Smart Smoothing reduces GPU usage. why?

Use 5K + for iracing.
My PC can’t raise graphic settings, but it gets 90 FPS for most tracks. GPU usage is 80-85%.
However, some tracks do not reach 90 FPS. In this case, use smart smoothing.
Last night, I realized that with smart smoothing the GPU utilization is low. The usage of GPU was about 50%. When Smart Smoothing is turned off, GPU usage reverts to over 80%.
why?

pimax 5k +
Large FOV
90hz
Pitool .144 quality 1
steam SS 66%
i5 9600K OC5Ghz
RTX2070 OC
16Gb RAM

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It reduces gpu utilization as it’s not struggling to render the frames. Smart Smoothing does this when active by showing the same frame twice so to speak. Making for example rendering 45fps when active but still displaying a perceived 90fps.

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I see.
When I have smart smoothing turned on, displaying an image in the past will make the image look a bit late.
So I do not like Smart Smoothing.

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Ot really depends on the type of game & game itself.

It’s reprojection. Sims are less likely to have Artifacts vs really active games like beat saber.

Pure fps is indeed better than reprojection if the gpu can handle it. Now if the game looks good with it on you can potentially increase eye candy.

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@nyajigon22 Hey mate! As @Heliosurge has mentioned already, the Smart Smoothing feature creates less GPU load by only rendering half (50%) of the original framerate, and then somehow interpolating every second frame back to full 90fps. This makes it less demanding for the GPU and thats basically the reason why Smart Smoothing exists.

To render 45fps your GPU only needs to work at 50% maybe (depending on game of course). Without Smart Smoothing, to render full 90fps, your GPU needs maybe 100% (or more) and while the actual GPU usage often doesnt exceed 80-90% in VR games, thats why you got frame drops. So just use Smart Smoothing, and you will get a smoother experience.

Also, Smart Smoothing gives you a lot of extra headroom for the GPU (as its only running at arounmd 50%). With Smart Smoothing enabled, to get some higher GPU usage, you can increase the graphics quality, PiTool render quality or SteamVR supersampling a bit and still maintain a stable 45->90fps image. If you increase the PiTool render quality from 1.0 to lets say 1.25 or 1.5, you will for sure get a higher GPU load, maybe 60-80%. So tweak a little and try to find the best balance. With the new PiTool version, you can create profiles for each game which is awesome :slight_smile:

As for ghosting/artifacts, yes SmartSmoothing is still not perfect and will introduce some of these minor issues. In racing and flight sims its not that noticeable and most people wont bother, but in FPS games like Skyrim it could get a bit more distracting. So use Smart Smoothing for your sims, and maybe only in other games that really needs it.

Cheers
Martin

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Hi @ SweViver🇸🇪π5k
I tried Smart Smoothing ON SS 100% last night. The graphic quality is improved and smooth overall.
However, the moving car has a ghost and looks double.
This phenomenon is bad for racing sims.
I turned Smart Smoothing off and returned to SS 66%.
Is it possible to have Smart Smoothing with no ghost in the near future?

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Hmm the ghosting has improved a lot with later versions, but the devs are still working on it. Still, last time I tried Project Cars 2 with PiTool 144 (3 days ago) I could not see any ghosting on opponent cars, but only on my own car mirrors.

Which racing sims did u try?

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iRacing.
I use pimax 5k just for iRacing.
I have enjoyed real motor sports for 30 years.
Large FOV and iRacing are the closest to reality.

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Does the mirror thing does not distract you? For me its also happening on trees, lampposts, buildings (roofs)
The whole picture looks “instable” you notice it directly if you turn in off and on during a race…

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The only time I feel its distracting is when Im looking into the mirrors and constantly see the ghosting of the mirror edges, but most of the time I never notice it (maybe I just get too immersed to notice it hehe). But I fully understand you may be more sensitive to this.

I assume any kind of ASW/smoothing/interpolation will always cause some kind of ghosting or artefacts. Pimax is still improving the smart smoothing and it has got better for every version, but its of course far from perfect. Hopefully we will see the smarter frame interpolation in upcoming “Brainwarp 2.0” as promised :slight_smile:

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That and wind screen wipers being warped in PC2… :wink:

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That would be nice or I can forget using the 8K-X with my 2080 :smiley:

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Oh thats true. I hardly race in rain though haha… Its difficult enough on dry tracks :stuck_out_tongue:

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