Fixated on fps?
I read a lot of posts here that talk about what fps people are getting with SH4, and I can't help wondering why people are so fixated with fps instead of how the game looks and plays on their system?
I have a mid range system, and I had no idea what my fps was...nor did I care. I run with the event camera disabled because I don't like it, and I disabled volumetric fog for the same reason once the option was there to do so.
I run with patch 1.3 and TM 1.4 and a few other mods. I have 8X AA and 8X AF selected, and the game runs like a dream and looks stunning. If I hit Ctrl F8, I see that I get between 27fps and 40fps on the exteior camera views and a much higher fps within the sub.
The point is that when I'm playing the game, I have no idea when I'm seeing 27fps and when I'm seeing 40fps.
It's true that if I had a low end system delivering less than 20fps, then a video card upgrade could be an issue, but I can't help thinking that someone is happily playing and enjoying SH4, only to discover that he's getting an fps figure lower than he'd like, so he goes and invests in a new video card. If nobody had told him how to check his fps, he'd have been quite happy with the game the way it was.
A friend at work has SH4, and an all singing all dancing $3000 computer system to go with it. He has two powerful Nvidia cards driving his system, and I swear that SH4 looks and plays only marginally better on his system.....the main reason being his 30' wide screen monitor.
He's proud of his 88fps, and I don't have the heart to tell him it looks just like my game only on a better monitor.
I understand that RAM, CPU, Processor and video card all play a part in the gaming experience, but I think there's an element of 'the Emporer's new clothes' with this fps issue.
Don't let fps drive your decision regarding your video card, let your eyes be the judge.
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