RTCW+Vsync=bad FPS

[Jester]

My framerate stays pretty reasonable when I have Vsync disabled but once I enable it (r_swapinterval=1) my framerate will usually get cut in half. I was wondering if this is a Quake 3 problem so I fired up Quake 3 and the same result! Tried it on a buddies Geforce card to make sure it wasn't a typical ATI problem and same problem! Do you guys know of anyway to fix this? I really don't like running with VSync disabled and don't like the 30-40fps I get with it enabled.

[FlyingPenguin]

With VSync enabled your framerate can NEVER exceed your monitor's refresh rate since the game can only write to the screen once during each refresh.

Thus if your refresh is set to 75 Hz, then your framerate is capped at 75 fps.

You DO want VSync enabled or you'll get image tearing. You only want it disabled for benchmarking.

Set your monitor refresh as high as it will comfortably go in 3D mode, and you'll be fine. Realistically, 75 Hz is fine for gaming - more is always nice but not really necessary.

If you're only getting 30 - 40 fps with Vsync enabled, then your video card is being maxed out. You'll either have to live with Vsync disabled or else turn down the eye candy or the resolution in the game.

A Radeon DDR is not going to run Quake3 very well at over 800x600. I would also not use full eye candy.

[Jester]

But why does my framerate get decreased way past my 60hz refresh rate? It doesn't make any sense.

Ok, lets say I'm at a certain place, I'm getting 70fps w/Vsync disabled. I don't move at all, bring down the console, enable it, and boom, my framerate drops to 40fps. WTF is going on here? Half-life and other OGL games don't do this! Only Q3 engine games do.

[FlyingPenguin]

As I said, all I can assume is that you're near the max fillrate for that card when using Quake3 engine games.

I don't know what other OpenGL games you're running, but for instance Quake3 is going to put a heck of a lot more strain on your video subsystem than Half-Life.

When you have a video card that's limited on fillrate compared to the performance of the CPU, as yours is, then it's not unusual to see a big performance increase with VSync disabled. Disabling VSync was a trick we used back in the early days of 3D to get better performance.

As I said above, you may just be asking too much of your video card in Quake3 games. You do not want to use the "High Quality" video setting in Quake3 with that card - try Normal or even Fast, and use no higher a resolution than 800x600. That may bring the FPS up to a reasonable level with VSync enabled.

[Jester]

Hmmm.....interesting. Well thanks FP. I dropped my resolution down to 800x600 (was running 1024x768 before) and it now runs pretty much at 60fps w/Vsync enabled and most of the goodies cranked up. I guess I just expected too much from this "old" video card.