General Question on Framerates

[Starbuck1975]

This post is mostly motivated by the Oblivion benchmarking scores posted today on AnandTech.

Obviously, higher is better in terms of framerates, but what is the lowest framerate threshold beyond which you start noticing the staggering, freezing and crashing that forces you to start disabling eye candy settings.

In other words, regardless of graphics settings, what is the minimum framerate required to enjoy smooth gameplay?

 

[tvdang7]

i would say 40-50 i can feel a differnce under 40. and depending on what game you are playing it will be dipping low and rising up. so realisticly 50+ is better to help average out the dips and such . like in CSS yea u can play at 30-40 but with all those physics things going on its going to drop lower than that with a weak card.

 

[videopho]

I'd say below 20-30fps where the game is lot less desirable, espcially in flight sim games due to the physics or AI of the game and the controller (joystick) itself. For example, in the framerate vs altitude ratio, during a landing approach, you'd lose about 20-30% fps between 2000ft altitude than at 200-400ft level due to extreme ground graphic detail rendering.
Many FPS games are lot more tolerable at or below 20fps but still playable, IMO. The game of Oblivion is somehow different, it is even lagging at 40+ fps, especially the outdoor sceneries rendering.

 

[dguy6789]

For first person shooters, a minimum framerate of thirty or higher makes the game completely enjoyable.

For strategy games, the game can remain enjoyable and playable even with framerates that are in the mid to low twenties.

Some information: Halo and Halo 2 on the Xbox ran at 30fps. That is a locked setting. Not once in either of the games does the framerate go above it. Yet, both games are 100% playable and 100% enjoyable 100% of the time. This proves that a minimum frame rate of 30 is acceptable.

 

[CP5670]

I try to have it over 50 in FPS games, at least 98% of the time. If it falls below that more than once or twice, I lower some settings and see if it gets better. It depends a lot on the game though; RTSs often feel acceptable with less, maybe 35, while in fast paced multiplayer games (UT2004) and racing games I really want at least 70 or 80 at all times.

 

[dawza]

Agreed with above- minimum frames depends on the pace of the game. For a slower-moving game such as FEAR or Oblivion, a 30-35 min is OK; for UT2004, I like 60+.

Sometimes, though, it is more important that I maintain a steady frame rate, especially in faster games- for example, I could play UT2004 at a steady 50fps just fine, but if I am going at 100fps the whole time and suddenly drop to 50, I will notice it.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Great, thanks for the inputs. I have posted my system build elsewhere, and have decided on going 7900GT instead of X1900XT...mostly for budget reasons...the motivating factor for this system upgrade is Oblivion.

Based on the responses on this thread, and the benchmarks posted on the AnandTech article, it appears that a 7900GT can handle dungeons and town framerates just fine...with outdoors posing the only real issue if I want to have all the eye candy enabled...ironic, because the same held true for Morrowind several years back, and honestly, reducing the draw distance and environmental effects didnt detract from the gameplay one bit.

 

[BFG10K]

It depends on the game but for most I like a minimum of at least 60 FPS, though more is always better.