Performance issues- Vsync

I have done many tests since i saw the smoke lag issue in Counter Strike Source.

I came to the conclusion that no matter my clock speed (600/731 , 650/731, 675/731), my average FPS during the stress test stays at 58.6fps.

Graphics settings:

4X MSAA
everything set to high
Vsync on
16xAnastropic Filtering

Result: 58.6fps (with 600/731, 650/731, 675/731)


Graphics Settings:

16xQAA
everything set to high
Vsync on
16xAF

Result: 58.4~ (with 600/731)



FPS with 4xMSAA with Vsync On through smoke = 29~32fps
FPS with 16xQ with Vsync On through smoke=26~30fps (estimate)

FPs with 4xMSAA WITHOUt Vsync through smoke= solid 48~59fps


Inconvenients with vsync turned off= gameplay is unusual and image tearing occurs.


Any suggestions regarding my issues?

 

V sync is supposed to limit your FPS and sync it with the vertical refresh of your monitor. Doing so eliminates the tearing that you mentioned you were experiencing. It appears to be working as intended. ~60FPS would be the cap for a 60Hz display

 

Yes but the thing is, if i enable vertical sync with a 4XAA config (everything high) and go in a server, i get 30 fps when i scope through smoke.


If i go in a server without vsync, and i type fps_max 60, it caps at 60 but when i look through smoke i get solid 45s and 58's most of the time.

Although i just get image tearing. Are there any drivers or something that reduce tearing?

 

No, drivers will not reduce tearing. The thing is, with vsync off, it is pushing more frames to the front buffer per second, but since they aren't vsynced, you don't actually get that many frames displayed fully to the screen. Give me a minute and I'll link you to a thread where I explain vsync.

Edit: here it is: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=247342

 

There was a post on here not too long ago that said that with VSync on if your card wasn't outputting the max refresh rate of your monitor or very close to it (60fps in your case) that because of the way it worked it would cut automatically down to something close to 30. Thats my guess as to what is happening and yeah if you turn VSync off and you are getting over 60fps you will most likely see tearing.

I'm going to go search for the post right now and link it if I find it. + rep to whoever wrote it (if and when I find it) and posted the link to the other site because I definitely learned alot when I read it

EDIT: Dam you're fast lol at least now I don't have to search and looks like thund3rball's getting some rep he should've gotten awhile ago

 

Yeah, that post on the other site that was linked to leaves lots of people with a misconception that thier sustained FPS gets capped to factors of thier screen refresh rate. Read my posts in that thread I posted to understand why that isn't true.

 

Why don't you try to turn AA off and leave v-sync on?

 

I think we have the winner here. I don't think the problem is VSync specifically (though the way VSync works would might be causing 45-55 FPS to show up as 30, depending on how the Valve in-game counter works, what your monitor is capable of, what settings are set in your NVCP, etc.), it's that you're trying to apply too much AA with a card that just can't handle it. An 8400M GT with more than 4x AA at full settings and native resolution (assuming that isn't 1024x640 or something) in CS:S on Vista (CS:S is one of the remaining games that gets hit pretty hard by the upgrade) is pulling off a miracle by not being a slideshow the whole time as it is. My ThinkPad - which admittedly has its "8400M GT" (NVS 140M, but same core) castrated by running on a 64-bit memory bandwidth - can't even come close to pulling off a steady 60 FPS on most maps at 2xAA/1440x900/high settings. You expect smoothness with 4x, or somehow, 16xQ? The 8 600M GT chugs at 16xQ on many maps.

Also, smoke causing framerates to crash and burn in CS on 8-sereis cards is a well documented problem. See here, here, or here for example, or Google it. Seems to be on Valve's end, and seems they really don't care to fix it, either.

 

So your telling me i should play with no AA and vsync on? but....without AA my game becomes all gritty and jittery...like, the models have dents in them -.-

 

You don't have to turn it off, but you could turn it down. 30FPS should be more than playable (in fact, it should look pretty good at that rate), but if you absolutely need moreFPS, yeah, turn down AA. Or resolution. And you could definitely turn down AF.

 

You could also get a cheap CRT monitor and hook you laptop on to that for css, no tearing on those.

 

There is still tearing on CRT. All monitors have tearing. The only way you could not have tearing without vsync is if the entire screen buffer was written to the screen simultaneously.