Gaming Technomancy, Our Own Experiences With Gaming Technology Options

[SubRosa]

I thought we could use a topic where we could discuss our own personal findings with gaming tech. Be it video cards, game controllers, monitors, tvs, keyboards, headsets, software like Fraps or the GeForce Experience, you name it. Some times new improvements in this stuff can make our gaming lives beautiful. Other times they just cast a Ravage Health spell on our bank accounts. Hopefully it can help us tell one from another.

A few months ago I bought a GeForce Titan X. It is a pure awesomesauce. It's like a jam sandwich, but without the bread. It is all jam. And if you really hate having money, you can buy up to 4 of them and run them together in an SLI (assuming your motherboard is capable of that, and I hope you have nuclear power plant to run that computer! )

I moved to the Titan because I previously had a pair of GeForce 980s in an SLI. It should have been fantastic. But instead it was horrible. I was constantly getting a strange stuttering in everything. And I do mean everything, because it happened even in Firefox and Internet Explorer. It turns out plenty of other people had the same problem, but not everyone. So Nvidia's answer was to deny the issue exists.

So I suggest you not buy two 980s to run in an SLI. They might work fine. They might not. Blow on those dice for luck before you roll them.

I returned my 980s and got the Titan X. That solved my problem.

Well my Titan X supports Nvidia's new G-Sync technology. For those who want the quick version, it is the successor to V-Sync. Like V-Sync it prevents games from tearing as your frame rate changes. V-Sync does this by locking your frame rate at a specific number. These days that is usually 60, as most monitors are 60hz (they refresh 60 times a second). But V-Sync also tends to cause lag and stuttering. In comes G-Sync which instead dynamically links the frame rate of your game and that of your monitor. So if you are getting 55 FPS in your game, your monitor runs at 55 hz. If your game jumps to 70 FPS, you monitor's refresh rate jumps with it. If your frame rate nose-dives, well, you know what the monitor does by now. Everyone who has reviewed G-Sync says it is simply amazing. Stutter is gone, gameplay is smooth as warm butter.

The downside is G-Sync requires special technology in both the monitor and the video card. It also only works when using a Display Port cable/port, rather than an hdmi, dvi, or vga connection. But that is not a real issue, as G-Sync monitors and cards naturally have those ports built in. But it might be an issue if you want to connect your new G-Sync monitor into a computer without a G-sync video card, as you probably won't have a Display Port on the box.

So anyway, today I bought a new G-Sync monitor and fired up Skyrim to see what buttery smooth goodness awaited me in Whiterun. The answer was none at all. Turns out G-Sync does not play well with Skyrim. Or really the other way around. Because Bethesda made the game so that is performs worse when your FPS goes above 60. That is right, the better your rig, the worse the game plays. Of course the worse your computer is, the worse the game plays as well. Am I the only one who thinks that Bethesda hates everyone who buys their games?

In my case (and I gather many others) I am now not only getting stutter and lag, but water surfaces also flicker on and off, whether I am moving or standing still. There was an old fix for this by turning off Sky Reflections. But it doesn't help now. The problem is that the frame rate is now above 60, and that is causing the flicker.

Tom's Hardware actually recommends that you disable G-Sync with Skyrim and play it the old-fashioned way with V-Sync. I have been fighting with this dragon for a few hours, tried many supposed fixes that only made the game worse (like using Nvidia Inspector to cap the frame rate at anything between 58 to 65 fps, or adding the IFPSClamp=64 line to the Skyrim.ini).

I finally made sure all of my game settings were turned up as high as possible to slow the game down (AA at x8, Super-Sampling at X8, AF at x16, and so on). I removed all the so-called fixes and .ini tweaks. I turned on FRAPs fps counter and went for a stroll around Whiterun. The game actually plays a little smoother than with V-Sync. I noticed my FPS averaged around 115 when I was walking straight ahead. Turning usually dropped it by 10 or 20 fps. I never saw the slightest lag when this happened btw. Exactly how it is supposed to be with G-Sync. But if I jumped around and looked sideways, or was too near a waterfall, my fps would sometimes plummet to the upper 60s. That is when I get micro-stuttering. The same lag I get with V-sync, in exactly the same places. Only with V-sync the game is dropping from 60 fps to 58 for those split seconds, and the lag is worse.

For shits and giggles I even turned on FRAPs video capture. This usually nearly kills whatever game I am running with tremendous lag. My FPS instantly dropped from 115 to 60. But it kept playing smooth. I thought, "Great! I'll just play with the video capture always on." But there are times when I get too near things like waterfalls and windmills, and my FPS drops down to 30. Then the lag comes back really bad. Which is exactly what that article I linked to above said would happen when you got down around 30 fps. But the plus side is that the video capture still runs far better than without G-sync.

So I am down to deciding whether I want to live with the water flickering of G-Sync, or the slightly worse lag of V-Sync. I am not sure yet. I also tried setting my monitor's refresh rate down to 60, and seeing how that played with G-Sync. But it seems to flicker slightly when I do that (it is a 144 hz monitor). So I turned it back to the higher default setting.

Bottom line to this long ramble, do not invest in G-Sync if your main purpose is to play Skyrim. Also don't bother if you are getting around 30 fps now, as it won't help. I have read that Diablo 3 does not like G-Sync either. For other games, and rigs that can deliver up into the 50s and 60 fps at least, it seems to be just fine. Better than fine, it appears to make them fantastic. I didn't do any extensive testing with Oblivion, FO3, and FONV. I only played Oblivion and NV enough to see that work, and seem to play well enough. And water looks fine in Oblivion. Though I never had any lag in NV with V-Sync, and only get a very little bit with Oblivion in a few places, like Persephone's modded tower home.

Oh, and for you ATI'ers, there is an equivalent tech from AMD called Freesync. But since I am an Nvidia girl, I have really not investigated it much. All I do know is that it also requires special hardware built into the monitors, and needs to use Display Port 1.2a ports and cables.


Edit: Ok, I learned a bit more. In your Nvidia Control Panel, under 3D Settings, both Globally and for individual games, there is of course the option to turn on G-Sync. Even with it turned on there, you can still turn V-Sync on or off down below in its regular section. What I have discovered is that if G-Sync is turned on, and V-Sync is turned on, it will prevent your card from trying to draw more frames per second than your monitor's refresh rate. So if you have a 144 hz monitor, it will cap your FPS at that same number. Which sounds like a good thing, since it should prevent screen tearing.

However, I am reading that if a game has a setting to turn V-Sync on or off you should always turn it off there. I would imagine that the game then tries to use V-Sync normally to cap your frame rate at 60, while G-Sync is of course trying to do its dynamic business. But I have just finished trying V-Sync both on and off in the Nvidia Control Panel, and on and off in Oblivion, and have seen no difference in any of the scenarios. So I suspect that as soon as you turn G-Sync on, V-Sync is disabled, no matter what settings you might have enabled in your games or control panel.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Aug 18 2015, 03:45 AM

[SubRosa]

I tried out an Oculus Rift at Best Buy today. I was concerned that it might not fit because of my glasses. But by pulling back the head band all they way I was able to get it on ok, without my glasses hitting the lenses.

I played a game called The Climb. It is basically rock climbing, pretty simple stuff. It was fun, and very neat how turning your head shows you different views. You have to reach out a lot as well, which took a while to get used to, but really makes the whole thing feel like an experience. It is very different from sitting in front of a regular computer screen with a keyboard and mouse.

However, I did find the two disembodied hands you see (your hands in the game) to be kind of creepy and disconcerting. All VR games seem to do that, just hands floating in the air with no arms or torso. The two hand controllers were a little difficult for me to use, because you cannot see any of the buttons on them. You have to do it all by feel.

It also took a lot of space. I had to stand back from the computer it was running on, probably so the sensors could detect all my head and hand movements. Plus you reach out a lot. Though I was standing still. I think some games have you actually walk around. I could never fit it in my apartment.

It also felt really gimmicky. It was fun, sure. But it did not feel like something I could do for hours on end without the initial thrill wearing off. It does not seem like something you could play a real game with. In short, it felt like a neat fad, like 3D movies. But not a long-term kind of thing.

Also, when I was done and took off the googles, my head had gotten really hot and sweaty. That was only after about 10 minutes of playing.

So fun to try, but I won't be buying one.