Halo Framerate

[seekermeister]

The framerate has gotten steadily worse on this game, despite having upgraded the video card. It is so bad, that when firing the pistol continously, it only fires ~1 x per second. Reinstalling the game didn't improve it any...what would?

 

[Everlong]

Probably by using older drivers. Quite an old game now. Not played it myself in a while, but there was a time when I played it on my 8800s and the performance wasn't great. Last time I tried it I think it was better, but not tried recently.

Also remember there is a 30fps cap on it.

Could also try setting compatibility to XP. Or try it in XP itself as your specs say you use Windows XP.

 

[seekermeister]

Just for clarification, you comment regarding the 30FPS cap...how does that come into play, since that is equal to normal framerate for videos?

 

[Wishmaster]

Hmm ... I just installed halo Combat Eveolved a couple days ago, and havent seen any performance issue yet.

But .. I havent even got off the ship yet. Just a couple minutes past the first meeting with the Captain So it may be to early for me to see it.

Forced AA and AF in the Control panel and tested it, it seemed to be doing OK... so Im wondering if this is a issue that pops up after some playtime.

 

[cmd187]

I doubt there is a cap, disable Vsync.

 

[seekermeister]

There are 3 options, vsync on, vsync off and 30FPS...which is fastest?

 

[cmd187]

Vysnc off, which is the setting you should use every time in every game.

 

[Fumz]

That's not necessarily true cmd. Whether or not you want to enable vsync really depends on the game and your settings. Sometimes game play is smoother with it enabled, mostly not though... I agree.

vsync limits your fps to 60, which is your monitor's refresh rate. That's an important figure to note because no matter what fps the game is running at, could be 200, you're never going to display more than 60, because that's all the monitor is capable of. Of course, it goes without saying that higher Hz monitors will allow greater fps, but all fps is still limited by the monitor's Hz.

Do whatever you gotta do to get game play smooth. I'd see if there's a workaround to remove the 30 fps cap... cause that's just ridiculous... 30, really?

 

[Wishmaster]

I say Vsync On. That way it should stay at the refresh, most commonly 60.

In fact, Id say Vsync ON always.
Especially if your card is capable drawing more frames than the refesh rate.



Mainly because, once it start going above the refresh rate, you start getting image tearing.
And for me, I really notice it and its really annoying.

And secondly, whats the point?
If your monitor has a refresh rate of 60, then it can only display 60FPS.

So even though the GPU is throwing out say ... 150FPS, only 60 are making it to the display.
Its physically impossible for it to display more & the result of drawing more is image tearing.

So why work the GPU that hard?

This is why I never understood comment like:
"I get 200FPS and it plays so smooth."

Makes me wonder if they realize the Monitor is only showing a MAX of 60FPS no matter hown many FPS the GPU is drawing.
Anything above that is lost and thrown away.



If its rendering below the refresh amount, turning off Vsync may help.
My opinion on the matter, although I know many may well disagree.

 

[Fumz]

... So even though the GPU is throwing out say ... 150FPS, only 60 are making it to the display.
Its physically impossible for it to display more & the result of drawing more is image tearing.

So why work the GPU that hard?

This is why I never understood comment like:
"I get 200FPS and it plays so smooth."

Makes me wonder if they realize the Monitor is only showing a MAX of 60FPS no matter hown many FPS the GPU is drawing.
Anything above that is lost and thrown away.

If you're getting 100 fps, then the gpu isn't working hard enough. Whenever I face that situation, I know it's time to increase settings and add more eye candy... just enough so I don't dip below 30... which is a topic not discussed often enough, minimum fps > maximum fps.

 

[Everlong]

Vysnc off, which is the setting you should use every time in every game.

No it's not. Because quite a few games have horrible texture tearing with vsync off. 60fps is enough for any game.

Unless you're in to the whole "jumping to higher places" on games like COD4 where you have to hit the magic 125fps.

Just re-installed Halo to test it. They must have increased the fps in a patch as disabling vysnc and setting refresh to 60Hz I can get like 900fps according to Fraps, but there's horrible judder with fast movements in vehicles etc. Enabling vsync doesn't help much and I had to set it to 30fps for smooth gameplay. Think that's just because it's a console port or it isn't optimised for today's hardware. Back in the day where I was playing it on my FX5200, 30fps was enough, lol.

I agree with what Fumz and Wishmaster are saying. Anything above 60fps is negligible. And not to mention the human eyes won't be able to see any difference in frame rates that high.

 

[smarteyeball]

Just for clarification, you comment regarding the 30FPS cap...how does that come into play, since that is equal to normal framerate for videos?

The biggest impact is on the fluidity of movement. There is a discernible difference between 30FPs vs 60FPS in the overall 'feel' of a game.

30FPS simply 'feels' slower.

The fastest settings would 30FPS cap off + vsync off (or at least vsync off)


Like others have mentioned it's normally best to leave VYSNC enabled, but there are the odd exceptions where having VSYNC disabled can be beneficial.

 

[smarteyeball]

Think that's just because it's a console port or it isn't optimised for today's hardware. Back in the day where I was playing it on my FX5200, 30fps was enough, lol.

Yep a console port from an old console

I agree with what Fumz and Wishmaster are saying. Anything above 60fps is negligible. And not to mention the human eyes won't be able to see any difference in frame rates that high.

Try telling that to 120hz panel fans...