What is max pre-rendered frames?

[Carfax83]

If you're getting stuttering at default values I'd be checking more obvious places first, such as any overclocks you might be running.

That's why I asked him his specs, but the dude is obviously crazy.. :whiste:

 

[Wall Street]

I've always seen it set at 3 by default.

Read the GPUView section of the FCAT article by Ryan Smith. He explains the context queue well. Max prerendered frames tells the DirextX how many frames can be in the context queue at any given time.

I know you are looking for a simple explanation, however, prerendered frames and stuttering happen at the crossroads of 1) the DirectX 11 API, 2) Your GPU hardware, 3) the GPU driver you are using, 4) any system/CPU bottlenecks you may have, and 5) the specific game engine you are running.

Therefore it is hard to say anything definitive about what changing this value will result in for any given situation. Some game engines, such as Skyrim, are known to be horribly broken when the context queue is full. Others have a performance speed-up because in theory, your GPU can use more of the available execution units when it is rendering multiple frames which are in different stages of the pipeline.

EDIT: Actually the nVidia control panel has "Use application settings" so I use that.

 

[Carfax83]

EDIT: Actually the nVidia control panel has "Use application settings" so I use that.

It used to be set to 3 as default, but not anymore it seems.

Anyway, I was messing around last night and I set it to 3, and I noticed that my CPU usage increased in gaming. For example, in the Welcome to the Jungle level in Crysis 3 which is very CPU intensive, I would get a max of 70% usage on my 4.4ghz 3930K.

After setting it to 3, my CPU usage went as high as 90%, which is stunning for a hex core processor

It does make games smoother for me though, especially Bioshock Infinite. I think the higher settings like 3 and above work better on SLI machines with quad core or better CPUs.. On mid range single GPU rigs with slower or stock clocked CPUs, 1 may be better though.

 

[Mactronix]

I've always seen it set at 3 by default.

Read the GPUView section of the FCAT article by Ryan Smith. He explains the context queue well. Max prerendered frames tells the DirextX how many frames can be in the context queue at any given time.

I know you are looking for a simple explanation, however, prerendered frames and stuttering happen at the crossroads of 1) the DirectX 11 API, 2) Your GPU hardware, 3) the GPU driver you are using, 4) any system/CPU bottlenecks you may have, and 5) the specific game engine you are running.

Therefore it is hard to say anything definitive about what changing this value will result in for any given situation. Some game engines, such as Skyrim, are known to be horribly broken when the context queue is full. Others have a performance speed-up because in theory, your GPU can use more of the available execution units when it is rendering multiple frames which are in different stages of the pipeline.

EDIT: Actually the nVidia control panel has "Use application settings" so I use that.

Very nice explanation much better than I could have managed.
It seems very probable from how its being explained that somewhere in the mass of internal timings there is a restriction of some kind. For my money lowering the value in this case speeds up delivery and eradicates the restriction resulting in smoother frame rates.
Just to put it in more general terms.
Mactronix

 

[sxr7171]

So some website told me to set "8" for Skyrim using NVidia inspector. I guess I'll try and switch back to default if that doesn't work.

 

[toyota]

hate to necro a thread but I just had to fool with this setting in Splinter Cell Blacklist. it would hitch like crazy when just panning or walking around. it was a consistent little hitch too. I tried everything then finally I set the max pre rendered frames to 1 and and it fixed it. whats odd is that i did not have to do that before my hardware changes of the 4770k and Z97 mobo.

my guess is that it was the newer driver. I remember many years ago where Bioshock had to have max pre rendered frames set to 0 on several sets of drivers in a row not to hitch before it was finally fixed.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Does this effect anything when vsync is off? I never play with vsync, but I have noticed some stutters in planetside2 even with an fps of well over 100.

 

[toyota]

Does this effect anything when vsync is off? I never play with vsync, but I have noticed some stutters in planetside2 even with an fps of well over 100.

setting has nothing to do with vsync

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Ah, sorry. That appears to be correct. I'd skimmed the thread and assumed it was built to fix this.

Unless you can maintain an absolute minimum of 60fps at all time (remember fps counters measure average fps) then you're going to snap violently between 60fps/30fps/20fps etc.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I keep it on 1, on 2 or 3 you might get slightly higher average fps, but the extra input lag means it's not worth it.

Only time I've had a problem with that setting is in 3dmark. Also, if you run multigpu you might not want to go under 2.

 

[AngelesGaming]

Hi, I made an account to also back the OP's question up. I know it has been a very while since the last reply, but I still don't understand how this works. I've got a 144 hz monitor and have the prerendered frames set to 8 on Nvidia Inspector. I've recognized that the game runs smoother and that I don't feel any input lag added into the game. I would post a result of one of my games from Battlefield 4, but I'm unable to do that due to the fact that I'm at work. My specs are Intel 4770K clocked at 4.5 Ghz and GTX 980 SLI.

I've tried creating new profiles in each FPS game and all of them have a max pre-rendered frames set to 8 and there's no noticeable input lag in all of them. Could it be due to the fact that my monitor has 144 hz and 1ms response time?

EDIT
I tried turning off v-sync with max pre-rendered frames set to 8 and Battlefield's FPS was averaging around 180-185 on ultimate. Wouldn't go below 175 at all. Then I tried setting the max pre-rendered frames to 0 and FPS jumps around like crazy. I used MSI afterburner to show me FPS counting. Next, I tested max pre-rendered frames set to 8 with v-sync on and the frames stuck at 143 to 144 ALL the time. Then when max pre-rendered frames was set to 0 with v-sync on? Frames would again, jump around to like 110 to 120 to 130. So from now on, I've set it to 8 and I've been loving my gaming ever since!

Keep in mind though, Nvidia Inspector was forcing v-sync on. Smoothing AFR was turned on as well. As well as adaptive v-sync.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

berating the first person to respond will surely lead to someone giving you exactly the information you want. i'm sure of it.

Not only that but the explaination was pretty darn spot on.

 

[DigDog]

.. (attempting to answer the necro now)
ok Angels, here's the thing:

first, ideally you want to ask this on the forum of "whatevr game it is that you play" because the effects vary between games.

PRFs are just that - the game will render a number of frames and keep them in storage to show them to you later - this later is a matter of milliseconds, depending on the fps your game runs at .. 100fps, each frame is 10ms.

Once a GPU has pre-rendered these frames, it will show them to you even if the images contained in the frames are wrong. if between PRF 1 and PRF 8 something 1-frame long happens, you will not see it, it will not be rendered.

Now, some people who play fast games get paranoid about this, and they set the GPU to 0 PRFs. This makes the game more visually accurate, but slightly choppier AND it makes the GPU work harder, which in turn can have other negative effects.

The input lag is due to the game essentially not responding visually to you for the number of frames you set to pre-render.

 

[AngelesGaming]

Sorry for being a "necro" lol. I was just researching what Max Pre-Rendered frames actually does. But, all the links I found was like 4-5 years old and I just wanted to know more hahaha.

But thank you for this information! I do notice some incorrect frames whenever I move around a lot. Like the enemy firing at the wrong direction and other weird things.