Windows 7: 5850 & Refresh rate question

Evening all,

Im just curious to know, is it safe to set my monitors refresh rate lower than its native? Its refresh rate is 60hz but i would like for some games to limit it to around 35fps due to an up and down frame rate. I have a 5850 GPU which if i remove vsync from games gives quite bad tearing and when its on framerate is someone inconsistant. I can imagine setting a higher refresh rate than your monitor can handle would indeed do some damage but going lower than its native should be ok?

Also is there a reliable app that can achieve setting a specific refrsh rate if indeed its safe to do so

Hope you can help

Thanks a million

craney

Hi craney,

I'm afraid what you're looking for you're not going to find: consistent fps. It's just the nature of video games and the hardware we play them with that spikes and dips are going to happen. Usually, the way to mitigate that is to go the opposite way... to get as many graphics cards as you can and having your monitor run at a higher hz.

you can manage consistent fps but it depends on your hardware , i play MW 2 with v sync and triple buffering and get a solid 75 fps all the time , the game is much more fluid and much easier on the eye.

I assume what your wanting to do is lower your frequency to 35 hz enable v sync for a constant 35 fps , it will work (if your create a custom res profile through your driver cp) but it will make your eyes bleed

leave it a 60hz and alter the ingame eye candy till you get a good balance in your fps , some games (via a console command) let you set a max fps limit to help with spiking that would be a better option , but so many pc games now are crappy console ports that those options are mostly not available

Thats exactly it mate!! I would like to try triple buffering but how do i enable it on my 5850? also will triple buffering work with vsync on? I have d3doverider if that will do the trick?

thanks again

Do you not have CCC (Catalyst Control Center) installed? If so, you can enable it there...



Or, if the game has the setting, enable there rather than CCC.

BTW here's a great article on V-Sync... How VSync works, and why people loathe it - [H]ard|Forum

thanks for that mate, will that setting work with dx games as well? its just it states open gl?

Yeah, I'm thinking only open GL. However as I stated before, it the "game" has a setting for triple buffering, use it.

According to this article you can enable triple buffering for direct 3D using D3DOverrider which comes with RivaTuner

Source - TweakGuides.com - Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide

yes d3d overrider works well with D3D games however if you have a vsnc option INGAME use that one instead of the driver cp vsync as this will most likely enable triple buffering too , through the game ............. because ................
if you play online games punkbuster anticheat kicks you if you run D3D overrider , with an "unknown program/driver" its a pain in the ass as PB know about it and wont do anything about it, Even setting D3D in stealth mode doesnt help Im so pi$$ed off i cant use D3D overrider in cod waw any more

but for single player D3D overrider is brill

ok cool cheers for that, just to clarify when i use d3doverider for gta4 i disable the in game vsync and force it on via d3doverider? or do i have to have the in game vsync on as well as forcing it with d3doverider?

thanks again

anyway you like mate just set d3d overrider to force vsync whenevr its running then it doesnt matter what other settings you have , i used to have it starting with windows too (before the punkbuster issue\)