2008-07-08, 03:31 PM
The reason your FPS varies in windowed mode is because MapleStory does not use vsync then. By contrast, in fullscreen mode, vsync is used, so your frame rate stays the same. This is perfectly normal.
Vsync is a feature that caps the frame rate to the vertical refresh rate of your monitor (60Hz/60FPS in your case). This has been done in games for a long time now, and it helps prevent graphical glitches. However, as with any feature, vsync requires a bit of extra processing power to make it work, so game performance is decreased. How big of a performance cost vsync has depends on your graphics processor.
On the other hand, when you run the game in windowed mode, more processing power is used to render everything else that's on your screen, besides MS -- and your screen is set at a higher resolution, unlike the 800x600 it is in when MS is in fullscreen. It may also use more RAM like you said (I'm too lazy to measure it to verify), but I'm not certain, and it's irrelevant in your case because your 2GB is plenty.
When in windowed mode, does your FPS ever drop below 60? Do you actually feel jitter in windowed mode, or does it play just as smooth as fullscreen? Because if you're only worried by your FPS having a wide range instead of being locked, then that's irrelevant to your gameplay and is perfectly normal; your FPS is supposed to take a dive when there's a lot of stuff on the screen, you just don't notice it in fullscreen because it's capped at a lower number to begin with.
If you actually do feel the jitter in windowed mode, then the only real suggestion I have is that you go to ATI's site and download the most recent drivers for your graphics adapter. It's possible that they've improved support/performance for your usage scenario. You could also try wiping your system and installing a fresh copy of Windows XP - maybe you have something installed that's bogging you down.
Vsync is a feature that caps the frame rate to the vertical refresh rate of your monitor (60Hz/60FPS in your case). This has been done in games for a long time now, and it helps prevent graphical glitches. However, as with any feature, vsync requires a bit of extra processing power to make it work, so game performance is decreased. How big of a performance cost vsync has depends on your graphics processor.
On the other hand, when you run the game in windowed mode, more processing power is used to render everything else that's on your screen, besides MS -- and your screen is set at a higher resolution, unlike the 800x600 it is in when MS is in fullscreen. It may also use more RAM like you said (I'm too lazy to measure it to verify), but I'm not certain, and it's irrelevant in your case because your 2GB is plenty.
When in windowed mode, does your FPS ever drop below 60? Do you actually feel jitter in windowed mode, or does it play just as smooth as fullscreen? Because if you're only worried by your FPS having a wide range instead of being locked, then that's irrelevant to your gameplay and is perfectly normal; your FPS is supposed to take a dive when there's a lot of stuff on the screen, you just don't notice it in fullscreen because it's capped at a lower number to begin with.
If you actually do feel the jitter in windowed mode, then the only real suggestion I have is that you go to ATI's site and download the most recent drivers for your graphics adapter. It's possible that they've improved support/performance for your usage scenario. You could also try wiping your system and installing a fresh copy of Windows XP - maybe you have something installed that's bogging you down.