How to balance performance with quality in game setting

Plutoburn

Member
Jan 4, 2005
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Unlike console games, PC gamers have the luxury of choosing different graphic settings. And I am just wondering... in order to get the best performance & quality, what are the settings that gives the best qualities and what are the settings that having them on will only give small improvement at a cost of big FPS drops. Back in the CRT days, people have said to increase the resolution before using AA because less performance loss and similar graphic improvement, now that most people use LCD and native resolution, there are many other different types of settings out there, shadow, texture, v-sync, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, etc...
 

AzN

Banned
Nov 26, 2001
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You are trying to balance performance with game settings with that computer in your sig?

To answer your question it's you who decide.

There is no magical settings to give the best performance for eye candy. You just compensate with the machine you have.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
82,854
17,365
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Whatever you want.

I prize framerates above all, at least in shooters and most RTS's. Image quality is next, followed by resolution. Getting rid of the jaggies is less important to me, especially because at 2048x1536 on a CRT you really cant see them.
I find overuse of HDR lighting to be annoying and unrealistic. If I am able to turn it off, I will.
 

TheStu

Moderator<br>Mobile Devices & Gadgets
Moderator
Sep 15, 2004
12,089
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I usually start by setting it to the native res of my LCD at Low-Medium settings (7800gtx limits me there), then I start to dial up everything but shadows and water effects until things start to get sluggish, then back them off a bit and see if I can push up the water or shadows since I like what prettier water and shadows bring to my games.
 

coldmeat

Diamond Member
Jul 10, 2007
9,214
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I just max everything. So far it's still doing ok for me (8800gtx). When I start to slow down I imagine I will still max everything, then just lower the settings starting with the ones I care least about.
 

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
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Max everything and depending what game I'll turn off AA or not since that's always the biggest performance hit. I'll never play at anything other than the native rez of my LCD.
 

Gothgar

Lifer
Sep 1, 2004
13,463
1
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I like resolution first, then models, then I worry about shading and lighting lastly, if my comp can handle having them on then they go on, if not, no big deal

With my current build I can run most everything max or close to
 

clipperfixer

Senior member
Mar 15, 2005
314
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And just one thing, v-sync will make your max fps 60 if your video card will drive the game you are playing faster than that. So, if you are shooting for max fps leave the veritcal sync off.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,508
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Originally posted by: shortylickens
Whatever you want.

I prize framerates above all, at least in shooters and most RTS's. Image quality is next, followed by resolution. Getting rid of the jaggies is less important to me, especially because at 2048x1536 on a CRT you really cant see them.

I can see them very prominently at that resolution. I only use that resolution in older games though, as I'm picky about framerates more than anything else.
 

Barfo

Lifer
Jan 4, 2005
27,554
212
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It depends on your hardware and the game. I'd say the setting that impacts performance the most is shadows/lighting.