Testertime
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:32 am

Hello everyone! :)

The last weeks I decided to update my Bandicam version from 1.81 to 1.95, and I regret it because of an annoying bug. Today I have tested the newest version 2.0, and the same bug is still there. I will say what I'm talking about.

If I set a FPS limit, for example 35 FPS, the number is stuttering really much. It's not stable, it's often very fast switching from (for example) 42 to 35 FPS. I have tested this with different games on different PCs with different Bandicam versions, it's 100% a current bug.
I have made a video about this, sadly Youtube has compressed it to death, but I hope you see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vim_UMXSIMM

You will ask me, why is this a problem? It has two major reasons for me:
1. The unstable FPS limit causes tearing, I have seen this very heavily for example in Sonic Generations. For people who don't know what tearing is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_tearing
2. I'm using the FPS feature to reduce CPU and GPU load as well, so this is counterproductive. Even if it's not very huge, but it shouldn't be a reason to not fix this. In summer this feature is really so useful.

Yes, I have turned of everything like V-Sync in every game, and tested if with different configurations. Believe me, I'm really not stupid :mrgreen: Version 1.81 is completely unaffected from this problem, when I have tested version 1.95 and 2.0, the problem was there. It looks like that it's a problem with your fix of very low fps for a few seconds after a loading screen. Dear developers, I hope you can find and fix the problem! I would love to upgrade to a newer Bandicam version without suffering from a half-broken FPS limit feature.

Thank you so much in advance!
Last edited by Testertime on Sat Jun 28, 2014 11:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

User avatar
Bandicam Company
Site Admin
Posts: 7802
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:19 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad

Mon Jun 09, 2014 4:27 pm

Hi Testertime,

We will try to improve the FPS limit function.

Thank you for letting us know.

SuperGod
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 7:19 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad

Fri Jun 13, 2014 2:49 am

As a workaround...

Nvidia?

Use nvidia inspector and cap your FPS at a driver level.
For maximum smoothness use MSI:AB frame limiter, but at the cost of CPU usage.
The're is no better frame limiter than the one in MSI:AB, trust me :)

Testertime
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad

Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:16 am

Nice to hear that you are looking into the problem Bandisoft :) I'm really looking forward for your next updates! Thank you again in advance! :mrgreen:
As a workaround...

Nvidia?

Use nvidia inspector and cap your FPS at a driver level.
For maximum smoothness use MSI:AB frame limiter, but at the cost of CPU usage.
The're is no better frame limiter than the one in MSI:AB, trust me :)
Thank you for the hint and your explanation ^^ As a "workaround" I'm using 1.81 all the time, but since the newer versions have nice new features like hardware acceleration, I would like to upgrade. I'm someone who doesn't update regularly if something is working extremely well, due to the fear of bugs. My graphic card isn't from Nvidia (pure AMD computer here), so it looks like that MSI Afterburner is the only alternative. I will try it the next days, but I still would like to rely on Bandicam, especially because it's so performance friendly and the option to record at any time I want.

Testertime
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Updated information

Sat Jun 28, 2014 11:14 pm

Hey everyone! :) I would like to update my topic with important information.
Thanks SuperGod for your hint with MSI Afterburner, it's a nice program, but MSI uses the frame limiter from a tool called RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is the main tool, so MSI Afterburner wouldn't be necessary. I have done for the last hours a lot of intensive testing with the frame limiter of RivaTuner and the most recent Bandicam version and sadly it was disappointing after all.

First about RivaTuner. I had much hope with this program, because it's frame limiting feature works really great. But it has one big catch: It doesn't reduce CPU load of frame limited games. This is a no-no for me, because this is really horrible with CPU intensive games. Bandicam reduces both CPU and GPU load. RivaTuner reduces only GPU load. I know that most people don't care about this, but I do care. It's wasted energy and not great in summer, reducing the lifespan of hardware.

Second about Bandicam. I have also done testing with the newest Bandicam version 2.01 and the older version 1.81 which I'm using since 2 years. The newest Bandicam version does still have a weird FPS stuttering if I'm using the FPS limit feature, the newest update hasn't fixed it. I have noticed that there is no FPS limit stuttering when I'm recording. And I have found also something weird when I had watched the recorded video. I have used the same settings from 1.81, but the FPS of the video is totally different, the video framerate in version 2.01 is much slower. Here is a picture of my settings: http://i.imgur.com/ii0VcUH.jpg

And also a video. Please watch it if you want to see what I mean! https://vimeo.com/99410402

The videos are from the game "Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed". The first part is a short video of a track, the second a part of the intro. I had recorded all 4 videos separate, two on version 1.81, two on 2.01, otherwise it wouldn't make much sense.

I'm not sure about the problem. Is it a bug with wrong FPS in 1.81 or in 2.01? There was no change when I tried to change codecs or FPS, 2.01 was always a lot slower and stuttery.
I have also noticed that when I'm closing the game while I have Bandicam 2.01 open, the game needs a lot longer to fully shutdown (5 more seconds). This isn't the case with Bandicam 1.81. Things like this don't really make me feel comfortable using the newest Bandicam version, although I really would like to... I hope the next updates will make things better again! :) Thanks in advance, I appreciate it!

PS: If anyone wants to test it too, here is the older version: [The Bandicam download link has removed by Bandisoft. If you need a old version of Bandicam, please email us at bandicam@bandisoft.com]

I hope it's okay! I'm curious if anyone else has something to share here about that.

User avatar
Bandicam Company
Site Admin
Posts: 7802
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:19 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Mon Jun 30, 2014 2:34 pm

Hell Testertime,

We will send Bandicam 1.9.1 and 1.9.2 to your email address.
Please check the email and let us know your test result.

Thank you!

Testertime
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Tue Jul 01, 2014 2:06 pm

Thanks for your help! :) It's rare to see so much interest from developers. I think you are more curious about the weird recording scenario, so I will start with it first.

With both versions I had the same result, but, luckily it wasn't really the fault of Bandicam this time. I had updated my graphic card driver and in a mysterious way all new recordings are normal again, with it's correct FPS number. I guess that maybe some unlucky people with outdated (Notebook) drivers could be affected by this if their vendor has dropped driver update support. But hopefully that's really really rare.

About the FPS limit issue, I'm very glad to see that 1.9.1 and 1.9.2 aren't affected. But 1.9.5 and above are indeed affected, so the bug is introduced either in 1.9.3 or 1.9.4. I can also say for sure that the stuttering FPS number can't be a side effect of your "low FPS for a few seconds after a loading screen" fix.

About the longer shutdown time of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, this happens since version 2.0. All versions below haven't caused it.

Also a big thanks that you mailed me the links of these two older versions, because I'm really happy that I can move on from 1.8.1 to version 1.9.2 without missing anything! The better performance is so amazing.

Good luck for your future development! :mrgreen:
Use nvidia inspector and cap your FPS at a driver level.
For maximum smoothness use MSI:AB frame limiter, but at the cost of CPU usage.
The're is no better frame limiter than the one in MSI:AB, trust me :)
It doesn't reduce CPU load
For AMD users I have seen that Radeon Pro is a nice counter part for Nvidia Inspector. And sorry that I somehow haven't seen the CPU part in your text, somehow it disappeared on the highway to my brain :mrgreen:

User avatar
Bandicam Company
Site Admin
Posts: 7802
Joined: Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:19 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Wed Jul 02, 2014 6:16 pm

We can't recreate the problem you mentioned.
But, we will keep an eye on those issues.

We're sorry that we couldn't give you the answer you wished for.

Testertime
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:00 pm

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Thu Jul 03, 2014 2:11 pm

Thanks for your attention, I hope you will find the bug some day. I'm still really thankful for your download link and kindness, because on my PCs the FPS limit bug isn't there in 1.9.2, and I like that I was finally able to get rid of the older version thanks to you. :)

PrincessBridget
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Dec 04, 2011 7:20 am

Re: Bug report: FPS Limit is stuttering really bad (updated)

Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:47 am

Actually I get the same or similar bug. In Skyrim I limit FPS to 32 and it constantly jumps 32, 38, 32, 38, 32, 38, 32 while I stand still... it didn't happen on my past computer which had an older version of Bandicam (probably 1.8.6 or so).

I have been using RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) to limit FPS, but I think I'll have to check whether it helps reduce CPU usage... I got used to FPS limiters automatically doing that!

My system:
Windows 7 x64
NVIDIA NVS 3100m
Core i5 520m 2.4GHz
4gb RAM

Return to “Bandicam - General Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 91 guests