nitromullet
Diamond Member
- Jan 7, 2004
- 9,031
- 36
- 91
Kyle Bennett uses plots but the sampling rate must not catch the peaks and valleys?
Perhaps a new criteria needs to be developed to test these cards as the current way just doesn't do it justice.
It's like gauging how a loudspeaker is going to sound by using its sensitivity and frequency response only.
Yeah, Kyle's graphs are actually among the best in terms of showing fps. His graphs at least let you see the distribution of the max and min throughout the benchmark. He doesn't show the interval between the frames though. No one does AFAIK.
Most sites stopped talking about micro stutter and frame interval after the 4870 X2 launched and micro stutter was declared to have been magically resolved by ATI. Most of the internets just took this proclamation at face value because they don't know any better, and the topic sort of disappeared from the public eye. The issue still existed with the 4870 X2, and I proved that frame intervals were more erratic on on the 4870 X2 than they were on a GTX 280 in the write up I linked to earlier in this thread.
The thing you have to understand about micro stutter is that is requires a number of things to converge before it bothers people.
1) an erratic interval between frames
2) the fps have to be low enough for the largest interval to be perceived as "slow" to the observer - anything running at 120+ fps is most likely going to be smooth regardless of the interval between frames
3) 1 and 2 have to happen on a somewhat regular basis
4) You have to notice it. I don't think everyone does, but some people don't notice AA/AF either.
Since graphics card (especially dual gpu setups) have generally been outpacing game requirements for the most popular games over the past few years, the only place you would really notice micro stutter would be on very demanding games or benchmarks. Chances are that people playing MW2 or anything based on the Unreal 3 engine will never have low enough fps for an erratic frame interval to manifest itself as micro stutter, so they don't care (rightfully so).
I haven't run a multi-gpu setup since I had dual GTX 280s, so I cannot say for certain the issue has not been resolved with the 5970. You, on the other hand, have access to both a GTX 480 and a 5970... Some quick benchmarks with FRAPS with the interval option enabled could confirm or deny whether the issue you are seeing is micro stutter or not. It might not be, it could just be crappy performance...