PCGH: Micro stuttering on multi GPU solutions

[saaya]

wot a kick in the arse for multicards :|

does running cards at exact same clocks help? does it only happen in some games? just curious as ive never run crossfire.

it would be helpful to have a list of games for 2, 3 and 4 card/gpu setups which work with absolutely no problems. it looks like a can of worms to me.

it affects sli AND xfire, it happens in ALL games...
its just more apparent in some games compared to others...

Please explain how that would ever give a less smooth experience than:

1:00:01 frame 1
...
1:00:31 frame 2
...

I really don't understand it, so please (someone) explain it to me. If the above is the correct explanation, then worst case scenario would be the same as without SLI, right?

I don't think the above explanation is the correct one, or at least not the complete one.

i already explained it 2 times, did you read the entire thread? :P

ok... here we go again
if you draw a cartoon you need a certain amount of pics per second to show to make it look fluent, right? well you can make things look more fluent by doubling the frames. you just show each frame twice, that actually does look more fluent even though you dont get more information.

BUT, this only works if you insert the frames propperly and show them exactly between the other frames. what happens with sli and xifre now is that the extra frames that the second or third/fourth gpu adds, are not displayed or rendered in their propper time windows.

its a bit difficitcult to understand, i admit that...
its basically a bad syncing of game time and frame time.
essentially the stuttering is caused by the game time not matching the frame time, so when we actually see the frames, they dont show a constant flow of time between the different frames, but it stutters.

a movement isnt steady but from one frame to the other the game appears to run slightly faster, then slightly slower. it happens so fast that we perceive it as stuttering.

Hopefully the r700 won't have this issue by sharing the memory bus

i dont know... i dont think you need new hardware to get it to run propperly...
its possible with topdays cards to adjust the frame times, but... it means less performance.
maybe with new gpus they find a way to do adjust frame times without a perfomance impact... hopefully!