The "30fps campaign, 60fps multiplayer" approach

[Mr Puggsly]

Conina said:

Mr Puggsly said:

The average PC gamer is not playing X1/PS4 quality games at 60 fps.

That's apparent looking at Steam statistics.

The Steam statistics tell nothing about the settings the "average PC gamer" choses for their games. Some of them will reduce resolution and postprocessing/effects in favor of fps. Others will sacrifice fps and resolution for the best postprocessing/effects. Others will sacrifice fps and postprocessing/effects to play in higher resolution (native or downsampling). Others will sacrifice fps and postprocessing/effects to play in stereoscopic 3D or super-widescreen (triple monitor setups). Others will make compromises while gaming on their laptop but will set the sliders to the max when they switch to their gaming PC. Others will adjust their setting for every game or genre individual. Others won't care at all about setting and will just play in default settings or the settings chosen by Nvidia Experience.

Different PC gamers play different PC games / genres. Some even favor older games (where maxing out the settings is much easier) or browser games. They play on different formfactors with very different performance differences (netbooks, Windows tablets, laptops, gaming laptops, office PCs, "normal" gaming PCs, SLI/CF rigs...).

The concept of the "average PC gamer" is very strange, because the PC gaming community is widely diversified, much more than the community of any other gaming platform. And that's why many PC gamers hate it when a developer limits their options with 30 or 60 fps locks, mandatory V-sync, fixed resolutions and similar stuff.

I'm pointing out the specs that appear to be most common on Steam statistics are less powerful than current gen consoles. Its unlikely many of those machines can play modern graphical showcases at 60 fps if at all.

For example, I have a low end video card that should be able to handle CS:GO and DOTA at 60 fps. But that doesn't mean I can run high end 8th gen games well even at low settings.