microstutter.exe

[BallaTheFeared]

Does it work?

Well I tested it personally in two games and one benchmark, the two games where Shogun 2 with 4xAA and Ultra IG settings, and Metro 2033 with max settings except AAA instead of 4xAA and DOF enabled (to get me below 60 fps).

I also tested Heaven 2.5 with 8xAA 16xAF everything maxed including tess.

i5-2500k @ 5GHz, GTX 470s with a modest OC of 193MHz (800 core).

In the two games I've never personally noticed any microstutter, however in Heaven 2.5 I notice it all the time. I believe in games Nvidia puts checks in which help reduce it, while in benchmarks like Heaven they do not attempt to reduce it. Which means in games I'm losing FPS because of the attempts to reduce it, while in benchmarks such as Heaven I'm seeing the max potential of my cards fps wise.


Results were as expected, assuming I'm reading the output correctly...

Neither Metro 2033 /w DoF nor Shogun 2 really were affected by MS noticeably (for me), however Heaven 2.5 which I've long suspected of producing the "MS effect" clearly shows a major difference in a bad way compared to the two actual games.

The program I used can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ioxbd5jz7tigbed

I don't know if anything can be taken from this, but I figured I'd share anyways

 

[BD231]

The lower your frame rate gets the worse MS gets, the benchmark itself is the culprit due to low frames. nVidia did plenty of optimizing for Heaven they even use it to show off new GPU tech.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

BF3 Caspian Boarder 64 players IG settings at Max expect 2xAA /w FXAA.

Also Heaven 2.5 again, this time with default settings, normal tess, no AA, 4x AF.

Still not noticing MS with BF3 (highest in actual games tested, though it is online which could have some effect or not), but I still notice it in Heaven 2.5 despite the high fps.

 

[BrightCandle]

The lower your frame rate gets the worse MS gets, the benchmark itself is the culprit due to low frames. nVidia did plenty of optimizing for Heaven they even use it to show off new GPU tech.

MS is less noticeable at high frame rates because the "apparent frame rate" is dropped. So if you start at 60 fps in theory bad microstutter only reduces it to appearing like its 30 fps (worst case with 2 cards) whereas 30 dropping to 15 is much worse.

However in practice having alternate 33ms frames followed by 16ms frames is very noticeable. 33ms consistently is much smoother despite that only being 30 fps verses the 45 fps of 33-16-33-16. Microstutter has thus very little to do with the actual FPS as high FPS does not remove the problem. MS is very easy to see even at the monitors maximum refresh rate and breaks the feeling of constant movement. When its bad its like having 15 fps regardless of the actual frame rate being shown. Heaven is horrible to watch with MS present.

I personally don't understand how some people don't see it in Heaven because its some of the worst I have seen. BF3 has in the past also been a bad MS game for me but not so much with the 7970's.

I personally think we need a piece of software to detect the problem and implement the fix we know about (frame rate capping) but with a bit more smarts than just a max for the whole game.

 

[BD231]

I see. Is that why I can run Batman AC at 100fps and still notice horrible stutter even in dx9?

 

[BrightCandle]

I can run heaven at 110 fps and the stutter is painfully bad. Turning on Vsync on however solves it completely. But Vsync does not solve it in all games I have tried, just the ones that can exceed 60 FPS.

 

[BD231]

So then its settled, developers are at fault

 

[AdamK47]

It will only work for games of which you did not pirate. Sorry.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything, therefore it probably should not have been posted. Let's keep the forums clean and on-topic, folks.
-ViRGE

 

[BD231]

It will only work for games of which you did not pirate. Sorry.

Pirate?? I'm not familiar with the term, explain.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Batman AC wasn't actually all that bad, DX9 is clearly smoother than DX11 though. I don't think what we're seeing in BM AC in DX11 is actually related to drivers or microstutter. I think it's a problem within the game engine, with the DX11 patch the frequency of the frame drops is quite low, I only noticed it a few times while flying around outside beating up baddies. However DX9 does not share this problem, there are no slow downs like what is seen in DX11.

Overall with the patch DX11 is playable, however if you want to rid yourself of the random fps drops for no apparent reason DX9 solves that issue.

Top is DX9 max settings, 32x CSAA. Bottom is DX11 max settings, High Tess, FXAA.

What is taking place in BM AC in DX11 is not microstutter from what I can tell.


Heaven 2.5 is directly related to Nvidia trying to get as many fps as possible without adding checks and balances into the drivers to prevent MS. Heaven isn't a bad engine, like what we see in BM AC, it's just that Nvidia has chosen to increase fps in the benchmark rather than worry about smooth rendering. That is why Heaven has such great scaling with Nvidia cards, unlike games where scaling is reduced to reduce MS, Heaven has no checks or balances.

 

[BD231]

Untapped potential isn't really untapped potential if the game isn't running correctly, right? Games like crysis and crysis 2 w/dx11 goodies, BF3, Metro 2033, or even something as simple as Assassins Creed titles show almost perfect scaling/gpu usage but are seemingly devoid of micro-stutter. Just how many frames would you say we're missing on average for titles that DO show good scaling and gpu useage?

Still leaves me thinking it has far more to do with the engine than anything.

You might try running Mafia 2, gpu useage on the second GPU is not anywhere close to gpu 1 consistently yet you get double the frames in SLi. I understand AMD/nVidia manipulate their drivers for each and every game/benchmark out there, but I think the lack of optimization in heaven is probably affecting that micro-stutter program more than it is your perception? I still have to run heaven for myself and see what you're talking about though, if batman isn't a micro-stutter issue then I honestly don't know how to spot it.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

It will only work for games of which you did not pirate. Sorry.

Nope.avi

Figure out what microstutter is caused by and come back.