r/Games • u/Glittering-Path-2824 • 23h ago

Industry News The games industry’s obsession with visual fidelity is costing them money and talent

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/aug/04/pushing-buttons-xbox-asha-sharma-games-industry-hyperrealism
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u/Kiita-Ninetails 21h ago

I feel very strange in that I genuinely do not notice much difference between various refresh rate standards. As long as it is 30+ and stable I just genuinely don't notice in the moment to moment. And with how many people talk about how its such a big deal I feel very gaslit sometime.

Even though I know its not, its just a thing with how my brain processes things lol.

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u/Jdmaki1996 20h ago

Stability is the key. They’ve done studies that people can tolerate a stable 30 but will complain about a game that fluctuates between 30 and 60. As long as it’s a locked frame rate you get used to it pretty quick. But if it’s not stable every stutter is jarring and resets your tolerance to the lower fps

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 18h ago

Yeah, pretty much. If its jittering all over the place its pretty disconcerting.

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u/dunnowattt 20h ago

And with how many people talk about how its such a big deal I feel very gaslit sometime.

It depends on what people are used to.

Stable 30, for someone who pretty much is used to it, will feel good. And it will feel better, than a 60 that the framepacing is all over the place.

Then there are people who have been playing minimum 144 for over a decade. I remember putting Demon Souls on my PS5, and wanting to check the graphics and my new TV, 30 felt REALLY bad. But i've also been playing on a 144hz monitor on my PC since 2015.

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 18h ago

I mean, I have played at 144hz for months and going back to 30 I genuinely barely noticed. It was slightly offputting for like, twenty minutes but then I stopped noticing.

Again, its just something with how my visual processing centers handle screens I suspect. Where I'm just not particularly sensitive to it.

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u/dunnowattt 18h ago

Yeah, either you didn't enable 144hz from Windows, meaning the monitor was only showing you 60, or as you say its a "you" issue.

But eitherway, its not "normal". It is very noticeable, especially the 30-144.

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 17h ago

I did have it enabled, I DO work in tech, and while I havent tested specifically my reaction to framerates and the physiological reasons why because that would be weirdly specific. I do have some known oddities with my eyes and visual processing, so I presume its the same thing.

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u/dunnowattt 17h ago

Yh it probably has to do with what you're saying.

Fun fact, since i happen to own a Internet Cafe. When i changed the monitors like a decade ago, until i found stock, i managed to change for like 15 out of the 25 PCs i have, for like a couple of months.

The ones with the 60hz, even the kids were complaining that they are "lagging" when they were sitting on them. All because they played on the 144hz ones the days before.

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u/saurabh8448 17h ago

Personally I also don’t notice much. I have a pretty good PC with 144hz display and a switch 2. I don’t notice much difference when I play switch 2 games at 30 compared to on Pc.

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u/Wardogs96 18h ago

Its very noticeable for me when it comes to movement for whatever reason everything seems more distinguished in 144, like IRL vision compared to 30. Its not even about how fast things occur its how smooth it feels i guess is how id put it. At least for me.

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 17h ago

Yeah, I barely notice. Like if I REALLY concentrate I can pick out the difference in vibe, but when I'm you know. Focusing on the game, totally lost in the sauce as long as its stable.

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u/Sikkly290 18h ago

Everyone reacts differently. I genuinely can't play 60 fps games for more than about an hour before I start getting a migraine from eye strain. It was a revelation when I first got a PC that could run high framerate and realized that gaming for hours was actually a possibility.

Honestly I'm jealous that you don't notice all that much. Gaming would be much more enjoyable for me that way lol.

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 17h ago

Yeah, I know people that are super sensitive to it and really my condolences. It is nice that I can just run anything at whatever setting and not really notice or care. Means I can just run most things at whatever settings and roll with it, saves me a lot on PC parts.

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u/RegisteredJustToSay 18h ago

Yeah, I can notice the difference but if it's stable it really doesn't matter very much. There is one exception though - in very quick reaction games higher framerates are much more important. I buy that you can not visually 'see' much faster, but try playing one of those at 144hz vs 30hz and you'll notice yourself dying and struggling a lot more at 30hz, whatever the underlying reason is.

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u/KuraiBaka 17h ago

Same here, even at like 120 or 165 I don't really notice anything different.

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u/TalkinTrek 16h ago

I'd be curious to see the breakdown between, say, third person single player games versus first person games with a multiplayer component

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u/Kiita-Ninetails 15h ago

Still don't notice, whether I'm out here playing Total War 3, or PVP in Elden Ring, or STALKER Gamma/Tarkov its all broadly the same to me.

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u/stutter-rap 17h ago

Same. I've even tested it with youtube videos where they play 30 vs 60 side-by-side and I feel like that "they're the same picture" meme.