This is more for my console friends out there; maybe even Playstation specific because I haven’t so much as touched an Xbox since the 360.
Do you prefer Performance Mode or Quality Mode? I’m really curious to know if anyone even uses Quality Mode. Whatever you use, what kinds of games are you usually playing, and why do you prefer the mode you prefer?
I am 100℅ Performance Mode, personally. The only thing I could really play in Quality Mode without being bothered by the low FPS is like Civilization or a card game. If I have to actually move a character around, I can not stand for less than 60fps. I will happily sacrifice everything that makes a game look good to make it run smooth as butter. But I do tend to like action games and especially PVP. Every millisecond matters.
I think this question also applies to PC. Why? Because we are limited too. I try to reach 120 fps and consider it performance mode when dialing back quality settings, and enabling upscaling to reach that. If not, 90 fps is also pretty good. For certain games, 60 fps feels like what you describe of 30, but that does not apply to all games. There are single player rpgs played with a gamepad, that I would even consider playing at 30 fps if there is no other option. The problem is, games are not designed to be played with that low fps, as the input latency increases.
I’ll compare this to the Switch, playing Zelda (emulated with Yuzu). Breath of the Wild on original Switch is designed to be played at 30 fps. Playing it on my PC like that felt like a slideshow, but one can get used to it. If I didn’t had the 60 fps patch, it would still be fine at 30. The next game in the series, Tiers of the Kingdom, was not stable at 60, so I was “forced” to play at 30. And after some time playing it felt pretty good and not upsetting like in the first few minutes.
What I mean by that is, performance mode if possible, I would sacrifice quality. But not too much, because at some point the image looks really bad.
PC is harder to define since everyone has varying hardware and specific setting preferences. Most PC games let you change nearly everything and let you mix and match what is high, what is low, what is on or off, etc. And if you have the money, you can get both performance and quality if the game isn’t busted. :p
That’s not entirely true. Because even if you buy a strong PC, you have to make choices, depending on the game. It’s just the fps and settings we are talking about are higher floor. In example on PC people can enable RayTracing, which tanks the fps a lot. Do you go for 120 fps or 60 or maybe lower fps with higher fidelity and RayTracing in example.
So the question to answer is still the same, its just on PC we have a bit more individual choices to make.
Edit (added): Most people don’t have the strongest PC anyway. Look at the Steam hardware survery, most have common graphics cards like the 4060 in example. Or look at handheld PCs and laptops, with fixed hardware. And as said, even in high end with lots of money people need to make cuts in fidelity or performance; just on a higher level in that case. So your question applies to PC as well.