truktrukIs anyone not having this problem? My computer is more than capable of handling the new update but I get "phantom" fps lag whenever I'm near skins. My fps does drop down when skins are near or equipped, but not any lower than 150. Theoretically it should be smooth, but it isn't - it feels like my game is chugging/stuttering whenever I'm either using a skin or near one. Changing to dx8 makes it a little better but it's still pretty awful.
If I recall when a sudden fps drops occurs, you'll experience significant input lag for the next frame. So say you go from 200fps to 150fps instantly that next frame will be delayed by an extra 6.6ms which means that their will be a 11.6ms (1/200 = 5ms) gap between 2 frames (which typically only occurs at 85ish fps). This could be exacerbated by inconsistent fps and suddenly jumping back to 200fps which will cause some screen tearing. (actually rethought this, and going to be honest this is a fairly gross oversimplification, but the added input lag is their for fps drops)
Which with all of that is you're constantly switching from say 200fps and 150fps. You'll have a very awful game play experience with sudden spurts of input lag and then going to a bunch of screen tearing, and then back and forth between those 2 states.
This is one reason why Chris had recommended fps caps, though he did note that fps caps in tf2 actually causes stutter issues for some people, and in my experience with FPS caps in source based games they cause weird/inconsistent input lag and stutter across multiple systems.