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[londontko]

In my old age, I've taken more to tinkering with PCs and games than to actually playing them; in particular, I like to maximize the graphics while maintaining smooth performance.

What kind of techniques do you use to maintain smooth frametimes and FPS? I used to be obsessed with obtaining 30 fps that felt smooth, akin to the consoles, but it was a losing battle. I'm not sure it was ever fully possible. However, I did find that things have been a lot easier ever since G-Sync, adaptive framerates, and in-game scalers came into play.

I'd be interested to hear about your steps for optimizing your games. What are your strategies for balancing graphical quality and performance?

 

[MikeM]

I am the opposite- come from consoles. My target is 90-120fps, so I just tweak the settings for a couple minutes in game then leave it. I don’t obsess over getting maximum frames- I just want it to be reliable.

 

[calistan]

One quick look at whatever the game set as default, and if it's not Ultra, make it Ultra.

(then turn it down a bit, if it's Starfield)

 

[GHG]

30fps? On PC?

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I can’t help you I do tweaks to most games to get as close to 240 fps as I can

 

[k_trout]

always turn shadows to medium lol

 

[Filben]

I start with setting an FPS target for any given game, which is in most cases 60. Then I start with the best graphics and tweak down accordingly if I don't hit 60. There are settings with no or minimal discerning visual differences but that improve FPS quite a lot (e.g. cloud settings in Assassin's Creed games; water physics in RDR2 etc.).

Even if I exceed 60fps I usually limit them regardless because I still prefer a stable 60fps experience over fluctuating FPS on my adaptive sync monitor. I notice the change in FPS (e.g. from 90 down to 60). This leaves also a good headroom for my GPU in terms of temperature, especially in summer.

Not much else I'm doing because I've found myself tinkering for hours in past and only playing so little. Mostly, not worth it. I want to play games and not Tinkering: The Game. However, I'm still interested in tech and how games work and what they offer and at what price. But I reduced the tinkering time tremendously.

 

[adamsapple]

Not exactly a PC Bro, but always turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, vignetting and motion blur.

I do that on consoles too if given the choice.

 

[DGrayson]

I mostly use preset settings depending on how demanding hte game is so I start with High or Ultra then I play and see what kind of FPS i get then I may go back to turn stuff down.

 

[londontko]

30fps? On PC?

This was done for games like RDR2 or other third person action-adventure type games. It was fun to see how much I could squeeze out of old hardware, trying to get 30fps at 4k on an older GPU hooked up to my living room TV, fun times.

 

[GHG]

This was done for games like RDR2 or other third person action-adventure type games. It was fun to see how much I could squeeze out of old hardware, trying to get 30fps at 4k on an older GPU hooked up to my living room TV, fun times.

30fps on an OLED is never going to be the best experience really, regardless of whether the input is from a console or PC.

 

[Topher]

Running Windows 11, but I'm starting to think I need to upgrade to Windows 10

 

[londontko]

I start with setting an FPS target for any given game, which is in most cases 60. Then I start with the best graphics and tweak down accordingly if I don't hit 60. There are settings with no or minimal discerning visual differences but that improve FPS quite a lot (e.g. cloud settings in Assassin's Creed games; water physics in RDR2 etc.).

Even if I exceed 60fps I usually limit them regardless because I still prefer a stable 60fps experience over fluctuating FPS on my adaptive sync monitor. I notice the change in FPS (e.g. from 90 down to 60). This leaves also a good headroom for my GPU in terms of temperature, especially in summer.

Not much else I'm doing because I've found myself tinkering for hours in past and only playing so little. Mostly, not worth it. I want to play games and not Tinkering: The Game. However, I'm still interested in tech and how games work and what they offer and at what price. But I reduced the tinkering time tremendously.

I approach things in a very similar manner now. I use a 42" LG C2 and typically begin by adjusting the Nvidia Control Panel settings for each game. I limit the FPS to 117 and enable V-Sync, ensuring it's disabled in-game. My starting point is usually the DLSS quality, and I aim for the highest settings possible. To establish a baseline, I refer to Digital Foundry or HUB optimized settings—these sources usually give me a solid starting point. From there, I’m usually pretty close to optimal settings. However, I often struggle with frametimes; they tend to make the games feel slightly laggy or cause them to stutter, which I find particularly annoying. To mitigate the stutter or lag, sometimes I will cut the framerate down to 60 to avoid significant fluctuations.

 

[T4keD0wN]

I just disable the post processing defects (in-game or .ini tweaks), and use some mix of ultra/high. Create custom reshade if the game still look bad.
Disable half the threads in case of unreal engine games for better performance. Check pcgamingwiki to remove intro videos + fixes.

Pretty much this.

 

[londontko]

30fps on an OLED is never going to be the best experience really, regardless of whether the input is from a console or PC.

Sorry I should clarify - my living room TV isn't an OLED. I was really just trying to see if I could emulate a console experience at 30fps on a PC.

 

[lmimmfn]

MSI Afterburner is my number one tool for identifying issues whether CPU or GPU, CPU bottlenecks causing lower GPU usage or making sure GPU usage is high.

It depends on the system, if CPU is not great i switch off all junk windows services and kill useless processes for games where CPU is the bottleneck. I used to create a separate windows account with no background crap running when i had older CPUs but dont really have that issue with 7800X3D.

For Gsync i enable the logo in Nvidia control panel as sometimes even if gsync is enabled the game might not be using it.

If i get a new SSD or NVMe after installation i use CrystalDiskMark to make sure its performing properly, in the past this was resolved with firmware update.

 

[64bitmodels]

enter game, set resolution to 1440p if it's at 4k. 1080p if its demanding, then play.

Graphics tinkering isn't that big of a deal to me, its either all high or all low in my eyes

 

[intbal]

Don't forget the RGB.
If your PC can't be seen from orbit, you haven't really optimized.

 

[Zug]

Sorry I should clarify - my living room TV isn't an OLED. I was really just trying to see if I could emulate a console experience at 30fps on a PC.

But ... why would anyone do that ?
Anyway, first you need optimized games that dont stutter, and then a FPS limiter (multiple options). The first part you have no control over though, PC ports are often bad, and Gsync/VRR gives best results at higher FPS.
Basically to have a smooth experience on PC, just throw more powerfull hardware than needed, play at high FPS, and use VRR to offset the bad PC optimizations.
Though, sometimes it's so bad that even all of this is not enough (multiple examples this year).

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I don't really look at settings, just once to confirm the refresh rate is 120hz, and then I just play; if the game has any drops below 60 after that, I tend to just turn down the detail setting one step, or turn down the render resolution.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

vsync set to "fast" in control panel
vsync set to "off" in-game (turn on if you observe page tearing)
in-game, set everything to max
if performance sucks, scale back the usual suspects (shadows, ambient occlusion, RT/lighting quality, reflections, draw distance)
if you dont have a ton of vram, be mindful of system textures.

performance still sucks? set everything to medium then bring up settings.

performance still sucks?
upgrayyy'd time.

hardware is its own conversation... but it's basically throw the lion's share of your cash at the GPU, buy a decent CPU, avoid low-speed RAM, mobo and PSU have a negligible effect on performance so just make sure they support your other hardware and come from reputable companies (no need to spend a ton $$$ there), a medium speed SSD is fine, and have enough air flow that stuff doesnt throttle itself to hell and back.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Not exactly a PC Bro, but always turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, vignetting and motion blur.

I do that on consoles too if given the choice.

Exactly this. I'll add film grain as well. Such a stupid setting.

 

[ViolentP]

What are your strategies for balancing graphical quality and performance?

Invest in more power than I need, set global defaults, and just play.

 

[lefty1117]

I honestly think solid 60 is enough for most games. Over the years I've found RAM upgrade and moving to nvme for storage were two of the biggest bang for the buck upgrades I could make. 32GB ram I would consider minimum nowadays - get to 64GB if you can

In game settings I often turn off motion blur, vignetting, film grain and sometimes chromatic aberration. Don't forget to turn off vsync if your frame rates aren't getting close to your monitor's refresh rate. vsync does add a little bit of overhead and can cost a few fps.

 

[Yerd]

Highest graphical fidelity I can get. Then turn off the bells and whistles from there. Motion blur and film grain are turned off in every game, whether my performance is improved or not. I hate both effects. depth of field(is that the right name?) gets turned off too, not a big fan of that. Then I move to shadows if I have to. Then detail distance, if it's an option.

I've never been a big high fps junkie so I can play 30fps and be happy. As long as my image is crisp and pretty.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I really wish crowdsourced in game settings on Steam for specific hardware setups was a thing. I haven’t had much luck with the Geforce Experience settings.

 

[King Dazzar]

What kind of techniques do you use to maintain smooth frametimes and FPS?

I'm out of the game for now. Partially because I used to spend sooo much time obsessing over fidelity & performance etc. So not sure how relevant these are these days.

But I used to use tools like frame limiters, numerous Nvidia tweaks via the likes of Nvidia Inspector, Bills Process Manager for adjusting CPU core allocations on unoptimized games.

Stream line the OS as much as possible, removing unrequired features and bloat to avoid having anything at all running which may cause issues. I used to avoid all AV software including Windows own Defender and just ensure I had a decent manual on-demand scanner with a decent browser plugin capable of blocking scripts etc.

I used to heavily over clock, but after many years, went for factory overclocked instead or default clocks. Simply to rule out any instability.

I had things running extremely well for years. But unfortunately, all these things will only go so far if the port is shit. So I guess the other advice, would be, know when to stop chasing for something which isnt there and untweakable.

 

[Denton]

I play on 60hz screen and aim for stable 60fps by setting my resolution and settings properly for my hardware. When my GPU is at around 95% utilization in demanding scene (like overlooking a city or whatever, depending on the game) while running 60fps, that's it.

 

[porkchopexpress]

Make sure you are using DLSS and a G-Sync monitor.

Turn off motion blur, DOF, film grain, CA, vignetting.

Honestly, as long as you have a somewhat powerful card and a gsync monitor, DLSS and GSync have really reduced the need to endlessly tweak to maximize performance. (Unless its an absolute shit port or something)

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

Not exactly a PC Bro, but always turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, vignetting and motion blur.

I do that on consoles too if given the choice.

per-object motion blur is so good though.
depth of field is sexy when a bit subtle and not always on.

but chromatic aberration is absolute garbage.
vignetting is ok i guess when its a temporary effect.

 

[Beechos]

For me clean windows install. Don't install any unneeded software, kill all unneeded processes.

 

[londontko]

Not exactly a PC Bro, but always turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, vignetting and motion blur.

I do that on consoles too if given the choice.

I've seen a lot of people mention these settings but I'm confused - are these known to be intensive graphical settings? I always thought they were just aesthetic options with little to no performance hits?

 

[londontko]

But ... why would anyone do that ?
Anyway, first you need optimized games that dont stutter, and then a FPS limiter (multiple options). The first part you have no control over though, PC ports are often bad, and Gsync/VRR gives best results at higher FPS.
Basically to have a smooth experience on PC, just throw more powerfull hardware than needed, play at high FPS, and use VRR to offset the bad PC optimizations.
Though, sometimes it's so bad that even all of this is not enough (multiple examples this year).

I did it to basically mirror a console experience at 4k with an older GPU (5700XT).

 

[londontko]

I'm out of the game for now. Partially because I used to spend sooo much time obsessing over fidelity & performance etc. So not sure how relevant these are these days.

But I used to use tools like frame limiters, numerous Nvidia tweaks via the likes of Nvidia Inspector, Bills Process Manager for adjusting CPU core allocations on unoptimized games.

Stream line the OS as much as possible, removing unrequired features and bloat to avoid having anything at all running which may cause issues. I used to avoid all AV software including Windows own Defender and just ensure I had a decent manual on-demand scanner with a decent browser plugin capable of blocking scripts etc.

I used to heavily over clock, but after many years, went for factory overclocked instead or default clocks. Simply to rule out any instability.

I had things running extremely well for years. But unfortunately, all these things will only go so far if the port is shit. So I guess the other advice, would be, know when to stop chasing for something which isnt there and untweakable.

I find the most frustrating part of optimizing games to be trying to understand what is a hardware limitation and what's just a poorly optimized game that won't give you the results no matter what you tweak. I know I spent HOURS trying to get games perfect only to just kind of give up when I can't get the stuttering down no matter what I do.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

The privilege and price we pay, on PC, for 60-144fps is why we game here.

Speaking from the high end, I don't settle on settings. A recent hit example is Phantom Liberty. Coincidentally, I just started that today. In the early stages of Dogtown I get 60fps on the low end with the same maxed DLSS3/PT/RR settings that the base game gets me mostly 80-144fps.

If I had to make some concessions it would be to the heavy settings which free up performance.

I don't game at lower than 4k144.

 

[Mithos]

1080p, 60fps high/ultra, DONE.

 

[Yerd]

I've seen a lot of people mention these settings but I'm confused - are these known to be intensive graphical settings? I always thought they were just aesthetic options with little to no performance hits?

Minimal. Widely despised effects by most people.

My first "go to" option to gain performance is turning down shadows.