Tempted by some cheap GTX460 SLI action? Might want to check this out first before laying down your

[bhavv]

^^^
Can you not see micro stutter in the below video that raven posted earlier saying there was no micro stutter?

Of course you can see 'microstutter' when you record the thing at 25 fps using fraps or a camera.

Its no where near the same as playing the game yourself in realtime at 60 fps. I really cant see what is so hard to understand about that.

You cannot demonstrate microstutter in real time by recording frap videos that over compress the quality and FPS.

Ok, yes I can see your microstutter in the fraps video you post. But no, I cannot recreate this microstutter when playing my games fully maxed out at 1920x1200 in real time on my PC.

(Just realised the videos are made using a camera, surely thats going to make them look even worse than a fraps recording).

 

[An Exception]

(Just realised the videos are made using a camera, surely thats going to make them look even worse than a fraps recording).

Pc usually runs smoother without recording the screen, which soaks up CPU resources and writes to disk.

 

[widdyst]

The point as I have already said before is because it is noticeable EVEN at 60FPS (allot of games will dip below 60fps also) although to some more than others, and a faster single GPU won't give you ANY noticeable micro stutter even then playing at less than 60FPS, so which is the ideal option do you think?



I all depends on what res you game at and what games you run at what settings.
SLI/CF increases raw FPS substantially but has unwanted side effects that reduce the benefit of the high FPS substantially.

Which GPU's would you pick to run a res of 1080p or higher?
2xGTX460 1gb
1xGTX480

Maybe the 460's would win in terms of Raw FPS but I would personally pick the 480 for a noticeably smoother and therefore better experience.

So which would you choose?

Yes maybe I would choose the 480, Maybe !

The point I am trying to make is this -
Yes I dont doubt you that microstutter does exist.
But the frame rates where it will become a hinderance to enjoying the game are so low that it will never become an issue for me and probably the majority of multi gpu setup owners.

 

[An Exception]

Res is slightly different but I think it's any interesting comparison.

480SLI

Single 480

 

[widdyst]

I see where your going with your comparrison videos there. The top video is choppy the bottom video is smoother. (perhaps because it runs through the different crappy camera angle transitions slower)
Running the benchmark on my system does produce a choppy feel like that BUT in game os nothing like that.
The main point of those 2 videos for me is that the sli rig is running a higher resolution and still completes the benchmark a full 16 secs before the non sli rig. That is a big difference.
BUT its a benchmark and in my experience all benchmarks run choppy Very choppy. The actual games themselves are nothing like the benches.
A better comparison set of videos for me would be actual gameplay through the same section of game.

 

[An Exception]

^^^
The res difference is only likely to account for 2 or 3 FPS.
The single GPU was much much smoother despite being 16 secs slower and having minimums as low as 22FPS, I know which I would rather.

Maybe in-game is different like you say though...

 

[Rroff]

Only reason theres a difference in smoothness in those videos - the 2nd guy has a faster HDD setup - that stutter you see isn't due to "microstutter" but data still being paged in.

If you think SLI stutters like that your off your rocker.

 

[Jibber55]

Surely it's good to know that raw fps does not always give you a smooth gaming experience?? I have to say, it's opened my eyes that benchmarking numbers are just that... numbers!
I's all about having the information to make an informed decsion on and that's what I think this thread is providing.
In no way does this mean I will never get another multi-gpu set up but I like having all the facts when making a purchase.

 

[An Exception]

^^^
Thanks Jibber, that's what this thread was intended to do...

 

[An Exception]

Only reason theres a difference in smoothness in those videos - the 2nd guy has a faster HDD setup - that stutter you see isn't due to "microstutter" but data still being paged in.

Stutter due to paging are much more infrequent than the stutters seen in the benchmark, and generally looks like the odd big stutter now and again that is seen in both vids...

If you think SLI stutters like that your off your rocker.

Running the benchmark on my system does produce a choppy feel like that BUT in game os nothing like that.

Like the guy said, it's probably much different in game...

 

[Rroff]

That benchmark moves so fast your paging data through most of the first run due to the way the engine works. You have massive stutter in the first bit as it swoops down as its still "stabalising" from loading and again as it swoops around the hilltop as its loading in data from the new areas, which on foot at a slower pace would have less obvious impact.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Yeah Rroff is right, anyone who has run the crysis bench knows it always stutters on first run, 2nd and 3rd runs are butter smooth.

 

[jigger]

But the single cards is still better, even if we do consider the "juddering" is down to page file moves. Which I'm not %100 convinced it is.

 

[An Exception]

Yeah Rroff is right, anyone who has run the crysis bench knows it always stutters on first run, 2nd and 3rd runs are butter smooth.

Yeh, with a single 480...

 

[Rroff]

3 passes of the benchmark with very high settings - as you can see the first 1/3rd of the graph is very stuttery compared to the last 2/3rds.

How smooth the first pass of the benchmark is will always depend on how fast your HDD (and to a degree system buses/bandwidth).

 

[RavenXXX2]

Well it is obvious to anyone in the know that the crysis bench is buffering in to Vram for more than 50% of the first run, just look at the ram usage on the top right, it's still going up as the bench runs.

 

[bhavv]

Well it is obvious to anyone in the know that the crysis bench is buffering in to Vram for more than 50% of the first run, just look at the ram usage on the top right, it's still going up as the bench runs.

And running at 4320 x 900 resolution on a pair of 1 Gb cards really doesnt help due to how much Vram it likely needs.

 

[Scougar]

Which is what makes me laugh. At no point has ejizz considered that the ram is just to small for that resolution on the 460s. Also ati cards tends to be more efficient with their memory, so once again not a like for like comparison.

no one doubts microstutter exists, but its unrealistic. I do however understand the intention of ejizz which i hope is good, just not understanding the biblical obcession with it.

 

[kitch9]

Why do people keep posting videos of a game stuttering? There is no way you can see micro stuttering in a video, and people posting the videos obviously don't really know what it is.

 

[An Exception]

Why do people keep posting videos of a game stuttering? There is no way you can see micro stuttering in a video, and people posting the videos obviously don't really know what it is.

Yeh...