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Graphic Settings: What do you turn off for optimal performance in-game?

EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251

Hey guys, so I'm just curious, there are a lot of tech-savvy people around this website, what are some options you turn off right away in video games? Or maybe just if you aren't getting the FPS or something you were looking for, I personally turn off V-Sync on every game for an increased FPS, and sometimes will lower shadows/shading.

 

Feel free to add to the post, what are some unnoticeable but consuming graphic options people might not realize when trying to get the best graphics and performance out of a game? :)

Comments

  • GravargGravarg Member UncommonPosts: 3,424
    I believe multi-sampling and anti-aliasing are the two big ones that eat up your graphics card.
  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by Gravarg
    I believe multi-sampling and anti-aliasing are the two big ones that eat up your graphics card.

    Cool thanks bud, I never really tried messing around with those, but I never could tell the difference with them on or off.

  • miguksarammiguksaram Member UncommonPosts: 835
    Originally posted by EvilMix
    Originally posted by Gravarg
    I believe multi-sampling and anti-aliasing are the two big ones that eat up your graphics card.

    Cool thanks bud, I never really tried messing around with those, but I never could tell the difference with them on or off.

    If the option presents itself another gfx hog is shadows, especially in MMO's.  Also I'd avoid playing most games in windowed mode unless you have a specific reason for needing that option.

  • RamanadjinnRamanadjinn Member UncommonPosts: 1,365

    Aside from the usual suspects mentioned earlier, i've found I can't always predict exactly what will have a big effect.

    I generally turn everything off if i'm having an issue and then turn things back on (or up) one at a time and see if there is a major culprit.  That can help.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910

    I have an AMD HD5770 and it has trouble with shadows. I can usually squeeze out pretty good performance in everything, as long as shadows are turned off.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by miguksaram
    Originally posted by EvilMix
    Originally posted by Gravarg
    I believe multi-sampling and anti-aliasing are the two big ones that eat up your graphics card.

    Cool thanks bud, I never really tried messing around with those, but I never could tell the difference with them on or off.

    If the option presents itself another gfx hog is shadows, especially in MMO's.  Also I'd avoid playing most games in windowed mode unless you have a specific reason for needing that option.

    Yeah shadows are a hog, never tried the windowed thing though. Usually in full screen.

  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by Ramanadjinn

    Aside from the usual suspects mentioned earlier, i've found I can't always predict exactly what will have a big effect.

    I generally turn everything off if i'm having an issue and then turn things back on (or up) one at a time and see if there is a major culprit.  That can help.

    There's another option too. I did that with my other PC with some games.

  • KoroshiyaKoroshiya Member UncommonPosts: 265

    there is no correct answer because each item will delegate differently depending on engine.

     

    For example, forgelight for PS2 and EQ2's engine both use CPU to do a ton of what other games use the GPU for, while other games will spike your GPU to 100% and cpu will be using 15%.  So the best I can answer is this:

    Depending on which component is getting stressed the most I will disable those items that lower that usage.  (thank god in games like PS2 its built in monitor tells you which component is bottle necked at that current time, more games need this!!!)

    “The people that are trying to make the world worse never take a day off , why should I. Light up the darkness” – Bob Marley

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    Tessellation can bring some cards down, but this option isn't found in a ton of PC titles.

    MSAA/SSAA are the two biggest offenders, by far. Sometimes games provide options up to x16 levels, and it's ridiculous. Just turning it down to x4 or x2 can often return a game to being playable. If a game supports FXAA (or some other post-process effect anti-aliasing), it's often nearly free performance-wise.

    SSAO can really hurt performance as well, depending on how it's implemented. This has to do with shadows.

    If you've tried everything else, turning down the resolution is a last resort that can let some games be playable on hardware it really shouldn't be played on otherwise.

    And as mentioned before - it does vary a lot engine by engine.

  • miguksarammiguksaram Member UncommonPosts: 835
    Originally posted by Ramanadjinn

    I generally turn everything off if i'm having an issue and then turn things back on (or up) one at a time and see if there is a major culprit.  That can help.

    Be aware that turning all options down to minimum in most cases will be taxing to the CPU and not the GPU (this is not universal as it's dependent on what the software considers minimum but is generally true).

  • NagelRitterNagelRitter Member Posts: 607

    Anti-alizing/HDR

    Shadows

    View distance

    Ground clutter

    Shader quality

    Lighting quality

    Favorite MMO: Vanilla WoW
    Currently playing: GW2, EVE
    Excited for: Wildstar, maybe?

  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,361
    Originally posted by Koroshiya

    there is no correct answer because each item will delegate differently depending on engine.

     

    For example, forgelight for PS2 and EQ2's engine both use CPU to do a ton of what other games use the GPU for, while other games will spike your GPU to 100% and cpu will be using 15%.  So the best I can answer is this:

    Depending on which component is getting stressed the most I will disable those items that lower that usage.  (thank god in games like PS2 its built in monitor tells you which component is bottle necked at that current time, more games need this!!!)

    eq2 is badly optimized , i can run FFXIV at max 60fps , eq2? with shadows (Gpu) drops from 55~ to 15-20 > 30 > 55 is a mesh, maybe is because i played using shader 3.0 but ....the game is old , still runs like crap

     

  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by NagelRitter

    Anti-alizing/HDR

    Shadows

    View distance

    Ground clutter

    Shader quality

    Lighting quality

    Good list man thanks!

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Doing shadows right is completely intractable on current hardware.  There are many ways to implement shadows, some of which are more obviously fake than others, but all of which are very far from accurate.  Depending on what a game does, it may or may not have a huge performance hit.

    Some post-processing effects, most notably depth of field, don't actually make a game look any better.  If it brings a performance hit for no benefits, turning that off is pretty obvious, regardless of how big the performance hit is.

    High degrees of anti-aliasing, especially if it's supersampling, bring a huge performance hit, though those only touch the GPU, so if your problem is CPU side, turning them off won't make a bit of difference.

    High resolution textures can tax video memory capacity, so you'll gain a lot by turning those down if the problem was lack of video memory, and gain nothing otherwise.

    Viewing distances are the only thing likely to have a big effect on the CPU load, so if you've got a CPU problem, that's probably what you'll have to turn down.

    Ridelynn mentioned tessellation, and that can well kill performance if it's set to stupid levels, but if you've got a decently capable card (e.g., anything that would be a good value for $70 today) and the graphical difference between two tessellation levels is readily visible to you, it takes a pretty bad implementation of it for it to make much of a performance difference.

  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by Quizzical

    Doing shadows right is completely intractable on current hardware.  There are many ways to implement shadows, some of which are more obviously fake than others, but all of which are very far from accurate.  Depending on what a game does, it may or may not have a huge performance hit.

    Some post-processing effects, most notably depth of field, don't actually make a game look any better.  If it brings a performance hit for no benefits, turning that off is pretty obvious, regardless of how big the performance hit is.

    High degrees of anti-aliasing, especially if it's supersampling, bring a huge performance hit, though those only touch the GPU, so if your problem is CPU side, turning them off won't make a bit of difference.

    High resolution textures can tax video memory capacity, so you'll gain a lot by turning those down if the problem was lack of video memory, and gain nothing otherwise.

    Viewing distances are the only thing likely to have a big effect on the CPU load, so if you've got a CPU problem, that's probably what you'll have to turn down.

    Ridelynn mentioned tessellation, and that can well kill performance if it's set to stupid levels, but if you've got a decently capable card (e.g., anything that would be a good value for $70 today) and the graphical difference between two tessellation levels is readily visible to you, it takes a pretty bad implementation of it for it to make much of a performance difference.

    I don't think I ever get a problem with viewing distance up, so my CPU is good I believe :)

  • BetaguyBetaguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,627
    Originally posted by EvilMix

    Hey guys, so I'm just curious, there are a lot of tech-savvy people around this website, what are some options you turn off right away in video games? Or maybe just if you aren't getting the FPS or something you were looking for, I personally turn off V-Sync on every game for an increased FPS, and sometimes will lower shadows/shading.

     

    Feel free to add to the post, what are some unnoticeable but consuming graphic options people might not realize when trying to get the best graphics and performance out of a game? :)

    I don't turn anything off  now a days but when I use to, always shadows...

    "The King and the Pawn return to the same box at the end of the game"

  • EvilMixEvilMix Member Posts: 251
    Originally posted by Betaguy
    Originally posted by EvilMix

    Hey guys, so I'm just curious, there are a lot of tech-savvy people around this website, what are some options you turn off right away in video games? Or maybe just if you aren't getting the FPS or something you were looking for, I personally turn off V-Sync on every game for an increased FPS, and sometimes will lower shadows/shading.

     

    Feel free to add to the post, what are some unnoticeable but consuming graphic options people might not realize when trying to get the best graphics and performance out of a game? :)

    I don't turn anything off  now a days but when I use to, always shadows...

    Yeah, shadows always seem like a great option to turn off.

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