Only Getting 30fps at 2x Native for A Few Games

[superjarvo]

Hi, with my i5-3570 and Radeon 7770 HD, I was expecting to get more than 30fps with games (tested with Twilight Princess and Mario Sunshine). I have it playing on my 42" TV and near fullscreen with 2xnative. When I bring it down to 1xnative, I get the same. Can someone explain to me how this can be happening?

Thanks.

[Zee530]

Because TP is capped at 30fps for the NTSC and 25 for PAL, don't know about SMS, you can disable framelimit if the speed isn't to your liking.

[LordVador]

tested with Twilight Princess and Mario Sunshine

Both are 30fps games so this is the fps max you're supposed to get

[superjarvo]

tested with Twilight Princess and Mario Sunshine

Both are 30fps games so this is the fps max you're supposed to get

Ok, thanks. Why do they cap games at 30fps?

[Zee530]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_rate#background

[NaturalViolence]

That link is mostly pretty useless to him. You should have quoted the relevant part or at least linked to the relevant section.

Here:

FPS that vary substantially from one second to the next depending on computational load produce uneven, “choppy” movement or animation. Many games lock their frame rate at lower but more sustainable levels to give consistently smooth motion.

These are the only sentences in the article that deal with what he's asking and they still don't fully answer his question.

Console games from the 6th generation and earlier typically have the gamespeed tied to the framerate in order to simplify the game logic. So they also naturally have to have a fixed framerate. When the framerate goes down the game slows down which is obviously an undesirable effect. Since the refresh rate in NTSC consoles is 60 Hz it makes sense to use a divisor of 60 as the framerate to keep the timing consistent. Thus 60 fps (1 refresh period per frame) or 30 fps (2 refresh periods per frame) are usually used. 30 fps allows them to process twice as much code per frame which could lead to better physics, AI, graphics, etc. since there is twice as much time available to process each frame. They have to make the frame intervals long enough to make sure that all the code get processed in time even under the worst case scenario in order to prevent slowdowns. The framerate is then capped at either 30 or 60 fps depending on their choice in order to prevent the game from running too fast.

Also the quote above mentions that locking the framerate helps maintain a more consistent framerate which helps prevents noticeable changes in motion quality due to framerate drops. This is the main reason that modern console games (xbox360 and ps3 for example) still do it. For example if your game runs at 30-45 fps you will occasionally get very noticeable framerate drops that don't look good. By capping the framerate at 30 fps your brain will adjust to that speed and in theory it should look better in the long run since there are no sudden shifts in motion quality for your brain to notice.

[Zee530]

I was trying to point out the biological aspect but i guess that works too.

[NaturalViolence]

I was trying to point out the biological aspect

What does that have to do with anything?

[CaptainRed]

You should be happy, because they always get at 60 or 50 fps in emulation with hardware not powerful, It is not posible...

[Zee530]

I was trying to point out the biological aspect

What does that have to do with anything?

I perceived OP's question as "why do they cap games at 30/60fps? and why not some other value", his first post was based on his misconception that the capped fps should be higher than known value, the best answer in this case (i felt) would have been something that explained how a human being perceived 'sense of motion'.