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To all Crossfire/SLI owners: Do you experience Micro-Stuttering in games?

hdpcgamer

hdpcgamer

hdpcgamer

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21 Dec 2010
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I am seriously leaning towards a Crossfire/SLI set-up for my next upgrade but theres just one thing preventing me from fully commiting and thats this "micro-stuttering" phenomenon.

I am one of the more pickier types of people that instantly spots any framerate drops in games, or any form of stuttering/juderring when turning around or moving forward in a game and although I do experience the occasional stuttering on games using a single GPU, if I experienced is increased significantly goiing Crossfire/SLI, then that would end up driving me crazy!

When looking at forums on the net, there are people who don't experience micro-stuttering at all and there are those that swear that everyone with a Crossfire/SLI set-up will experience micro-stuttering as that is just part of the parcel.

I just want to find out whether the majority of the Crossfire/SLI owners on this forum experience noticably more micro-stuttering going from a single to dual GPU configuration?
 
Very rarely had noticeable microstutter type issues... tbh the whole deal blew up because initially the 38xx cards in CF suffered from it badly (this was mostly fixed in later drivers) - the ATI brigade went all militant trying to smear SLI and multi GPU with the brush... in reality very few setups really suffer from it to an extent that is at all an issue except at very low framerates. (EDIT: Or due to user error).

The only setups where its really been a problem:

Older 6800 cards in SLI
9800GX2 (some 8800GT(S) SLI setups but mostly just the GX2 card) - this was due to a hardware issue with the GX2 (and a small number of G92 based cards).
3800 series in CF
Some 4800 series in CF (possibly due to people running the 2nd card in PCI-e x4 ports?)
4870X2

Pretty much all other setups its rarely if every an issue of note.
 
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Only in a couple of games which I've modded pretty heavily. Fallout 3 with high-res textures installed, GTA4 with increased pedestrian spawn rate mods... etc etc

Those kind of mods push the system requirements way beyond what the vanilla games require, so it's no surprise there are issues.

For everything else, no noticable microstutter.
 
I found my experience with a 4870X2 good. There were literally one or two games that were stuttery, though I think this might have been due to other variables as well such as the game engine, driver support. I can't comment on other set-ups since I have yet to try them.
 
Personally i have never noticed micro stutter with any of the following setups Ive had over the past few years.

8800gt sli
gtx 275 sli
gtx 295
gtx 480 sli
gtx 460 sli

As you can see i have no problems picking sli and in the future I would put a multi gpu configuration in my machine in a heart beat.
 
Semtax said:
Personally i have never noticed micro stutter with any of the following setups Ive had over the past few years.

8800gt sli
gtx 275 sli
gtx 295
gtx 480 sli
gtx 460 sli

As you can see i have no problems picking sli and in the future I would put a multi gpu configuration in my machine in a heart beat.
Click to expand...
damn, you've been there and back ^
 
Rroff said:
Very rarely had noticeable microstutter type issues... tbh the whole deal blew up because initially the 38xx cards in CF suffered from it badly (this was mostly fixed in later drivers) - the ATI brigade went all militant trying to smear SLI and multi GPU with the brush... in reality very few setups really suffer from it to an extent that is at all an issue except at very low framerates. (EDIT: Or due to user error).

The only setups where its really been a problem:

Older 6800 cards in SLI
9800GX2 (some 8800GT(S) SLI setups but mostly just the GX2 card) - this was due to a hardware issue with the GX2 (and a small number of G92 based cards).
3800 series in CF
Some 4800 series in CF (possibly due to people running the 2nd card in PCI-e x4 ports?)
4870X2

Pretty much all other setups its rarely if every an issue of note.
Click to expand...

You contradict your self with the ATI brigade went all militant trying to smear SLI and multi GPU with the brush.. when the 3870 suffered from MS,
Because for that to be true then no SLI setup before or during when the 3870 came out should have had an issue but yet you list SLI setup that had Micro-Stuttering prior to & during 3870s main existence.

The only MS that i notice was with COD4 & yes that got fixed with a driver.
 
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RichardH754 said:
Micro stutter with Quad Sli especially, still get it now in a few games, SLI seems to run a lot better with vsync off, smoother i mean
Click to expand...

The more cards you have in a multi GPU setup increases the chances of noticeable microstutter - another reason why I don't advocate more than 2 cards.

Final8y said:
You contradict your self with the ATI brigade went all militant trying to smear SLI and multi GPU with the brush.. when the 3870 suffered from MS,
Because for that to be true then no SLI setup before the 3870 came out should have had an issue but yet you list SLI setup that had Micro-Stuttering prior to & during 3870s main existence.

The only MS that i notice was with COD4 & yes that got fixed with a driver.
Click to expand...

Microstutter has always existed, but rarely been a big problem. The 6800 cards were back when it was very new and the odd issue due to it came up but it wasn't a major issue generally, the 9800GX2 had some issues* but that was due to a hardware problem and not classic microstutter, the 3800 series was the first time it was a major issue.


* Been awhile but IIRC the 9800GX2 and some earlier 8800GT cards had some cooling issues that would affect multi GPU performance as a part of the card relating to multi GPU wasn't getting sufficent cooling.
 
Rroff said:
The more cards you have in a multi GPU setup increases the chances of noticeable microstutter - another reason why I don't advocate more than 2 cards.



Microstutter has always existed, but rarely been a big problem. The 6800 cards were back when it was very new and the odd issue due to it came up but it wasn't a major issue generally, the 9800GX2 had some issues* but that was due to a hardware problem and not classic microstutter, the 3800 series was the first time it was a major issue.


* Been awhile but IIRC the 9800GX2 and some earlier 8800GT cards had some cooling issues that would affect multi GPU performance as a part of the card relating to multi GPU wasn't getting sufficent cooling.
Click to expand...

Yes it was a major issue with the 3800 because it was the first time that people started to go mult GPU in a big way & it was much easier to find a multi GPU compatible CF board then a SLI board due to the licensing & it just happened to happen when COD4 came out & the 3800 suffered with it & everyone & there dog was playing it so it got noticed.

But the drivers sorted & i had single tri & quad 3870s & it ran smooth as butter even with Vsync off & i normally don't play any game without it.
 
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Noticed a bit with earlier cards such as 6800gt, 7900gt and 8800gts 640's. No issues with my previous sli gtx 275's or my current gtx 470's.
 
Never noticed it with countless SLi and CrossfireX setups. :)

Thought I had it bad with my old HD4870X2 but my jerky video performance turned out to be caused by mouse acceleration...:confused:
 
If SLI/crossfire did caused micro-Stuttering in games then no body would be spending hundreds of pounds on buying two GPU's to run in SLI/crossfire ;)
 
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