I've been using this method for a few years now and it works great. Capping game FPS with RivaTuner feels way smoother than in game capping. It also means you don't need to turn on VSYNC, which also helps make games feel smoother. I typically got for 3 to 5 FPS below my screens refresh rate. One great tip I have is, with the game already running, open RivaTuner and hold SHIFT when you click the Add button. Instead of opening a file explorer window, and having to manually find the right game exe file, you'll get a window showing all current running apps, and can select the game from there.
Yup, a classic one is to enable Vsync and set the framelimiter to 2-3 frames below refreshrate. (So 58 fps on 60 Hz, 142 fps on 144 Hz, etc) That way the input lag from vsync is gone, but you still avoid the wild framepacing.
MSI Afterburner combined with Riva Statistics Tuner are must have pieces of software for any PC in my eyes. I always install them on any build I put together
@@stepbro1305 lol i've never really used AMD's monitoring stuff but nvidia has Geforce experience but still; all AMD, Intel, and Nvidia based pc's I build get Afterburner and Riva
@@stepbro1305 yeah the famous AMD software for tweaking your card 😂😂 I'm literally an AMD fanboy, but bro wattman sucks real bad, for me it just keep resetting every 10min, so I go with afterburner + rivatuner and everything works fine 🙃 AMD not able to develop a correct program in 2 years, and I remember back in the day I had a Vega 56 with the latest drivers I was unable to even launch a game, it was catastrophic I even sold the card because it was too much
@@stepbro1305 lol no it's not. The only thing I like better is multiple monitor setup. I have a 6600 xt and wattman (which is still apart of adrenaline, genius) crashes all the time on me too.
you can also use the "scaline sync" feature to avoid tearing with capped, static framerate. TL;DR it allows you to move the tearline up and down so you can move it to the top 5 pixels of your screen for example
@@theoldpcgamer77 vsync is definitely and option considering I heard that rtss scan line sync also adds an extra frame buffer, but not sure if that adds more input lag than vsync
@@theoldpcgamer77 that's the thing: it's NOT V-Sync^^ It's an alternative that doesn't have the delay of vsync, which can be very noticable in some games
@The Crazy Slav Ok. Guess to some people it doesn't matter as long as they are getting high fps. All the power to you my friend. But those who struggle with stuttering, consistent fps and frametime helps.
@The Crazy Slav its kinda understandable in esport shooter games . But in most of the singleplayer games if i dont lock the fps ro certain number i will get frametime issues
@The Crazy Slav Actually, it depends a lot on the monitor, its Freesync range, how far you are from your "max Hz", etc.. A more expensive monitor makes the experience a LOT better than when playing on a cheaper one, trust me I've played on a cheap VA panel with more pixels with ghosting than actual visible pixels of the image and a ridiculously bad range (I believe it was 120Hz-165Hz) for 2 years and had an horrible experience, switching to a way better monitor really helped.
RivaTuner is an insanely useful tool. Although it has been around for many years, RTSS received a signifcant popularity boost right after the release of Elden Ring. It's basically the only method to run the game at consistent frametimes.
If you hold down CTRL and click Add, you'll get a box showing the list of active programs instead of having to browse for the exe file. EDIT: OMG, this comment is blowing up! Thanks for the compliments everyone 🤗
For GTA IV, using DXVK is the best option by translating stagnant old DirectX 9 to Vulkan. It completely eliminates all stuttering and offers quite a substantial performance improvement.
Pro tip, faster Ram raises your 1% and 0.1% low frame times. It may not make the game run at a higher FPS, but it cleans up the high frame times to a certain degree depending on the game and the ram speed.
🤔 I’m having an issue where my setup doesn’t seem as smooth as my brothers. I actually recently bought ram, like yesterday. I got the 2x16 Corsair vengeance. I definitely noticed smoother performance but something still doesn’t seem right. Idk if it’s cause I’m using 1440p and he’s on 1080p. I still have one last part to replace from my old build and that’s the ssd. Still rocking one of those western digital green ssds. I’m thinking about either getting an nvme or a blue ssd to replace it. Not 100 on this
@@nolyfe4814If they are similar setups playing similar games it’s probably the 1440p… a higher resolution will naturally cause lower 1% and 0.1% lows than 1080 unless you have some insanely expensive setup.
It's for absolutely everyone. It's tragic how people want as much FPS as possible but often get a worse experience and they don't know why... frame pacing is more important than frame count, and is something that very few people talk about. You can literally get a smoother experience locking a game to 48 FPS at 48hz than letting it run at 60+ frames uncapped, the former will be smoother to your eyes and better to play. This is especially useful for freesync monitors, at a minimum you should always cap every game to 3-4 frames below your monitor's max refresh rate. This ensures the game's framerate will never exceed the max refresh rate of the monitor. On my 144hz monitor I lock everything to 140 fps on the global profile.
And for very demanding games where you can't get for example 140 FPS on a 144hz monitor, then you should get the settings looking how you want and then cap at a framerate where your GPU won't exceed 85-90% usage during general gameplay. This will ensure that when a spike in GPU usage occurs, you have some headroom to avoid stuttering, as opposed to using 100% of the GPU to deliver inconsistent frame pacing all the time.
@@penumbrum3135 Yeah I wasn't surprised to hear GTA V mentioned in this video. If you just let it push as many frames as it wants to, it seems to do a poor job of thread prioritisation and you end up with stutters. Basically bottlenecks the rest of the game logic by just trying to render as many frames as possible.
Great advice 👌 To summarise this video into an analogy: Leaving your frame-rate uncapped is like trying to win a 10,000m race by sprinting. You'll hit top speed, but then quickly run out of stamina as the body slowly recovers. Repeating this over and over again means you'll have an awkward stop-and-start run and eventually finish last, with a terrible overall time. Pacing yourself correctly is the key to winning a long-distance race, just like pacing your frames correctly is key to a smooth and stutter-free gaming experience. You want to avoid constantly sprinting your GPU into max performance, because it won't be able to maintain 99% usage. 84 FPS dropping back to 52 FPS feels noticeably worse than just fixing a frame rate limit of say, 60 FPS. Consistent frame delivery is everything.
For multiplayer games I don't know if I can agree... 84 FPS feels MUCH better than 60 fps. My game of choice currently is Squad. In some maps or just scenarios where I get drops, I'd much rather prefer to get that 84 fps whenever possible, and take the FPS drops at times. I think this is really good advice for singleplayer/coop games though.
You are a phenomenon, thank you very much! The only video out there where he explains the perfect way to solve this problem. I looked for the solution in all possible sites and videos, but I never solved anything. I've tried everything. I've been having Stutter issues since I switched GPUs and installed a 3070ti, but my processor is an I7 8700k. I realized through MSI Afterburner that the frametime in some moments from 8ms splashed for half a second up and then back down and this caused me a very annoying microlag especially in multiplayer. And frankly, I really didn't want to change the motherboard and CPU.
What you said at the end is the much bigger issue at this point. Several engines (especially UE4) have big stuttering ussues on PC no matter hardware. I play at 4K with an RTX 3090, an overclocked 9700K with optimized memory, off of an NVME SSD and I also have a VRR display, so no need for Vsync and if needed I‘m also using the RTSS frame limiter close to 120 fps. But still, many games have horrible inconsistencies especially when loading new areas or assets. Game and engine devs really need to put much more emphasis on solving those issues because it breaks the immersion so much and in some cases even impacts playability. Yes, games are way more complex than a while back but this time really has to be invested to keep PC gaming alive.
Why optimise games if it helps to sell top of the line GPUs? The newest hottest titles with rtx 4080 minimum requirement would help to sell GPUs better, than games able to run on gtx 1050 up to 4090.
Some games have options to pre-download assets instead of streaming them. This can resolve stutters when loading new areas. Check the title options in the library if you can't find the option in-game.
@@CB27 It's not that kind of streaming, you're not usually constantly downloading game assets as you play. It's streaming (specifically streaming massive resolution textures) from storage and feeding it to the GPU that causes so many stutters, it's a huge chunk of the CPU load in modern games - potentially something that could be improved with more direct GPU-storage APIs coming. You might be referring to shader compilation (which is where UE4 has so many issues) and yeah, some games will pre-compile shaders on the first startup (like the Forza games, takes forever but prevents stutters in game), some even provide pre-compiled shaders in the download and some just comple as needed and preserve nothing
0:41 "Magic money tree" 😂😂 , yeah some people do tend to think just cause they have the budget, naturally other people has that same budget as well, like money grows on trees. Respect for pointing that out dude. And I've been using rivatuner for a long time to cap my fps because I want constant frames but I never used and saw the frametime graph and never realised what amazing work rivatuner has been doing until now, thank you for that 👍
Thanks so much for this! RivaTuner really helps for most games, especially older games where the game acts crazy on modern hardware. For my PC, 60fps cap does it.
You can set a framerate limit in the nVidia control panel these days. Mine's capped at 90 for a smoother input response and most games that I can hit 90 on will stay at 90. Those I can only get get a consistent 60 on I'll use vsync. Those I can't get a consistent 60 on... I'll live with lower framerates until I can replace the 1060.
Ahhh that will explain why my games been running better. I enabled this a while back while tinkering around. I have a TV as my monitor so 60Hz is where it's at for me (and does the trick) noticed games people have "stutters" on where I dont... Always assumed it's coz although I got a 4k monitor I still tend to play in 1080p so not really pushing my 3070ti to the max.
@@mikeycrackson kind of. It's as good as Rivatuner if you want to use whole numbers, but Rivatuner is the only limiter that can do for example 59.97. This can be useful to avoid input latency, especially in non-freesync/gsync displays. Capping below your refresh rate is always a good idea, but unless you have freesync you need to do numbers like the above (59.97 on 60hz), because if you do 59 on nvidia then every second you'll get a double frame, which is annoying as hell. EDIT: The "Ultra" low latency mode in Nvidia is supposed to do this for you automatically, but I still use rivatuner because I'm old.
@@snake2106 only if your display can freesync/gsync down to 45 FPS (either at 45hz or 90hz). If you use normal vsync on a 60hz display then 45 FPS will have extremely uneven frame pacing.
i was playing rdr2 last night. i have a 7900xtx and 7800x3d. i was trying to play on recommended settings for 1440p ultra. i capped it at 162 since my monitor is 165 and i was reaching that at times. but it was getting low in some spots. are you saying i should just cap it lower?
Great video. I think some people also fail to realize that some games are just poorly optimized. Too many times have I’ve seen someone with an amazing system still get stutter because the game is just a mess optimization wise.
RDR2 really isn't well optimized, it runs fairly smooth on a 4090 and 5900X for me, but it's definitely not where you'd want it to be. It has a lot of random bugs and quirks that you wouldn't expect on a well optimized game like Doom Eternal for example. I'm also not sure where the Unreal 4 stutter myth came from, I hear it all the time but I've used 3 GPUs and 3 CPUs from mid to high-end in the last 5 years and games like ARK, Conan, Days Gone, Gears 5, Sea of Thieves, Hellblade and Fortnite are smooth. The only Unreal 4 games that are bad in terms of stutters that I can remember are are Borderlands 3, PUBG and State of Decay 2.
You are a lifesaver for this video. This whole time I had been blind as to how to rename my hardware in RivaTuner for the OSD. It was literally right in front of my face but thank you for mousing over it :)
Sometimes the ingame limiter is better, sometimes the riva-tuner limiter is better and sometimes the graphics driver limiter is better. It's really a case by case basis as to what works and what does not so just try all options and see what works best for you. For example Condemned on the PC does not obey the graphics driver limit so I had to use riva-tuner, but Insurgency Sandstorm hated riva-tuner limit and halved my framerate for no damn reason and the graphics driver limiter introduced extra stutter, thus I used the ingame limiter.
Yeah. As another example; If you mod Skyrim and use Mod Organizer, you gotta set up RTSS to ignore your mod manager. It messes with the virtual file sharing system.
Yup, that's what I'm also saying. It really depends on the game which limiter is the most consistent and which gives the lowest input lag. But hey, that is the big benefit to PC gaming, we have so many option. It can be overwhelming at times, but part of it is to tinker and figure out what works best on your system.
This simple trick helped me more than hours of researching about power management, cooling, game settings, fiddling with files etc. I mean, I always limited fps from in game or in some settings file but those usually work like shit. RivaTuner is just so efficient. And the ironic part is that I've been using msi afterburner with riva all along, I just thought its frame limiter will suck like the rest of them
I used it mostly for older games where Vsync or Frame rate limiter was non existent and it does help a lot but can break certain games depending on the age of the game
I've never had a problem with it capped to 140fps, the occasional game like Skyrim or Fallout 4 will have physics issues above 90fps or so (75fps is fine), but most it's like 150-200 or more
In some games like original Halo 2 and Dead Space you've got to limit the FPS to 120/60 or else the game engine will cause problems, without limiting the FPS in Halo 2 the mouse movement will be slow and in Dead Space it can cause a variety of problems such as an invisible door that you can't go through early in the game.
@@jkeebla Depends on the game. I limit most singleplayer games to 60fps. Rhythm games I play uncapped (usually resulting in 3000+fps for the best possible latency). And competitive multiplayer games I cap as high as my system can consistently handle.
I might start to use it for the more "cinematic" games that I have at 72FPS (hence I cannot push them to 144 HZ as this is my native monitors refresh rate) , and the other games just set it to 144 regardless of whether they have in-game fps cap options or not. Good video as always.
You mean you will set a limit in game or with afterburner? (I also have monitor with 144 herz and i don’t know what to do with assassin creed origin with 80 fps, tho i don’t have stutter (i think))
72 fps is 3x 24, so the "cinematic" description fits quite well (Also the reason why we ended up with such an odd number like 144 instead of 140, 145 or 150) I guess those games are are coded in a way that relies on framerate as counter, and 72 is close enough to 60 to not cause issues.
Lawd have mercy ive been doing this for 30 fps in cyberpunk and im so glad you made this video. How i use hardware around 4k gaming feels so flawless on the pc platform!
This is very useful for games that just can't handle variable FPS very well, which I would say is the majority of them, especially in more graphically demanding games with RT on. Ghostwire for example suffers from awfully inconsistent frametimes that makes the game feel like it's jittering from excess caffeine. Capping that to something like 75 fps greatly improved the experience (though it doesn't get rid of shader compilation stutter). How effective this is depends on the game, and some games like Doom Eternal handle variable framerates very well, but in most cases, even with a VRR monitor, it's better to just cap the framerate for a more consistent experience. Also, the good thing about rivatuner is that you can assign a hotkey to the framerate cap so that you can turn it or on off at any point while you're in game, which is great if you're in a part of the game where you can push higher fps and need faster reaction times.
Friend, you are my HERO, since the beginning of the year I was messing with the settings of my RTX 4060 and nothing solved the stuttering problem. This configuration of yours on Riva saved my games. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!🙏👍
I can vouch for this approach. I learned about it on my Steam Deck and It does make a difference. One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the video is that you should use an FPS limit that your monitors refresh rate is divisible by. E.g. 40FPS on an 80Hz or 40Hz monitor is going to look better than 40FPS on a 60Hz or 120Hz monitor.
@Mauricio Coronado anything that it’s evenly divisible by E.g. 72, 48, 36, etc. One additional thing: just because your monitor is capable of doing 144hz, doesn’t mean it actually is running at that refresh rate. So check that. E.g. some 144Hz monitors won’t be that fast with factory settings. You have to overlock them. You’ll want to set your FPS limit to something evenly divisible based on the refresh rate that your screen is *actually* running at for best results. Not the refresh rate that it is *capable* of running at. You can actually use this to your benefit. E.g. you can use windows settings to make your monitor refresh at 60Hz, then set the FPS limit to 60, 30, 20, etc.
@Mauricio Coronado it’s difficult to day for sure. Typically it depends on the game. You should try both and see which you prefer. It’s often going to come down to personal preference. E.g. on my Deck, when I went from a shaky 60fps in Spyro to a rock solid 40fps it felt silky smooth to me. But someone else might say they appreciate the shaky 60fps more.
I've be using afterbuner and rivaturner for years and can't imagine a gaming pc without them. I even presented it for several friends, some of them love it, some didn't seem to care or see the diference it makes for gaming, but for me it's just perfect and essential.
I have been looking for solutions but none work or some were obvious bullshit. After hours of research, your video finally fixed my micro stutter issue. Thank you man !
Well even if it's a revisited topic, this is extremely new to me. I only knew the simple monitoring fps(in afterburner) but not rivatuner's effect on frametimes. Amazing!!!
Hey, Thank you so much for this. I knew about it many, many years ago but somehow completely forgot about it until now and even on a fairly high end system it still helps. Huge thanks!!!
*For those who don't have a VRR display and want your games to display at the monitors refresh rate without ANY extra lag* can choose "scanline sync" instead. This is a bit complicated to understand but I will try to explain it as good as possible. This function will allow your GPU to sync every rendered frame to a specific line on the screen.. this can vary depending on your resolution + the panels overscan value. In my examples I will use 1080p60Hz as it is very common. So If I want the GPU to sync to the display without the latency of a double buffer vsync I set this value to -1180 (-1080p - 100 vertical lines of overscan). That way your GPU will sync to to pixles above the screen. hiding any tearing, and without the added latency of a vsync buffer. The "minus" is VERY important to get the desired effect of reduced lag/latency.... If you want half refreshrate you can click on "scanline sync"-text until it says "scanline sync/2". This will sync the GPU to every odd Hz and make 30fps MUCH more responsive. If the value is incorrect you will have a static line of tearing somewhere on the screen. You can always start at -600 and see where the tearing is... and go backwards from that value to understand how your monitor deals with this value... If your GPU can't render a frame within a 16.6ms-window it will result in tearing. But if you have overhead you should never really see any tearing.
Super goated advice wish I knew sooner didn't know that capping fps via RivaTuner would be any improvement over in-game settings looks like I won't be retiring my cpu just yet
I hope you check comments from previous videos because my god, a simple thank you is not enough to suffice the type of knowledge you have bestowed upon me, good sir. I have been wanting to record Fort Solis without all the dips and stutters and this method definitely fixed it. Keep in mind Fort Solis is a newly released game made with Unreal Engine 5. I have been seeing your videos pop up here and there but this one definitely earned a sub. Again, I understand this video is over a year old, but still very much relevant to this date!
I always use fps cap at all games. I have an MSI RX 6700 XT 12GB OC but my monitor is 1080p@60Hz so there is no point going more. Also helps with gpu power consumption(1)--> lower electricity bills and lower fan spin(2)--> fans on the cooler will last longer
there is a point going above 60hz, a big one, both input lag and perceived smoothness drastically rise. Just try to play a game where you can push 120-200 fps (pretty easy with that GPU) and then limit it to around 60 fps. Not only does it look less smooth, screen tearing is also horrible
You can enable enhanced sync in the driver to avoid tearing while still getting the reduced input lag from higher fps. Some games really do benefit from a higher frame rate, especially in terms of input latency. My son has the same gpu, and I set the limit to 180fps in Minecraft for him, since it’s an integer multiple of 60. It feels much more responsive and does look smoother than capping at 60. Give it a try and see if you like it.
Unwinder’s RTSS limiter is the best overall external limiter I’ve tried - going off RodroG’s test it’s usually even a bit more accurate than Nvidia’s own internal driver limiter and many in-engine ones (though in-engine ones sometimes play nicer with specific titles and/or “may” have 1 frame lower input latency depending). For traditional Vsync panels, the BlurBusters Low Lag Vsync guide makes use of RTSS’s extreme accuracy to provide a smooth low lag experience and it also helps a lot if you want to play at 30 fps on an old rig via driver level half refresh rate Vsync for example. Such a great tool and to boot at this point in the latest beta you can setup a custom overlay without needing MSI Afterburner anymore. It’s pretty awesome. Even on adaptive sync (Gsync / freesync panels) some games benefit tremendously to having their framerates capped to consistently achievable values - really smooths them out discernibly.
Since you know quite a lot lol does it make sense to cap at 60 for example using rivatuner ( for lower gpu usage heatt) if you have a fresync monitor or I should cap at lower than screens refresh rate?
@@katakouzinos ; You are supposed to cap lower than the monitor's highest refreshrate for variable ones You can't display more frames than what the monitor can switch to anyways, and it helps with avoiding stutters
@@katakouzinos ; yes, although I wouldn't say 118 but maybe 115 so there is a bit more wiggle room The monitor will automatically change the refresh rate to avoid tearing, so you don't have to worry about not being frametime aligned
@@notalostnumber8660 can you explain it to me i cant wrap my hear around it :D for example why could you just simple at lock at 120 remove vsync and let freesync do the job
For anyone using AMD cards that may read this, the adrenaline software has a built-in RTSS that's called Radeon Chill and which can also be set differently for each game. I found it works pretty great so no need for MSI Afterburner!
Thanks for the tip. I just bought a RX 6800 to replace my GTX 1080. I see stutter everywhere, almost to the point of putting the 1080 back into my system. I hope the chill settings help.
I have amd gpu and yeah I agree the chill setting is great for limiting the fps on the gpu driver side, which can be arguably better than in game fps limiter or rivatuner
I've been using those tools for years now but I recently discovered what the "stealth" options does. For some reason, with OBS I had an issue where my games didn't show up properly. Turns out, it was RivaTuner overlay creating the issue and the stealth option fixed the issue. Also, it seems to make the software more compatible with older games or with bad anti cheats
Works great in singleplayer games and I don't really feel a difference when playing with a controller although there is some input delay. If you have a good GSync/Freesync range (mine is 48Hz-144Hz for example) and you reach about 120FPS max on a game for example, using RTSS to lock the framerate at 120FPS while using Gsync/Freesync feels a lot better than without, and should reduce stuff like ghosting too (caused by the framerate inconsistency in game). Im actually surprised I don't see that much of a difference between a consistent 144Hz and when Im dropping a few frames off of my custom FPS cap (Locked at 120FPS and dropping at 100-110FPS for example).
It might be worth pointing out that some games work very poorly with hyperthreaded CPUs. Might want to switch off the application affinity to only odd/even cores from the task manager. All in all, any game where the engine does not support multi-threading, will suffer from having it on.
Alternative Solution using NVidia / GSync -Turn on GSync -Turn off VSync -Limit FPS to 3 under your screen hz (nvidia global panel settings) Optional: Turn on Frame Gen (which will insert a frame between frames smoothing frame time further) You are welcome :) Also you should explain WHY this works. -GSync smooths things when fps is lower than screen hz -Vsync smooths things when fps is higher than screen hz (but we don't need to do that because we've capped fps to 3 under screen hz)
Thanks so much. I had rivatuner but I had slept on it only using it to see my frames. I tried this and it made my game buttery smooth, which was surprising cause usually tips like this arent very effective. I dunno why yt persistently recommended this video to me for weeks, but I'm glad it did.
You no longer actually need RTSS, framerate capping options in AMD & Nvidia drivers now have the same/similar overhead like RTSS has (I.E. 1 frame). The only thing that can do better is an in-game option. That said RTSS+Afterburner is still a valid option if you want to go that route.
RTSS for AMD is still useful though. FRTC sometimes doesn't work, I don't know why, and using Chill will disable Anti-Lag or Boost. So RTSS Limit + Anti-Lag is a great combo for me.
If you have NVIDIA you don't need to download anything else. NVIDIA Control Panel - 3D Settings - Manage 3D Settings - Program Settings Is where you go to cap your frame rate.
thank you so much for this, i finally managed to get Need for Speed Undercover to run smoothly. i thought having better hardware to run it on would improve the experience a lot, but this game was still a stuttery mess, until i capped it using rivatuner.
I had pretty big stutters and TW3, Rivatuner seem to have eased those a bit. It's been a long time so now I'll try again, I think the last time I've played TW3 felt pretty smooth (without changing my hardware, just installed W11 a while back and reinstalled the whole PC so idk maybe something else caused this because it definitely was worse than what was shown) Anyway, when it comes to timeframe and stuff, RivaTuner definitely helps
I have doing this for years and is absolutly mandatory for a good PC gaming experience, i cannot enjoy a game with stutters. Im so glad more than 200k people now know about this 👍
I would expect that you should try to match the framerate to your hardware. Sure, if you have an adaptive framerate monitor, just set it to something it can display. But the rest of us should probably pick the framerate of the monitor, a multiple of said framerate, or a factor of the framerate (i.e. a number that evenly divides into the framerate). In short, does your monitor accept 75fps?
Also, some VRR monitors have obvious ghosting/blur at some refresh rates but not others due to OVERDRIVE of the pixels. You want to know where that is an adjust an FPS cap etc so you don't stay within that range. On some monitors it might be something like 60Hz to 90Hz where it's not great. And to confuse matters even MORE if the range is 45Hz to 144Hz then 50FPS means the monitor updates at 50Hz but if 40FPS your monitor updates at 80Hz (GPU resends frame twice to stay in the zone)... so below 45FPS might not be ideal, 45 to 60FPS might be fine, but between 60 and 90FPS might not be. And then between 90 and 144FPS might again be fine. Sigh.
Limiting the framerate 20-30FPS below your monitor's max Hz using a good monitor with a good Gsync/Freesync range should be completely fine, and you shouldn't notice the difference if you're not comparing framerates side by side.
Is there any chance you could do this and show a before and after (like you have), but with nvidia low latency mode in their control panel and see if it has any effect on the results of frametime? Im curious if that does anything and if it is even worth a video.
Just know that low latency mode doesn’t do anything in games with DX12 (or Vulkan). So I can confidently answer, for those cases, there won’t be a difference.
I feel like this gent knows a thing or two about stutter. He, for one, knows that it'll only make us cry. And apparently, it will walk the streets beside us, but when it wants, it'll pass us by.
Thanks, man! I thought that every game-engine fps limiter was equivalent to Rivatuner, and I was using both methods interchangeably. But I guess Rivatuner works on a more basic level with the GPU drivers or something.
I Use Chill to limit FPS to within my freesync spec also keeps temps low and you also get to set minimums for when I am not moving on screen. Of course only avaliable if your using a Radeon gpu.
Let's clear up some terminology here. "Stuttering" is larger framerate drops, which will appear as the game briefly pausing, giving a "stuttery" appearance, like verbal stuttering. There is no stuttering in this video. Micro-stuttering is a specific effect that occurs only in SLI or Crossfire setups, where the alternated frames are not rendered exactly synchronously, making each frame slightly mismatched in time, it's a distinctive effect that can't be easily described, also not in this video. The effect of an unstable framerate not being quite as smooth looking as a stable one can be best described with the term "juddering", where the motion seems to fluctuate in its smoothness a bit, but without the appearance of pausing or microstuttering. This is the same word used to describe 3:2 pulldown, where each frame does not last the same amount of time on screen, so it's basically the same effect visually as a game with a variable framerate.
@@FIREDAN075 not the same, stutters is frames not being delivered at the right time, microstutters is frames being delivered at the right time but containing the wrong animation due to syncing issues between the two cards.
As an enthusiast it's sometimes easy for me to forget that things like this aren't common sense, they have to be learned and therefore have to be taught. Thanks for sharing these techniques for people who don't already know.
It depends per game but its better if you have these tools installed your computer to know which works best. I believe Battle(non)sense did a deep dive in this years ago as well so use that to give more context on the matter. Some games loves to be locked onto weird frame caps like 58 FPS (Elden Ring is like that it you want a smooth FPS even with the EAC disabled), or some loves to be locked at 59 or even 59.99FPS to get that solid flat line.
It's glorious to see on well optimized games, and with a good enough PC, you can set the framerate on Rivatuner and have a completely flat line on the graph. But there is no way to completely avoid any dips, even with it limited with G-Sync and the best PC specs possible, something will always cause a hitch somewhere.
i use 60 FPS limiter in Riva for NFS Most Wanted ( 2005 ) , GTA III , GTA SA and especially Soldier of Fortune but NFS Hot Pursuit 2 , NFS Carbon , CS Condition Zero and Cabela's 4x4 Off Road Adventure dont like the 60 FPS limit
Tinha um ryzen 3 1200. No começo era otimo, mas com o tempo ficou super limitado. Com um overclock leve e limite de frame rate consegui estender bastante a vida util dele.
Cara tive esse mesmo processador, jogava the witcher 3 maior parte em 60fps, chegava nas cidades o joga caia para menos de 40fps, era ruim mas dava pra jogar
This is an awesome video! It's funny how with FPS everyone assumes more is better, but this is totally not the case. There's a reason why game devs have said for years that 60fps isn't the be all and end all.
I use the Radeon Software to find out what the average fps is in any game i play and then cap it there with Radeon chill. I know some people dont like the Software from amd gpus but i havent had any Problems so far using this Method. When i was still rocking my 3060 i used Rivatuner as well to cap fps. I honestly thought that everybody was doing it like this 😅 Great Video ❤
Great video, I learned a lot and you helped me! BUT! ...the moment you get out of the car at 4:07 my mind just tunes out and starts proxy playing the game when you beat up that old person for YOU ramming HIM with your car. You teleported me back into childhood instantly. :D
Good tips, I have a beast computer but this video interested me. Its nice to see people not obsessed with frame rates, rather figuring out how to cap them and make them smooth. Trust me as someone with a really overpriced PC , the improvements are not worth the money unless you're a full time or professional gamer.
10/10 video title
True
Fuckin trueeeee
That’s why I clicked on it lmao
🥸
10/10 vi......deo title
I've been using this method for a few years now and it works great. Capping game FPS with RivaTuner feels way smoother than in game capping. It also means you don't need to turn on VSYNC, which also helps make games feel smoother. I typically got for 3 to 5 FPS below my screens refresh rate.
One great tip I have is, with the game already running, open RivaTuner and hold SHIFT when you click the Add button. Instead of opening a file explorer window, and having to manually find the right game exe file, you'll get a window showing all current running apps, and can select the game from there.
Yup, a classic one is to enable Vsync and set the framelimiter to 2-3 frames below refreshrate. (So 58 fps on 60 Hz, 142 fps on 144 Hz, etc) That way the input lag from vsync is gone, but you still avoid the wild framepacing.
@@HappyBeezerStudios Nice tip as well!
Thanks for the great tip. it helped me find Cod.exe instead of the cod launcher.exe.
would this void warrenty
iirc holding *shift* creates an exclusion profile. Holding *ctrl* creates a standard profile for that executable
This is way better than improving fps. Sometimes, Smoothness overpowers Fps. Nice Video!
Both are important. You want to max out the FPS your screen can handle while being stable.
Always better, smoothness is king
or just use g-sync
Always*
@@flycosis sometimes only vsync isn't enough!!!
I saw your frame time graph stabilize in the video and couldnt help myself try the same and im blown away. Thanks a ton for this!
Just want to say my rig runs a 6900xt and a 5800x and this game still stutters. So this is a example where throwing money at it is not going to fix it
MSI Afterburner combined with Riva Statistics Tuner are must have pieces of software for any PC in my eyes. I always install them on any build I put together
If you go Intel and Nvidia parts yeah, AMD has it's own tuner....we're not gonna talk about the fps counter though LMAO
@@stepbro1305 lol i've never really used AMD's monitoring stuff but nvidia has Geforce experience but still; all AMD, Intel, and Nvidia based pc's I build get Afterburner and Riva
@@stepbro1305 yeah the famous AMD software for tweaking your card 😂😂
I'm literally an AMD fanboy, but bro wattman sucks real bad, for me it just keep resetting every 10min, so I go with afterburner + rivatuner and everything works fine 🙃
AMD not able to develop a correct program in 2 years, and I remember back in the day I had a Vega 56 with the latest drivers I was unable to even launch a game, it was catastrophic I even sold the card because it was too much
i dont want to burn my laptop its even 80 90 degrees while idle
@@stepbro1305 lol no it's not. The only thing I like better is multiple monitor setup. I have a 6600 xt and wattman (which is still apart of adrenaline, genius) crashes all the time on me too.
you can also use the "scaline sync" feature to avoid tearing with capped, static framerate. TL;DR it allows you to move the tearline up and down so you can move it to the top 5 pixels of your screen for example
Any cheap AF monitor has sync tech. V sync issues are a thing as old as the PS3.
It’s pretty bad imo and is more noticeable than just not having it in the first place
@@theoldpcgamer77 vsync is definitely and option considering I heard that rtss scan line sync also adds an extra frame buffer, but not sure if that adds more input lag than vsync
@@theoldpcgamer77 that's the thing: it's NOT V-Sync^^
It's an alternative that doesn't have the delay of vsync, which can be very noticable in some games
@@Jwellsuhhuh less
Yeah, been doin this ever since i got into pc gaming. Consistent frametime is important.
@The Crazy Slav Ok. Guess to some people it doesn't matter as long as they are getting high fps. All the power to you my friend. But those who struggle with stuttering, consistent fps and frametime helps.
@The Crazy Slav its kinda understandable in esport shooter games . But in most of the singleplayer games if i dont lock the fps ro certain number i will get frametime issues
@The Crazy Slav You did hear him mention "Aging PC parts" right? pretty sure your rich boi set up wont matter here
@The Crazy Slav Not everyone has a monitor with Freesync feature.
@The Crazy Slav Actually, it depends a lot on the monitor, its Freesync range, how far you are from your "max Hz", etc..
A more expensive monitor makes the experience a LOT better than when playing on a cheaper one, trust me I've played on a cheap VA panel with more pixels with ghosting than actual visible pixels of the image and a ridiculously bad range (I believe it was 120Hz-165Hz) for 2 years and had an horrible experience, switching to a way better monitor really helped.
Game: *lags randomly
Gamer: What happened?
Game: Did I stutter?
Lmao, I see what you did there
lemme copy this joke
RivaTuner is an insanely useful tool. Although it has been around for many years, RTSS received a signifcant popularity boost right after the release of Elden Ring. It's basically the only method to run the game at consistent frametimes.
I totally forgot that RTSS had a global fps cap, thanks for reminding me, it's quite handy.
so does nvidia control panel
@@snowpuddle9622 and so does amd
@@DeathStriker88 you used nvidia gpu and riva tuner for no reason, that's why I said nvidia control panel
@@DeathStriker88 and so does warzone
and so does Tim Cook
If you hold down CTRL and click Add, you'll get a box showing the list of active programs instead of having to browse for the exe file.
EDIT: OMG, this comment is blowing up! Thanks for the compliments everyone 🤗
THIS is extremely useful. Thanks random stranger
WHY IS THIS NOT EXPLAINED OR IN A DROPDOWN
Thanks for the tip!
Not all hero's wear capes, thanks for this tip dude
Omg! Thank you so much for this!
For GTA IV, using DXVK is the best option by translating stagnant old DirectX 9 to Vulkan. It completely eliminates all stuttering and offers quite a substantial performance improvement.
Does it clean up the stuttery cutscenes on pc?
yes@@brkbtjunkie
I know about DXVK with my Steam Deck, but how do you go about utilizing it on Windows 11?
@@icky_thumpit works in most games by plopping it in its folder
@@icky_thumpJust… look it up?
Pro tip, faster Ram raises your 1% and 0.1% low frame times. It may not make the game run at a higher FPS, but it cleans up the high frame times to a certain degree depending on the game and the ram speed.
🤔 I’m having an issue where my setup doesn’t seem as smooth as my brothers. I actually recently bought ram, like yesterday. I got the 2x16 Corsair vengeance. I definitely noticed smoother performance but something still doesn’t seem right. Idk if it’s cause I’m using 1440p and he’s on 1080p. I still have one last part to replace from my old build and that’s the ssd. Still rocking one of those western digital green ssds. I’m thinking about either getting an nvme or a blue ssd to replace it. Not 100 on this
@@nolyfe4814Did you try changing the clocks and timings already? Also, what frequency is it on?
@@RR-ho3td the only thing I did was enable xmp. Not 100 on the timings but I believe it’s cl 18, 3600mhz
@@nolyfe4814If they are similar setups playing similar games it’s probably the 1440p… a higher resolution will naturally cause lower 1% and 0.1% lows than 1080 unless you have some insanely expensive setup.
@@Username-2 our setups are different. He has a 3060 and ryzen 5 5500. I have a 4070 and i7 12700k.
after the 20th guy that told me to check drivers for update, this one comes with a real solution. thank you kind stranger!
A brilliant and often overlooked option for lower end users 😎
It's handy even for high end systems.
A lot of games stutter even on the best hardware available.
It's for absolutely everyone. It's tragic how people want as much FPS as possible but often get a worse experience and they don't know why... frame pacing is more important than frame count, and is something that very few people talk about. You can literally get a smoother experience locking a game to 48 FPS at 48hz than letting it run at 60+ frames uncapped, the former will be smoother to your eyes and better to play.
This is especially useful for freesync monitors, at a minimum you should always cap every game to 3-4 frames below your monitor's max refresh rate. This ensures the game's framerate will never exceed the max refresh rate of the monitor.
On my 144hz monitor I lock everything to 140 fps on the global profile.
And for very demanding games where you can't get for example 140 FPS on a 144hz monitor, then you should get the settings looking how you want and then cap at a framerate where your GPU won't exceed 85-90% usage during general gameplay. This will ensure that when a spike in GPU usage occurs, you have some headroom to avoid stuttering, as opposed to using 100% of the GPU to deliver inconsistent frame pacing all the time.
Basically essential for laptop and handheld users who don't want 1 hour battery life and fans that sound like a hoover.
@@penumbrum3135 Yeah I wasn't surprised to hear GTA V mentioned in this video. If you just let it push as many frames as it wants to, it seems to do a poor job of thread prioritisation and you end up with stutters. Basically bottlenecks the rest of the game logic by just trying to render as many frames as possible.
Great advice 👌
To summarise this video into an analogy: Leaving your frame-rate uncapped is like trying to win a 10,000m race by sprinting. You'll hit top speed, but then quickly run out of stamina as the body slowly recovers. Repeating this over and over again means you'll have an awkward stop-and-start run and eventually finish last, with a terrible overall time.
Pacing yourself correctly is the key to winning a long-distance race, just like pacing your frames correctly is key to a smooth and stutter-free gaming experience. You want to avoid constantly sprinting your GPU into max performance, because it won't be able to maintain 99% usage. 84 FPS dropping back to 52 FPS feels noticeably worse than just fixing a frame rate limit of say, 60 FPS.
Consistent frame delivery is everything.
Actually a genius way to explain it i hope to god your a teacher
best explanation I've ever heard. crystal clear
Very nice analogy.
Not necessary.
For multiplayer games I don't know if I can agree... 84 FPS feels MUCH better than 60 fps. My game of choice currently is Squad. In some maps or just scenarios where I get drops, I'd much rather prefer to get that 84 fps whenever possible, and take the FPS drops at times. I think this is really good advice for singleplayer/coop games though.
You are a phenomenon, thank you very much!
The only video out there where he explains the perfect way to solve this problem.
I looked for the solution in all possible sites and videos, but I never solved anything.
I've tried everything.
I've been having Stutter issues since I switched GPUs and installed a 3070ti, but my processor is an I7 8700k.
I realized through MSI Afterburner that the frametime in some moments from 8ms splashed for half a second up and then back down and this caused me a very annoying microlag especially in multiplayer.
And frankly, I really didn't want to change the motherboard and CPU.
In which games did that happen?
I run pretty much EVERY GAME with this, it's super satisfying
What you said at the end is the much bigger issue at this point. Several engines (especially UE4) have big stuttering ussues on PC no matter hardware. I play at 4K with an RTX 3090, an overclocked 9700K with optimized memory, off of an NVME SSD and I also have a VRR display, so no need for Vsync and if needed I‘m also using the RTSS frame limiter close to 120 fps. But still, many games have horrible inconsistencies especially when loading new areas or assets. Game and engine devs really need to put much more emphasis on solving those issues because it breaks the immersion so much and in some cases even impacts playability. Yes, games are way more complex than a while back but this time really has to be invested to keep PC gaming alive.
Why optimise games if it helps to sell top of the line GPUs? The newest hottest titles with rtx 4080 minimum requirement would help to sell GPUs better, than games able to run on gtx 1050 up to 4090.
bad performance = zero immersion = uninstall & refund
Some games have options to pre-download assets instead of streaming them. This can resolve stutters when loading new areas. Check the title options in the library if you can't find the option in-game.
@@CB27 It's not that kind of streaming, you're not usually constantly downloading game assets as you play. It's streaming (specifically streaming massive resolution textures) from storage and feeding it to the GPU that causes so many stutters, it's a huge chunk of the CPU load in modern games - potentially something that could be improved with more direct GPU-storage APIs coming.
You might be referring to shader compilation (which is where UE4 has so many issues) and yeah, some games will pre-compile shaders on the first startup (like the Forza games, takes forever but prevents stutters in game), some even provide pre-compiled shaders in the download and some just comple as needed and preserve nothing
@@CB27dumb?
0:41 "Magic money tree" 😂😂 , yeah some people do tend to think just cause they have the budget, naturally other people has that same budget as well, like money grows on trees. Respect for pointing that out dude. And I've been using rivatuner for a long time to cap my fps because I want constant frames but I never used and saw the frametime graph and never realised what amazing work rivatuner has been doing until now, thank you for that 👍
Thanks so much for this!
RivaTuner really helps for most games, especially older games where the game acts crazy on modern hardware.
For my PC, 60fps cap does it.
You're right
Far Cry 2 on my rtx 3060 can't maintain even 60 fps, sometimes drops occur :D
You can set a framerate limit in the nVidia control panel these days. Mine's capped at 90 for a smoother input response and most games that I can hit 90 on will stay at 90. Those I can only get get a consistent 60 on I'll use vsync. Those I can't get a consistent 60 on... I'll live with lower framerates until I can replace the 1060.
Ahhh that will explain why my games been running better. I enabled this a while back while tinkering around. I have a TV as my monitor so 60Hz is where it's at for me (and does the trick) noticed games people have "stutters" on where I dont... Always assumed it's coz although I got a 4k monitor I still tend to play in 1080p so not really pushing my 3070ti to the max.
On games in which u can't reach 60fps you can lock the fps to 45 in nvidia cp & turn off vsync. Consistent 45fps is much better then variable
@@mikeycrackson kind of. It's as good as Rivatuner if you want to use whole numbers, but Rivatuner is the only limiter that can do for example 59.97. This can be useful to avoid input latency, especially in non-freesync/gsync displays. Capping below your refresh rate is always a good idea, but unless you have freesync you need to do numbers like the above (59.97 on 60hz), because if you do 59 on nvidia then every second you'll get a double frame, which is annoying as hell.
EDIT: The "Ultra" low latency mode in Nvidia is supposed to do this for you automatically, but I still use rivatuner because I'm old.
@@snake2106 only if your display can freesync/gsync down to 45 FPS (either at 45hz or 90hz). If you use normal vsync on a 60hz display then 45 FPS will have extremely uneven frame pacing.
@@steel5897 read again what i said in the comment, that's why i said "lock the fps to 45 & turn off Vsync"
Your channel is a god send for budget gamers. I appreciate these extremely helpful tips.
make sure you cap at the lowest fps you can consistantly keep. if u set it at like 144 and u drop lower. it will stutter
i was playing rdr2 last night. i have a 7900xtx and 7800x3d. i was trying to play on recommended settings for 1440p ultra. i capped it at 162 since my monitor is 165 and i was reaching that at times. but it was getting low in some spots. are you saying i should just cap it lower?
Great video. I think some people also fail to realize that some games are just poorly optimized. Too many times have I’ve seen someone with an amazing system still get stutter because the game is just a mess optimization wise.
ARK SURVIVAL
Most Unreal Engine 4 titles suffer from this!
This. A lot of UE4 games are plagued by this.
RDR2 really isn't well optimized, it runs fairly smooth on a 4090 and 5900X for me, but it's definitely not where you'd want it to be. It has a lot of random bugs and quirks that you wouldn't expect on a well optimized game like Doom Eternal for example.
I'm also not sure where the Unreal 4 stutter myth came from, I hear it all the time but I've used 3 GPUs and 3 CPUs from mid to high-end in the last 5 years and games like ARK, Conan, Days Gone, Gears 5, Sea of Thieves, Hellblade and Fortnite are smooth. The only Unreal 4 games that are bad in terms of stutters that I can remember are are Borderlands 3, PUBG and State of Decay 2.
Unreal engine games be like
You are a lifesaver for this video. This whole time I had been blind as to how to rename my hardware in RivaTuner for the OSD. It was literally right in front of my face but thank you for mousing over it :)
Sometimes the ingame limiter is better, sometimes the riva-tuner limiter is better and sometimes the graphics driver limiter is better. It's really a case by case basis as to what works and what does not so just try all options and see what works best for you. For example Condemned on the PC does not obey the graphics driver limit so I had to use riva-tuner, but Insurgency Sandstorm hated riva-tuner limit and halved my framerate for no damn reason and the graphics driver limiter introduced extra stutter, thus I used the ingame limiter.
Yeah it’s all about trying everything and seeing what’s best :)
Yeah. As another example; If you mod Skyrim and use Mod Organizer, you gotta set up RTSS to ignore your mod manager. It messes with the virtual file sharing system.
@@KaptainCnucklz Interesting, I saw the error message in MO2 about rtss multiple times but I always ignored it. Never had problems too.
Yup, that's what I'm also saying. It really depends on the game which limiter is the most consistent and which gives the lowest input lag.
But hey, that is the big benefit to PC gaming, we have so many option. It can be overwhelming at times, but part of it is to tinker and figure out what works best on your system.
Always set the graphic driver limiter. Then when a game has one set it there too. Boom problem solved.
This simple trick helped me more than hours of researching about power management, cooling, game settings, fiddling with files etc. I mean, I always limited fps from in game or in some settings file but those usually work like shit. RivaTuner is just so efficient. And the ironic part is that I've been using msi afterburner with riva all along, I just thought its frame limiter will suck like the rest of them
same.
Why not use Nvidia control panel?
i will never understand how people are just playing without this gem. fine tuning makes things a huge lot better.
A lot of people don't realize the stutters I think. But if you do they are very unpleasant, and yes this program is a treasure.
Because most people have a VRR monitor, which is much better than this.
I used it mostly for older games where Vsync or Frame rate limiter was non existent and it does help a lot but can break certain games depending on the age of the game
Like games that run too fast if your framerate is too fast.
@@HappyBeezerStudios Like GTA5 above 180fps. It was the first game I tried on new PC and I thought I had fcked up the build lol.
I've never had a problem with it capped to 140fps, the occasional game like Skyrim or Fallout 4 will have physics issues above 90fps or so (75fps is fine), but most it's like 150-200 or more
In some games like original Halo 2 and Dead Space you've got to limit the FPS to 120/60 or else the game engine will cause problems, without limiting the FPS in Halo 2 the mouse movement will be slow and in Dead Space it can cause a variety of problems such as an invisible door that you can't go through early in the game.
Unreal and HL1 can do it over the console.
Limiting my fps for example from 180 to 120 also helped me to make my pc quieter, since the GPU doesn't have to work that much anymore.
Add undervolting to go even more silent and quiet! 🥳
who even needs above 100 frames honestly, i say this but in two decades the lowest end pcs will probably be able to achieve 300 frames easily
@@jkeeblaif you have a high refresh rate monitor it does actually make a difference
i know, i just don't really care about it that much, im fine with 60 if the game looks really good@@fishfood8711
@@jkeebla Depends on the game. I limit most singleplayer games to 60fps. Rhythm games I play uncapped (usually resulting in 3000+fps for the best possible latency). And competitive multiplayer games I cap as high as my system can consistently handle.
I might start to use it for the more "cinematic" games that I have at 72FPS (hence I cannot push them to 144 HZ as this is my native monitors refresh rate) , and the other games just set it to 144 regardless of whether they have in-game fps cap options or not. Good video as always.
You mean you will set a limit in game or with afterburner? (I also have monitor with 144 herz and i don’t know what to do with assassin creed origin with 80 fps, tho i don’t have stutter (i think))
72 fps is 3x 24, so the "cinematic" description fits quite well (Also the reason why we ended up with such an odd number like 144 instead of 140, 145 or 150) I guess those games are are coded in a way that relies on framerate as counter, and 72 is close enough to 60 to not cause issues.
24/30 fps is cinematic.
Lawd have mercy ive been doing this for 30 fps in cyberpunk and im so glad you made this video. How i use hardware around 4k gaming feels so flawless on the pc platform!
4:12 I like it when you said "combat some of those pesky stutters' and started to beat the shit out of the passerby.
You can cap your FPS in the NVidia and AMD Control Panel for now. Its really useful.
This is very useful for games that just can't handle variable FPS very well, which I would say is the majority of them, especially in more graphically demanding games with RT on. Ghostwire for example suffers from awfully inconsistent frametimes that makes the game feel like it's jittering from excess caffeine. Capping that to something like 75 fps greatly improved the experience (though it doesn't get rid of shader compilation stutter). How effective this is depends on the game, and some games like Doom Eternal handle variable framerates very well, but in most cases, even with a VRR monitor, it's better to just cap the framerate for a more consistent experience.
Also, the good thing about rivatuner is that you can assign a hotkey to the framerate cap so that you can turn it or on off at any point while you're in game, which is great if you're in a part of the game where you can push higher fps and need faster reaction times.
my games usually stutters, But it incredibly became alot more smoother, no tearing, no stutters. Totally a life saver! thanks sm
Friend, you are my HERO, since the beginning of the year I was messing with the settings of my RTX 4060 and nothing solved the stuttering problem. This configuration of yours on Riva saved my games. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!🙏👍
I can vouch for this approach. I learned about it on my Steam Deck and It does make a difference. One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the video is that you should use an FPS limit that your monitors refresh rate is divisible by. E.g. 40FPS on an 80Hz or 40Hz monitor is going to look better than 40FPS on a 60Hz or 120Hz monitor.
@Mauricio Coronado anything that it’s evenly divisible by E.g. 72, 48, 36, etc.
One additional thing: just because your monitor is capable of doing 144hz, doesn’t mean it actually is running at that refresh rate. So check that. E.g. some 144Hz monitors won’t be that fast with factory settings. You have to overlock them.
You’ll want to set your FPS limit to something evenly divisible based on the refresh rate that your screen is *actually* running at for best results. Not the refresh rate that it is *capable* of running at.
You can actually use this to your benefit. E.g. you can use windows settings to make your monitor refresh at 60Hz, then set the FPS limit to 60, 30, 20, etc.
@Mauricio Coronado it’s difficult to day for sure. Typically it depends on the game. You should try both and see which you prefer. It’s often going to come down to personal preference.
E.g. on my Deck, when I went from a shaky 60fps in Spyro to a rock solid 40fps it felt silky smooth to me. But someone else might say they appreciate the shaky 60fps more.
I've be using afterbuner and rivaturner for years and can't imagine a gaming pc without them. I even presented it for several friends, some of them love it, some didn't seem to care or see the diference it makes for gaming, but for me it's just perfect and essential.
The amount of smoothness I have now with frame time consistencies from this small change is INSANE thank you
I have been looking for solutions but none work or some were obvious bullshit. After hours of research, your video finally fixed my micro stutter issue. Thank you man !
Well even if it's a revisited topic, this is extremely new to me. I only knew the simple monitoring fps(in afterburner) but not rivatuner's effect on frametimes. Amazing!!!
Hey, Thank you so much for this. I knew about it many, many years ago but somehow completely forgot about it until now and even on a fairly high end system it still helps. Huge thanks!!!
Great vid. FF7R on PC is another game where setting an arbitrary limit in RTSS is much smoother than the in-game FPS limit.
*For those who don't have a VRR display and want your games to display at the monitors refresh rate without ANY extra lag* can choose "scanline sync" instead. This is a bit complicated to understand but I will try to explain it as good as possible. This function will allow your GPU to sync every rendered frame to a specific line on the screen.. this can vary depending on your resolution + the panels overscan value. In my examples I will use 1080p60Hz as it is very common.
So If I want the GPU to sync to the display without the latency of a double buffer vsync I set this value to -1180 (-1080p - 100 vertical lines of overscan). That way your GPU will sync to to pixles above the screen. hiding any tearing, and without the added latency of a vsync buffer. The "minus" is VERY important to get the desired effect of reduced lag/latency.... If you want half refreshrate you can click on "scanline sync"-text until it says "scanline sync/2". This will sync the GPU to every odd Hz and make 30fps MUCH more responsive.
If the value is incorrect you will have a static line of tearing somewhere on the screen. You can always start at -600 and see where the tearing is... and go backwards from that value to understand how your monitor deals with this value... If your GPU can't render a frame within a 16.6ms-window it will result in tearing. But if you have overhead you should never really see any tearing.
thanks, this worked like charm for me
Super goated advice wish I knew sooner
didn't know that capping fps via RivaTuner would be any improvement over in-game settings
looks like I won't be retiring my cpu just yet
I hope you check comments from previous videos because my god, a simple thank you is not enough to suffice the type of knowledge you have bestowed upon me, good sir. I have been wanting to record Fort Solis without all the dips and stutters and this method definitely fixed it. Keep in mind Fort Solis is a newly released game made with Unreal Engine 5. I have been seeing your videos pop up here and there but this one definitely earned a sub. Again, I understand this video is over a year old, but still very much relevant to this date!
I always use fps cap at all games. I have an MSI RX 6700 XT 12GB OC but my monitor is 1080p@60Hz so there is no point going more. Also helps with gpu power consumption(1)--> lower electricity bills and lower fan spin(2)--> fans on the cooler will last longer
benefits
there is a point going above 60hz, a big one, both input lag and perceived smoothness drastically rise. Just try to play a game where you can push 120-200 fps (pretty easy with that GPU) and then limit it to around 60 fps. Not only does it look less smooth, screen tearing is also horrible
@@explosivx43literally no
You can enable enhanced sync in the driver to avoid tearing while still getting the reduced input lag from higher fps. Some games really do benefit from a higher frame rate, especially in terms of input latency. My son has the same gpu, and I set the limit to 180fps in Minecraft for him, since it’s an integer multiple of 60. It feels much more responsive and does look smoother than capping at 60. Give it a try and see if you like it.
@@Bunta1987qwerty I tryed this. Doesnt always work right
Unwinder’s RTSS limiter is the best overall external limiter I’ve tried - going off RodroG’s test it’s usually even a bit more accurate than Nvidia’s own internal driver limiter and many in-engine ones (though in-engine ones sometimes play nicer with specific titles and/or “may” have 1 frame lower input latency depending).
For traditional Vsync panels, the BlurBusters Low Lag Vsync guide makes use of RTSS’s extreme accuracy to provide a smooth low lag experience and it also helps a lot if you want to play at 30 fps on an old rig via driver level half refresh rate Vsync for example.
Such a great tool and to boot at this point in the latest beta you can setup a custom overlay without needing MSI Afterburner anymore. It’s pretty awesome.
Even on adaptive sync (Gsync / freesync panels) some games benefit tremendously to having their framerates capped to consistently achievable values - really smooths them out discernibly.
Since you know quite a lot lol does it make sense to cap at 60 for example using rivatuner ( for lower gpu usage heatt) if you have a fresync monitor or I should cap at lower than screens refresh rate?
@@katakouzinos ;
You are supposed to cap lower than the monitor's highest refreshrate for variable ones
You can't display more frames than what the monitor can switch to anyways, and it helps with avoiding stutters
@@notalostnumber8660 so if a monitor is 120 hz you can cap at 118 ? Sounds weird
@@katakouzinos ;
yes, although I wouldn't say 118 but maybe 115 so there is a bit more wiggle room
The monitor will automatically change the refresh rate to avoid tearing, so you don't have to worry about not being frametime aligned
@@notalostnumber8660 can you explain it to me i cant wrap my hear around it :D for example why could you just simple at lock at 120 remove vsync and let freesync do the job
For anyone using AMD cards that may read this, the adrenaline software has a built-in RTSS that's called Radeon Chill and which can also be set differently for each game. I found it works pretty great so no need for MSI Afterburner!
Thanks for the tip. I just bought a RX 6800 to replace my GTX 1080. I see stutter everywhere, almost to the point of putting the 1080 back into my system. I hope the chill settings help.
@@wjbrooks19 Lemme know how it works for you if you wish! I found it quite effective on my 6750 XT, I hope you’ll have the same experience
This is not true
@@wjbrooks19did it help
I have amd gpu and yeah I agree the chill setting is great for limiting the fps on the gpu driver side, which can be arguably better than in game fps limiter or rivatuner
i can't believe such a simple solution fixed my long lasting problem
You really are the best. These videos have no impact on me at all. But they’re brilliant.
I've been using those tools for years now but I recently discovered what the "stealth" options does. For some reason, with OBS I had an issue where my games didn't show up properly. Turns out, it was RivaTuner overlay creating the issue and the stealth option fixed the issue. Also, it seems to make the software more compatible with older games or with bad anti cheats
Thank you for this tip! 🏆
Works great in singleplayer games and I don't really feel a difference when playing with a controller although there is some input delay. If you have a good GSync/Freesync range (mine is 48Hz-144Hz for example) and you reach about 120FPS max on a game for example, using RTSS to lock the framerate at 120FPS while using Gsync/Freesync feels a lot better than without, and should reduce stuff like ghosting too (caused by the framerate inconsistency in game). Im actually surprised I don't see that much of a difference between a consistent 144Hz and when Im dropping a few frames off of my custom FPS cap (Locked at 120FPS and dropping at 100-110FPS for example).
It might be worth pointing out that some games work very poorly with hyperthreaded CPUs. Might want to switch off the application affinity to only odd/even cores from the task manager. All in all, any game where the engine does not support multi-threading, will suffer from having it on.
Alternative Solution using NVidia / GSync
-Turn on GSync
-Turn off VSync
-Limit FPS to 3 under your screen hz (nvidia global panel settings)
Optional: Turn on Frame Gen (which will insert a frame between frames smoothing frame time further)
You are welcome :)
Also you should explain WHY this works.
-GSync smooths things when fps is lower than screen hz
-Vsync smooths things when fps is higher than screen hz (but we don't need to do that because we've capped fps to 3 under screen hz)
Thanks so much. I had rivatuner but I had slept on it only using it to see my frames. I tried this and it made my game buttery smooth, which was surprising cause usually tips like this arent very effective.
I dunno why yt persistently recommended this video to me for weeks, but I'm glad it did.
limiting fps is helpful in the games who are optimized well, but in games not well optimized the stutter appear even if you cap framerate
You no longer actually need RTSS, framerate capping options in AMD & Nvidia drivers now have the same/similar overhead like RTSS has (I.E. 1 frame). The only thing that can do better is an in-game option.
That said RTSS+Afterburner is still a valid option if you want to go that route.
RTSS for AMD is still useful though.
FRTC sometimes doesn't work, I don't know why, and using Chill will disable Anti-Lag or Boost.
So RTSS Limit + Anti-Lag is a great combo for me.
I mean the driver is for the games that don't have that option. Many games have an option to cap frame rate without having to use V Sync.
If you have NVIDIA you don't need to download anything else.
NVIDIA Control Panel - 3D Settings - Manage 3D Settings - Program Settings
Is where you go to cap your frame rate.
thank you so much for this, i finally managed to get Need for Speed Undercover to run smoothly. i thought having better hardware to run it on would improve the experience a lot, but this game was still a stuttery mess, until i capped it using rivatuner.
I can't even remember the last time I didn't use Rivatuner. One of my must have pieces of software.
I had pretty big stutters and TW3, Rivatuner seem to have eased those a bit. It's been a long time so now I'll try again, I think the last time I've played TW3 felt pretty smooth (without changing my hardware, just installed W11 a while back and reinstalled the whole PC so idk maybe something else caused this because it definitely was worse than what was shown)
Anyway, when it comes to timeframe and stuff, RivaTuner definitely helps
Are you going to make a video about the Vulkan-DirectX wrapper? You mentioned it recently and I'd like to know more.
Try out Special K with Latent Sync, it will help latency and frame time, may also increase fps a little bit
man thank you so much for this video, i have been struggling with stuttering in games for such a long time now, thank you so much
I have doing this for years and is absolutly mandatory for a good PC gaming experience, i cannot enjoy a game with stutters. Im so glad more than 200k people now know about this 👍
You can also do something similar in Linux (Steam Deck) with libstrangle and control it though steam.
I would expect that you should try to match the framerate to your hardware. Sure, if you have an adaptive framerate monitor, just set it to something it can display. But the rest of us should probably pick the framerate of the monitor, a multiple of said framerate, or a factor of the framerate (i.e. a number that evenly divides into the framerate).
In short, does your monitor accept 75fps?
Also, some VRR monitors have obvious ghosting/blur at some refresh rates but not others due to OVERDRIVE of the pixels. You want to know where that is an adjust an FPS cap etc so you don't stay within that range. On some monitors it might be something like 60Hz to 90Hz where it's not great. And to confuse matters even MORE if the range is 45Hz to 144Hz then 50FPS means the monitor updates at 50Hz but if 40FPS your monitor updates at 80Hz (GPU resends frame twice to stay in the zone)... so below 45FPS might not be ideal, 45 to 60FPS might be fine, but between 60 and 90FPS might not be. And then between 90 and 144FPS might again be fine. Sigh.
You could also change the refresh rate of your monitor. I used to have a 40fps option I set up more depending games I couldn't run at 60fps.
Limiting the framerate 20-30FPS below your monitor's max Hz using a good monitor with a good Gsync/Freesync range should be completely fine, and you shouldn't notice the difference if you're not comparing framerates side by side.
Is there any chance you could do this and show a before and after (like you have), but with nvidia low latency mode in their control panel and see if it has any effect on the results of frametime? Im curious if that does anything and if it is even worth a video.
Just know that low latency mode doesn’t do anything in games with DX12 (or Vulkan). So I can confidently answer, for those cases, there won’t be a difference.
I'm absolutely mindblown by this. Thanks for sharing
I feel like this gent knows a thing or two about stutter. He, for one, knows that it'll only make us cry. And apparently, it will walk the streets beside us, but when it wants, it'll pass us by.
Thanks, man!
I thought that every game-engine fps limiter was equivalent to Rivatuner, and I was using both methods interchangeably.
But I guess Rivatuner works on a more basic level with the GPU drivers or something.
I Use Chill to limit FPS to within my freesync spec also keeps temps low and you also get to set minimums for when I am not moving on screen. Of course only avaliable if your using a Radeon gpu.
True! I use it with my integrated vega 7 to play witcher 3 at locked 30 fps. The frame times are near perfect!
Let's clear up some terminology here. "Stuttering" is larger framerate drops, which will appear as the game briefly pausing, giving a "stuttery" appearance, like verbal stuttering. There is no stuttering in this video. Micro-stuttering is a specific effect that occurs only in SLI or Crossfire setups, where the alternated frames are not rendered exactly synchronously, making each frame slightly mismatched in time, it's a distinctive effect that can't be easily described, also not in this video. The effect of an unstable framerate not being quite as smooth looking as a stable one can be best described with the term "juddering", where the motion seems to fluctuate in its smoothness a bit, but without the appearance of pausing or microstuttering. This is the same word used to describe 3:2 pulldown, where each frame does not last the same amount of time on screen, so it's basically the same effect visually as a game with a variable framerate.
Alright suzi dent
So basically same shit. Micro stutters that presented here, by fucked up graph line, which can fix Afterburner got it
@@FIREDAN075 not the same, stutters is frames not being delivered at the right time, microstutters is frames being delivered at the right time but containing the wrong animation due to syncing issues between the two cards.
I am 1 year late to this video but wow man. Witcher 3 is indeed notorious for these frame stuttering. And I'll definitely try this. Thanks man!
I’ve been looking for a solution to stuttering for like 3 years i wish i found this sooner
Thank you for making this
As an enthusiast it's sometimes easy for me to forget that things like this aren't common sense, they have to be learned and therefore have to be taught. Thanks for sharing these techniques for people who don't already know.
Nope. This isn't needed info unless you budget and blow over what you can handle.
@@EyeofValor Its needed info if the games you play are poorly optimized regardless of hardware.
Is it different than limit it from nvidia control panel
It depends per game but its better if you have these tools installed your computer to know which works best. I believe Battle(non)sense did a deep dive in this years ago as well so use that to give more context on the matter.
Some games loves to be locked onto weird frame caps like 58 FPS (Elden Ring is like that it you want a smooth FPS even with the EAC disabled), or some loves to be locked at 59 or even 59.99FPS to get that solid flat line.
I find that also going into setup and changing "async" to "front edge sync" helps even more.
It's glorious to see on well optimized games, and with a good enough PC, you can set the framerate on Rivatuner and have a completely flat line on the graph. But there is no way to completely avoid any dips, even with it limited with G-Sync and the best PC specs possible, something will always cause a hitch somewhere.
i use 60 FPS limiter in Riva for NFS Most Wanted ( 2005 ) , GTA III , GTA SA and especially Soldier of Fortune
but NFS Hot Pursuit 2 , NFS Carbon , CS Condition Zero and Cabela's 4x4 Off Road Adventure dont like the 60 FPS limit
Believe it or not, i got a stutter in the beginning of the video.
Tinha um ryzen 3 1200. No começo era otimo, mas com o tempo ficou super limitado. Com um overclock leve e limite de frame rate consegui estender bastante a vida util dele.
Cara tive esse mesmo processador, jogava the witcher 3 maior parte em 60fps, chegava nas cidades o joga caia para menos de 40fps, era ruim mas dava pra jogar
This is an awesome video! It's funny how with FPS everyone assumes more is better, but this is totally not the case. There's a reason why game devs have said for years that 60fps isn't the be all and end all.
This advice is PURE GOLD. Thank you, sir!
Please note that even riva tunner recomends you to disable other sync options like VSync to prevent increase in frame delay
What if I use FreeSync?
@@AdrianMuslim if you have a G-sync or Freesync monitor, ALWAYS disable V-sync in any game you play.
@@Euronius Which vsync you’re telling me to disable with FreeSync? In game or in driver control panel?
@@AdrianMuslim Both. Freesync should take care of syncing your frames without limiting your framerates.
This video told that it need to limit your framerates, not uncap it LOL@@Euronius
Why not just use VSync?
ew brother... what is that brother
I like vsync 😊@@NotBorno
@@HuisbaasPlop gsync. no latency
I use the Radeon Software to find out what the average fps is in any game i play and then cap it there with Radeon chill.
I know some people dont like the Software from amd gpus but i havent had any Problems so far using this Method.
When i was still rocking my 3060 i used Rivatuner as well to cap fps.
I honestly thought that everybody was doing it like this 😅
Great Video ❤
chill = shit
atleast it was around 2 years ago didnt try since then.
@@dmer-zy3rb yeah maybe it was back then, idk :D
But you know, it does what its supossed to do nowadays, caps fps
This is what I tell my friends all the time, I'd rather have frame consistancies than omega high uncapped fps
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I've been having this problem for ages and this seems to work perfectly!
Man, thanks for this!, im just starting out in pc, always wondered how you guys cap your fps, but now i know, thanks bud.
Not related to the video but I'm learning about typography at the moment and I'm impressed of the use of … instead of ... in the title
Great video, I learned a lot and you helped me!
BUT! ...the moment you get out of the car at 4:07 my mind just tunes out and starts proxy playing the game when you beat up that old person for YOU ramming HIM with your car. You teleported me back into childhood instantly. :D
This method is great
I always put a 50fps cap on my laptop, saves energy and helps overall. 10/10 would recomend
Good tips, I have a beast computer but this video interested me. Its nice to see people not obsessed with frame rates, rather figuring out how to cap them and make them smooth. Trust me as someone with a really overpriced PC , the improvements are not worth the money unless you're a full time or professional gamer.