DCS on 55" 4k TV - performance tips

[Andy t]

I just tried hooking up DCS to a 55" Samsung TV. The TV's max refresh is 60HZ and according to DCS I am getting 35-70FPS depending on the action, etc...

However, a major annoyance is the banding - for lack of better term - similar to what one gets with VSYNC OFF. Is there a way to mitigate it through settings?

DCS plays beautifully on my 34" (120hz, 3440x1440) and 44" (144hz, 3440x1220) monitors, but no so much on the TV.

 

 

I am running GTX 1080Ti.

[HiJack]

Playing on TV is bad. You need a "monitor" that is designed for the refresh speed your video card produces. There are monitors to get that is up to 55". I play on a 43" that have 5ms refresh rate and even there you can see tearing in some instances. If you check the refresh rate on your TV I guess it is in the range of 10-20ms if it is even mentioned.

[UH1Fan]

For the last year or so I've been using the TCL 55" CLASS 4-SERIES 4K UHD HDR ROKU SMART TV - 55S425. Moving up from a 24" monitor it was actually a bit scary the first few times I used it. I have an older system with a GTX 1070 video card and I haven't noticed any problems at all playing in 4K. In my opinion it's a great deal for the price.

[M0ltar]

Playing on TV is bad. You need a "monitor" that is designed for the refresh speed your video card produces. There are monitors to get that is up to 55". I play on a 43" that have 5ms refresh rate and even there you can see tearing in some instances. If you check the refresh rate on your TV I guess it is in the range of 10-20ms if it is even mentioned.

 

 

 

That’s not necessarily true. It’s all about the quality of the display. High end LCD and OLED displays will work great. I use a 65 currently and the colors are better than my Acer 38” monitor.

 

If you want to try and remove some of the banding, which you will see on any display specifically at high altitude in the sky, you can use reshade with the deband filter.

[HiJack]

That’s not necessarily true. It’s all about the quality of the display.

Yes I agree. New TV's are somewhat more suited for flight sim and some even have a decent refresh rate. But does the HDMI interface have the same throughput as the DisplayPort? I haven't looked but I believe TV's normally wont have the DP port.

 

EDIT: A quick check reveals that DP is a bit better than HDMI but not that much. So Andy! Maybe make sure you use a "Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable" which is the only one capable of the massive data transport with HDMI 2.0.

Edited April 19, 2020 by HiJack

[M0ltar]

Yes I agree. New TV's are somewhat more suited for flight sim and some even have a decent refresh rate. But does the HDMI interface have the same throughput as the DisplayPort? I haven't looked but I believe TV's normally wont have the DP port.

 

EDIT: A quick check reveals that DP is a bit better than HDMI but not that much. So Andy! Maybe make sure you use a "Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable" which is the only one capable of the massive data transport with HDMI 2.0.

 

 

 

Correct. The 2.0 HDMI spec can support 4K up to 60 FPS at 4.4.4 color. HDMI 2.1, which some TVs already have, supports even higher FPS. We’re simply waiting on a GPU with that type of output which would come with 3000 series Nvidia cards.

[Andy t]

By "banding" I mean the noticable redrawing of the screen while moving the view (via track ir) around. I can see see the screen redraw happen in layers. Do others that use TVs for DCS have this issue? This is at 60hz, 4k.

[HiJack]

By "banding" I mean the noticable redrawing of the screen while moving the view (via track ir) around. I can see see the screen redraw happen in layers. Do others that use TVs for DCS have this issue? This is at 60hz, 4k.

 

Yes that is what I am talking about also. Check your cable first Andy and make sure you have the correct one.

[M0ltar]

I just tried hooking up DCS to a 55" Samsung TV. The TV's max refresh is 60HZ and according to DCS I am getting 35-70FPS depending on the action, etc...

However, a major annoyance is the banding - for lack of better term - similar to what one gets with VSYNC OFF. Is there a way to mitigate it through settings?

DCS plays beautifully on my 34" (120hz, 3440x1440) and 44" (144hz, 3440x1220) monitors, but no so much on the TV.

 

 

I am running GTX 1080Ti.

 

 

 

Can you link what gpu you have and your system specs?

[Andy t]

Can you link what gpu you have and your system specs?

32GB Ram

DCS running on primary SSD

GTX 1080Ti

i7 6700K @ 4 Ghz

[M0ltar]

32GB Ram

DCS running on primary SSD

GTX 1080Ti

i7 6700K @ 4 Ghz

 

 

 

What tv do you have?

[Andy t]

What tv do you have?

 

 

samsung un55mu630df.

 

I think cables are a good area to look at, as I am using some oldish monoprice cables that was going through a 90degree adapter. I am going to try bypassing the adapter first and then probably order some new cables.

[Lenux]

I'm using a 55 inches Samsung 4k TV ( Q9FN ) and I'm happy with the image quality / performance

[Lenux]

By "banding" I mean the noticable redrawing of the screen while moving the view (via track ir) around. I can see see the screen redraw happen in layers. Do others that use TVs for DCS have this issue? This is at 60hz, 4k.

 

You mean the " screen tearing " ??

[wilbur81]

For the last year or so I've been using the TCL 55" CLASS 4-SERIES 4K UHD HDR ROKU SMART TV - 55S425. Moving up from a 24" monitor it was actually a bit scary the first few times I used it. I have an older system with a GTX 1070 video card and I haven't noticed any problems at all playing in 4K. In my opinion it's a great deal for the price.

 

 

I've been using a 55 inch TCL at 4K with a 1070 as well. It works great! It has a very low input lag (like 14.8 ms) for a TV and is not noticeable to me at all in DCS coming from a monitor. It's 60 hz refresh rate with VSYNC in DCS 'on' is perfect. You'd spend three to five thousand dollars for a PC monitor this big (and I paid for my 55 inch for under $450).

[wilbur81]

If you check the refresh rate on your TV I guess it is in the range of 10-20ms if it is even mentioned.

 

You mean input lag, not refresh rate? Refresh rate on my TV is 60 hz

[Andy t]

You mean the " screen tearing " ??

Not quite. I mean that I can see the screen being redrawn one horizontal band at a time. The top third is being redrawn followed by middle then by the bottom third. The image doesn't "tear".

[M0ltar]

Not quite. I mean that I can see the screen being redrawn one horizontal band at a time. The top third is being redrawn followed by middle then by the bottom third. The image doesn't "tear".

 

 

 

Can you take a video of it on your phone?

[wilbur81]

Not quite. I mean that I can see the screen being redrawn one horizontal band at a time. The top third is being redrawn followed by middle then by the bottom third. The image doesn't "tear".

 

Interesting. I don't get any of that whatsoever on my TCL S405 at 4K. You might look up your TV here and see what its input lag is rated at: https://displaylag.com/display-database/

 

Not sure, though, that input lag (slow or fast) would cause what you're describing...

[Fri13]

Some televisions has physically two smaller LCD panels joined together to one big one, and that can be causing problems when connecting computer to them, as the panels can get out of sync or you might get even signal to one panel first as PC recognize whole TV as two separate displays etc.

 

If you are sure that your TV has a single panel, then you should be able to activate the V-sync for it and have no tearing. But what you can't solve about is the TV's typical high input lag (the signal that comes from PC is delayed to be shown on the TV) or there might be slow panel for TV where you just don't have fast colors update (like Gray-Black-Gray update time is slow so your image is ghosting) etc.

[Andy t]

I will try to get a video later on. My exact TV model wasn't listed, but I think it's around 20ms of input lag.

[Andy t]

Also, could people share their nvidial control panel/DCS graphics settings used for TVs?

[HiJack]

You mean input lag, not refresh rate? Refresh rate on my TV is 60 hz

 

Err, sorry. Yes of course, input lag. Typically 2 - 5 ms Gray/Gray og a gaming monitor. On a TV often 20 or more but TV producers don't really pay much attention to this number and seems to just pick one that suits them. So checking reviews etc. on what you got or are going to get is essential.

[HiJack]

This may be a place to look for the measured data on your TV. Remember that PC monitors normally is between 2 - 5 ms gray to gray when viewing your TV's input lag :music_whistling:

https://displaylag.com/

 

EDIT: The two values, Response Time (PC Monitor) and Input Lag (TV) is not the same so doing some research before buying a TV to game on is necessary. On a PC Monitor the Response Time is the value to have as low as possible. For flight sim 5ms is ok. But good cables is important both on PC Monitor and if you are using a TV!

Edited April 19, 2020 by HiJack

[Backy 51]

Andy,

 

A good resource is https://www.rtings.com/

 

Specifically, how to calibrate your TV: https://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/how-to-calibrate-your-tv

 

There are many settings on your Samsung 4K that need to be changed to get maximum performance.

 

I went from a Samsung 40" 4K to a TCL 55" and I'll never go small screen again!

Edited April 20, 2020 by Backy 51