How sharp/realistic do you want a game to look visually?

[Frindis]

Do you want to have it looking super crisp with all possible settings (like Antialiasing on max, super-resolution, etc) and mods to make it more realistic looking? Or do you prefer like me to play with less so it does not look too sharp and super realistic? I'm the same when it comes to watching movies. I rather watch a movie on my 1920x1080 computer screen and get a more retro feel in the same ballpark as some who like to play older video games on a CRT screen.

I guess it also depends on the game as some games do look way better when you start tinkering with mods, like some of those super realistic gameplay videos of Cyberpunk 2077 has shown. In that game, it kind of makes sense since the setting is already quite lifelike with a realistic-looking city.

With older games, it is also nice to be able to mod the game to look more modern, but I try not to visually enhance the game too much as often it will make it look too sharp which takes away some of that retro feeling.

 

[Colif]

I don't really care one way or another provided its not a blurry mess. (looks at Star Wars Outlaws, why is the background so blurry everywhere?)

I rarely go into settings and change things to look better.

 

[Frindis]

I don't really care one way or another provided its not a blurry mess. (looks at Star Wars Outlaws, why is the background so blurry everywhere?)

Probably used way too much depth of field in the gameplay or maybe the game just looks messy because it is pointing at how the game will be at release

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

If its a game thats trying to look realistic then I want it to look realistic. Ill turn off motion blur and sometimes other settings like trying different AA to avoid blurring that TAA sometimes causes, but Im probably not going to be installing mods just to make an old game look better. If its of that time then thats how it is. Basically I'll max out settings if I can while retaining a good framerate.

If its something with pixel art or retro styled then obviously it doesnt matter.

I also have a 4K Blu Ray player, and I'd rather watch stuff in 4K if I can while streaming.

 

[Colif]

Up until my current GPU, they all been mid level cards and I would just accept what game gave me.
I really haven't changed that much though I do go in and look now just to see what it set me as

For instance, someone showed link to Black Myth Wukong benchmark in Discord and proceeded to ask what my score was in different settings
This was standard:

but by changing the sharpness I got better

Turning frame gen off reduces it by about 40 frames and RT reduces it by half - It didn't seem to add that much to game anyway so if I did buy it, I would just play without.
Most games just set me to max now anyway. Only thing it doesn't run me on max in is RT but I didn't buy card to play RT - I chose wrong maker for that.
Dawntrail

 

[Pifanjr]

Typically, whatever lets me play without putting in too much effort. I haven't really put much thought into my graphic preferences. Sometimes I disable blur and depth of field, but only if it happens to bother me.

 

[Zloth]

I want it as sharp. However, making it as sharp as I can see is plenty. 4K resolutions on a monitor that isn't that big anyway seems crazy to me. If I had a 40" monitor sitting an arm's length from me then sure, but I don't.

I'm not into that "retro" feel at all. I had plenty of that when it wasn't retro!

 

[ZedClampet]

I generally don't like and usually avoid retro games or modern games that try to look bad (retro). To a point I favor beauty over FPS. So long as I'm in the 40s I'm happy.

I started gaming with the original Pong and have watched the graphics become wonderful over 50 years. I'm not at all interested in reversing progress to see pixilated and fuzzy graphics. I had more than enough of that when it was the best we could do.

 

[Colif]

So long as I'm in the 40s I'm happy.

So you never want to be older? Hmm

with a 144fps screen, I like to have it run at right speed more than pretty... so I guess we differ. I bought GPU to match monitor, after all. My previous GPU could only run it max of 100fps, this one overdrives it but I prefer that option. Its only if I run in RT mode that my GPU can't run the monitor as well as normal, but I am yet to play any game that has it - benchmarks don't count

Though in cards defense, that is at Cinematic detail lvl, which is highest Benchmark offered, so I might get a better score on High. Nvidia cards probably don't need to reduce it but I didn't want one of those at time. Or now since my card is good enough for me. And in less demanding games, its overkill

 

[ZedClampet]

So you never want to be older? Hmm

with a 144fps screen, I like to have it run at right speed more than pretty... so I guess we differ. I bought GPU to match monitor, after all. My previous GPU could only run it max of 100fps, this one overdrives it but I prefer that option. Its only if I run in RT mode that my GPU can't run the monitor as well as normal, but I am yet to play any game that has it - benchmarks don't count

Though in cards defense, that is at Cinematic detail lvl, which is highest Benchmark offered, so I might get a better score on High. Nvidia cards probably don't need to reduce it but I didn't want one of those at time. Or now since my card is good enough for me. And in less demanding games, its overkill

Why would I want 100 ugly frames per second? I don't want any ugly frames at all

But, yeah, I could match my monitor if I really wanted to in every game I play. Not sure about Wukong. I'll download the benchmark tomorrow and see what happens. Probably with everything on and ultra and no dlss, I'm guessing I'll get about 15 fps.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm in the camp of got all the retro I ever want to see back in the GODs. Don't need sharp or realistic, but will take the best they can give me and my 1060 can run.

Plenty of current action games have Recommended higher than my specs now, so I won't have realistic to worry about for a while. Not that I will covet it in future anyway—could care less about reflections and shadows when I'm focused on gameplay.

Just give me a pleasant environment as a nice backdrop.

 

[Slasken]

It really depends on the game, but the having a solid environment is more important to me than how realistic the graphics are. As for pixel graphics vs polygons, pixel graphics age a whole lot better.

 

[ZedClampet]

So you never want to be older? Hmm

with a 144fps screen, I like to have it run at right speed more than pretty... so I guess we differ. I bought GPU to match monitor, after all. My previous GPU could only run it max of 100fps, this one overdrives it but I prefer that option. Its only if I run in RT mode that my GPU can't run the monitor as well as normal, but I am yet to play any game that has it - benchmarks don't count

Though in cards defense, that is at Cinematic detail lvl, which is highest Benchmark offered, so I might get a better score on High. Nvidia cards probably don't need to reduce it but I didn't want one of those at time. Or now since my card is good enough for me. And in less demanding games, its overkill

Okay, I had a problem on my first try, but figured it out. Here's the benchmark on my new laptop with your settings:

Got you by 1. Don't be a hater.

Actually the first time I ran it I got a 48, but I didn't take a screenshot.

I actually wouldn't play the game in 1440p even though that's my screen's native resolution. The screen isn't big enough for me to tell a difference, so I'd run it at 1080p.

***

At 1080p and knocking the FSR to 65, I got 42 FPS with Ray Tracing on Very High. Damn. That water was stunning. I might just run it this way. Maybe take FSR down to 60.

 

[ZedClampet]

Funny thing is I've only got 80 percent power going to my CPU because I got tired of hearing the fans.

 

[Frindis]

In PUBG, I'll either play with the highest or very low settings. Highest settings when I want to glide around and just enjoy the game visually, but when I want to battle more, I'll lower the resolution from 1440P to 1080P and turn almost all the settings to low. The game looks like shait, but it makes it easier for me to spot enemies and I go from 120FPS to 320FPS which is a big difference.

Here is an example from vanilla (DOS) Doom 2 and latest Doom 2 that came with a lot of different updates, including looking slightly better. I think this is good example of looking better, but at the same time not taking away the retro feel (except that ugly mouse cursor)

 

[Colif]

Got you by 1. Don't be a hater.

Yours is with RT off, mine isn't. I lose 60fps turning it on. Otherwise I get 100fps in cinematic at 1440p

At 1080p and knocking the FSR to 65, I got 42 FPS with Ray Tracing on Very High. Damn. That water was stunning. I might just run it this way. Maybe take FSR down to 60.

I don't feel like looking at what I get in 1080p. I wouldn't play at that, I would just remove RT since mine only plays at low settings.

Guess you do prefer Looks over refresh rate.

I wouldn't mind seeing it, maybe my next AMD GPU can show it... whenever they release the 9000 series.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif @ZedClampet How are you guys enjoying the monkey game so far? How would you compare it to a game like Elden Ring when it comes to combat/exploration?

 

[Colif]

I don't have it, we been running the benchmarks which are free on the Steam page for game.

I need to look at it, what the game play is like. If I decide to get it, it won't be this week. Need to fix my finances before I buy a new anything.

 

[ZedClampet]

Yours is with RT off, mine isn't. I lose 60fps turning it on. Otherwise I get 100fps in cinematic at 1440p

I don't feel like looking at what I get in 1080p. I wouldn't play at that, I would just remove RT since mine only plays at low settings.

Guess you do prefer Looks over refresh rate.

I wouldn't mind seeing it, maybe my next AMD GPU can show it... whenever they release the 9000 series.

Hahahaha I'm so relieved. I hadn't had any sleep, and I thought, "Oh crap, Colif is getting terrible FPS for his hardware."

Anyway, I got it to 60 FPS with ray tracing by adjusting the slider down to 40. Still looked great to my broken eyes.

@Frindis I don't actually have the game, either. Just playing with the benchmarking tool. Now that I've had some sleep, I've decided I'm probably not going to get it.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Colif @ZedClampet How are you guys enjoying the monkey game so far? How would you compare it to a game like Elden Ring when it comes to combat/exploration?

Based on user reviews, Wukong is not open world and not as difficult as Elden Ring. People are comparing it more to God of War. The only Elden Ring sort of thing seems to be the campfire thing.

 

[ZedClampet]

Guess you do prefer Looks over refresh rate.

40s are fine for me. I don't care at all about refresh rate other than that. If you told me I could go from 60 fps to 120 fps just by hitting a button, I probably wouldn't bother hitting the button.

****

Monkey just passed 2 million concurrents and Palworld. Next up is PUBG at about 4 million. Don't think it's going to manage that. Wish it would.

I imagine Playstation is far, far behind since Chinese players don't play on consoles.

 

[Colif]

Its not an ugly game without rt on. On my card the rt only made the fire on the torches, of people on side of river, more vivid. It was on low RT so could be it. I might look later, reduce graphics down from cinematic to high and play 1080p RT on. Just to see if it changes the lvl of RT.

Like Zed before me, I need more sleep before I do it.

If its not as hard as Elden ring, I might try it in a few weeks. I hadn't really been taking any notice of it.

Monkey just passed 2 million concurrents and Palworld. Next up is PUBG at about 4 million. Don't think it's going to manage that. Wish it would.

See what it can do on the weekend.

 

[Colif]

Might help with scores. I haven't looked at it but it seems Cinematic is just for the cut scenes, reducing to Very high or high or even low are better choices

I need to figure out how to get snipping tool to work in there. It half does but never opens the save menu.

 

[Frindis]

I got:

 

[Colif]

my super resolution was set to 50. I did change it for one of the tests, I try again

GPU drivers crashed after I changed one setting, thats a first.

I really don't think I bother with this benchmark again. My scores are about same on cinematic and Very high 1440p