[jonnylaris]

So I got my brand new Sapphire 4870 x2. Drivers installed fine, no issues as I used driver cleaner to remove my old nvidia drivers. I installed 8.10 then the far cry 2 hotfix.

I ran lots and lots of benchmarks to test the setup and results were very nice including a 3dmark06 score of 23,000 (previously 21,000 with the 280).

Thing is... I CANT STAND THE MICRO STUTTER!

Its ridiculous. When you drop below 40/50 fps you can notice it reallly bad. I was playing far cry 2 at 1920 x 1200 with 8xAA and it reports 40fps average.. Which is great.. except it feels like 10fps!

Same in all other games and especially bad in Crysis.

There is no way I can stand this. If there is no fix I'm sending this back and keeping my 280.

Bottom line - gtx 280 feels far smoother than the 4870x2 even when running at half the fps.

I really really hope there is a fix for this.

 

[LoGGi!]

It's the typical ATI problem in my expirience it always take several months before they really get their drivers together.

 

[jonnylaris]

The card has been out for around 4 months now. Drivers can't still be the problem surely?

 

[StupidityTheory]

we played the exactly same settings at my friend's house and he also has an HD4870X2.

running 1920x1200 on samsung T220P with AAx8 and everything maxed out, also has about 45 FPS and to be honest its completely smooth, as smooth as 45FPS can get...

I have no idea what it is you are experiencing but it sounds very suspicious.

what OS and what drives are you using?

 

[jonnylaris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by StupidityTheory we played the exactly same settings at my friend's house and he also has an HD4870X2. running 1920x1200 on samsung T220P with AAx8 and everything maxed out, also has about 45 FPS and to be honest its completely smooth, as smooth as 45FPS can get... I have no idea what it is you are experiencing but it sounds very suspicious. what OS and what drives are you using?

Im on xp 64bit and 8.10 drivers with FC2 hotfix.

 

[003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnylaris So I got my brand new Sapphire 4870 x2. Drivers installed fine, no issues as I used driver cleaner to remove my old nvidia drivers. I installed 8.10 then the far cry 2 hotfix. I ran lots and lots of benchmarks to test the setup and results were very nice including a 3dmark06 score of 23,000 (previously 21,000 with the 280). Thing is... I CANT STAND THE MICRO STUTTER! Its ridiculous. When you drop below 40/50 fps you can notice it reallly bad. I was playing far cry 2 at 1920 x 1200 with 8xAA and it reports 40fps average.. Which is great.. except it feels like 10fps! Same in all other games and especially bad in Crysis. There is no way I can stand this. If there is no fix I'm sending this back and keeping my 280. Bottom line - gtx 280 feels far smoother than the 4870x2 even when running at half the fps. I really really hope there is a fix for this.

I've found that stuttering is not directly related to low FPS. I also experience it in FC2 with 8xAA enabled, however, in Crysis with 8xAA, there is zero stuttering, even when I'm getting like 20fps. Of course, that could just be because Crysis doesn't support crossfire

In UT3, I can do 8xAA with no stuttering, and the FPS will occasionally drop to the 30s in poorly optimized custom maps, and still no stuttering. However with 16xAA, there is very noticeable stuttering with low FPS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by StupidityTheory running 1920x1200 on samsung T220P with AAx8 and everything maxed out, also has about 45 FPS and to be honest its completely smooth, as smooth as 45FPS can get...

Sorry, but either this is 10 pounds of bull in a 5 pound bag, or you simply don't notice micro-stuttering (although it is hardly "micro").

 

[USFORCES]

I've never seen micro shuttering whats it look like low FPS?

 

[003]

If you want to see micro stuttering, download DM-Shrift for UT3, and play it at 1920x1200 or higher, with max graphic settings, and force 16xAA (or higher) in the drivers, as well as the highest level of Supersampling.

 

[Murlocke]

I've noticed it, but its usually more related to a defragged hard drive.

The 4870X2 has ALOT less microstuttering than a normal CF/SLI setup.

Try the normal 8.10 drivers. The far cry 2 hotfix is known to reduce textures and image quality in far cry 2.. which is why it gets better frames. So theres no real reason to install it unless you actually want less graphics and more frames.

Also the 8800s had issues for over a year before they finally worked them out, espically in vista. The 4870X2 will likely have issues for another few months.

 

[l4n b0y]

hmm, i run FC2 at 19x12 with 4xAA, and average around ~55, and do not notice a thing.. (well most of the time, i just though FC2 was buggy, and to be honest, i just built this pc, its my 1rst ATi card in a long while, last was a x1950pro agp..)...

 

[jonnylaris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by l4n b0y hmm, i run FC2 at 19x12 with 4xAA, and average around ~55, and do not notice a thing.. (well most of the time, i just though FC2 was buggy, and to be honest, i just built this pc, its my 1rst ATi card in a long while, last was a x1950pro agp..)...

Did you actually read my post? It happens mostly when you drop below 40fps (i.e. running far cry 2 on 8xAA).

 

[l4n b0y]

why in the hell are you running 8xAA at 19x12 anyway. thats just not needed, take it to 4, and problem solved...

i did read ur post, and i posted a solution...

all 8xAA is, is epeen status, and not the good kind, the ******ed kind, where everyone is looking at you like WTH..

 

[USFORCES]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 If you want to see micro stuttering, download DM-Shrift for UT3, and play it at 1920x1200 or higher, with max graphic settings, and force 16xAA (or higher) in the drivers, as well as the highest level of Supersampling.

So what your saying if I do this will it cause micro shutter or just low FPS?
What I don't get is the only ones I hear really complain about this is people with x2 cards like the 9800GX2 or the 4870x2?

 

[jonnylaris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by l4n b0y why in the hell are you running 8xAA at 19x12 anyway. thats just not needed, take it to 4, and problem solved... i did read ur post, and i posted a solution... all 8xAA is, is epeen status, and not the good kind, the ******ed kind, where everyone is looking at you like WTH..

God knows how you even have 3 rep.

I was turning on 8xAA to get the framerate below 40fps like I allready explained! Not for the image quality.

So no, you didn't read the post and you certainly did not provide a solution or anything useful at all for that matter.

 

[003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by l4n b0y why in the hell are you running 8xAA at 19x12 anyway. thats just not needed, take it to 4, and problem solved... i did read ur post, and i posted a solution... all 8xAA is, is epeen status, and not the good kind, the ******ed kind, where everyone is looking at you like WTH..

Not exactly buddy. The common misconception among PC gamers is that if you have a "high res" LCD, being 1920x1200 or higher, then AA is pointless. Well, no, it doesn't work that way.

1920x1200 is the digital image size, not the resolution. If you actually calculate the resolution of a "high res" LCD, it will still be right around 100dpi, virtually the same as a 15" LCD with a res of 1024x768.

This is why it's better to get a smaller screen size with a higher digital image size. So a 24" LCD with a native resolution of 1920x1200 is better than a 26" LCD with a native resolution of 1920x1200 because it will have higher dpi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by USFORCES So what your saying if I do this will it cause micro shutter or just low FPS? What I don't get is the only ones I hear really complain about this is people with x2 cards like the 9800GX2 or the 4870x2?

It will probably cause micro stuttering and low FPS. I'm not sure why you only hear users of single card multi GPU solutions complain of microstuttering, but the fundamental problem lies in the nature of Alternate Frame Rendering -- which is the principle that both SLI and CF operate on, for both dual card and single card multi GPU configurations. It's not something that can be fixed with a simple driver update -- AFR would need to be dropped entirely for something like Supertiling, but that has it's own problems and it uses a lot more CPU power.

It seems the best solution, (or at least the best conceptual), would lie in the Lucid Hydra 100 chip, which is not yet released.

 

[jonnylaris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 Not exactly buddy. The common misconception among PC gamers is that if you have a "high res" LCD, being 1920x1200 or higher, then AA is pointless. Well, no, it doesn't work that way. 1920x1200 is the digital image size, not the resolution. If you actually calculate the resolution of a "high res" LCD, it will still be right around 100dpi, virtually the same as a 15" LCD with a res of 1024x768. This is why it's better to get a smaller screen size with a higher digital image size. So a 24" LCD with a native resolution of 1920x1200 is better than a 26" LCD with a native resolution of 1920x1200 because it will have higher dpi. It will probably cause micro stuttering and low FPS. I'm not sure why you only hear users of single card multi GPU solutions complain of microstuttering, but the fundamental problem lies in the nature of Alternate Frame Rendering -- which is the principle that both SLI and CF operate on, for both dual card and single card multi GPU configurations. It's not something that can be fixed with a simple driver update -- AFR would need to be dropped entirely for something like Supertiling, but that has it's own problems and it uses a lot more CPU power. It seems the best solution, (or at least the best conceptual), would lie in the Lucid Hydra 100 chip, which is not yet released.

You seam to be the only person who knows what they are talking about! I'm running a Dell 2407wfp so 4xAA is fine. The problem is only when any game drops under 40fps regardless of what image settings are applied.

 

[Daegameth]

jonny, why the hell ask people for help if you're just going to barrate anything that people post to help. Also, maybe you need to read your own post again because you never explained that you were turning on 8xAA to solely drop your frames below 40.

And if that's the case and you're not just being an idiotic forum troll, then whats the problem? If you notice the stuttering below 40 fps when you're purposely trying to make it drop below 40, just to fix it again...just go back to 4xAA and be done with it!

 

[USFORCES]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 003 It will probably cause micro stuttering and low FPS. I'm not sure why you only hear users of single card multi GPU solutions complain of microstuttering, but the fundamental problem lies in the nature of Alternate Frame Rendering -- which is the principle that both SLI and CF operate on, for both dual card and single card multi GPU configurations. It's not something that can be fixed with a simple driver update -- AFR would need to be dropped entirely for something like Supertiling, but that has it's own problems and it uses a lot more CPU power.

You don't know why? Just google "video cards that microshutter" and all you see the 9800 GX2 and the 4870X2.

 

[ryanrenolds08]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnylaris You seam to be the only person who knows what they are talking about! I'm running a Dell 2407wfp so 4xAA is fine. The problem is only when any game drops under 40fps regardless of what image settings are applied.

God only knows how you have one rep

Why in gods name did you push your card into microstutter territory??

That doesn't even make sense. And what really doesn't make sense is you putting down everyone for telling you to turn down AA. Nice way to jack up your own thread

*edit*

I need some help guys. My engine in my car keeps overheating and I need to know why. I hold the gas down all the way to the floor just to get it to overheat but I don't know why it overheats?? If you give me some advice, I will shoot you down and put you down so I need help. just don't give it to me ok?

That just about sums up this thread.

 

[l4n b0y]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryanrenolds08 God only knows how you have one rep Why in gods name did you push your card into microstutter territory?? That doesn't even make sense. And what really doesn't make sense is you putting down everyone for telling you to turn down AA. Nice way to jack up your own thread *edit* I need some help guys. My engine in my car keeps overheating and I need to know why. I hold the gas down all the way to the floor just to get it to overheat but I don't know why it overheats?? If you give me some advice, I will shoot you down and put you down so I need help. just don't give it to me ok? That just about sums up this thread.

HAHA pwnage at its finest..

8xAA is pointless, regardless of how you try justify it. 4xAA looks mighty fine.