Limiting Frame Rate

1st Official Post

    Technical question from the untechnical me. I know this is a bit like "I wonder what this button does", but if I change my game settings from limit frame rate OFF to say 60 fps does it have an adverse effect if my machine can handle more than 60 fps? :/

    If you tell the machine that frame rates are unlimited, you are saying "work as fast as you are able to".
    If you set a limit, you are saying "don't try to go faster than this".
    All the sim software does - haha, 'all' - is work out what the next screen to be displayed should look like. It works that out from all the inputs - throttle settings, control surface positions, switches, wind etc - and applies the result to the previous screen. All this is done many times per second by the CPU (central processing unit) and then passed to the GPU ( graphics processing unit, aka the graphics card) which actually draws the screen.
    If you have a strong CPU with plenty RAM, it will have no trouble managing all the other processes, as well as running the sim. A GPU with plenty RAM will take anything the CPU can throw at it. If the CPU can only manage to calculate ten frames per second, that is what you will get from the GPU. Similarly, if the GPU is short on RAM, a strong CPU can flood it with data, creating a slideshow. It is best to have a balanced setup. Limiting fps will reduce demand on the processors, and that could prevent overheating problems.

    • Official Post

    Your monitor can most likely only display 60 frames per second. If you do not set the frame rate to that 60 FPS limit then your graphics card will draw frames that you cannot even see. Or even worse half of the image is drawn over by the next image (screen tearing)

    To improve image quality, reduce screen tearing and to reduce power consumption you should switch the frame rate to limited.

    Quote from AOB

    Technical question from the untechnical me. I know this is a bit like "I wonder what this button does", but if I change my game settings from limit frame rate OFF to say 60 fps does it have an adverse effect if my machine can handle more than 60 fps? :/

    Good question, with my early Egyptian set up using a GTX960 graphics card I have used it at LIMIT FRAME RATE OFF and I can hear the poor card gowning as its working over time. From bitter experience I leave it set to 60 FPS in the FS 2 and or FS 4 settings.

    Best wishes, Michael :)

    Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

    Your monitor can most likely only display 60 frames per second. If you do not set the frame rate to that 60 FPS limit then your graphics card will draw frames that you cannot even see. Or even worse half of the image is drawn over by the next image (screen tearing)

    To improve image quality, reduce screen tearing and to reduce power consumption you should switch the frame rate to limited.

    For my monitor, Is it better to set 60fps ? Or VSYNC on ?