just rendered extra 50 frames for no reason. The videocard performance is usually limited by the maximum refresh rate of the monitor. However, playing at high resolutions and with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled is what high end cards are made for at which point they becoming the limiting agent. But then again if you do have a nice card you wont play without high resolution and quality settings so then you really don't have to worry about attaining 150FPS in any game and exceeding your refresh rate. Of course there is also an argument whether or not you can tell the difference between frames higher than 60-80 frames, but I wont get into that.

 

[Elcs]

Id try searching the Video Card forums on this topic. People seem to have done it to death there and some people are touchy with reposts of 'hot' topics.

 

[poopa]

Thanks for your answer R.S.
Short and to the point.

 

[BFG10K]

implying that your videocard just rendered extra 50 frames for no reason.

Which is incorrect.

The videocard performance is usually limited by the maximum refresh rate of the monitor.

Only if vsync and/or framerate caps are used. Otherwise it isn't.

 

[RussianSensation]

BFG so you are telling me you can see 150FPS on your monitor? Wow please tell me how because my monitor only refreshes at 85hz at 1600x1200.

What I meant by videocard performance being limited is to the "human eye" not in actual numbers when measured by FRAPS or whatever. Listen if your monitor does not have a frequency of 150hz you will not see 150FPS it's that simple. With 9000+ posts i'd figure you would know that....

 

[BenSkywalker]

BFG so you are telling me you can see 150FPS on your monitor? Wow please tell me how because my monitor only refreshes at 85hz at 1600x1200.

A few things- My monitor can easily exceed a 150Hz RR at lower res, although it does only handle 100Hz @1600x1200 so you can use the 150FPS by your standards at certain settings. Next up is that if you disable VSync you will see at least part of all the 150FPS even if you are only using a 60Hz RR- the vid card will draw the data as fast as it can even if your monitor can't keep up(it will start work on the next frame while it is part way through drawing the next by dropping all of the old frame data- this is what causes tearing when you disable VSync). Next is input latency. If you cap your framerate @85 by using VSync then you have input latency that results in your movement being updated to .0235 seconds instead of .0133 for 150FPS. This can be the difference in you getting fragged or fragging someone else.

I can assure you that BFG knows exactly what he is talking about on this topic, we have been explaining this to people time and time again for years now

 

[RussianSensation]

I am sorry then guys...I was just following the logic and what I have been told all my life in that case being bound by specifications of the output device being the monitor. Everyone makes mistakes..forgive me for being rude?

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: poopa
If I see a benchmark of, let's say, UT2K3 and on Radeon 9800Pro they got, let's say 150 FPS,
and, let's say, my monitor highest refrash rate is 100 mhz, does it mean I dont see all the frames?

If you do benchies which achieve rates higher than the monitor then because they used an (driver) option to *disable* the syncronisation of the frames with the monitor. (so called Vsync, off). If Vsync is on then every 3d game would always sync with the monitor and can not exceed its refresh rate. (in my case it would be stuck at 80 or 100 hz). VERY UNLIKELY that a new game with eyecady on etc.. hits FPS higher than my monitor refresh

From a certain point of view your assumption is right, you dont SEE 150 complete frames (how could you ?) because the monitor 'only' updates 100 times a second ...if i do a benchmark getting 200FPS the card would just push everything out to the monitor as soon as the frame is rendered...very quick....and the moni would sync (slower) on its own ...

But....this, your question is too theoretic and also somehow (practically) not relevant...at least it is not a 'problem' because 99,999% of people do NOT run their monitors such high rates anyway....

Sigh...this question somehow reiminds me when i was in school and the teacher told me about the one guy who had to do a physics/science test.
His only question for the test was "Why is the sky blue ?" Of course the answer was 30 pages long and very scientific and detailed