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Is micro stuttering still a problem?

Duff-Man said:
If you're getting good performance right now, I'd be tempted to hold off until the 28nm cards arrive. Should be a pretty big jump in performance this time around.

But if you want to upgrade now... well, in terms of raw performance, 460SLI vs single 580 is pretty similar [see here], but you will get smoother gameplay with a single 580. It's a more expensive option though, so it's hard to say if it's worth it. If it were me I would just wait for the next gen - if you're going to watercool a card you want it to have a decent shelf-life.
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This compartment shows very similar results.

When is nvidia going to release the 28nm chips?
 
zYx said:
When is nvidia going to release the 28nm chips?
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We should see some high end 28nm cards towards the end of the year (November December time), though it all depends on the fabrication plant (TSMC) having a sufficiently stable 28nm process by then.

The 28nm cards should be a big step up from the current generation though. Take 580SLI or 6970 x-fire as a reasonable benchmark for the top-end single GPU cards.
 
I don't think nVidia is launching anything this year from the rumours but AMD might have some cards in a couple of months.
 
zYx said:
Is this what we are talking about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOtre2f4qZs

Looks awful :(

That's right, even at 120 fps you will see this phenomenon...
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Aye, only get it in some games but quite frankly, it's rubbish. I love how multiple graphics cards fill a case, and I love how they perform in benchmarks, and I love how manly it feels to overclock a pair in unison.

For actual gaming use though, it's pointless. In future I shall be sticking to single GPU setups.
 
Muel said:
For actual gaming use though, it's pointless. In future I shall be sticking to single GPU setups.
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Not pointless per se, just not as good value as they seem from benchmarks. Adding a second GPU will still add real-world performance, but not as much as raw FPS benchmarks would suggest.

Also, remember that microstutter disappears almost completely when a game scene is CPU limited, and the more GPU horsepower you have the more likely you are to be CPU limited (though in those cases your framerate is probably high enough that you don't care anyway...).
 
Duff-Man said:
Not pointless per se, just not as good value as they seem from benchmarks. Adding a second GPU will still add real-world performance, but not as much as raw FPS benchmarks would suggest.

Also, remember that microstutter disappears almost completely when a game scene is CPU limited, and the more GPU horsepower you have the more likely you are to be CPU limited (though in those cases your framerate is probably high enough that you don't care anyway...).
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Aye one of the reasons I got SLI was to keep as close to 120 or higher fps as possible for using with my 120Hz panel - when a single card is only managing say 90 fps but SLI is managing 160fps capped at 120 it works pretty sweet.

Most of the time benchmarks indicate my percieved FPS is only around 5% lower than the displayed FPS with my setup anyhow very rarely do I notice any microstutter type issues.
 
Oh man.. I don't know what to do.

With my current gtx 460 2GB I ften get up to 140fps in Resident Evil 5 which is great. About 55 on high (not very high) settings in Crysis, 45-60 in GTA4 etc. It's all good, and very well playable, but it could be a little faster.. or smoothier.

The gtx 580 are ridiculously expensive at the moment :/

I have the gtx 460 with 2GB ram. What will I benefit if I add another exactly the same card with 2GB ram in it?
 
Why do you need to upgrade a 560?

You should just wait until next year when new Nvidia cards come out and then upgrade.

I never really noticed the microstutter thing myself but after watching those videos it made me realise I had experienced it before in certain games when I was running SLI 260s.
 
zYx said:
The gtx 580 are ridiculously expensive at the moment :/
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The fastest single-GPU card will always carry a fairly high premium... if it's value you're after, always look one or two rungs down the ladder. The GTX570, 6970 and 6950 are a lot better value.

I have the gtx 460 with 2GB ram. What will I benefit if I add another exactly the same card with 2GB ram in it?
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Well, you'll get a fair boost in raw framerate, and a moderate improvement in playability. As for the memory, well you'll still have a 2Gb framebuffer (each card needs to have its own copy of all game data). If you add 1Gb card then you will have only 1Gb of framebuffer.
 
Duff-Man said:
The fastest single-GPU card will always carry a fairly high premium... if it's value you're after, always look one or two rungs down the ladder. The GTX570, 6970 and 6950 are a lot better value.
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I think I'm getting used to these 580 prices now..... and if I was going to upgrade, I will get the 580, highest model.

Duff-Man said:
Well, you'll get a fair boost in raw framerate, and a moderate improvement in playability. As for the memory, well you'll still have a 2Gb framebuffer (each card needs to have its own copy of all game data). If you add 1Gb card then you will have only 1Gb of framebuffer.
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But it will cause microstuttering which I'm not interested in, even with 300fps :P
 
zYx said:
But it will cause microstuttering which I'm not interested in, even with 300fps :P
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Well the visual effect of microstutter is an apparent reduction in framerate, so your 300fps with microstutter would still seem like a solid ~250fps or so. It's only an issue at lower framerates.

Still a single 580 would give better performance than a second 460, even if it is a far more expensive option.
 
zYx said:
Weird. I turned vsync ON in Just Cause 2 and and now I experience something very similar to this: http://youtu.be/SGWa979hLpU but not as bad.
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Ah - that's not microstuttering, that's what can happen when you run out of VRAM. That video shows quite an extreme case though...

Vsync can cause jumps between framerates (60fps to 30fps, 30 to 20 etc), which can be a bit annoying.
 
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Duff-Man said:
Ah - that's not microstuttering, that's what can happen when you run out of VRAM. That video shows quite an extreme case though...
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However, GTA 4 runs at 50-60 fps on my machine and I don't experience what that guy does at all. Again, vsync off. Edit: Vsync is ON in gta 4 on my machine.
 
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zYx said:
Hey, I have the 2GB RAM version, so I'm watching one on amazon for about £155. Since march the price hasn't changed much. The waterblock will be some extra cost, about £80. I will need the backplate as well, for ram :/ The total cost will be around £250-300 :/
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I can't understand why people purchase waterblocks for GTX460's that run cool/quiet anyway, should have put the money on a better card.

You say your happy with the performance, yet want to buy another card???
You've got a hardware addiction imo, and the problem lies with you are not your graphics card.
 
I don't notice any microstutter anymore. The "microstutter" that we get these days is nothing like it was when these setups first came onto the scene - it could be very noticable in those days.
 
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