Why does the frame rate drop ?

[焱]

From 120 to 70 in 30 minutes, more and more stuck.

[Noborus]

Gotta love it when people complain about dropping to 70fps when that's more then some people get
You can try to turn on vync to have a consistent gameplay, also make sure you don't have any windows in the background open.

[Yuzhi与纸]

I once beat radiant NKG on a 2013 macbook pro, which was less than 20fps lol

It feels novel to play hollow knight on an old mac. It somehow runs that big city’s store room chamber at 4k 60fps, however for most of the situations it runs below 30fps

Originally posted by Coco:

Gotta love it when people complain about dropping to 70fps when that's more then some people get
You can try to turn on vync to have a consistent gameplay, also make sure you don't have any windows in the background open.

[🉑 rezno[R].technology]

FPS in this game depends mainly on your Video Card performance, resolution and Blur Quality settings in the graphics options (I recommend Medium or Low Blur Quality, High drops FPS way too much and doesn't really look that good). Generally FPS in games is never stable, it varies dramatically depending on the point of view and area/map/location. So maybe you can clarify more what you have specifically in mind?

If you notice you have less FPS in the same exact area after some time, check if your laptop/PC/Video Card is not dropping clocks due to overheating.

I recommend setting your own FPS limit in hollow_knight_Data/Config.ini and enable Frame Rate Limiter in the game options.

[kanna]

Originally posted by 🉑 reznoR:

I recommend setting your own FPS limit in hollow_knight_Data/Config.ini and enable Frame Rate Limiter in the game options.

I've seen other people say that they get a good result from setting their frame rate to double their monitor's refresh rate. I guess this might vary by what hardware people have, but is this a good rule of thumb when your video setup can handle it? I never paid much attention to this in the past (as I just assumed I had to play better), but now I'm curious.

(I guess it's kind of funny that I ask this now though, since I used to have really bad hardware for years, but for the last year I've been using a much better setup.)

[焱]

Originally posted by 🉑 reznoR:

FPS in this game depends mainly on your Video Card performance, resolution and Blur Quality settings in the graphics options (I recommend Medium or Low Blur Quality, High drops FPS way too much and doesn't really look that good). Generally FPS in games is never stable, it varies dramatically depending on the point of view and area/map/location. So maybe you can clarify more what you have specifically in mind?

If you notice you have less FPS in the same exact area after some time, check if your laptop/PC/Video Card is not dropping clocks due to overheating.

I recommend setting your own FPS limit in hollow_knight_Data/Config.ini and enable Frame Rate Limiter in the game options.

Thank you very much. I'll check the game settings. Specifically, I have to fight with boss again and again. In the process, I will pass by some of the same scenes. At the beginning, it can be stable above 100ps without jamming. Later, It was stable at 70ps and very stuck.

[Kagora]

Originally posted by kanna:

I've seen other people say that they get a good result from setting their frame rate to double their monitor's refresh rate. I guess this might vary by what hardware people have, but is this a good rule of thumb when your video setup can handle it? I never paid much attention to this in the past (as I just assumed I had to play better), but now I'm curious.

(I guess it's kind of funny that I ask this now though, since I used to have really bad hardware for years, but for the last year I've been using a much better setup.)

Can confirm, inputs ghost much less at 500fps
And from what coco says inputs ghost much more at 30fps

[🉑 rezno[R].technology]

Originally posted by 淼:

Thank you very much. I'll check the game settings. Specifically, I have to fight with boss again and again. In the process, I will pass by some of the same scenes. At the beginning, it can be stable above 100ps without jamming. Later, It was stable at 70ps and very stuck.

Thank you very much for the additional info. At a quick glance this seems like it may be an overheating issue. You can check your CPU and GPU temperatures by for example installing MSI Afterburner, letting it run in the background while playing the game, and after finishing the playthrough check what the max values were in the monitoring graphs.

Originally posted by kanna:

I've seen other people say that they get a good result from setting their frame rate to double their monitor's refresh rate. I guess this might vary by what hardware people have, but is this a good rule of thumb when your video setup can handle it?

A complex topic 🙂 In the OP case limiting the FPS will reduce heat generated by the Video Card and CPU as well (less work to be done in the same time by the PC), so generally the game should appear more stable (less unpredictable).

If you are curious maybe you can read some more info here:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Glossary:Frame_rate_(FPS)#Frame_rate_capping

I like limiting the FPS just for stabilizing the frametimes, the game appears smoother then and the hardware draws less power and produces less heat. Usually setting a game to a multiple of the monitor refresh rate is a good place to start, because it makes the FPS synchronized with the display, and therefore reduces image tearing effect.

How much FPS you need depends on many things, like for example:
Monitor, game, performance, expectations, controllers and even own individual reaction times.

The lower the FPS, the more noticeable the input lag. And it's not linear. The higher the FPS, the harder it is to see or feel any difference. It's more likely that more people will notice a difference between 30 and 60 fps than between 60 and 120. I personally have it set to 120 FPS on 80 Hz :) I don't feel the difference when above.

Yes, setting a 120 FPS limit on 60 Hz monitor can also have benefits, like lower input lag.

[kanna]

Originally posted by Coco:

Gotta love it when people complain about dropping to 70fps when that's more then some people get
You can try to turn on vync to have a consistent gameplay, also make sure you don't have any windows in the background open.

IKR. I can get better FPS now, but I was genuinely happy with 30-40 in the past, and even put up with 20 if I had to. (Not for HK-- for other games over a year ago.)

Originally posted by -:

Can confirm, inputs ghost much less at 500fps
And from what coco says inputs ghost much more at 30fps

Thanks, noted. I did ~30 FPS for other games in the past (especially ARPGs) and it didn't look especially smooth but I didn't have major issues with actual gameplay for the most part, even when everything had to be synced over the Internet.

Originally posted by 🉑 reznoR:

Yes, setting a 120 FPS limit on 60 Hz monitor can also have benefits, like lower input lag.

Thanks for the link (which I will definitely read), and thoughtful advice. I am always wary of my laptop heating up so it seemed relevant.

My monitor's refresh rate is indeed 60 hz, so I edited the file and changed the in-game option accordingly.

For the last month or so, I've had FPS displayed at the corner of my screen through Steam and noticed HK likes to take my framerate up to 144-ish a lot, and sometimes well above that as well. Doesn't seem like much of a change, but maybe this will make a difference.

I don't think I've had any issues with frame drops, unless you count times I try to cast Shriek right after dashing lately and nothing happens even though I have soul. I don't know if an input buffering issue would be related (or if I've suddenly become slower on the trigger than I remember, lol).

[Kagora]

Originally posted by kanna:

Originally posted by -:

Can confirm, inputs ghost much less at 500fps
And from what coco says inputs ghost much more at 30fps

Thanks, noted. I did ~30 FPS for other games in the past (especially ARPGs) and it didn't look especially smooth but I didn't have major issues with actual gameplay for the most part, even when everything had to be synced over the Internet.

It's probably obvious but just in case I meant that for hollow knight.
I've also heard a few speedrunners say higher framerate ends up with less ghosting in HK and from my experience it seems true
Thankfully not all games use systems where that happens but some still do (warframe is an example I can remember right away)

[kanna]

Originally posted by -:

Originally posted by kanna:

Thanks, noted. I did ~30 FPS for other games in the past (especially ARPGs) and it didn't look especially smooth but I didn't have major issues with actual gameplay for the most part, even when everything had to be synced over the Internet.

It's probably obvious but just in case I meant that for hollow knight.
I've also heard a few speedrunners say higher framerate ends up with less ghosting in HK and from my experience it seems true
Thankfully not all games use systems where that happens but some still do (warframe is an example I can remember right away)

Yup, I assumed you were talking about HK. I just haven't had a framerate lower than 60 in HK that I know of, so I can't speak to what that would be like for this game.

In speedrunning guides/videos I've peeked into so far, they recommend having vsync off too (though I guess individual runners just do whatever they want to do). I imagine that's going to be because the more frames you can get per second, the better. But I thought rezno[R] also had a good point about consistency of feedback from the game being good to have as well, so maybe it's a balancing act?

[Kagora]

Originally posted by kanna:

Yup, I assumed you were talking about HK. I just haven't had a framerate lower than 60 in HK that I know of, so I can't speak to what that would be like for this game.

In speedrunning guides/videos I've peeked into so far, they recommend having vsync off too (though I guess individual runners just do whatever they want to do). I imagine that's going to be because the more frames you can get per second, the better. But I thought rezno[R] also had a good point about consistency of feedback from the game being good to have as well, so maybe it's a balancing act?

https://www.ropaku.com/what-is-frame-time-why-is-frame-time-important/
I think this article explains most of the input ghosting issues tied to fps and frame times

And then there's the balancing of how hot does your PC get and is it making the room your in too hot, which sadly I sometimes have to balance

[Adolf Healer #FixTF2]

The stupid frame rate drop killed my P5 run. I practiced Absrad over and over only to be screwed by bad fps + Lost Kin