Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] gaming and refresh rate

[Nathan Odle <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mike Miller wrote:

> My son has some games that push his system pretty hard.  We'd love to
> use a higher resolution, but it seems like we get the quick response
> he likes only at 800 x 600 and not at higher resolutions.  He also
> told me that it looks like a lower refresh rate (e.g., 60 Hz) is
> working better than a higher rate (e.g., 85 Hz) -- does that seem
> right?  I didn't think the refresh rate would be related to performance.


WRT to the resolution, you'll generally get higher framerates at lower
resolutions.  In most first-person shooters, "framerate is king" and
there's a noticable difference in gameplay between 30 fps and say, 90
fps even though the human eye can only "see" ~30 fps.  A lot of this has
to do with the fact that the rest of the game engine also runs at the
higher framerate, which is especially significant on the input (read:
mouse [read: trigger and aim]) side of things. 

With most non-FPS games you'll usually find that the 30 FPS region
provides acceptable performance.  This is because the action usually
isn't so brisk, and the "twitch" factor is significantly lower. 
Whatever resolution you use, try for the aforementioned ~30 FPS in
non-twitch games and >= 60 FPS for the twitch genre.

As for the refresh rates, you'll find that a lot of video drivers/games
default to "VSYNC on", which means that the game waits for a vertical
sync before rendering the next frame.  This effectively caps the
framerate at whatever your vertical sync rate is, be it 60 Hz (60 FPS),
85 Hz (85 FPS), etc.  If VSYNC is on, I could see a higher refresh rate
helping your son's gaming experience; you describe the opposite though
so I'm a little skeptical that the refresh rate is actually having an
effect...

-N

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