solved Why is my FPS Capped at 60? Also low FPS in missions :(

[CommandT]

Hey folks,

 

I'm messing around with my graphics settings but I see my FPS is always capped at 60. Is this normal? Is it due to my monitor being 60Hz max refresh rate?

 

Also, I see that even if I have everthing running smoothly 99% of the time just flying around the maps on my own, when doing any mission or campaign I see stutters and fps drops even in places where the GPU wouldn't struggle to render the image. Is this normal?

 

My specs:

 

Dell XPS 15 laptop with i7 7700HQ

eGPU - RTX 2080 Super

32GB RAM 2400MHz

EVO 970 m.2 2TB

 

38" HP Z38C Monitor with a refresh rate of 60Hz.

 

 

I'm a bit disspointed with the lack of smoothness I get in missions :( I did as much optimizing as I could and squeezed soem more performance after tweaking in game settings and nVidia settings and also undervolting the CPU. Still definitely struggling with something when it comes to missions. :cry:

[Svsmokey]

Do you have vsync checked ?

 

Depending on number of ai assets , missions can be problematic , and more so if you're running 2.56 . AI is hard on cpu .

[Lange_666]

I'm messing around with my graphics settings but I see my FPS is always capped at 60. Is this normal? Is it due to my monitor being 60Hz max refresh rate?

No, it's not limited to the refresh rate of your monitor but you might have VSync ticked either ingame or in the nVidia setup and then it syncs your GFX output to your monitor refresh rate which is 60Hz so...

[Ramsay]

I'm messing around with my graphics settings but I see my FPS is always capped at 60. Is this normal? Is it due to my monitor being 60Hz max refresh rate?

 

If Vsync is enabled, the frame rate will match your monitors refresh rate.

 

To have an uncapped frame rate -

 

• Make sure DCS -> Options -> System ---> VSync is unchecked

 

• VSync can also have been set in "Nvidia Settings" as either a default or for "Digital Combat Flight Simulator: Black Shark (dcs.exe)"

 

• A frame limit can be set in "Saved Games\DCS\Config\autoexec.cfg" but you would need to have added the line manually as it's not set by default.

[Furiz]

His monitor refresh rate limits the fps,

 

you cant have 144 fps on a 60 hz monitor, its just not possible,

 

you can set your programs to run the game at 10000 fps but in reality the 60Hz monitor will always produce 60fps max.

[CommandT]

Ah I see. That makes sense. I do have VSync enabled. Unfortunately I need it to avoid screen tearing.

 

Is my CPU the achillies heel? It seems not matter what missions I run it just turns into an awful choppy mess.

 

Worth building a tower PC with a good CPU whilst retaining the 2080 Super/ SSD ect? Would going up to 64GB of RAM make much difference? (I am limited to 32GB with the current set up).

 

Cheers!

[Mars Exulte]

You're running a laptop? A laptop CPU/GPU is not equivalent to their desktop counterparts of the same approximate model. While a laptop can be very powerful, pound for pound they are considerably inferior to comparable desktop. Usually, this isn't a big deal, but in the case of something particularly demanding like DCS, it is a factor, particularly with the CPU.

 

The size of your case has nothing to do with your PC's power. Tower or not is personal preference. It's like asking whether you should buy a tractor trailer instead of an F150 because obviously more is better. Are you intended to run large banks of harddrives, multiple GPUs and need tons of space? If not, then you don't need a full tower. Doubtless some will say ''but muh airflow'', but that has little to do with case size and everything to do with how it's layed out and more importantly, how you arranged everything.

 

I personally use a compact mid-tower, that is just large enough for my components and no extra space. If you really want to, even smaller builds are possible, so there's really no reason to use a laptop at all unless you absolutely need additional mobility.

[Taz1004]

Ah I see. That makes sense. I do have VSync enabled. Unfortunately I need it to avoid screen tearing.

 

Is my CPU the achillies heel? It seems not matter what missions I run it just turns into an awful choppy mess.

 

Worth building a tower PC with a good CPU whilst retaining the 2080 Super/ SSD ect? Would going up to 64GB of RAM make much difference? (I am limited to 32GB with the current set up).

 

Cheers!

 

Your monitor is the bottleneck. It will never go over 60fps. And as you said, if you disable Vsync, it will skip frames which is why you see tearing.

[Hammer1-1]

Yep, a 60hz monitor will always be capped at 60fps. Only way to get around that is to get a monitor whos refresh rate is above 60hz.

[CommandT]

Yep, a 60hz monitor will always be capped at 60fps. Only way to get around that is to get a monitor whos refresh rate is above 60hz.

 

Would there actually be any boost in performance overall though with a monitor with a higher refresh rate? I mean 60fps looks perfectly smooth when it's smooth. I'm not complaining about having it capped at 60. I'm complaining about having performance issues when it stutters or drops below 60.

[CommandT]

You're running a laptop? A laptop CPU/GPU is not equivalent to their desktop counterparts of the same approximate model. While a laptop can be very powerful, pound for pound they are considerably inferior to comparable desktop. Usually, this isn't a big deal, but in the case of something particularly demanding like DCS, it is a factor, particularly with the CPU.

 

The size of your case has nothing to do with your PC's power. Tower or not is personal preference. It's like asking whether you should buy a tractor trailer instead of an F150 because obviously more is better. Are you intended to run large banks of harddrives, multiple GPUs and need tons of space? If not, then you don't need a full tower. Doubtless some will say ''but muh airflow'', but that has little to do with case size and everything to do with how it's layed out and more importantly, how you arranged everything.

 

I personally use a compact mid-tower, that is just large enough for my components and no extra space. If you really want to, even smaller builds are possible, so there's really no reason to use a laptop at all unless you absolutely need additional mobility.

 

To be honest I think your understanding my system is a little crude. It's not "just a laptop" - it has an external case for a 2080 Super GPU with it's own cooling fans and pPSU, it's got the same SSD as you'll get in a tower PC, and although RAM in my case is limited to 32GB @ 2400MHz, it's also more than acceptable generally and what a lot of people will have in a tower PC. As for cooling, again, this is not an issue - I have a cooler pad with 3 extra fans, extra thermal pads inside also and since the internal GPU is not being used all this extra cooling has an even greater effect. I would not underestimate the capabilities of a good laptop with an external GPU and cooling. I used to think the same as you.

 

However the downside of my system is I am limited by bandwith by the processor architecture and I'm beginning to think it's a limitng factor for AI and missions within DCS. Had DCS used a Vulkan API and utilised more cores I think my system would have been more than adequate but in the current state the processor is just too limiting.

Edited May 18, 2020 by CommandT

[Hammer1-1]

Would there actually be any boost in performance overall though with a monitor with a higher refresh rate? I mean 60fps looks perfectly smooth when it's smooth. I'm not complaining about having it capped at 60. I'm complaining about having performance issues when it stutters or drops below 60.

 

Performance is based on hardware specifically. A higher refresh rate monitor just takes full advantage of your hardware. Specifically, if you have a gsync monitor, you can have a mostly stutter free playthrough. Not saying that a monitor is what you need, but it makes a bit of a difference only when playing like either FPS games or watching certain movies that have a high FPS count that makes movies seem like they are playing in real time.

[Lange_666]

Yep, a 60hz monitor will always be capped at 60fps.

That's not entirely true. I run a 60Hz monitor and get FPS above 60 when i don't use VSync. On a 60Hz you can only draw 60 images / second but that doesn't mean your FPS output can't be higher. The drawback is tearring.

[Hammer1-1]

That's not entirely true. I run a 60Hz monitor and get FPS above 60 when i don't use VSync. On a 60Hz you can only draw 60 images / second but that doesn't mean your FPS output can't be higher. The drawback is tearring.

 

I can almost guarantee you that thats false. You MAY get tearing, but you're still getting 60fps.

https://www.avadirect.com/blog/frame-rate-fps-vs-hz-refresh-rate/

[Taz1004]

That's not entirely true. I run a 60Hz monitor and get FPS above 60 when i don't use VSync. On a 60Hz you can only draw 60 images / second but that doesn't mean your FPS output can't be higher. The drawback is tearring.

 

Game may be running at higher than 60fps. But the monitor is not displaying any more than it can display which is 60 per second.

 

And we were talking about with Vsync Enabled because the OP said he doesn't like tearing.

 

 

Would there actually be any boost in performance overall though with a monitor with a higher refresh rate? I mean 60fps looks perfectly smooth when it's smooth. I'm not complaining about having it capped at 60. I'm complaining about having performance issues when it stutters or drops below 60.

 

No, higher refresh rate monitor will not give you any performance boost "UNDER" 60fps. For that, I would say upgrade CPU and/or GPU or SSD but it most likely is just buggy software. Especially if you're running Open Beta. Or you could also try reducing settings.

 

Just realized Nvidia added few more Vsync options in their control panel. Have you tried Fast or Adaptive Vsync? Adaptive is supposed to reduce stuttering at lower fps and reduce tearing at high fps.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Taz1004

[Lange_666]

I should have left out the "that's not entirely true". Then we are saying the same thing.

[CommandT]

Cheers guys, yeah makes sense. 60fps is absolutely perfect anyway so long as there's no big drops. So I'm happy with the monitor for sure. I just need a better CPU/ mobo I think. Current system has limited bandwith.

[rush158]

it looks like they have capped the fps at 60 for DCS - I have a 144hz monitor and everything else I run , runs at 144 or slightly under, but DCS has suddenly starting only running at 60 wether VSync is on or off - I tried adding an autoexec.cfg file with FPS at 144 but made no difference.

[Lange_666]

Standard it should be capped at 180 in the graphics.lua file (DCS install directory Config folder (not in Saved Games)).

Check it's not set at 60...
 

[rush158]

Sorted It - for some reason my monitor was locked at 60 and this only affected DCS

Edited August 20, 2023 by rush158

[Nedum]

On 5/18/2020 at 4:37 PM, Hammer1-1 said:

 

I can almost guarantee you that thats false. You MAY get tearing, but you're still getting 60fps.

https://www.avadirect.com/blog/frame-rate-fps-vs-hz-refresh-rate/

Did one ever read the article that was linked here?

 

I quote:

"Does that mean that your frame rate is limited by your screen’s refresh rate? No; they are two separate things. Remember that FPS is how many frames your custom gaming PCs is producing or drawing, while the refresh rate is how many times the monitor is refreshing the image on the screen. The refresh rate (Hz) of your monitor does not affect the frame rate (FPS) your GPU will be outputting. However, if your FPS is higher than your refresh rate, your display will not be able to display all of the frames your computer is producing, so although the refresh rate doesn’t technically limit the frame rate, it does effectively set a cap."

 

and later:

If the frame rate your computer is producing is different (either higher or lower) than the refresh rate of your monitor, you may experience a glitch known as screen tearing, where information from two or more frames is shown in a single screen draw.

 

The Monitor refresh rate (Hz) alone will never limit the FPS you can get! You all have to understand that, because if not, you will point in the wrong direction for a possible fix.

You have to understand, it's possible to put more than two single Frame information (FPS) in one single screen draw (Hz). Hz alone will never limit your FPS, there must be always a separate tool doing that.

If you can't find the tool (Vsync) in the game settings or the GPU settings, most of the time it's an FPS limiter (FPS != Hz) coming with OC-Tools like MSI-Afterburner (RivaTuner).

 

I would guess your problem had something to do with a game specific setting in the GPU drivers for DCS. How'd you fixed it, I don't know, but I know by 100 % it wasn't the refresh rate of your Monitor alone.

 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Nedum

[Loukuins]

13 hours ago, rush158 said:

Sorted It - for some reason my monitor was locked at 60 and this only affected DCS

 

That's what I though your issue was after reading the thread, glad you fixed you issue and always check that your Monitor is setup at the right refreshrate 

[Hammer1-1]

3 years later.............

 

21 hours ago, Nedum said:

Did one ever read the article that was linked here?

 

I quote:

"Does that mean that your frame rate is limited by your screen’s refresh rate? No; they are two separate things. Remember that FPS is how many frames your custom gaming PCs is producing or drawing, while the refresh rate is how many times the monitor is refreshing the image on the screen. The refresh rate (Hz) of your monitor does not affect the frame rate (FPS) your GPU will be outputting. However, if your FPS is higher than your refresh rate, your display will not be able to display all of the frames your computer is producing, so although the refresh rate doesn’t technically limit the frame rate, it does effectively set a cap."

 

and later:

If the frame rate your computer is producing is different (either higher or lower) than the refresh rate of your monitor, you may experience a glitch known as screen tearing, where information from two or more frames is shown in a single screen draw.

 

The Monitor refresh rate (Hz) alone will never limit the FPS you can get! You all have to understand that, because if not, you will point in the wrong direction for a possible fix.

You have to understand, it's possible to put more than two single Frame information (FPS) in one single screen draw (Hz). Hz alone will never limit your FPS, there must be always a separate tool doing that.

If you can't find the tool (Vsync) in the game settings or the GPU settings, most of the time it's an FPS limiter (FPS != Hz) coming with OC-Tools like MSI-Afterburner (RivaTuner).

 

I would guess your problem had something to do with a game specific setting in the GPU drivers for DCS. How'd you fixed it, I don't know, but I know by 100 % it wasn't the refresh rate of your Monitor alone.

 

 

 

Of course your PC will render more than the displays refresh rate, dont recall anyone ever stating anything otherwise. The "actual FPS" is limited by your monitors refresh rate, thats flat out a hardware limitation. Sure your fps counter will be accurate, but it only reflects the actual commands to draw sent to the video card and not the monitor. The monitor is not an input hardware, its the end result of the computation. I would dare say thats why you get tearing as they dont sync up 100% unless you put in an FPS limit or vsync. You arent going to see any more than what the monitor says you can see.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Hammer1-1