More doesn't mean better, can a high frame rate be a negative?

When the last generation of gaming consoles came out from both Microsoft and Sony, there was a lot of fuss about frame rate. Both devices support frame rates of up to 120fps, which is a huge improvement over the previous generation. But in the field of computer games, things move to even higher numbers. It has been the norm to achieve frame rates in excess of 100fps for many years. And with the right hardware and games it's possible to achieve even much higher numbers.

A lot of gamers today argue that a higher frame rate is definitely better. Although the additional frames become progressively more difficult to distinguish, higher frame rates are the excuse for many to buy new and expensive processors and graphics cards. But while seeing more frames is undoubtedly better, getting more frames and seeing those frames are two completely different things.

When are the most useless frames?

Suppose you have purchased some of the latest hardware including a powerful processor and graphics card from the last generation. Then I decided to play a less demanding game like CS:GO. In theory, you'll get an impressive number of frames, even exceeding 300 per second. But here comes the important question: Do you really benefit from these tires, or are they useless?

The answer depends on the screen you're using, and if you've similarly neglected upgrading your screen, the news is bad. It doesn't matter how many frames you get in a game as long as your monitor can't display it. The screen's ability can be known from its refresh rate, which for most available screens is 60Hz.

If the monitor has a 60Hz refresh rate, this means that it can display a new frame every 60th of a second (16.667 milliseconds). Here, any frame rate higher than 60fps won't do you any good because you won't even be able to see or notice it in real life. In order to distinguish higher frame rates, you will need a screen with a greater refresh rate, and it is preferable that it supports technology such as G-Sync.

Can a high frame rate be a curse instead of a blessing?

In addition to the limitations of a high frame rate at a refresh rate, there are even negative aspects of the matter. There are two main known issues with using a higher frame rate than the monitor in use can support:

Frames Lag

To illustrate, we'll use a simple command example: Let's say you're running a game at 100 frames per second. And then you display it on a screen that operates at a frequency of 60Hz only. What exactly will happen?

With each new frame created, this frame will be added to a temporary memory until the next screen refresh. In our example, a new frame is made every 10 milliseconds, while the update takes place every 16.667 milliseconds. So, on the first update, the last available frame will be the first frame, and that's not a problem. But by the second update, 33.333 seconds will have passed, so the third frame will have arrived and it will be displayed. This is where the tire lag problem appears.

The frames are made to be consecutive with as narrow intervals as possible to maintain continuity. And the human eye can fool the continuity of images even at frame rates as low as 24 fps. However, it is important that these frames are regular and not as the example where the first frame will be shown, followed by the third, then the fifth, and then the sixth. This fluctuation between one and two frame differences between updates is bound to make it more difficult to immerse yourself in the game, and when noticed leaves an unpleasant feeling on the eyes.

Cracked Frames

This problem appears in cases where the frame rate is so high that a new frame can arrive within a very short time interval. The problem is that the new window hits the screen while you're refreshing to display the previous window (as the refresh process is incremental). As a result, what appears on the screen is part of the previous frame and part of the next frame together.

This problem is not always noticeable, while some people identify it and blame the bad performance of the game or the graphics card on it. But the usual cause of the problem is the lack of synchronization between the monitor and the graphics card only. And it appears more when you get higher frame rates, i.e. the best performance of the device.

How to get around problems with extremely high frame rates?

The first step of the solution is to get a large enough screen refresh rate to be able to display the many resulting frames. However, due to the fact that frame rates are not stable when they are not capped, it would be useful to get a monitor that supports synchronization technologies such as A-Sync, G-Sync or FreeSync.

The previous technologies come from several companies, but their main purpose is common: that the screen refresh rate is variable and not fixed. Instead of the screen refreshing at fixed times and displaying the latest available frame in memory, things work the other way around. The screen refreshes immediately when a new frame arrives (with a cap of refreshes every second). Thus, any problems caused by synchronization are avoided.

Of course, these do not solve the problems of games being unstable or running at wildly choppy frame rates. But it's incredibly useful for getting rid of sync issues and making sure that every frame appears exactly on time without stuttering or cracking.