Weird *Stuttery* Effect in games

fsstrike

Senior member
Feb 5, 2004
523
0
0
A few days ago I started to notice a weird *stuttery* type effect when playing games. For instance, in CSS and T:V, I am walking or flying and it almost feels like a very short warp sort of. Either way, it doesnt feel completely smooth. And it is NOT an FPS problem. My FPS remains the exact same. It also cannot be a LAG issue because this happens even when I host my own servers to test it out. I think it has something to do with the fact that I installed CCC and then thats when I started noticing the problems. So, I unstilled CCC, untinstalled all my ATI 4.9 drivers and ran driver cleaner. I reinstalled them thinking mabye I could fix it and it did not. In fact it was just as bad if not worse.

*Edit* I have found this problem only to occur when AA including temporal AA is enabled. Does anyone recognize this type of problem?

Please Help, thx
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
If temporal AA is enabled it could be doing some kind of context switch when it gets below 60FPS which could cause a stutter. My understanding is it will apply temporal provided you can get >60fps. But if it goes below it will stop applying it.

Turn off temporal and see if it goes away.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,007
126
Yeah, TAA blows. I can't believe ATi wasted time on implementing such a worthless feature.
 

ronnn

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
3,918
0
71
Originally posted by: BFG10K
Yeah, TAA blows. I can't believe ATi wasted time on implementing such a worthless feature.

And you have tried it with an x800 card?

 

ronnn

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
3,918
0
71
I have read several posts stating that it is a very nice feature on an x800 card. Wasn't really developed for the 9800 line.
 
Jun 14, 2003
10,442
0
0
so what it can still be implemented on r300 architectur.....i tried it on XIII coz i had really hig FPS and it worked pretty well
 

jhbball

Platinum Member
Mar 20, 2002
2,917
23
81
Originally posted by: BFG10K
Yeah, TAA blows. I can't believe ATi wasted time on implementing such a worthless feature.

clearly, it depends on what game you're running. Not great for all games obviously.


 

kylebisme

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2000
9,396
0
0
The only game I have seen that you shouldn't use TAA with is far cry, as it causes artfacts in that partcular game. Other than that though, and as long as you aprecate v-sync, you might as well always use TAA for your AA. It doesn't cause any stuttery effect that I have ever seen.
 

SickBeast

Lifer
Jul 21, 2000
14,377
19
81
Originally posted by: BFG10K
I have read several posts stating that it is a very nice feature on an x800 card.
Nothing that requires vsync can be good.

By all accounts vsync eliminates tearing effects, improving overall image quality. I don't see a good reason *not* to use it.
 

MDE

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
13,199
1
81
Originally posted by: SickBeast
Originally posted by: BFG10K
I have read several posts stating that it is a very nice feature on an x800 card.
Nothing that requires vsync can be good.

By all accounts vsync eliminates tearing effects, improving overall image quality. I don't see a good reason *not* to use it.
But it makes the FPS go lower so it sucks eggs.
 

kylebisme

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2000
9,396
0
0
Originally posted by: SickBeast
Originally posted by: BFG10K
I have read several posts stating that it is a very nice feature on an x800 card.
Nothing that requires vsync can be good.

By all accounts vsync eliminates tearing effects, improving overall image quality. I don't see a good reason *not* to use it.

Well if you can only use double buffering then it does kinda suck as your videocard has to wait for the framebuffer to clear before rendering the next frame which can play hell on framerate. However, if you can use triple buffering then that solves the issue and since ati alows you to force triple buffering in opengl and has it on by default in d3d there is hardly an excuse not to use vsync.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,007
126
It doesn't cause any stuttery effect that I have ever seen.
Not stuttering but certainly flickering.

I don't see a good reason *not* to use it.
Vsync introduces response lag and seriously degrades performance.

However, if you can use triple buffering then that solves the issue
It doesn't "solve" the issue, it simply reduces the chance of it happening. What's worse is that triple buffering wastes VRAM increases input lag by up to 50%.
 

kylebisme

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2000
9,396
0
0
You clearly don't understand how triple buffering works, I've explained it to you before but I suppose I'll have to give it another go. Triple buffering fully solves the issue to wait for the framebuffer to clear before rendering the next frame by adding a third buffer for the videocard to draw to instead of waiting. Also, it does nothing to add any lag to input, actually it effectively reduces any input lag caused by vsync by allowing the videocard to contentiously render frames as it would without vsync.


Oh, as for flickering, that will only happen if the threshold is too low. Default is 60fps which should be fine for most people, but otherwise you can adjust it though the registry or with radlinker.
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
22,709
3,007
126
You clearly don't understand how triple buffering works,
I understand it quite well.

Triple buffering fully solves the issue to wait for the framebuffer to clear before rendering the next frame by adding a third buffer for the videocard to draw to instead of waiting.
It doesn't "solve it", it's just less likely that two buffers will be full while a refresh is being waited on as opposed to just one buffer being full.

If both buffers are full you'll have exactly the same problem, though the FPS will be in fractions of 2/3 instead of 1/2.

Also, it does nothing to add any lag to input,
Yes it does because instead of waiting for two frames to get a response you're waiting three frames.

vsync by allowing the videocard to contentiously render frames as it would without vsync.
The video card does that anyway - regardles of vsync - and frames are overwritten regardless of whether they've been outputted or not. The difference is that vsync can cause dropped frames because they'll be delayed according to the refresh cycle and that means you might never see them.

Oh, as for flickering, that will only happen if the threshold is too low.
Flickering can also happen when TAA is switching from on to off (or vice cersa).