Moniter Refresh Rate

[Aryanar]

I'm trying to figure out a way to boost the performance of CS... I've got a P4 3.0GHz with HT technology, 512 RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. In my opinion, that's fairly decent but other people seem to be doing better performance-wise.

Refresh rate was brought to my attention today. I looked and my moniter was set to 60Hz. Safely I can go up to 85Hz. Will this improve performance, and are there any drawbacks to using a higher refresh rate, such as damage to the moniter, shorter moniter lifespan, and crappier picture? Everything seems to be much duller in appearance now, but it seems much easier on the eyes... or is that just me?

==========

Ok... I just tried CS with the new refresh rate. The game looks cleaner and smoother - I even was able to find a setting for my graphics card that allows me to adjust the gamma so everything isn't so dark (my moniter is already at max brightness and for levels like train it's not good enough). Overall I think it's an improvement - my FPS even jumped between 10-25. Still... any drawbacks?

[Prowler130]

the worst drawback you will get is a possible ghosting effect if your fps is higher than 75. however most of the time that wont happen, so you should be in good shape :thumbsup:

[Drayu]

and what will make the biggest difference is more Ram....honestly 512 just won't cut it for today's games :( I am even considering buying another 512 to get me to 1.5 gigs

[Kev Kanos]

If you have a stick of DDR512 and a stick of DDR1gig then you will only be getting 1.5 gigs of SDR Ram. You need to have ram with the same capacity to get the pros of the double data rate. If you already have 2 256 sticks then get 2 more are itch the ones you have and get 2 512's.

[Bonez]

you are mistaking DDR with dual channel.

double data rate ram uses bolth the up and down cycle, SD ram only uses the up cycle(pc3200 is only 200mhz, but processes twice). using two diffrent capacitity sticks of DDR will not make it shift magically over to SD ram

and if you stick a single stick of ram in a dual channel system is will disable dual channel shifting over standard memory handling.(unless the board requires you to do it manually, if it does the system will be unstable while trying to force dual channel causing freezing and crashing)

matching two sticks of DDR with diffrent speeds is the only real issue, sticking a stick of pc2100 in a system that is allready using a stick of pc2700 or 3200 will make the faster ram clock down to match the frequency of the slower stick.

[loopcycle]

I'm trying to figure out a way to boost the performance of CS... I've got a P4 3.0GHz with HT technology, 512 RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro...

I have a similar config. its only 'just ok' with CSS. 2.8G @ 3.15G, 768M rambus (pc800) and 9800pro w/ vga silencer @ 420M (core)/369M (mem). Im overclocking the vidcard with ATITool.

CSS does not utilize HT technology, so it wont matter that you are HT capable.

You will notice the benefits of increasing your ram by another 512M.

Refresh rate was brought to my attention today. I looked and my moniter was set to 60Hz. Safely I can go up to 85Hz. Will this improve performance, and are there any drawbacks to using a higher refresh rate, such as damage to the moniter, shorter moniter lifespan, and crappier picture? Everything seems to be much duller in appearance now, but it seems much easier on the eyes... or is that just me?

Here's the way i understand it: you will never see any fps above your refresh rate, even if your net_graph is telling you otherwise. So, if you can raise your refresh safely, you are also potentially raising your max fps.

For this same reason, you can (or should) also cap your max fps to your refresh rate. There are different theories why this is a good idea, but I wont bore you.

are you using an LCD or CRT? if LCD, you are probably locked at 60Hz and it wont matter if you increase your refresh. If you are using a CRT and Windows identifies your monitor correctly (or you have installed the driver) then you can safely increase your refresh rate by whatever is in the pull down menu, **as long as you leave that "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" checkbox checked**.

the only drawback:
When you raise your refresh with a CRT, you lower your maximum resolution. Check the documentation for your monitor for details.

Raising refresh rate makes looking at a CRT much easier on the eyes no matter what you use your computer for. It will not make the picture crappier - it will make it better. Everyone should raise their refresh on their CRTs. It is always an improvement, even if you wont ever notice the difference between 60 and 75fps.

[Aryanar]

Alright thanks guys...

Like I said, I tried the new refresh rate and everything looks better (I use a CRT moniter btw)... at first it looked a bit blurry but now that I'm used to it it's way less of a strain on the eyes and I've noticed that CS isn't nearly as choppy as it was prior to the increasing of the refresh to 85. Definitely improved my game tonight. ;)

Unsure what type of RAM I have, but I think it's two of 256DDR... maybe with that dual channel thing. I recall the salesguy saying something about that made it special and grandma bought the upgrade so I went all out. I'll think about upgrading to two 512s, but how much is that going to cost and what else will that improve?

Hmm... while I'm here, I have another question. I can either use my girlfriend's Bose Triport headphones, or I can upgrade my speakers from the crap I have now to Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 speakers. Which do you think is better?

[Saur]

Refresh rate is the rate at which your monitor will display frames. So your refresh rate is basically your max fps in game. A higher refresh rate will result in less strain on the eyes since the eye detects around 60 fps anyway.

Personally, I play w/ refresh rate at 120, though I reckon I could use 144. The lower your resolution, the higher your refresh rate can go. It'll result in a much smoother game with a lot less jittery-ness while turning.

The vsync command in cs:s actually synchronizes your cs:s game frames with your monitor's refresh rate so you get perfect streaming fps, but at the cost of a slight performance hit. A lot of casual gamers prefer this.

you can set your refresh rate for cs:s only in cs:s launch options properties box. "-refresh 120" Make sure your monitor can support your refresh rate at that resolution.

If you play 1028x768, i think max refresh rate for that is 100, which is just fine.

And for the sound setup, I'd go with the headphones for tactical benefits.

<3 Saur