Overclock.net › Forums › Graphics Cards › Graphics Cards - General › NEW Crossfire Micro-Stutter Fix
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

NEW Crossfire Micro-Stutter Fix

post #1 of 6
Thread Starter 
Hey all,

I've been struggling with microstutter as i know a lot of people have, and found a new method to prevent it.

I had only seen one person mention it Here, but they didnt get very much advice or a suitable method to cure it.

Circumstance
This only works if you use custom fan profiles to keep your GPU's cooler, therefore wont work if you use aftermarket cooling, or use stock fan settings.

Cause
I noticed when monitoring some stress tests that the FPS dipped every time the fan speed was automatically updated Via MSI Afterburner, giving me a noticeable jolt almost every second, as that was how often it was set to update.

Cure
Step 1
Disable gradual fan speed increases

Remove the sloped lines in your fan profile if using a graphical interface such as MSI Afterburner. This is done by double clicking in afterburner, i don't know about other programs. This should now show you with big steps where the fan speed changes.

Before and after


Step 2
Choose your Idle fan speed and Load fan speed.

I chose 40 for my idle speed as it is inaudible over the sound of my other fans, and 65 for my load fan speed, as this gives me a 65-70'c temp in game that i feel comfortable with. if you dont mind them getting higher, then give yourself a lower fan speed.

Step 3
Figure out which temperature to start your load fan speed.

To do this, set your fans to their load speed, play a game for a few minutes and record your peak temperature. Once you have this, take 5-10'C off to find an appropriate starting point. You can use Furmark here if you like, but i would advise taking off something nearer 15-20'c. I used 60'c as my transition point, as my load temps were between 65-70'c and my furmark temps are about 75-80'c

Step 4
Set up your profile

To do this, you'll need 3 points. The first is your idle speed, this shouldnt require a corresponding temperature. The second is your Load speed, with your corresponding start temperature. The third is fan 100% and your maximum temperature. I used 80'c as the temp i never want to exceed.

Refer to the "after" picture above to clarify which points i mean.

Step 5
Change the update time to 10s or 10,000ms

In afterburner this is called "Fan speed update period" and is directly below the fan profile image shown above.

You dont want your fans to update every 1 second or around the transition between load and idle, the fan will change between them over and over, becoming very annoying. However, a 10s update time allows the temperatures to cross far enough beyond the threshold to prevent this annoying "on-off" sound effect.

Step 6
Test it out!

Hopefully this will fix the problem for you as well as it did for me, i now enjoy very smooth framerates with no major stuttering, and it was fixing the fan profiles that did it.

One way to test it is watching your furmark framerates, they should be very stable and not change much at all, if you still get stuttering there will be a big difference between your min, max and average framerates.

You may wish to tweak the fan settings a little to get them perfect also.

Other remedies
This is just a cure for the fan speed update issue, as you will find all over the site there are numerous other issues. as well as updating the fan profiles I also did the following:

-Used matching clock speeds on the cards
-Used D3D Overrider (comes with rivatuner) to lock Vsync on and triple buffering
-Rolled back to 10.5 Drivers
-Did a Full driver sweep using Driver Sweeper before installing new drivers


I hope this helps people cure their Micro-stuttering headaches! Good Luck!
Edited by Piranha Joe - 8/8/10 at 7:34pm
Karen
(13 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Phenom II 1090t @4.2 Asus Crosshair IV Formula EVGA GTX580 8GB Corsair Dominator, 1600 C7 
Hard DriveOSMonitorKeyboard
1x 32GB Corsair SSD 2x 1TB Hitachi SATA Windows 7 64bit 24" Iiyama Pro-Lite E2407HDSD Razer Arctosa 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
Corsair Gold AX850 Corsair 800D Razer Mamba Razer Goliathus 
  hide details  
Reply
Karen
(13 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Phenom II 1090t @4.2 Asus Crosshair IV Formula EVGA GTX580 8GB Corsair Dominator, 1600 C7 
Hard DriveOSMonitorKeyboard
1x 32GB Corsair SSD 2x 1TB Hitachi SATA Windows 7 64bit 24" Iiyama Pro-Lite E2407HDSD Razer Arctosa 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
Corsair Gold AX850 Corsair 800D Razer Mamba Razer Goliathus 
  hide details  
Reply
post #2 of 6
Thanks man
had no idea it was afterburners fault i turned it off completely
min fps went from 5 to 55 in unique heaven lol
S'O@B v2
(14 items)
 
S'O@B
(17 items)
 
Black Edition
(13 items)
 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7-3820 @ 5.000 MHz 1.42V 24/7 Asus Rampage IV Extreme (Nodens Modded Bios 330... 3x 7970 VAPOR-X GHz Edition @ 1250/1750 (1200/1... Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 32GB @ 1666 CL9 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveCooling
2x Intel SSD 520 Series 120GB Raid0  WD Caviar Black 1TB  2x WD Caviar Black 1TB Raid0  XSPC RayStorm 750 RS360 Push/Pull 6x Scythe Ult... 
CoolingCoolingOSMonitor
Lamptron FC-2  Delta FFB1212EHE 190CFM, Scythe Ultra kaze 3000... Windows 7 Ultimate Dell UltraSharp U2711 "27" 2560x1440  
PowerCase
Corsair AX1200 Cooler Master HAF X 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7-2600k @ 5.0 / 1.46 Asus Maximus Extreme IV (P67) 3-Way CFX Sapphire 6970's (1000/1500)  Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2000MHz 8GB @ (2133)  
RAMHard DriveHard DriveCooling
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2000MHz 8GB @ (2133)  OCZ Vertex2 120GB  3x WD Caviar Black 1TB Raid0  XSPC Rasa 750 RS360 
OSMonitorPowerCase
Windows Ultimate 7 64 bit god knows what 1920x1080 & Samsung "40" HD Cooler Master Pro M1000W Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Big Tower 
MouseMouse PadAudio
Razer DeathAdder Steel S&S 10000 Watts of fury 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7 930 (3009f713) @ 4.3ghz (VCore 1.35) 24/7 Asus Rampage 3 Extreme GTX 260 (1792 Vram) 12GB Corsair XMS3 1600 
Hard DriveOSMonitorPower
WD Caviar Black 1TB Windows 7 64 bit some douchy LCD@1080x1024 & Samsung "32" HD Arkangel LC8850 850w 
Case
Antec 1200 Black 
  hide details  
Reply
S'O@B v2
(14 items)
 
S'O@B
(17 items)
 
Black Edition
(13 items)
 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7-3820 @ 5.000 MHz 1.42V 24/7 Asus Rampage IV Extreme (Nodens Modded Bios 330... 3x 7970 VAPOR-X GHz Edition @ 1250/1750 (1200/1... Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 32GB @ 1666 CL9 
Hard DriveHard DriveHard DriveCooling
2x Intel SSD 520 Series 120GB Raid0  WD Caviar Black 1TB  2x WD Caviar Black 1TB Raid0  XSPC RayStorm 750 RS360 Push/Pull 6x Scythe Ult... 
CoolingCoolingOSMonitor
Lamptron FC-2  Delta FFB1212EHE 190CFM, Scythe Ultra kaze 3000... Windows 7 Ultimate Dell UltraSharp U2711 "27" 2560x1440  
PowerCase
Corsair AX1200 Cooler Master HAF X 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7-2600k @ 5.0 / 1.46 Asus Maximus Extreme IV (P67) 3-Way CFX Sapphire 6970's (1000/1500)  Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2000MHz 8GB @ (2133)  
RAMHard DriveHard DriveCooling
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2000MHz 8GB @ (2133)  OCZ Vertex2 120GB  3x WD Caviar Black 1TB Raid0  XSPC Rasa 750 RS360 
OSMonitorPowerCase
Windows Ultimate 7 64 bit god knows what 1920x1080 & Samsung "40" HD Cooler Master Pro M1000W Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced Big Tower 
MouseMouse PadAudio
Razer DeathAdder Steel S&S 10000 Watts of fury 
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
i7 930 (3009f713) @ 4.3ghz (VCore 1.35) 24/7 Asus Rampage 3 Extreme GTX 260 (1792 Vram) 12GB Corsair XMS3 1600 
Hard DriveOSMonitorPower
WD Caviar Black 1TB Windows 7 64 bit some douchy LCD@1080x1024 & Samsung "32" HD Arkangel LC8850 850w 
Case
Antec 1200 Black 
  hide details  
Reply
post #3 of 6
In CCC I turned up my fan to 80% and left it. It seemed to work.
post #4 of 6
microstuttering has nothing to do with fan speed. the "fix" you mentioned does not correct microstuttering, but rather fixes something else that may have similar effects as microstuttering.

in crossfire/SLI, each gpu renders one frame of the 3d image and sends the data out to the monitor. in order to do this 100% accurately, the two gpu's much be EXACTLY synced with milliseconds of a difference. when GPU1 finishes rendering one frame, GPU2 needs to begin and finish rendering the second frame at the EXACT correct time to output the second frame's data in x amount of time after GPU1. GPU1 then needs to do the same thing, rendering another frame after GPU2's render. since the timing of 3d rendering cannot be perfect, microstuttering is the result of frames being rendered off sync.

this has NOTHING to do with fan speed.
Edited by kiwiasian - 1/11/11 at 6:34pm
Achromatia II
(15 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.0GHz (1.30v) Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 2x XFX Radeon HD 5850 @ 950/1100 (1.20v) 24 GB Patriot Viper II Sector 7 
Hard DriveCoolingCoolingOS
Intel X25-M 80GB + WD Caviar Black 1TB + WD 320GB XSPC Rasa CPU Block (copper+acetal) + XSPC RX360 2x EK-VGA Supreme HF (copper+acetal) Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 
MonitorKeyboardPowerCase
3x Asus VH232H (Eyefinity) Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Antec TPQ-850w Cooler Master HAF X 
MouseAudio
Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch Asus Xonar DX 
  hide details  
Reply
Achromatia II
(15 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.0GHz (1.30v) Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 2x XFX Radeon HD 5850 @ 950/1100 (1.20v) 24 GB Patriot Viper II Sector 7 
Hard DriveCoolingCoolingOS
Intel X25-M 80GB + WD Caviar Black 1TB + WD 320GB XSPC Rasa CPU Block (copper+acetal) + XSPC RX360 2x EK-VGA Supreme HF (copper+acetal) Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit 
MonitorKeyboardPowerCase
3x Asus VH232H (Eyefinity) Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Antec TPQ-850w Cooler Master HAF X 
MouseAudio
Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch Asus Xonar DX 
  hide details  
Reply
post #5 of 6
Thread Starter 
kiwiasian

Yeah, i know, i did plenty of research and figured i was experiencing microstuttering (even though technically it isnt, it looks the similar, especially to those who are new to CF), tried every fix under the sun with no luck, then tried resetting everything to default and it worked again. a bit of tweaking and i figured out this method to get the joy of high fan speeds, but without the headache of unwanted noise when idling.

Even if the disease isnt microstuttering, it has the same symptoms, and in some cases this cures it! e.g. blixt and tombom

Glad to hear it works for you guys!
Karen
(13 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Phenom II 1090t @4.2 Asus Crosshair IV Formula EVGA GTX580 8GB Corsair Dominator, 1600 C7 
Hard DriveOSMonitorKeyboard
1x 32GB Corsair SSD 2x 1TB Hitachi SATA Windows 7 64bit 24" Iiyama Pro-Lite E2407HDSD Razer Arctosa 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
Corsair Gold AX850 Corsair 800D Razer Mamba Razer Goliathus 
  hide details  
Reply
Karen
(13 items)
 
  
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Phenom II 1090t @4.2 Asus Crosshair IV Formula EVGA GTX580 8GB Corsair Dominator, 1600 C7 
Hard DriveOSMonitorKeyboard
1x 32GB Corsair SSD 2x 1TB Hitachi SATA Windows 7 64bit 24" Iiyama Pro-Lite E2407HDSD Razer Arctosa 
PowerCaseMouseMouse Pad
Corsair Gold AX850 Corsair 800D Razer Mamba Razer Goliathus 
  hide details  
Reply
post #6 of 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by kiwiasian;11977640 
microstuttering has nothing to do with fan speed. the "fix" you mentioned does not correct microstuttering, but rather fixes something else that may have similar effects as microstuttering.

in crossfire/SLI, each gpu renders one frame of the 3d image and sends the data out to the monitor. in order to do this 100% accurately, the two gpu's much be EXACTLY synced with milliseconds of a difference. when GPU1 finishes rendering one frame, GPU2 needs to begin and finish rendering the second frame at the EXACT correct time to output the second frame's data in x amount of time after GPU1. GPU1 then needs to do the same thing, rendering another frame after GPU2's render. since the timing of 3d rendering cannot be perfect, microstuttering is the result of frames being rendered off sync.

this has NOTHING to do with fan speed.

I have to disagree kiwiasian. I have had the exact same problem when using afterburner in 3dmark vantage and in 3dmark 11. Wheneva the fan clicks up a notch the FPS drop by about half but pick up again within a second. When i do the same test with the fans set to about 65% constant i dont get the stutter and FPS dont drop at all. I understand wat ur saying but i think the problem that joe is talking about is the exact same problem ive been havn and doing bench after bench i have found that it was fan speed differences causing it.
 
ROG Gene
(14 items)
 
Xeon Home Server
(10 items)
 
CPUMotherboardRAMHard Drive
intel xeon e3 -1245v2 AsRock H77 Pro4/MVP 16gb 1333 Gskill Sniper OCZ Vertex Plus 60gb 
Hard DriveHard DriveCoolingPower
2x WD Black 1TB 4x WD Red 2TB Coolermaster Hyper 212 Thermaltake Smart 430w 
CaseOther
Fractal Design Define R3 Black Intel Pro/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter 
  hide details  
Reply
 
ROG Gene
(14 items)
 
Xeon Home Server
(10 items)
 
CPUMotherboardRAMHard Drive
intel xeon e3 -1245v2 AsRock H77 Pro4/MVP 16gb 1333 Gskill Sniper OCZ Vertex Plus 60gb 
Hard DriveHard DriveCoolingPower
2x WD Black 1TB 4x WD Red 2TB Coolermaster Hyper 212 Thermaltake Smart 430w 
CaseOther
Fractal Design Define R3 Black Intel Pro/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter 
  hide details  
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Graphics Cards - General
Overclock.net › Forums › Graphics Cards › Graphics Cards - General › NEW Crossfire Micro-Stutter Fix