How can I measure the effect of microstutter?

[marlinman]

Mere days before learning of this thing called 'microstutter' via THG's recent article, I scored a couple of HD5830s. Now I'm trying to observe the effect for myself given the games I have lying around. (Sure wish I'd never seen that article!)

The FarCry2 benchmarking tool seems pretty cool but I've been unable to find a combination of settings which allows me to witness MS. I run the "Playback (Demo Ranch)" demo which seems to be the shortest choice (surely this means I'm more likely to witness FPS drops in the fixed-width graph the tool spits out). I've tried with vsync on and off and at various refresh rates and resolutions.

Also tried Crysis but that looks pretty naff when CrossFire's enabled. Plus, Crysis' tool only reports min frame rate and produces no pretty graphs.

Any ideas?

 

[stahlhart]

I think that it pretty much comes down to whether you're sensitive to it or not. I don't notice it at all myself, but others clearly do. I don't see how one could quantify it.

 

[marlinman]

Tom's article quantifies it pretty well (tho' I see now that the graphs have far finer time resolution than is possible with the FC2 benchmark tool.) I don't have Call of Juarez so don't know if THG used a tool that came with the game, or what.

Does the fact I use a CRT mean I'm more likely to notice microstuttering? I think it might...

 

[stahlhart]

Thanks for the link! Time to get edumacated.

 

[WMD]

Mere days before learning of this thing called 'microstutter' via THG's recent article, I scored a couple of HD5830s. Now I'm trying to observe the effect for myself given the games I have lying around. (Sure wish I'd never seen that article!)

The FarCry2 benchmarking tool seems pretty cool but I've been unable to find a combination of settings which allows me to witness MS. I run the "Playback (Demo Ranch)" demo which seems to be the shortest choice (surely this means I'm more likely to witness FPS drops in the fixed-width graph the tool spits out). I've tried with vsync on and off and at various refresh rates and resolutions.

Also tried Crysis but that looks pretty naff when CrossFire's enabled. Plus, Crysis' tool only reports min frame rate and produces no pretty graphs.

Any ideas?

MS happens when CF scaling is good. If the game is scaling poorly or cpu bottlenecked, you won't see it. Try unigine heaven benchmark with 4xAA and log your frames with fraps.

 

[lavaheadache]

I suggest you don't try to "see" it. You'll always see it after that. I wanna know how to NOT see it. I pretty much can't stand dual gpu setups and I have had almost 10 of them

 

[marlinman]

MS happens when CF scaling is good. If the game is scaling poorly or cpu bottlenecked, you won't see it. Try unigine heaven benchmark with 4xAA and log your frames with fraps.

Cheers - Fraps is just what I need. (Plus a spreadsheet!) You've saved me from wrapping my brain around AMD's GPUPerfStudio (which probably wouldn't have helped anyway).

Edit: Crysis GPU bench results: (CF in blue)





As I said tho', CF Crysis is unplayably ugly. I wonder if this affects the fps...

Frame sequence chosen for stability of single card frame rate...

 

[aigomorla]

I suggest you don't try to "see" it. You'll always see it after that. I wanna know how to NOT see it. I pretty much can't stand dual gpu setups and I have had almost 10 of them

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH :thumbsup:

ignorance is bliss...

ITs like the door ding u have in the car...
Its best ignored or your gonna get bothered by it constantly...

 

[Via]

I feel like one of those people who can't see the hidden 3d image in those paintings no matter how hard they try.

I can see obvious FPS dips, but I've never been able to see constant "microstutter" in anything.

And yet I've watched the youtube videos of it, and they're like a jagged mess.

 

[WMD]

Cheers - Fraps is just what I need. (Plus a spreadsheet!) You've saved me from wrapping my brain around AMD's GPUPerfStudio (which probably wouldn't have helped anyway).

Edit: Crysis GPU bench results: (CF in blue)





As I said tho', CF Crysis is unplayably ugly. I wonder if this affects the fps...

Frame sequence chosen for stability of single card frame rate...

Very impressive scaling. More than 2x performance even though you are on 5800 series which are supposed to scale much worse.

The MS doesn't look bad. Minimum fps for CF still higher than single card except for 2 frames in 43 where it drop to 20s. How fluid does the gameplay feels? Can you try testing with cpu at 4.5ghz then again at 2ghz?

 

[marlinman]

How fluid does the gameplay feels? Can you try testing with cpu at 4.5ghz then again at 2ghz?

If you help me under/overclock it! System's only ~1 week old and (crime of crimes) I've left it at 3.3GHz. If it's just a matter of fiddling with the multiplier then all good.

As for fluidity: can't say, as with CF enabled flicker-from-hell renders game unplayable. I should patch the game but that'll have to wait 'til I can afford the download =( .