Topic: Frame generation and frame limiting

Frame generation will multiply inconsistencies in frame rates. Actually it can be even worse than that as a sudden very long frame time cant "multiply" fps because the next frame has to arrive before frame interpolation can complete. So basically, frame generation more solidly needs an fps cap to have a sane experience if you are sensitive to stutter. This issue is even worse on OLED monitors where flicker will make any frametime stutters that much more offensive.

I have tried NVidia, RivaTuner, and RTSS with various options (including Pace native frames) and had no luck. The FPS limit tends to introduce more stutter and frametime pacing issues than it solves. I have a 5070 Ti and normally the latest drivers and have mostly been trying nixxes port games but also cyberpunk and Indiana jones. The only success I had is with cyberpunk - but this is because the in game fps limiter actually works (in this case i think it limits the base frame rate)

What I am asking for in this thread is to post any success of using frame generation and any fps limiter in tandem. Please specify the game, your GPU, and if you can remember the driver version. Thanks in advance

I've never really had any stutter issues with my 5080 and Frame Gen but I've only used it on two games so far. Cyberpunk and Alan Wake 2.

I play on my LG C2 42" so I've always had the FPS capped at 116 FPS and Vsync on through Nvidia. Without Vsync on I would get pretty consistent screen tearing with FG.

I only use FG X2 with leave my base FPS would be 58, with FG bringing it up to the 116 FPS limit. I've only noticed issues when my base FPS would hit the 40s like in AW2s starting area but it wasn't really stuttering either.

Frame Gen works fine for me with Vsync turned on in the Nvidia Control Panel. I've used it in Cyberpunk, Alan Wake 2 and Stalker 2 without issues with the frame time.

Have you tried Special K? You can pace original frames and therefore get a consistent FG output.

You are not supposed to run a frame cap software on FG, because how exactly is this cap supposed to work?

Say we have a base performance of 60fps, FG 2x ideally should make it 120fps (1 Native + 1 FG...), a frame cap means what here? A cap on the native frames? that won't help a stutter bigger than 16.6ms and it'll only increase the RLAT, and external software do not know Native vs FG, a cap on FG does not make sense because say we have 140fps with FG and 120 cap and 70 native, how is the cap software supposed to understand what frames to discard? the FG of anything above 50 native? (meaning 50 Native + 50 FG + 20 Native without FG = 120, this would increase RLAT), or the 10 native over 60? (meaning 60 Native + 60 FG = 120 and remove the 10 Native, this also increases RLAT), most/all frame cap software do not see a difference between native and FG, even game engines do not know how to cap FPS when FG is on because it was never intended to be capped.
Basically cap means trimming frames, and when you trim:
1- A generated frame, you get uneven pacing + micro-stutter.
2- A native frame, massive latency penalty.
3- Mixed frames, you get jitter, judder, hitching and latency.

Another thing to keep in mind is stutters look smoother on FG, what you might be feeling and describing as a problem is the added RLAT, which is true when there's a stutter and FG is on, but even in that case frame delivery would be smoother compared to a stutter on native frames only because FG only takes 2-3ms to render, most of the time it is being withheld for proper pacing, so the problem when a stutter happens is the sudden increase in RLAT which can be massive, frame delivery will remain smooth regardless.

No decent fps limiter (apart from poorly implemented vsync) should increase latency by more than a couple of ms. My problem is not latency however, it is that Special K or NVCP limit (with or without vsync) causes issues. But most of my testing has been within Nixxes games which I know have issues with special k and frame gen.

I do assume pace native frames is better (special k is the only software I know where this is toggleable) - but like I said, can't get this working particularly in Nixxes games.

I will try again with the other suggestions above, and test more in non-Nixxes games. Might just be an issue with certain games.

SpecialK works well, but as others have said this doesn't work well in Nixxes games. I have a wonderful time with FG + frame limiting at 116 in Avowed on my C2 + 4090, thanks to SpecialK.

Have you tried playing with lossless scaling and the adaptive frame gen option? I've used it in Expedition 33 and Dragon's Dogma 2. Especially in DD2, the awful frame rate drops in cities gets smoothed over very well.

@Static-Jak Exactly the same for me. I have a 5080 and a 120Hz OLED. Frame gen works a treat, but I wouldn't use anything more than 2X. I use it in every game that it is available. I'm hoping we will see some 240Hz TVs next year, as I will be due an upgrade, as I will have had my 65" CX for 5 years.

you know you can enable frame gen on the game immortals of aveum on console and limit the frame rate to 60 to get a better lock from a base 45/55 fps, it is weird

I think sometimes it just comes down to the games. It's usually fine, but the Nixxes games are of good example of how it feels when things aren't quite right...

Speaking of Nixxes, I recently replayed a little bit of Ghost of Tsushima, but this go around while I was updating DLSS to the latest version, I also went ahead and updated the streamline files. Usually this simply has the benefit of improving FG performance, which it did here as well, but it also had the added benefit of smoothing out FG for me in this title. It's hit or miss with some games, but it might be worth a shot.

Edit: Btw, I'm also using a 5070ti

@Tentativetitle

Did the game not provide a smooth FG implementation without using SK? Arc Raiders works by enabling FG in conjunction with Nvidia Reflex set to On. The 116fps lock kicks in automatically on a 120hz display and it works well. I can't actually remember if I have vsync enabled on that game though (I never use the NVCP option) and I'll have to check after work.