AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB review - Frame Time Experience Analysis Tomb Raider

This typically is the moment where we dive into FCAT results. FCAT however requires a DVI connector, which the Radeon RX 480 does not have. As such we need to revert toward old fashioned and much less precise FRAPS frametimes.

• FPS mostly measures performance, the number of frames rendered per passing second.
• Frametime AKA Frame Experience recordings mostly measures and exposes anomalies - here we look at how long it takes to render one frame. Measure that chronologically and you can see anomalies like peaks and dips in a plotted chart, indicating something could be off. 

Frametime - Basically the time it takes to render one frame can be monitored and tagged with a number, this is latency. One frame can take, say, 17 ms. Higher latency can indicate a slow frame-rate, and weird latency spikes indicate a stutter, jitter, twitches; basically anomalies that are visible on your monitor.

 
What Do These Measurements Show?

Basically, what these measurements show are anomalies like small glitches and stutters that you can sometimes (and please do read that well, sometimes) see on-screen. Below, I'd like to run through a couple of titles with you. Keep in mind that average FPS matters more than frametime measurements. 

Rise of the Tomb Raider Frame Experience Analysis

Again typically we use (and MUCH prefer) FCAT results. FCAT however requires a DVI connector, which the Radeon RX 480 does not have. As such we need to revert to old fashioned and much less precise FRAPS frametimes. Above, a percentile chart of the first 31 seconds @ 2560x1440 of the benchmark recorded. In this particular chart we plot FPS and place it in relation to percentiles.

** Let me also quickly state that the results with FRAPS are merely temporary placeholders. Once we get our hands on a DVI capable RX 480 we'll revisit this test methodology with FCAT.

Now we move to latency measurements (frame-times). Above, the card at 2560x1440. On this 31 second run the graphics card manages extremely well; as you can see, there are no stutters recorded. This is perfect rendering (frame-time wise lower is better). There are two spikes indicative of a stutter, however this is FRAPS and considering we did not see them on-screen, this is very likely game engine related and thus not visible at the display output. Also indicative for that is the fact that it spikes and dips (drops) at the same time.