WHY you should NEVER run unlocked FPS in games (bad for PC with no benefits)

[Sethioz]

I see more and more players who keep running unlocked fps / framerate and they don't understand why/how it's bad for PC and why you should NEVER do that.
i hope this topic enlightens those who have no idea WHY you should NEVER run unlocked frame rate in any program.

they think: more fps = BETTTTEEEERRRRR!
NOPE, WRONG! there's absolutely nothing better about higher framerate if your monitor can't even display it or if your eyes can't detect it.

I have written very detailed topic here -- https://sethioz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3243

But in short, let's mention few key points why unlocked fps is BAD idea.

1. if your monitor is 120hz, it can only display 120fps (your monitor refreshes image 120 times per second aka frames per second aka fps), running game any higher, will have no effect as those frames are simply discarded by your monitor. therefore you're wasting your GPU power.

2. unlocked fps keeps your GPU under constant 100% load, which is worse than crypto mining, because crypto mining is usually done only on GPU, but running game at unlocked fps, means that your entire PC is under load. CPU has to work harder and it also means there's much higher load going thru north-bridge (it's the part on motherboard that handles data traffic between CPU, RAM and GPU). that's why gaming motherboards have heatsinks on them, because the amount of data that is going thru north-bridge is intense and it needs cooling.

3. since your system is constantly under high load, background tasks can stop responding, which can often lead to things like USB devices disconnecting or even network lag as there's not enough system resources to handle background tasks like networking.

4. it significantly reduces PC's lifespan, specially GPU, because it's under constant 100% load.

5. since your GPU is under constant 100% load, it can often lead to stuttering and/or lag spikes in many games. for example i have seen so many players complain in csgo/cs2 that they get stuttering or lag, when i ask if they run unlocked fps ... ofc they do! which is the problem
reason why it happens, is because your GPU is under 100% load and when it needs to suddenly load something, then it has NO spare power left, so it has to throttle the main processing (game itself) and this throttling can often cause lag / stuttering / flickering.
this depends on game, some games are well optimized and take this into account, but most games don't, because game devs don't expect players to run games in unlocked fps.

6. screen tearing. if your framerate is not synced with your monitor's hertz capability, then you will notice screen tearing.

7. if you pay for your electricity, it will cost you a good +20-80usd per month more! it highly depends on PC. if you have powerful GPU that takes like 350-500w under load, then that can easily take 2-3usd per day, while with locked FPS it would cost you maybe like 1usd per day to run.

8. average human eye can't even see over 150hz, which is why most gaming monitors are 120hz or 144hz. anything above 144hz is rather pointless as human eye can't even detect higher framerates. in some special conditions, some humans can detect up to like 500hz, but it's extremely rare and we're not talking about gaming, it's under specific conditions, using special backgrounds and colors and lighting.
if you see gaming monitors that are like 200-500hz, then it's just advertising trick. i mean, there's NO POINT having such monitor, because your eyes won't notice difference. it's as good as buying a headset that can do over 20000hz sound, because humans can hear between 20 - 20000hz, anything lower or higher and you won't hear it. while dogs and cats can hear up to like 45000 - 65000hz, which is why animals are far more sensitive to certain sounds, while humans can't even hear it.




so to sum it up, there's literally no benefits to running unlocked FPS, you're just frying your PC. running unlocked FPS is as good as driving real car in 1st gear at max RPM all the time. how long you think engine would last?
ONLY benefit i can think of, is in games where game physics are linked to framerate, it means that by increasing framerate, you also increase game's responsiveness, but those are EXTREMELY BADLY OPTIMIZED GAMES and again it won't really matter when going past 120fps. it means that image updates 120 times per one second, just let it sink in just how fast this really is. you won't be clicking that many keys per second, so it won't matter.

some games have mouse input lag and if you run unlocked fps then it goes away, but this is NOT because unlocked fps is better, it's most likely because of vsync. vsync is what synchronizes framerate to what your monitor can support (aka locked fps), which in some games causes input lag. if that's the case, then restrict your FPS to what your monitor supports and disable vsync, there's no need to run unlocked.


bUt WhAt iS UnloCkedFraMeRaTE foR thEn?
stress testing
benchmarking
comparison vs other hardware (aka benchmarking)
for example there are websites that show the maximum amount of framerate certain cards can pull in certain games, this gives you good idea how much more powerful a certain GPU is compared to another.


i monitor my hardware usage all the time, i keep msi afterburner open on second monitor and i check it from time to time. when playing games in 1440p 60fps and i go into more intense area, then i can see how GPU usage goes from like 30% to 35% or even 40%.
when running games in 4k, it's same principle. GPU usage is around like 50-60% and in more intense areas it will increase to 60-70%.
but if you running unlocked and go into more intense areas, then as mentioned earlier, not only your FPS drops, but most likely it will also cause stuttering / lag spikes.


i keep laughing at those who sell their cards on ebay or similar sites and say "have never been used for crypto mining" .. yea, but what about gaming in unlocked fps? because as i said, unlocked fps is WORSE than crypto mining!

don't get me wrong, gaming hardware is designed to take the heat (literally and not literally), but just because it can, doesn't mean you should. just like you can drive your car in first gear at max RPM, but does it mean this is how you should drive a car?

[rawWwRrr]

I never lock framerates.

[Sethioz]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

I never lock framerates.

no surprise there, you didn't even read WHY it's bad, while giving 0 benefits.

i specifically wrote this, cuz 99% of people roll their eyes and have no idea why unlocked fps is BAD

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Sethioz:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

I never lock framerates.

no surprise there, you didn't even read WHY it's bad, while giving 0 benefits.

i specifically wrote this, cuz 99% of people roll their eyes and have no idea why unlocked fps is BAD

Don't mistake my simple statement for someone who has no idea.

Originally posted by Sethioz:

8. average human eye can't even see over 150hz, which is why most gaming monitors are 120hz or 144hz. anything above 144hz is rather pointless as human eye can't even detect higher framerates. in some special conditions, some humans can detect up to like 500hz, but it's extremely rare and we're not talking about gaming, it's under specific conditions, using special backgrounds and colors and lighting.
if you see gaming monitors that are like 200-500hz, then it's just advertising trick. i mean, there's NO POINT having such monitor, because your eyes won't notice difference.

I thought the same until I purchased my 240Hz 1440p. It far exceeds the picture quality of my 60Hz 4K. I can definitely see the difference between 60 and 240 fps, even just how my cursor slides across each of the screens.

That threshold used to be 30, then 60, now higher? Maybe not for everyone but there's a reason why I'll never go back to less than 240Hz.

Originally posted by Sethioz:

don't get me wrong, gaming hardware is designed to take the heat (literally and not literally), but just because it can, doesn't mean you should. just like you can drive your car in first gear at max RPM, but does it mean this is how you should drive a car?

This is a bad analogy as you would be an idiot to drive a car in which it was not designed. A car is not designed to stay in 1st gear. So in that regard, yeah, that's not a good idea. In regards to the hardware, if it's capable of pushing 240, 300, 500 fps, why should I limit it? I paid good money for this GPU and if can push those rates why should I get less performance than what I paid?

I have 6 old 1080Tis running at full speeds 24/7 in a F@H setup since the COVID lockdowns. So they are definitely being abused beyond their expected use cases and they are still trucking hard.

So you're more than welcome to limit your own framerates. Don't tell me to limit mine.

[Satoru]

You can run your CPU and GPU at 100% load for literally a decade. Doing so does not 'degrade' them in any way. If this was the case no data center on the planet could run their machines at full bore. Pixare would take literally 3x longer to render a frame.

People need to stop thinking using your CPU and GPU and intended is 'damaging' it.

The thing that damages yoru components is HEAT. If you have proper cooling again you are not 'damaging' your CPU/GPU by simply just using it.

This is like saying running your Ferrari over 100km/h damages the engine

You can run a main menu of a game at 15,000 fps for 10 years and nothing will go wrong with either your GPU or CPU. It will just spin up the fans and that's about it.

I run several data centers and at no point has Dell/HP/IBM/Sun/etc ever told me "oh god please don't run your servers at 100% load". The entire point of AWS is to run these systems as hot as possible for as long as possible. 'idle cycles' in AWS is literally money being wasted. They are running these systems as close to 100% load as possible without sacrificing the performance of the system overall. That is how they make money off AWS

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Satoru:

This is like saying running your Ferrari over 100km/h damages the engine

If you left it in 1st gear as OP suggested, then it would.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by Satoru:

This is like saying running your Ferrari over 100km/h damages the engine

If you left it in 1st gear as OP suggested, then it would.

I'd be more if you drained the coolant and thought "Wow this is fine". Or "I haven't done an oil change in 20,00 miles, so you shouldnt drive yuour Kia more than 50km/h"

Its honestly stupid because one journalist burned out their laptop because the Starcraft2 main menu ran at full bore that this whole 'trend' started. As opposed to "wow why does your laptop fan exhaust look liek 15 cats died in there"

There's now an entire generation of people who somehow are delusional that 'using your gpu' is a bad thing

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

If you left it in 1st gear as OP suggested, then it would.

I'd be more if you drained the coolant and thought "Wow this is fine". Or "I haven't done an oil change in 20,00 miles, so you shouldnt drive yuour Kia more than 50km/h"

Its honestly stupid because one journalist burned out their laptop because the Starcraft2 main menu ran at full bore that this whole 'trend' started. As opposed to "wow why does your laptop fan exhaust look liek 15 cats died in there"

There's now an entire generation of people who somehow are delusional that 'using your gpu' is a bad thing

I have run into a few that are horrified to push anything beyond a normal a use. I remember driving a friend's car once and trying to get onto the highway with a short on ramp. So I accelerated to get up to speed so I could merge and he chewed me out for abusing his car. I was dumbfounded. It wasn't even like I floored it, just gave it more gas. Some people are just like that. I've never been able to explain it.

[Sethioz]

Originally posted by Satoru:

You can run your CPU and GPU at 100% load for literally a decade. Doing so does not 'degrade' them in any way. If this was the case no data center on the planet could run their machines at full bore. Pixare would take literally 3x longer to render a frame.

People need to stop thinking using your CPU and GPU and intended is 'damaging' it.

The thing that damages yoru components is HEAT. If you have proper cooling again you are not 'damaging' your CPU/GPU by simply just using it.

This is like saying running your Ferrari over 100km/h damages the engine

You can run a main menu of a game at 15,000 fps for 10 years and nothing will go wrong with either your GPU or CPU. It will just spin up the fans and that's about it.

I run several data centers and at no point has Dell/HP/IBM/Sun/etc ever told me "oh god please don't run your servers at 100% load". The entire point of AWS is to run these systems as hot as possible for as long as possible. 'idle cycles' in AWS is literally money being wasted. They are running these systems as close to 100% load as possible without sacrificing the performance of the system overall. That is how they make money off AWS

no you can't. data centers don't even use GPUs and CPU usage is minimal, i don't think you understand how datacenters even work.

also this ferrari reference makes 0 sense. it has nothing to do with driving fast.
correct example would be "running unlocked fps is like driving a ferrari in 1st gear at max rpm"

in fact even formula 1 and other race cars are NOT capable of driving at max rpm for longer than only few seconds, look it up.

it has happened on many occasions, where on long straights formula 1 engines just give up as they're under 100% load for too long (seconds).

another good example is 2005 US grand prix where only 6 cars raced, because other teams using michelin tyres withdrew due potential safety risks that tyres might explode due high stress on the straight.

so your example is completely false and wrong. you didn't even understand the concept.
YES race cars WILL BREAK if you run them at 100% load.

driving a ferrari over 100km/h is same as running games in 1080p with RTX 3080 or better.
i have 3080 and it's taking a nap in most games. even 4k 60fps and GPU is taking a nap.

so your info is very flawed and misleading. ferrari can easily drive over 100km/h while having minimal load on engine, but it won't be able to drive like that for long.

did you know that bugatti chiron, veyron ..etc can drain 100 liter fuel tank in about 8-10 minutes when doing full throttle? they also need like 16 radiators to cool the engine so it would last that 8-10 minutes.

so please stop giving misleading info, you have no idea what you're on about.


EDIT: i specifically also said that gaming hardware CAN take it, but what is the point if you get 0 benefit? high electric bill is still an issue, even if you're rich, why throw money away for no reason?
only benefit is if you live in alaska or antarctica and want to use pc as heater.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Sethioz:

no you can't. data centers don't even use GPUs and CPU usage is minimal, i don't think you understand how datacenters even work.

I mean you know I've run datacenters from small enterprises up to a Fortune 5 company. If you think datacenters don't use GPUs (we do) or don't try to max out CPUs (we do), I don't know what datacenter you're running or running in your imagination. Are you running at like 50% capacity because you're 'afraid' of damaging your Xeon processors? Are you going to your manager and demanding 3-4x capacity headroom because "using the CPU damages it". Because you would be laughed out of the room.

in fact even formula 1 and other race cars are NOT capable of driving at max rpm for longer than only few seconds, look it up.

This is of course ignorant and doesn't take into account how these cars are designed. The reason is that F1 emphasizes performance over longevity. They would prefer to get an extra 100hp or have the tires have 10% more grip, than have it last for more than 1 race. F1 frequently has to rebuild the entire car between races because they push the components to their absolute limits under the assumption it will die after the race. These components are all literally on the edge of dying at every point in the race. Because that's how they are designed now in order to get the sliver of a percent performance increase over their competition. Its why newcomers into these spaces struggle against incumbents.

If I purchase a CPU or GPU I do not expect it to fall over and die after I do a single run of FutureMark

If I purchase a Ferrari I do not expect the engine to seize up and die because I redlined it on the Autobahn for more than 5 seconds.

Yes a marine battery will die if you use it too much. But that doesn't apply to consumer grade Lithium Ion batteries.

Using your CPU/GPU does not 'damage' it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

I'll do me and you do you.

[rawWwRrr]

If they had argued that overclocking wasn't worth it, I'd agree. But even then, if someone wants to who are we to tell them not to?

[かぐや]

Seems some Jester bait?
Stop that nonsense.
Every statement is lie 1-8.
I always play my rhythm games with unlocked framerate.

Why i even posted here for this bait...

[Muppet among Puppets]

Some people might not know this is a thing.
So they can learn from this topic.

I lock my fps as well. It makes sense to me. Thats all.

[Walach]

I absolutely cannot play a game that displays screen tearing, it drives me up the wall. So I always toggle V-Sync and when I do that I might as well set the frame-rate to 60. Good enough. Lower is very noticeable for me, higher not so.

Also, I don't have the best cooling in my computer so my graphic card will reach 90+C in less than a minute if I don't limit the frame-rate for some games (read: most of them).

[MancSoulja]

Nice TL:DR chat GPT, now go on google and type in temporal resolution.

But remind me to tell my eyes that even though they don't have a shutter, they definitely can't see more than 150Hz.

And tell my 2080 that it can't possibly run at 100% load all day every day since 2018.