Ninja
11-23-2007, 09:49 PM
I did some testing on our server today to sort of compare graphics settings and how it impacts FPS and playability online. I used Fraps to view my FPS and experienced some interesting but somewhat expected results. Keep in mind that these numbers are unique to my system so your mileage may vary, and that the numbers are rough, meaning they can be off 1-3fps in any situation. I was looking for what makes the most impact here and I didn't do any in between settings comparisons. They were either simply turned off or set to the highest setting.
Just for comparison, I'm running an AMD Athlon64 x2 4200+ CPU with 2GB of Corsair XMS RAM, SATA2 drives in RAID0, and an ATI Radeon x1900xtx. Most importantly, my graphics card is set to let the application determine the amount of processing. Ping at the time of testing was around 100ms.
Now that that's out of the way. These tests were done on three separate maps. When referring to “standing still” or “idle” it means my player was looking at an area with the most textures, effects, objects, and staying pointed at one particular spot. Also, when mentioning “in action” it refers to running around, jumping and shooting. Just a side note, looking at the sky or at a wall inside a structure always resulted in very high or maxed fps's regardless of what settings were used.
Lowest graphics:
I first turned all the graphics and texture settings to their lowest possible settings or off but left the resolution set to the native resolution of my display which is 1920x1200 @60Hz. In the three maps that I tested, my fps hung right around 91-92 fps while idle, and moving around caused it to drop to the high 70's very briefly then maintained high 80's and low 90's while in action. The drop to the high 70's never last more than a second or two and only occurred once after entering each new map.
Textures only:
From there I turned up just the texture settings and left all the graphics settings set to low or off. I turned up texture filtering from bilinear to trilinear, anisotropic filtering to full, and texture detail from low to extra. It made a huge difference in game texture detail as would be expected but surprisingly, very little to no impact on frame rates. The frame rate went from 91fps to the lowest dip of 66 but then maintained high 80's to low 90's from then on. Once the textures are loaded they stay in memory which would explain the brief initial drop in frames but then never again. Basically I found that I can run the texture settings maxed out which makes the game environment look drastically better with essentially little to no impact on game play.
Anti-aliasing:
I again set everything to their lowest settings and moved on to the graphics section. I started trying different anti-aliasing settings which I knew would make a large impact on performance. I started with 2X AA and saw an immediate drop of about 15fps while idle. The frames went from 91 with everything off to the high 60's to mid 70's while still idle. I then moved on to 4X AA and it dropped another 15-20 fps bringing the frame rate down to around the mid to low 50's. Also, while moving around, the frame rate would sporadically drop an additional 20 fps on both 2 and 4X settings but never longer than 1-2 seconds. At this point I turned up all the texture options to their maximum and saw an even more decreased frame rate which dropped to about 40 fps at idle and down to the mid 30's while in action. From here I took it one step further and turned all of the graphics and texture options to their maximum settings and the frame rate dropped to 26 fps at idle and into the mid to high teens while moving around. Additionally, I began to see game stuttering and animation and sound sync issues such as the sound not matching the rounds or gun animation while firing in full auto. It was pretty clear at this point that anti-aliasing has the biggest impact on performance but the game looked beautiful!
Individual graphics options:
I took some time to also see what the individual options do to frame rates by checking them one at a time. These numbers are for standing still and no movement but still looking at a point in the map with the most objects, textures, and effects. All graphic and texture option were turned to low or off and I was seeing 91 fps at idle. Here's what I found.
Shadows = up to a 20 fps drop.
Specular Map (Reflections in glass, some high-lighting/darkening of players and objects?, etc.) = about 10 fps drop.
Depth of Field = 15 fps drop while sighting in.
Glow (Puts glow effect around player's body when hit with light) = inconclusive findings, no other players in server to view glow effect.
Dynamic Lights = inconclusive, no other players on server to view muzzle flash/explosions.
Soften Smoke = about a 10 fps drop.
Rag doll = inconclusive, no other players on server to view.
Bullet Impacts (Displays bullet holes) = 10-15 fps drop during time of shooting and viewing impact area.
Model Detail = inconclusive, didn't notice a difference in game look or performance.
Water Detail = not tested, no water in tested maps.
Conclusion:
Basically I found that anything you do relating to anti-aliasing or smoothing of the game results in a major drop in frame rate. Fine detailing and high-lighting results in a frame rate drop but nothing too drastic to really affect game play unless you pair that with heavy anti-aliasing or a slow video card. Adjusting textures and anisotropic filtering to full had virtually no performance impact, at least on my system. Adding this and the latency of the internet can result in the all too familiar game lag. Hopefully this write up can help some of you that were wondering what some of the settings do and help you tune your graphics to make your experience a bit quicker. Please remember that there are many other variable that I didn't cover or test such as the “sync every frame option” which syncs the frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate and that it really boils down to your system. If you have a super fast system and GPU, you can run everything at high and more than likely not experience any playability issues.
Just for comparison, I'm running an AMD Athlon64 x2 4200+ CPU with 2GB of Corsair XMS RAM, SATA2 drives in RAID0, and an ATI Radeon x1900xtx. Most importantly, my graphics card is set to let the application determine the amount of processing. Ping at the time of testing was around 100ms.
Now that that's out of the way. These tests were done on three separate maps. When referring to “standing still” or “idle” it means my player was looking at an area with the most textures, effects, objects, and staying pointed at one particular spot. Also, when mentioning “in action” it refers to running around, jumping and shooting. Just a side note, looking at the sky or at a wall inside a structure always resulted in very high or maxed fps's regardless of what settings were used.
Lowest graphics:
I first turned all the graphics and texture settings to their lowest possible settings or off but left the resolution set to the native resolution of my display which is 1920x1200 @60Hz. In the three maps that I tested, my fps hung right around 91-92 fps while idle, and moving around caused it to drop to the high 70's very briefly then maintained high 80's and low 90's while in action. The drop to the high 70's never last more than a second or two and only occurred once after entering each new map.
Textures only:
From there I turned up just the texture settings and left all the graphics settings set to low or off. I turned up texture filtering from bilinear to trilinear, anisotropic filtering to full, and texture detail from low to extra. It made a huge difference in game texture detail as would be expected but surprisingly, very little to no impact on frame rates. The frame rate went from 91fps to the lowest dip of 66 but then maintained high 80's to low 90's from then on. Once the textures are loaded they stay in memory which would explain the brief initial drop in frames but then never again. Basically I found that I can run the texture settings maxed out which makes the game environment look drastically better with essentially little to no impact on game play.
Anti-aliasing:
I again set everything to their lowest settings and moved on to the graphics section. I started trying different anti-aliasing settings which I knew would make a large impact on performance. I started with 2X AA and saw an immediate drop of about 15fps while idle. The frames went from 91 with everything off to the high 60's to mid 70's while still idle. I then moved on to 4X AA and it dropped another 15-20 fps bringing the frame rate down to around the mid to low 50's. Also, while moving around, the frame rate would sporadically drop an additional 20 fps on both 2 and 4X settings but never longer than 1-2 seconds. At this point I turned up all the texture options to their maximum and saw an even more decreased frame rate which dropped to about 40 fps at idle and down to the mid 30's while in action. From here I took it one step further and turned all of the graphics and texture options to their maximum settings and the frame rate dropped to 26 fps at idle and into the mid to high teens while moving around. Additionally, I began to see game stuttering and animation and sound sync issues such as the sound not matching the rounds or gun animation while firing in full auto. It was pretty clear at this point that anti-aliasing has the biggest impact on performance but the game looked beautiful!
Individual graphics options:
I took some time to also see what the individual options do to frame rates by checking them one at a time. These numbers are for standing still and no movement but still looking at a point in the map with the most objects, textures, and effects. All graphic and texture option were turned to low or off and I was seeing 91 fps at idle. Here's what I found.
Shadows = up to a 20 fps drop.
Specular Map (Reflections in glass, some high-lighting/darkening of players and objects?, etc.) = about 10 fps drop.
Depth of Field = 15 fps drop while sighting in.
Glow (Puts glow effect around player's body when hit with light) = inconclusive findings, no other players in server to view glow effect.
Dynamic Lights = inconclusive, no other players on server to view muzzle flash/explosions.
Soften Smoke = about a 10 fps drop.
Rag doll = inconclusive, no other players on server to view.
Bullet Impacts (Displays bullet holes) = 10-15 fps drop during time of shooting and viewing impact area.
Model Detail = inconclusive, didn't notice a difference in game look or performance.
Water Detail = not tested, no water in tested maps.
Conclusion:
Basically I found that anything you do relating to anti-aliasing or smoothing of the game results in a major drop in frame rate. Fine detailing and high-lighting results in a frame rate drop but nothing too drastic to really affect game play unless you pair that with heavy anti-aliasing or a slow video card. Adjusting textures and anisotropic filtering to full had virtually no performance impact, at least on my system. Adding this and the latency of the internet can result in the all too familiar game lag. Hopefully this write up can help some of you that were wondering what some of the settings do and help you tune your graphics to make your experience a bit quicker. Please remember that there are many other variable that I didn't cover or test such as the “sync every frame option” which syncs the frame rate to your monitor's refresh rate and that it really boils down to your system. If you have a super fast system and GPU, you can run everything at high and more than likely not experience any playability issues.