since when 30 fps is "unplayable"?

[Adrian Codreanu]

4 hours ago, FrankySam said:

For online gaming it's a big disadvantage to be at 30fps

For online yes, but for old-school isometric RPGs it ain't a big disadvantage, hell, I even prefer it to give that "Diablo 2 barely works" feeling.

[WereCatf]

Matter of taste and what one is accustomed to. I, personally, absolutely fricking hate 30FPS-gaming, it looks terrible to me. I also very, very much hate inconsistent framerates; framerates hovering between 50FPS and 60FPS, instead of staying rock-solid at 60FPS, is still very much bothersome to me. This applies both to "slower games", as some people here refer to, and "faster games" for me. Then again, I also insist on having motion-interpolation enabled on my TV for movies and TV-shows, whereas many people insist having it turned off.

 

YMMV and all that, it's pointless to try and argue about it. Just accept that some people like some things and others like other things.

[SteveGrabowski0]

I wonder if it's the displays. I used to be fine playing Ocarina of Time at 20 fps on my N64 and GTA Vice City at 25 fps on my PS2, but that was on a CRT TV. I was even fine playing GTA III on PC at 25 fps back in 2002 on a CRT monitor (game looked so good at 1600x1200). But ever since screens went LCD and then LED framerates have started to become way more noticeable to me.

[Paul Rudd]

16 hours ago, corrado33 said:

I still keep my monitor at 75 Hz because I can't run games much faster than that.

What are your PC specs? What type of games are you playing? Try non demanding titles. Try older titles. Try indie titles.

[corrado33]

19 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

What are your PC specs? What type of games are you playing? Try non demanding titles. Try older titles. Try indie titles.

Oh mainly just really badly optimized Bethesda games with ~200 mods installed. I'm perfectly happy with my frame rates.

[Paul Rudd]

1 hour ago, corrado33 said:

I'm perfectly happy with my frame rates.

But what are your PC specs? CPU? GPU? RAM? You say you can't run games much faster than 75Hz. It depends on your hardware.

[SkilledRebuilds]

13 hours ago, FrankySam said:

For online gaming it's a big disadvantage to be at 30fps

And while there are games that are 30fps for everyone (locked FPS), some can handle shooting and aiming at 30fps better than others even after tuning the sensitivities for hours.

 

[Tedstonegenious]

On 12/1/2018 at 10:15 AM, Hi P said:

Not only that, some people go as far to say 60 FPS feels clunky... lol

 

Sometimes I play games on my father's old laptop, I feel okay at 40 - 45 average FPS, so I don't understand how 60 FPS would be clunky

I remember the days when I used an old, bloated laptop to play Minecraft at 15 FPS. 

[porina]

I think it is mostly a case of increasing expectations. When I started PC gaming, even 320x240 at 256 colours was "high end". I didn't even know what frame rate was then. The first time I remember frame rate being a choice was Microprose F1GP, and the endless tinkering of settings to balance display quality and frame rate. Some time after that, Final Fantasy VII happened. Arguably, the most hyped FF game ever. I decided playing in software rendering 320x240 sucked, and got my first real 3D card to get 640x480. At the time, that was amazing. Look at FF7 now, it's low poly count dates it significantly. Older games got away with 2D sprites so are differently retro.

 

Specifically on framerate, before I started throwing cash at the problem, fps was a real problem. I got an ultra-wide 3440x1440p monitor. I had a GTX 960 at the time, and can't stand tearing. I eventually settled on playing at locked 30fps. Outside of action, it didn't make much difference, but it did suffer in combat. When I upgraded to 980Ti, wow, I could limit at 60fps. Definitely could feel it.

 

So, no, you don't always need high fps, but certainly there are times when playing at 30fps will put you at a disadvantage even in single player.

[aigars2]

Well depends on games you play. Obviously if a game does not require multiplayer online fast pace exprerience, one can get by with 30 FPS and even 25 FPS like movies have. 

[d3adc3II]

Well, try to play the game at 100fps , and play it at 30 fps again.

 

 

[JoostinOnline]

It all depends on what you're used to. I can't play most console games anymore. 30fps gives me motion sickness in less than a minute. If I stopped playing at higher frame rates and adjusted to 30, no doubt I'd adapt back. It's unpleasant enough that I haven't been willing to try it though.

 

Keep in mind that 60fps isn't a new thing. Lots of NES titles ran at 60fps. Everything was interlaced back then so in a way you only saw 30 completed fps, but it's worth noting.

[Ralphred]

On 12/5/2018 at 7:30 PM, JZStudios said:

It's really not the framerate as someone else said, it's the frame time.

I have to agree with this, I'll gimp games to 25-30 fps if it gives me constant frame times, my sweet spot is about 45-50, over that it's hard for me to see the difference, but if I start to get frametime spikes that's really annoying and sticks out like a saw thumb.

Also, I used to be happier with lower frame rates, I think as monitor resolution, reaction times, image clarity and render quality has increased over time I need more fps to make it feel smooth enough.

[Richard Webster]

Rather than repeat what others have said, I'll add that if you try a game at 30fps just after seeing it at 60fps it will look terrible. The same if you're really used to a particular game being 60fps as well.

 

30fps on its own is fine with a controller. Since making the jump to playing almost exclusively on my TV at 4K, I've had to settle for 30fps in some games. At first it was an adjustment, but depending on the game, and how you actually limit the FPS (RTSS, Half refresh etc, plus Max Prerendered frames tweaking), it can be very pleasing.

 

Good examples are Far Cry 4, Assassin's Creed, Forza Horizon, Arkham Knight.

[Majinhoju]

It really depends on the game.  If it's all the game supports (like a console game) then I'll still play it.  But after playing at 100+ fps on a 144hz monitor it can be hard to back.

[Sauron]

It depends on the game, and it always has. 2D platformers are perfectly playable at 30fps and even less. Other games aren't, especially very fast paced shooters like, say, doom 2016 where a low framerate can make you sick due to all the jumping around and fast aiming. It does partly depend on you though; what bothers me may not bother you. Also, being far from the screen or having a relatively small screen make it less noticeable.

On 12/1/2018 at 6:04 PM, DeadnightWarrior said:

It seems that if a game doesn't run at a constant 60 fps, then it's automatically not good.

I assume you're talking about games which are locked at 30 fps - in that case, yes, they are automatically poorly made. There is no reason to lock a game's framerate to 30 on pc at this point other than gross incompetence. It doesn't matter if the game is still "playable" - if I have a fast enough pc I want to be able to run at whichever framerate I can push (or see on my monitor).

 

On consoles, it's less of a problem with the game itself but rather with the underpowered hardware and the marketing geniuses at sony and ms, who'd rather advertise some cool screenshots than make the game run as well as possible.

[DeadnightWarrior]

On 12/24/2018 at 6:26 PM, Sauron said:

It depends on the game,

what bothers me may not bother you.

 

I assume you're talking about games which are locked at 30 fps - in that case, yes, they are automatically poorly made. There is no reason to lock a game's framerate to 30 on pc at this point other than gross incompetence. It doesn't matter if the game is still "playable" - if I have a fast enough pc I want to be able to run at whichever framerate I can push (or see on my monitor).

Well, maybe the bottom line should really deal with how well a game is optimised.
I recall some games giving me headaches, like Gothic 3 that could run at well over 60 fps, but with frequent and violent dips: THAT was frustrating and it screamed "poorly made engine". On the other hand, I had Bioshock running at half that framerate but featuring a perfectly scalable engine and no noticeable stutter at all. A much better experience.

 

Other than that, yeah, I absolutely agree about locked framerates, there's really no reason to lock anything on PC.