how do i tell my GPU limits by reading afterburner.

skillywilly

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Sep 4, 2015
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im playing episode 1 and see that my video setting is predetermined by my specs and puts and a * near what is determined. now i have i5 4690k @ 45 and a decent gtx 970 which i OC sometimes but my question is for msaa and fxaa (i think it recommends 0 mxaa and trilinear fx...now i know the game is older . so for these presets since its an older game can my comp handle upping stuff?
in afterburner do i just keep and eye on my gpu usage percentage to see what it can handle? how do i tell if i should a} it can handle more settings and b} should i overclock or not. so if my gpu % is constantly at 99 then i guess its not good right? but if it just spikes there sometimes is that ok. how do i get a feel for what my system can handle, is the older games mxaa and fxaa different than recent ones or does it tax it just the same?
 
Solution
pretty much raise the settings until your game play gets bad. once the frame rate is around 60 FPS and steady do not raise settings anymore. 99% in gaming is good, as it means your GPU is being put to work.

skillywilly

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Sep 4, 2015
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so raise settings till it levels at 60 fps ..if it starts dipping then thats the threshhold?
i went ahead and disregarded what the presets the halflife 2 eps 1 game recommended for my setup.. i went from 0 msaa to 16 and trilinear fx to max..and it still runs fine...i guess that the recommended setting from half life 2 via asterics is not right.