GTA-V PC Graphics Performance Review - FCAT Frametime Recording Multi-GPU

Frametime Performance Multi-GPU 

With a benchmark technology called FCAT on the following two pages, we will look into Frame Experience Analysis. Basically with the charts shown we are trying to show you graphics anomalies like stutters and glitches in a plotted chart. Lately there has been a new measurement introduced, latency measurements. Basically it is the opposite of FPS.

• 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. 

We have a detailed article (read here) on the new FCAT methodology used, and it also explains why we do not use FRAPS anymore. 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 framerate, 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. Bear in mind that Average FPS matters more than frametime measurements. 

Frame Pacing Enhancements Multi GPU

Above an GeForce GTX 980 rendering in SLI mode. As you can see, the results are OK with very little deviation in frame pacing. You can see stutters and peaks, but don't let that fool you - we are under 20ms overall so you can't see that. 

The Radeon R9 290X in Crossfire then, we see a micro-stutter every few seconds, too small notice really as again, the scaling here overall is below 20ms. We see two small stutters ar 4 and 52 seconds but again, nothing to worry about. In fact these could be cards driving by. But spikes at 30~40ms are noticeable visually on screen.

And once we layer the the graphs of both the Crossfire and SLI card, you'll notice the deviation and overall frametime behaviour a bit better. Single GPU frametime overall is showing a more restful picture compared to both multi-GPU setups.