30 vs 60 fps - can you really see the difference?

[fleischr]

SvennoJ said:
I can even see a difference in 480p mode, aka both sides running @30 fps. Another flawed comparison, always exaggerating the 30 fps side. The 2 sides should run in synch at 30 fps.
Actually I see less of a difference in 60 fps mode. Which is odd as I can usually tell when a game is 60fps on tv.

I don't think that's odd at all. The closer in you are to a screen, and the higher that display refresh rate, the more forgiving you can be of lower FPS.

60 fps can always sync properly to 30 fps and will look smooth to the naked eye. The frame times are so small that you get proper frame-to-frame turnover to your eyes regardless whether your not your eye truly sees all frames (it doesn't) However something at 50 fps will likely have uneven frametimes here and there - making stuff look weird.

30 fps conceivably should be smooth as 60 fps, but that assumes your eyes will process the frames in perfect progression/turnover and that frame times are even - neither of which are both the case 100% of the time.

When you sit further away, the image has to travel further, you process the image later and you do feel the difference in how responsive the game feels. With higher FPS, your eyes are more likely to see the frame in sync with gameplay.