How to get most up to date frames from graphics card in FPS games?

[3080guy]

My monitor supports 144hz
I target 100-144 fps when setting up a game/adjusting VIDEO settings.

In games, there are often limiters we can set.
Moniter refresh rate
FPS cap

I assume I will get the most up to date frames by setting the in game monitor setting to 144hz.
But what about the refresh rate. Should I set a cap of unlimited, or 120, if I want the most up to date frames sent from my GPU to monitor.

I realise that whatever I receive will be far beyond my conscious ability to appreciate, but technically one setting must be better than another (ie uncapped FPS setting, vs 120fps setting)
Dose anyone know which is best?

 

[Angilion]

I might be wrong, but I don't see any reason to set a frame rate cap at anything less than the refresh rate of the monitor unless the game ties game physics (or anything else ingame) to the refresh rate. Which shouldn't be how a game is made but sometimes is.

If you want to make sure you get the best possible results, you need to either have such overpowered hardware that the minimum frame rate is at least as high as the refresh rate or have a card and monitor that support adaptive refresh rate. That automatically adjusts the refresh rate of the monitor on the fly to match whatever the FPS from the graphics card is at any given time. There are two standards for that - the open standard is FreeSync and Nvidia's proprietary standard is G-Sync. Nvidia now supports FreeSync as well, although they won't use the term and instead call it "G-SYNC compatible". It's worth noting that FreeSync monitors that Nvidia have not certified as compatible might well work with it anyway so you have an nvidia card, look in the "Set up G-SYNC" section in your nvidia control panel and it says "Selected display is not validated as G-SYNC compatible" it might well work anyway (assuming the monitor supports FreeSync).

 

[3080guy]

Ive had a look and my monitor supports adaptive sync. Its enabled on the monitor.
Freesync is supported. However, any kind of V-sync I disable in games.
I think for the fastest response I might actually have my setup, set up ok?

Overhead LTT talking about the latest most recent frames that the GPU sends to the monitor... and that can vary.

 

[3080guy]

I wonder if what was implied, was... if the graphics card is working harder than the monitors refresh rate can keep up, the monitor will receive the most recent frame rendered by the card.

 

[Angilion]

Ive had a look and my monitor supports adaptive sync. Its enabled on the monitor.
Freesync is supported. However, any kind of V-sync I disable in games.
I think for the fastest response I might actually have my setup, set up ok? [..]

You might. It might be a good idea to check if you have Freesync enabled in the graphics drivers (adaptive sync has to be enabled at both "ends", the card and the monitor), but I suspect that you have since you don't mention tearing and tearing would probably be very noticeable if it wasn't since you disable v-sync. But maybe you're just used to it and it doesn't bother you.

Do you have an nvidia graphics card? Your name implies that, but you haven't said it. If you do, open up the nvidia control panel (if MS has allowed you to have it - they pulled some rather underhanded business practices regarding nvidia control panel and the default version of new drivers from nvidia no longer have the nvidia control panel, although nvidia also provide identical new drivers with the nvidia control panel if you download the non-DCH version manually) and select the "Set up G-SYNC" page under the "Display" section. It's a very simple setup - on or off and then if on, on for full screen only or full screen and windowed. Personally, I find I get the best results from having adaptive sync enabled in full screen only and setting my games to run in full screen rather than borderless window, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be the same for your hardware.

I wonder if what was implied, was... if the graphics card is working harder than the monitors refresh rate can keep up, the monitor will receive the most recent frame rendered by the card.

Yes, but not necessarily cleanly. A monitor doesn't change the entire display instantaneously, so if the card and the monitor aren't synchronised you will get parts of different frames displayed simultaneously so what you see will be split into 2 or more slightly offset sections - "tearing", as it looks like the image has been torn horizontally and put back together with the two (or more) pieces not quite correctly aligned. V-sync fixes that by having a frame sent to the monitor only after the monitor has completely drawn the previous frame. Which is ideal as long as the PC always renders frames faster than the refresh rate of the monitor but introduces a delay if it doesn't.

 

[3080guy]

I have a modern Nvidia card, "Gsync or Gsync compatible" is enabled in Nvidia control panel, Vsync turned off in games.
I know what tearing looks like and suffer none whatsoever (at the moment).
I dont see an adaptive sync but syspect its fine as there is no tearing, as you point out.

 

[Angilion]

I have a modern Nvidia card, "Gsync or Gsync compatible" is enabled in Nvidia control panel, Vsync turned off in games.
I know what tearing looks like and suffer none whatsoever (at the moment).
I dont see an adaptive sync but syspect its fine as there is no tearing, as you point out.

You have adaptive sync supported and enabled:

[..] There are two standards for that - the open standard is FreeSync and Nvidia's proprietary standard is G-Sync. [..]

G-sync and Freesync are both adaptive sync. What nvidia calls "g-sync compatible" is freesync. nvidia refuses to use the name "freesync" because AMD came up with it first, but it's freesync.