3 replies to this topic

[Al Bert]

Hi,

here we go with the third part of the FPS comparison...

• first part can be found here
  
• second part can be found here

As before, labeling of dates corresponds to patches as follows:

• "Nov 27th" = patch 1.1.115 (left bar for each map/mode, standard)
  
• "Dec 4th" = patch 1.1.161 (middle bar of each map/mode, dark)
  
• "Dec 18th" = patch 1.2.168 (right bar for each map/mode, bright)

Description of graph:

For each of the six "old" maps, we see three pairs of bars (blue="Very High", red="Medium" and green="Low" in-game settings like described in the inset); for the new map River City Night, we have only 3 bars corresponding to the different settings. Each triple compares the data obtained while running the various patches (same setting, same map).

As mentioned in the graph, all values are averaged: over a number of matches on each map, I "frapped" the average, max and min values of the FPS. The corresponding number of matches with that setting on the specific map is mentioned in each bar just to give you an idea of the (sometimes low) statistic. The upper error bar corresponds to the averaged MAX values across these matches, the lower one to the MIN values. I see no effect from restarting the client, so most values are obtained while running consecutive series of matches, just one after the other.





For me, the conclusions (valid on my system) are:

• PGI did (again) a good step in the right direction for the "Low" settings (all setting low, no anti-aliasing, v-sync off, motion blur off) - this time, only Forest Colony Snow stayed the same as before (see corresponding green bar pairs for those maps), while on all other maps, the FPS increased by up to 8 FPS. For "Low" settings, all maps show close to or above 45 FPS which I think is more than decent.
  
• For "Medium" and "Very High" settings, I see no real change, the observable small variations of +/- 1-2 FPS have no significance in my eyes. If at all, the tendency hints towards subtle lower FPS for medium and very high settings. For "Medium", the obtained FPS values are around 35 for all maps, for "Very High" settings around 30 FPS

Overall (on my system) I can play very well with any settings including the "Very High" one - the 30 FPS feels very smooth.


Next Steps:

• NVidia released a new driver, and there is mentioning of MWO in the release notes
  
  • Updated NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Mechwarrrior Online

--> so I will test the influence on FPS compared to the "old" one (306.97)

• Before i install the new driver, I will check the settings of VSync=ON since at least for "Low" settings, my system gives me > 60 FPS already in some cases, which makes physically no sense on my 60 Hz refresh rate. In the best case, I expect limiting FPS wile lowering the MAX/MIN values.

Others:

I had no CTD since the last patch (total of ~ 250 matches) and no yellow screen or other bug (4 FPS, black screen etc) which is in line with the PGI announcement for stability in the patch notes, so thumbs up for that as well!

Of course I hope, once tuning for low settings by PGI is "finished", we will get higher FPS for Medium/Very High settings as well...DX 11 is lurking around the corner already

Regards,
Al Bert


PS: I urge everyone to use free programs like FRAPS or such to get a better number & feeling for FPS rates instead of just once in a while looking for the F9 value. I for myself let FRAPS refresh the FPS value only every second. In addition, every so often I read statements like "low FPS blahblah" without actually mentioning real numbers, the system spec, the in-game settings, map used or altered user.cfg file etc. It is quite hard to figure out any valuably conclusion form posts like that.

Edited by Al Bert, 21 December 2012 - 02:54 PM.

[Al Bert]

Al Bert, on 21 December 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

Next Steps:

• Before i install the new driver, I will check the settings of VSync=ON since at least for "Low" settings, my system gives me > 60 FPS already in some cases, which makes physically no sense on my 60 Hz refresh rate. In the best case, I expect limiting FPS wile lowering the MAX/MIN values.

Ok, i tested the above with "Low" settings. My expectation was to find MAX values of 60 FPS while having less variation, maybe a lot of 30 FPS values as well. Surprisingly (or maybe I don't understand the VSync Option), results were quite ambiguous and actually all over the place: some maps showed higher FPS than before with "Low" settings and VSync OFF, other maps sowed lower FPS compared to before. Also, FRAPS gave me still a lot of MAX values above 60 which I thought is not possible with VSync OFF - to my understanding, VSync=On should either give me straight 60 FPS (if my GPU can do it) or 30 FPS (if the GPU is not able to deliver the 60) - i have a TFT display with fixed 60 Hz.

I will no dig into this further for now and will install the new NVidia driver and test it.

Al Bert

Edited by Al Bert, 25 December 2012 - 11:24 PM.

[Zyllos]

Al Bert, on 25 December 2012 - 11:22 PM, said:

Ok, i tested the above with "Low" settings. My expectation was to find MAX values of 60 FPS while having less variation, maybe a lot of 30 FPS values as well. Surprisingly (or maybe I don't understand the VSync Option), results were quite ambiguous and actually all over the place: some maps showed higher FPS than before with "Low" settings and VSync OFF, other maps sowed lower FPS compared to before. Also, FRAPS gave me still a lot of MAX values above 60 which I thought is not possible with VSync OFF - to my understanding, VSync=On should either give me straight 60 FPS (if my GPU can do it) or 30 FPS (if the GPU is not able to deliver the 60) - i have a TFT display with fixed 60 Hz.

I will no dig into this further for now and will install the new NVidia driver and test it.

Al Bert

VSync means that when a frame is rendered and the monitor is not asking for an update, place the new frame in memory for the monitor to ask for it at a later time. The reason to do this is so that when the monitor is asking for a new frame, it is not updating the new frame it in the middle of displaying the current frame, which will cause tearing, or visually displaying two partial frames.

So, if your video card renders frames slower than the refresh rate of the monitor, then VSync really does nothing except take up a bit of memory space. But there are some exceptions in that if your video card is updating at a much slower rate than the monitor refresh, then you might receive judder.

If the video card is rendering frames faster than your refresh rate, then VSync will only display some of the many produced images from the video card, thus reducing your frame rate but will fix the issues with tearing.

[Al Bert]

ok, here is the last part of the promised test: the "old" NVidia driver 306.97 with the new released 310.70:



While keeping i mind the low statistic and the error margin, there is no change in positive or negative direction for the "Very High" setting on my system - maybe on lower system settings or on lower system specs the new driver might result in better FPS. I will not dig into it further and simply use the new driver from now on with the Very High settings.

In addition, I am using the NVidia Inspector 1.9.6.8 and the new, predefined "MechWarrior Online" Profile settings therein with no changes.

The next comparison will be about a week after the next patch in January.

Edited by Al Bert, 31 December 2012 - 02:29 AM.