Focus on min frame-rates not max

[thedoc46]

Why do people not focus more on min frame rates rather than max?

Out of all the benchmarks, very few seem to focus on min?

Lets face it, 99% of screens out there are now LCD anyway, so all hve vsync switched on.. Who cares how much more that 60FPS it can go? You are going to be locked in anyways. It's the dipping below 60FPS when all the action is abound, is when you'll see it.

 

[rhys216]

I usually see, min and average used???

 

['Wes]

I agree.

 

[chief barker]

I've seen youtube videos of a guy with a 5970 that was reviewing the card whilst playing MW2,at one point he was looking at a wall and saying wow look it's doing *** FPS.

TW**!

 

[Rroff]

Majority of hardcore gamers don't have VSync on - tho majority of hardcore gamers also care about minimum framerates too... lot of gamers care about more than 60fps - especially when playing online games theres many benefits to having the game rendered at 100+ fps even on a 60Hz panel.

I agree tho the minimum is what is important... tho you have to compare it in depth... i.e. if one card is consistantly dropping to 25fps and another card hits 18fps once but at all other times is above 30fps you can't say the one that hit 18fps once is the worst even tho it has the minimum on paper.

 

[Greebo]

Reviews are a lot better than they used to be and I find most give min/av/max which can all be equally important.

As Rroff says though, you need to look behind the figures sometimes.

For example what does 20fps min, 40fps av and 60 fps really mean? It could be that the card spends half it's time at 20fps and half at 60fps.

Equally it could also mean that 99.9% of the time the card runs at or close to 40fps and once it dropped to 20fps and once it hit 60fps as one offs.

So which card would you get? Personally I would want the 2nd card as it is "consistant". Equally I have seen results with lower min and maximum rates but has a much better average than another card. That again means that the card is more consistant and the 2nd card although it has higher minimum and maximum fps, it must spend more of it's time nearer the lower framerate which is not obviously the best thing either. So reviews which mimimum framerates only are equally flawed.

That's why the best reviews are the ones which do the graphs showing the peaks and troughs for the benchmark (can't think which site does it atm) as well as the min/max/av figures.

 

[Auraomega]

Why do people not focus more on min frame rates rather than max? .

You're on the wrong review sites, to be fair I've never found a website that focuses on max, most do average and minimum with few doing just average.

Majority of hardcore gamers don't have VSync on

Not exactly a 'hardcore gamer' but playing without VSync bugs me, I can put up with jaggy edges but tearing really really bugs me

when playing online games theres many benefits to having the game rendered at 100+ fps even on a 60Hz panel.

Agree with this fully.

That's why the best reviews are the ones which do the graphs showing the peaks and troughs for the benchmark (can't think which site does it atm) as well as the min/max/av figures.

If you remember the website, post it please as I've not seen that before, even though it'd give the best idea of what you're actually getting.

 

[Rroff]

120Hz and VSync I could understand - personally I find the tearing much easier to deal with than the laggy input feel with vsync on... tho I render as fast as possible on an SLI setup so usually tearing is only noticeable on areas with lots of parallel lines like blinds, radiators and vents.

 

[Greebo]

If you remember the website, post it please as I've not seen that before, even though it'd give the best idea of what you're actually getting.

Hardcop


http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/30/amds_ati_radeon_hd_5850_video_card_review/5

Only thing I don't like is that they set the highest playable settings for each card so can be hard to compare like for like sometimes.

On the review I linked to, interesting to see the massive odd dips on the 5850 xfire which gives it an "unfair" min framerate. On the other hand you may see that as being a big problem as running at around 65 fps most of the time and then plummeting to below 40fps, 12 times in a 6 minute benchmark might be annoying.

 

[thedoc46]

120Hz and VSync I could understand - personally I find the tearing much easier to deal with than the laggy input feel with vsync on... tho I render as fast as possible on an SLI setup so usually tearing is only noticeable on areas with lots of parallel lines like blinds, radiators and vents.

Each to their own i guess, but personally i find tearing too much to put up with.

 

[Rroff]

I can't stand tearing either - but I find if I'm rendering high enough fps then I never notice it while playing except in a few situations.