IcyBlueStrawberry
Member
Disclaimer: While I don't think this can damage your monitor/TV, I'm not an expert on this. If I have anything wrong please don't take it as undue arrogance and, for the love of god, don't hesitate to correct me 
Because Watch_Dogs is upon us and many of the people interested in the PC version of the game won't be able to hold 60 FPS (with high-end settings), I feel it's appropriate to have a thread dedicated to getting games to run properly at 30 FPS.
If you've ever played a PC game that's been limited 30 fps, you've likely noticed that it isn't as fluid as console games at 30 fps. The FPS counter always reads 30, but something is amiss. It seems as though the screen continually stutters whenever you pan the camera around. The reason for this is the discrepancy between your monitor's refresh rate and the game's refresh rate. When your monitor's refresh rate is 60Hz and your game is running at 60 FPS, everything is fine. One frame is spit out every time your monitor refreshes. This is true for any refresh rate and FPS combination where both numbers are the same. The problem with trying to limit your games to something that isn't your monitor's refresh rate is that, while your FPS is locked to a specified number (eg 30), the discrepancy still exists. Your monitor is still refreshing at xxHz while your game is only rendering a fraction of that. Locking your framerate to half (or quarter) of your refresh rate helps to lessen the effect, but the issue is still present nonetheless. The only way to have a smooth gaming experience is to have your graphics card render a frame every time your monitor refreshes. Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync are aiming to rectify this issue by dynamically adjusting your monitor's refresh rate to match whatever FPS your graphics card can manage to output but, as of May 2014, they aren't ready.
So, with that in mind, let's talk about running your monitor at 30Hz.
Firstly, you (probably) need to create a custom resolution in order for your monitor to be able to output 30Hz properly. If you're an Nvidia user, you can get by using the Nvidia Control Panel. I'm an AMD user, so I only have the following guide from Nvidia's website to work with, but hopefully someone in the GeForce camp can help if this method is no longer valid.
http://www.nvidia.ca/object/custom_resolutions.html
Just set your desired resolution and change the refresh rate to 30.
As far as I know AMD doesn't have a driver option to create custom resolutions. As such, you have to do it yourself by either editing your registry or using a third party program. I'm not going to get into registry editing, but there are a few guides on the internet/YouTube that I have successfully used before. For this case, though, I used Custom Resolution Utility to allow my monitor to run 1920x1080 @ 30Hz.
http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU
Click the first blue link to download the program, follow the guide and you should be fine.
Once you have your resolution set up, you're ready to get your games running at 30Hz.
The way to accomplish this varies from game to game. Some games have the option to change your refresh rate right in the options menu, others require an .ini or .cfg tweak, and a few just don't seem to work afaik. Changing the refresh rate inside of a game's options menu is pretty straight forward, so I won't bother explaining that. Finding the refresh rate line using an options file is a little trickier, and it varies from game to game, but if the option exists it's usually in a logical place (eg under the "display" section). The most obvious trick is to simply search for "refresh" within the file. Certain games use different terms for refresh rate, but it's usually easy enough to find if you make an effort. If you can't find a way to get a particular game to run at 30Hz, try changing your desktop resolution to 30Hz and then opening the game.
I know that there are many people who prefer responsiveness over everything else when it comes to how a game runs. If you're one of those people, this thread is probably useless. If you want the most immediate response possible, disabling Vsync and lowering settings is always the best way to go. Running your monitor at half/quarter of its usual refresh rate means that the amount of input lag will inevitably increase. While some games, like Watch_Dogs or Assassin's Creed, don't suffer too much from the increased latency, there are others which are severely hindered by the lack of precision. FPS games, for example, usually require the most precise inputs possible and, as a result, don't fare too well with lower frequencies. Especially if you're playing with a keyboard and mouse. If you can't hit 60 FPS and you're not bothered by the increase in latency, though, then running games at 30Hz should improve your gaming experience.
I hope this helps a few people because I know it makes a difference to me but, as I said, I'm not an expert. If anyone has any input or suggestions I would love to hear them.
Because Watch_Dogs is upon us and many of the people interested in the PC version of the game won't be able to hold 60 FPS (with high-end settings), I feel it's appropriate to have a thread dedicated to getting games to run properly at 30 FPS.
If you've ever played a PC game that's been limited 30 fps, you've likely noticed that it isn't as fluid as console games at 30 fps. The FPS counter always reads 30, but something is amiss. It seems as though the screen continually stutters whenever you pan the camera around. The reason for this is the discrepancy between your monitor's refresh rate and the game's refresh rate. When your monitor's refresh rate is 60Hz and your game is running at 60 FPS, everything is fine. One frame is spit out every time your monitor refreshes. This is true for any refresh rate and FPS combination where both numbers are the same. The problem with trying to limit your games to something that isn't your monitor's refresh rate is that, while your FPS is locked to a specified number (eg 30), the discrepancy still exists. Your monitor is still refreshing at xxHz while your game is only rendering a fraction of that. Locking your framerate to half (or quarter) of your refresh rate helps to lessen the effect, but the issue is still present nonetheless. The only way to have a smooth gaming experience is to have your graphics card render a frame every time your monitor refreshes. Nvidia's G-Sync and AMD's FreeSync are aiming to rectify this issue by dynamically adjusting your monitor's refresh rate to match whatever FPS your graphics card can manage to output but, as of May 2014, they aren't ready.
So, with that in mind, let's talk about running your monitor at 30Hz.
Firstly, you (probably) need to create a custom resolution in order for your monitor to be able to output 30Hz properly. If you're an Nvidia user, you can get by using the Nvidia Control Panel. I'm an AMD user, so I only have the following guide from Nvidia's website to work with, but hopefully someone in the GeForce camp can help if this method is no longer valid.
http://www.nvidia.ca/object/custom_resolutions.html
Just set your desired resolution and change the refresh rate to 30.
As far as I know AMD doesn't have a driver option to create custom resolutions. As such, you have to do it yourself by either editing your registry or using a third party program. I'm not going to get into registry editing, but there are a few guides on the internet/YouTube that I have successfully used before. For this case, though, I used Custom Resolution Utility to allow my monitor to run 1920x1080 @ 30Hz.
http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU
Click the first blue link to download the program, follow the guide and you should be fine.
Once you have your resolution set up, you're ready to get your games running at 30Hz.
The way to accomplish this varies from game to game. Some games have the option to change your refresh rate right in the options menu, others require an .ini or .cfg tweak, and a few just don't seem to work afaik. Changing the refresh rate inside of a game's options menu is pretty straight forward, so I won't bother explaining that. Finding the refresh rate line using an options file is a little trickier, and it varies from game to game, but if the option exists it's usually in a logical place (eg under the "display" section). The most obvious trick is to simply search for "refresh" within the file. Certain games use different terms for refresh rate, but it's usually easy enough to find if you make an effort. If you can't find a way to get a particular game to run at 30Hz, try changing your desktop resolution to 30Hz and then opening the game.
I know that there are many people who prefer responsiveness over everything else when it comes to how a game runs. If you're one of those people, this thread is probably useless. If you want the most immediate response possible, disabling Vsync and lowering settings is always the best way to go. Running your monitor at half/quarter of its usual refresh rate means that the amount of input lag will inevitably increase. While some games, like Watch_Dogs or Assassin's Creed, don't suffer too much from the increased latency, there are others which are severely hindered by the lack of precision. FPS games, for example, usually require the most precise inputs possible and, as a result, don't fare too well with lower frequencies. Especially if you're playing with a keyboard and mouse. If you can't hit 60 FPS and you're not bothered by the increase in latency, though, then running games at 30Hz should improve your gaming experience.
I hope this helps a few people because I know it makes a difference to me but, as I said, I'm not an expert. If anyone has any input or suggestions I would love to hear them.
