Why do some games feel choppy and not smooth despite having a decent fps, eg 60-70+ fps.

electronicworld · Sep 10, 2023

Is it because of the game engine ? I experience this especially in starfield, the moment my fps drops below 100 the game stops being buttery smooth and turns into a mess, which happens in demanding areas such as outside buildings.

Even though i am above 60 fps all the time, game begins feeling very choppy and mouse control becomes awkward.

I have tracked frametime and framerate using rtss/msi afterburner, both are stable lines on graphs. But still the game is very choppy the moment it drops below 100 fps.

Remeca · Sep 10, 2023

Starfield may not be the best example at the moment, what other games have this issue? Is it captured in recordings or just how it feels?

electronicworld · Sep 10, 2023

Remeca said:
Starfield may not be the best example at the moment, what other games have this issue? Is it captured in recordings or just how it feels?

Never tried capturing a recording of this happening, it just feels off.

chrcoluk · Sep 10, 2023

Stutters are still going to be annoying regardless of frame rate, I only yesterday watched an excellent video from DF which was one clearly aimed at gaming developers to give them a kick up the backside.

The first suggestion on the video was to implement pre compilation of shaders instead of live on the rendering process. One of the common causes of stutters on modern PC games, especially those on the UE4 engine.

Reducing FPS cap can actually reduce stutters as the hardware then has more of a buffer to deal with spikes in demand for things like shader compilation and loading textures.

dark2099 · Sep 10, 2023

What resolution are you playing at?

Frick · Sep 10, 2023

I think this is one of those perception things. Personally I find Starfield to be pretty smooth even around 40fps. Compared to having a solid 60fps it's not, of course, but it's something I don"t really notice or care about. Games are different though, some games I find essentially unplayable below 60fps, but for other games it's fine.

Flogger23m · Sep 10, 2023

Could be a few things, frame rates don't tell the whole story. You could have stuttering issues if you are running out of VRAM or due to game engine related issues. Frame times is also useful for determining smoothness.

natr0n · Sep 10, 2023

It can be game engine or monitor as ive been experimenting with a few i have laying around.

Ive been messing around with a roku tv and using it as a monitor and have overclocked it to120 and 240 hz. every tool reports proper fps but in games it feels less than 60.

RJARRRPCGP · Sep 10, 2023

electronicworld said:
Never tried capturing a recording of this happening, it just feels off.

I know that in Halo, OTOH, it's likely packet loss.

AusWolf · Sep 10, 2023

Cap your frame rate at the refresh rate of your monitor in the GPU driver - that is, if your monitor is 60 Hz, then set a 60 FPS cap, and it'll be a lot smoother. Some people say, a refresh rate -2 FPS cap (58 in the case above) is even better.

Generally speaking, changes in your frame rate have much more impact on your gaming experience than the frame rate itself.

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Why do some games feel choppy and not smooth despite having a decent fps, eg 60-70+ fps.

Fishfaced Nincompoop