This is what I could figure out.
For non dota you can either:
- type /fps
- use Radeon Overlay if you have AMD or nvidia equivalent
- Use Afterburner (in config->Monitoring enable Framerate and it will draw a graph over time)
PC 1:
- RX 580, this is mid range card from 3-4 years ago
- monitor 1440k at 144Hz
- no matter what setting, 64 FPS (vsynced). So the GPU can easily handle the game.
- the
only way to disable vsync is in
Dota settings (cog wheel on top-left)->Visuals->Vsync checkbox. I did not find this setting in .ini
- after removing vsync FPS went to 90
Since this GPU could max out I continued to my laptop without testing any other settings.
PC 2:
- GTX 960m, this is mid range laptop from 5-6 years ago
- has integrated Intel graphics. It is important to make sure nvidia GPU is used. For example, when on battery it uses Intel automatically and I got 23FPS
- in Windows 10 Display->Graphic Settings->add w3l/war3.exe and put them on High performance mode just to make sure
- monitor is 4k at 47Hz so this is crap for gaming. Ingame resolution was set to FHD since 4K is too much
- with nvidia at this settings I could get 50FPS
- lockfb=0 added a few frames but not much (55fps roughly)
- playing with BetterFPS, BetterFPS2, BetterFPS3 in dota config didn't really do much (maybe a few frames)
- OpenGL was 48FPS (I suspect locked to display refresh)
- windowed mode was worst of all
So I would say:
- remove vsync
- use directx + lockfb
- try BetterFPS (2, 3) in dota config but don't expect much
- if you have 20ish fps you could also try to lower the vsync to 32 or 30 by setting MaxFPS in dota config, not sure that would really help tho.
At least from my side, the game seems to scale as one would expect 90-50-20 from best to worst GPU. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the game or the map.
@iErnesto94 is weird case since your GPU should do >100 easily. Try disabling vsync and see what happens.
I think the only thing you can really do is to go in w3 video settings and start lowering details, ultimately if fps is still crap lower resolution to 720p.