High FPS, FPS limit and Vsync issues - how to partially fix them

[The Velour Fog]

You might think that high FPS wouldn't be an issue, but if a game runs at very high framerate like Far Cry on my GTX 660 runs at 400FPS, it unnecessarily renders 400 frames every second when 120 would be more than enough.

You can check your framerate by opening the console (~ key, left next to 1 key) and typing:
\r_displayinfo 1 (\r_displayinfo 0 to turn it of)

Game offers an in-built framerate limiter (\g_maxfps) but it doesn't really work well. I tried \g_maxfps 60 and it seemed to cap it to something between 30 and 60 and it was fluctuating. Using \g_maxfps 120 capped it to something like 72, but it still fluctuated and you could still see lag. It seems very noticable when motion blur is enabled and vsync is off.

Mentioning vsync, ingame vsync doesn't seem to work with my GPU. Way to enable is to first disable it in game then enable it in nVidia CP or AMD CCC. Now I have my Vsync on, \g_maxfps 0 and now it stays at 60 (59). It's smooth and works.

So, to achieve smooth gameplay, you can do one of these 3 things:
\g_maxfps 0 and vsync off (both ingame and in GPU control panel) - this uses 100% of GPU and heats it, but it's smooth.
\g_maxfps 60, 120 or 240 and vsync off - this uses something like 30-50% of GPU but it doesn't really cap it to these values and causes noticable motion blur lag.
\g_maxfps 0, vync off ingame and vsync on in GPU control panel - uses 30-50% GPU and is smooth.

To sum it up: you can't really cap to whatever value you want. I would like it capped to 120 with Vsync off and I can't seem to be able to do that as \g_maxfps is somewhat broken. Any suggestions or should I just stick to 60 Vsync (which is totally fine anyhow)?

[Kulahptik]

thank you so much! I had almost given up on the game because I didn't like have my card overheating for fps i couldn't use. set it in nvidia control panel and all is well. so far.

[Urithor19]

Could this explain this:

Originally posted by hazmat74:

Does this old game stress newer pcs? From the moment I loaded the game, the fans started humming to beat the band. None of my newer games cause my fans to blast off the way this game is. It worries me to a point. I even have my pc on a cooling pad.

[The Velour Fog]

Originally posted by Urig43:

Could this explain this:

Originally posted by hazmat74:

Does this old game stress newer pcs? From the moment I loaded the game, the fans started humming to beat the band. None of my newer games cause my fans to blast off the way this game is. It worries me to a point. I even have my pc on a cooling pad.

Yes, if game is running at uncapped FPS, it will use 100% of your GPU no matter what. When your GPU is running at 100% it will heat up a lot and fans will start spinning faster to cool it. You might even see some throtling (lowering frequency of the GPU core). Limiting the framerate will lower the usage, and in old games like Far Cry that run at 400+ fps if uncapped it will lower the usage drastically if you lock it to something like 60fps

[The Velour Fog]

A bit of an update: using nVidia Inspector you can cap the fps to whatever you want for any game. I haven't tried it but I think it should work. A similar tool might exist for AMD/ATI users.

[KingFurykiller]

This was it. Forget all the mods, forget everything else. over a decade later this solved my FPS issues. Thank you

[Reqviver]

You can also try FCAV mod to avoid all those issues with frame counter and so on: https://farcry1.itch.io/far-cry-advanced-version