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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Framerates: How low is too low?

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When does a framerate become unacceptable to you?

25fps 109 36.21%
 
20fps 94 31.23%
 
15fps 39 12.96%
 
30fps is already too low 59 19.60%
 
Total:301
SvennoJ on 25 April 2016
curl-6 said:

I wanna hear from more of the 34 people so far who voted 15fps.

So you're saying 20fps is just fine to you? Teach me the secret of your ocular resilience! XD

Growing up with low frame rate perhaps. 20 and above was a rarity growing up with PC games in the DOS era.
It's not that hard to put motion together from static images.

It only becomes a problem when controls are tied to the frame rate. Games without a hardware mouse pointer suck. As long as the controls respond it doesn't matter that the video output is below 20. I never had a problem with turning in Unreal or Half-Life at low fps, yet Deus EX HR was problematic with v-synch on as the fps dipped below 30 while turning and the game didn't read the mouse output correctly. Odd how some things get worse.



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curl-6 on 25 April 2016
SvennoJ said:
curl-6 said:

I wanna hear from more of the 34 people so far who voted 15fps.

So you're saying 20fps is just fine to you? Teach me the secret of your ocular resilience! XD

Growing up with low frame rate perhaps. 20 and above was a rarity growing up with PC games in the DOS era.
It's not that hard to put motion together from static images.

Interesting point. As someone who grew up during the 90s, I definitely played some very choppy games in my childhood. First time I really noticed it was in Banjo Tooie, where it often felt like the game was in slow motion. Back then I could tolerate it, but going back now, its really uncomfortable for me. I tried replaying Tooie a few years ago and playing it for longer than 20 minutes literally gave me a headache.



SvennoJ on 25 April 2016
curl-6 said:
SvennoJ said:

Growing up with low frame rate perhaps. 20 and above was a rarity growing up with PC games in the DOS era.
It's not that hard to put motion together from static images.

Interesting point. As someone who grew up during the 90s, I definitely played some very choppy games in my childhood. First time I really noticed it was in Banjo Tooie, where it often felt like the game was in slow motion. Back then I could tolerate it, but going back now, its really uncomfortable for me. I tried replaying Tooie a few years ago and playing it for longer than 20 minutes literally gave me a headache.

Yeah some things ran in slow motion, I remember playing Xenon 2 on an 0.8 mhz 8086 PC, it took more than twice as long to get through the game as on a 286. Made it easier though lol. It made fast titles stand out, Indianapolis 500 was pure magic.

Still have no problems with it as my laptop only reaches 10fps to 15fps while racing around on planets in ED: Horizons. It's mostly in a straight line though dodging rocks, playing a fast paced fps or 3D platformer in 15fps would give me a headache too. It's the fast turning that gets you.



Mummelmann on 28 April 2016
SvennoJ said:
curl-6 said:

I wanna hear from more of the 34 people so far who voted 15fps.

So you're saying 20fps is just fine to you? Teach me the secret of your ocular resilience! XD

Growing up with low frame rate perhaps. 20 and above was a rarity growing up with PC games in the DOS era.
It's not that hard to put motion together from static images.

It only becomes a problem when controls are tied to the frame rate. Games without a hardware mouse pointer suck. As long as the controls respond it doesn't matter that the video output is below 20. I never had a problem with turning in Unreal or Half-Life at low fps, yet Deus EX HR was problematic with v-synch on as the fps dipped below 30 while turning and the game didn't read the mouse output correctly. Odd how some things get worse.

Low fps also gets more noticeable as the visual fidelity increases, higher resolutions and pp-effects will make fps drops stand out more. TV sets try to bypass by adding motion blur where the processor can't handle the picture refresh rate frame-by frame and some games do this too, but it looks weird. Sitting on a high-res display with ultra settings makes low fps unbearable, it's also more or less then entire point of buying expensive gaming rigs (as some enjoy doing).

But I agree with your point, I remember PC gaming in the 80's and early-to mid 90's, especially when VGA and SVGA came, the fps counts were dubious at best, and performance rigs or killer graphics cards didn't really exist on the commercial side of things.