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How low should graphics settings go? (self.pcmasterrace)

submitted 10 months ago by whileloop to c/pcmasterrace

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Lately we've been talking about games not performing well enough on current hardware. It's had me wondering just what we should be asking for. I think the basic principle is that components from the last 5 years should be adequate to play current-generation titles at 1080p60. Not at max settings, of course, but certainly playable without resorting to DLSS and FSR.

It makes me wonder: is it really so much to ask? There are games from 10+ years ago that still look great or at least acceptable. Should we expect new games like Starfield to be configurable to be as demanding as an older game like Portal 2 or CS:GO. If the gameplay is what really matters, and games of the 2010s looked good then, why can't we expect current games to be configurable that low?

From what I've seen, users of the GTX 1070 need to play Starfield at 720p with FSR to get 60fps. What's better? Getting 60fps by playing at 720p with FSR, or playing at 1080p with reduced texture resolution and model detail?

It shouldn't even be that hard to pull off. It should be possible to automatically create lower detail models and textures, and other details can just be turned off.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Well a couple of issues. One is size and complexity, pretty low issue since games are already massive and where size is an issue (console physical media) they don't need to be included.

A bigger one is what does it say about the product? People are already using low settings disingenuously to say X game is ugly and not up to par, a potato setting would just exacerbate this and from an art standpoint do the developer really want to stand behind such a gimped product?

Then we have the problem of lowering details not really being able to solve the problem. A long draw distance can make it still really rough on older components due to memory constraints or ability to juggle X amount of objects. Sure a draw distance slider isn't uncommon but if the game uses said distance like say enemies spotting you from far away you can't lower draw distance such that it impacts game play. Physics and other demanding aspects might also make lowering settings hard or make for a big gameplay impact.

And finally why isn't FSR acceptable to make the game playable? It seems the perfect solution.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (5 children)

And finally why isn’t FSR acceptable to make the game playable? It seems the perfect solution.

"Perfect" is a bit of stretch. I've tried running games with FSR on my GTX 1080 and it looks like absolute ass. By lowering graphics settings I was able to run at a much higher resolution/framerate while looking leaps and bounds better.

I realize that newer GPUs will give better results with FSR, but if I'm getting a newer GPU then presumably it would have better native performance anyway.

I'll certainly give it another go when I upgrade to an Ada/RDNA3 GPU, but until then it's just a marketing gimmick to me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

It’s really quite fair that FSR and DLSS don’t look great at 1080p since they weren’t designed for that use case at all. Ideally it’s meant to upscale to 4K where the base resolution is at minimum ~1080p where’s there’s enough pixels to get a good output. When trying to upscale to 720p or 1080p the base resolution goes down to the 300ps (maybe even lower) which just isn’t enough that least with todays models.

So for me I don’t see FSR or DLSS being a solution at all the hardware question for longevity. To me it just allows a weaker GPU to look nicer on a 4K screen (theoretically) not to increase FPS as a main feature.

Maybe GPUs could get cinema upscalers? I don’t know how they work or feasibility other than for a while 4K Bluerays we’re just the 2K footage but ran through these upscalers.

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