NVIDIA Responds to Reports of Kepler V-Sync Stuttering Issue

[Rieper]

http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/16...ing-Issue.html

Over the past month, users of NVIDIA GeForce Kepler-based graphics cards have been reporting intermittent stuttering in games, with v-sync enabled. A fairly long thread on NVIDIA forums formed the rally point of users noticing the issue, although the issues weren't universally reproduceable. Tom's Hardware sought a statement from NVIDIA on the issue. In its statement, NVIDIA said that it is looking into the issue, extensive testing has to be done, and that gamers noticing the issue should force v-sync to stay disabled via NVIDIA Control Panel.

"We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu."

[MikeC]

Thanks for sharing. I noticed that the story was originally posted at Tom's Hardware on the 18th, as linked to by techPowerUp. I would have picked the headline up in Tom's news feed, had I not unsubscribed from it in Google Reader last week. I'll certainly add them back as I always try to link to the ORIGINAL source of news for our visitors. I still subscribe to Tom's article feeds though. A distinguished, and very popular, web site.

NVIDIA has put forth much effort to reduce/eliminate micro-stuttering with Kepler (the GeForce 600 Series). Did we read all of the reviews? Did we notice if any reviewers reported the stuttering issue? Have we all read how the The TechReport, another awesome web site, plans to test and report on micro-stutteing? Are we all having the same issue?

As with most new hardware, bugs need to be worked out, which NVIDIA has admitted that they are already working on. I'm glad that it's "only" a driver issue and that they are not going to "cut corners" with testing. Too many company's continue to cut corners during the testing phase of a project and it shows.

The main point here is that NVIDIA has provided customers with a temporary workaround. Those reporting the issue, some of which are not customers of NVIDIA, probably already knew what the workaround was too.

[Logical]

Hmmm i wonder if it has anything to do with the new 'adaptive V-Sync' that Nvidia introduced a couple of driver releases ago...

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by slaWter

Mike, this is different to micro-stuttering. This is a vsync bug. Micro-stuttering is related to inter-frame-time-fluctuations in Multi-GPU configurations.

Honestly, the current workaround is not really an acceptable solution. They need to sort this out ASAP!

It's most likely also the reason behind the bad feedback in regards to the iRacing performance.

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I assumed one thing and it turned out to be another.

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by Logical

Hmmm i wonder if it has anything to do with the new 'adaptive V-Sync' that Nvidia introduced a couple of driver releases ago...

Maybe related, but hard to reproduce. Hence the lengthy testing cycle.

[MikeC]

Originally Posted by slaWter

Honestly, the current workaround is not really an acceptable solution. They need to sort this out ASAP!

I hate to say this, but I always disabled vsync when I benchmarked or played games. I noticed tearing, but it didn't bother me. It do understand that it bothers others.

[Logical]

I also tend to disable V-sync in a lot of games especially FPS games to reduce input lag, although this shouldn't be a problem for GTX680 owners.

[CoSWill]

I have noticed the stuttering on my MSI 670 in iRacing with vsync enabled, but to tell the truth it isn't that big of a deal to me. It appears to be driver related, so a fix is coming.

I use vsync in in FPS's because I am one who hates tearing. But in iRacing there is no tearing with vsync off, so no need for it. I just limit the FPS in game as suggested by SlaWter.

[Ghosthunter]

I have to be honest I have not notice it, and I have tried disabling and enenabling. Not saying it not there just luckily has not effected me. Maybe it only in certain games?

[Muppet]

I never run Vsync, so it's not something I have noticed or am likely too.

[john19055]

I never run v-sync either ,I guess that is why i never see no kind of studdering