Minimum FPS and double+ GPUs

[9nines]

I noticed in most reviews, no minimum frames per second are usually shown but isn?t minimum the real measurement for performance? And even in some reviews, where minimums are shown, it is often with older games, where even minimum are extremely high.

Does it really matter if one cards get 60 FPS average while another gets 50. No one will notice the difference between 60 and 50. But if one gets a minimum FPS of 20 and the other?s minimum is 30 in a game, that would be a noticeable difference as the 20 minimum would seem choppy while the 30 would still be smooth.

Case in point, in reviews that do show minimum and do use newer games, Crossfire or SLI combos often have no higher minimums than a single card. Take the new 4870X2. I found this review

http://www.madshrimps.be/?acti...tpage=3656&articID=864

which shows the 4870X2?s minimums FPS is lower than a 280GTX?s minimum FPS.

So while the 4870X2 might have higher average and maximum FPSs in newer games, its lower minimums, which you can detect as choppy, are what you are going to notice making its "noticeable" performance less than a single 280GTX it seems.

 

[Cheex]

I will agree with you on this one. The minimum framerate is definitely what you will notice while playing a game. Having a good average and a good maximum is all well and...well....good....

...but...

If the card you are using maintains 60fps most of the time and then drops to a 20 minimum, it will feel slower than a card that maintains 40fps and doesn't drop below 30.

I agree with you man.

 

[apoppin]

it also depends on if the minimum happens *once* ...
- or continually

 

[Cheex]

Originally posted by: apoppin
it also depends on if the minimum happens *once* ...
- or continually

From your experience though, which is more likely?

 

[toslat]

Originally posted by: Cheex

Originally posted by: apoppin
it also depends on if the minimum happens *once* ...
- or continually

From your experience though, which is more likely?

By definition (without getting esoteric), it usually occurs only once!
You might want to consider another measure, like for what percentage of time (or duration) the fps drops below a threshold. A minimum fps value is way off for evaluating a GPU's performance, unless you have a distribution of occurrence to go along with it.

 

[CP5670]

Even if the minimum drop only occurs briefly, it's still annoying since that is exactly the time when you start to take notice of the framerate. It suddenly diverts your attention to the performance instead of the game itself. It also usually happens when you least want it to, typically during big fights in FPSs.

It is always worth looking at reviews that show minimums. Not only are they more representative of an actual gameplay experience, but they often paint a very different picture of comparative performance between different cards than the averages you see on most sites. Xbit's reviews on the current gen cards came out during the last week and they show minimums for most games.

 

[toslat]

Originally posted by: CP5670
Even if the minimum drop only occurs briefly, it's still annoying since that is exactly the time when you start to take notice of the framerate. It suddenly diverts your attention to the performance instead of the game itself. It also usually happens when you least want it to, typically during big fights in FPSs.

It is always worth looking at reviews that show minimums. Not only are they more representative of an actual gameplay experience, but they often paint a very different picture of comparative performance between different cards than the averages you see on most sites. Xbit's reviews on the current gen cards came out during the last week and they show minimums for most games.

I agree that drops in fps are bad, but the point is that giving an absolute figure provides little information. Example, which would you prefer?
Card A: 60 average fps in 20s but drops to 40 fps for 4s
Card B: 70 average fps in 20s but drops to 30 fps for 0.5s

Card B would be my choice

 

[SSChevy2001]

@toslat

Agreed. That's why I prefer sites with fps/time charts PC Perspective or HardOCP. You really can't go by just min/max/avg, forget about sites with just avg.

 

[Sylvanas]

Driverheaven show minimums, avg and max and the mins are all substantially better than a single GPU :thumbsup:

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: SSChevy2001
@toslat

Agreed. That's why I prefer sites with fps/time charts PC Perspective or HardOCP. You really can't go by just min/max/avg, forget about sites with just avg.

Exactly.

A minimum is a minimum, It can only happen once . Therefore, irrelevant - or at least not as important as many make it out to be.