What Are 1% & 0.1% Lows?

[@garypinholster1962]

No gray hair steve, younger steve. Its been quite a ride.

[@sabersworn]

Very informative and useful. I always wondered what 1% low and .1% low meant.

[@uyaratful]

Because he is dufus Rick

[@mathijshtcones]

I hope you're kidding

[@john-paulhunt2604]

CPU or PCH on the GPUs with undervolt and overclocked applied with XMP OC on the RAM and on the motherboard BIOS settings or not?

[@DiamantisGR]

You basically humiliate larger channels with your effort, methodology, techniques and of course, the hair.

[@stevethea5250]

N1 malaka

[@triadwarfare]

That's tech Jesus to you. He's friends with Linus, JayZ, and the other techtubers out there, so they aren't exactly competing against each other.

[@igatopardos]

@@stevethea5250 haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha

[@stevethea5250]

@@triadwarfare yeah got me scratching my head, not my butt.

[@tangdao]

It is clearly he could write an essay form easily, while some others just try to be first on anything and can't accept the fact there are other people better than him (as a life experiences, you would meet those kind of guys frequently.).

[@fabrb26]

And NOW, i KNOW. Thx Steve

[@BruceUZULUL]

holy , look so young here

[@suparibhau]

He also sounds really bored lol.

[@CC-bn2ws]

Bored, or a bit nervous?

[@zertbrown4642]

thank you Steve from the past

[@DrearierSpider1]

I love how much though and foresight you guys put into everything from your test methodology to your articles & videos. I recently started supporting you on Patreon and am glad to have done so.

[@keithplayspc]

It's closing in on the end of 2019 and I'm still having to show this video to help explain things to folks.

[@Whacha-md5jl]

The year is 2024 and I'm getting informed.

[@DieselWeasel]

Thank you for this description on what it means. I was worried about the video being 10 minutes long, but it's definitely not something you can properly explain in two, and this method of measuring performance makes so much more sense. I'm glad you do it this way, and now I know what to look out for.

[@borderlandsroadkill1288]

As a engineer and statistician I would like to commend you on providing some helpful insight into basic statistics for your audience . . . I've been a long time viewer because clearly, you have the background and expertise to correctly interpet & present your data while so many others on KZbin (and their audiences I suspect) simply market often unfounded opinions. Good job! -rk

[@___Robin___]

I used to look only at average fps to decide which video card has a better bang for the buck. Now I realize that frametimes represented on your channel by 1% and 0.1% lows are as important if not more important. Thanks for the great explanation and taking the effort for going more in depth about this topic.

[@TheSpiritof76]

Hey man, cool profile pic :)

[@gameboyv1790]

@@TheSpiritof76you too

[@fobypawz418]

This type of insight and review will hold manufacturers and developers more accountable. I love when something like this occurs which forces various involved parties to be more honest.

[@brilliantlysplendid]

he just loves to quietly show off that 1060 doesn't he

[@SoftExo]

quick, go tell AdoredTV, its all a cabal to end AMD

[@demonsagex]

I'm on mobile I can't like this comment 😥😥😥

[@LevisL95]

+DemonSage I have the same problem. Damn mobile app, how hard can it be to code a proper comment section?

[@osamaelkhalfaoui4784]

4 years later that gpu is like 10% of a 3090

[@Lavi-Aemilia-Astori]

What a youtube comment

[@tamtikras]

One of the most informative videos on GPU benchmark. GN, sir you did good job here. Many ( majority ) tech reviewiers should be linked to this video.

[@johnnypopstar]

I've gained an appreciation for this metric since playing GTA V on SLI 970s. Framerate hovers at 80 most of the time but even dips to 60fps feel terrible as the frame times are all over the shop during the dips. Really appreciate you going to the extra effort to report these metrics!

[@larsondavis8155]

It's so dope Steve. You're such a badass. Seeing how far you guys have come is incredible. Favorite Channel For sure.

[@JP-jc7tr]

This is by far the most ground breaking video I've seen in a long time. Thank you!

[@matt-g-recovers]

Thank you for pouring your heart and soul into your work Steve. Although I do not always agree with your conclusion, and those are rare instances, I will say that your testing methodology is solid and by taking the frametime metric and incorporating it in this way gives a much better actually perceived value. I have had cards run 'faster' than others that play like crap and multi gpu setups before the whole frametime issue was uncovered that were blistering fast but horribly unplayable. Great video and thanks for the hard work to help consumers make better decisions.

[@CrYserx99]

That moment where everything makes perfect sense xD.. Subbed

[@canberrano1widowmaker]

6 years ago, he was so YOUNG!!!

[@uyaratful]

This is great measuring idea! Great that you adapted it. But is there any way to minimize effects of 1/0.1% lows? Can you do some shenanigans to lower your framerates and make frames more consistent?

[@Elrik99]

Great question! I was meaning to take this a bit further and ask if AMD's frame target utility actually helps in that direction, i.e. could you trade peak performance for frame time consistency ? If so does AMD's solution achieve that or is it not working that well ?

[@johnnypopstar]

One thing is *not* to run SLI as that tends to induce a lot of frame time variance. Another source of variance would be if you were pushing your GPUs RAM and it periodically ran out and had to swap memory out to the system - that'd take extra time and cause a frame time spike - so check GPU RAM usage and reduce graphical settings to bring it down a bit.

[@kellinquinn6526]

If it's caused by low VRAM you could try lowering your texture quality or resolution.

[@yurimodin7333]

I know this is an old post but what works for me in games with big FPS swings where I normally have some headsroom is to use Rivatuner to cap my fps at about 62-65 fps depending on the game and disable all forms of vsync.. This keeps you just above 60 but also keep the GPU or CPU from hitting a hard stop/stutter so it still has the grunt in reserves to cope with whatever would normally make the stutter.

[@hawksights]

Finally I understand it too. And it's nice to see, that steve didn't change a bit since then

[@LucyPero]

I always suspected that the "Minimum FPS" value doesn't mean much. Excellent video! Subscribed.

[@CC-bn2ws]

Wish I found this channel years ago! But the last 6ish months have been incredibly helpful in getting back into building computers again.

[@fuppetti]

This is a very rigorous and reliable metric of performance. Channels like 'Science Studio' give the min/average/max data. Ironically your methodology is far more scientific.

[@stevethea5250]

GUYS SO WHAT'S BETTER? HIGHER NUMBER OR LOWER FOR 0.1 AND 1.0%????

[@poizonedcookie2669]

@@stevethea5250 higher is better

[@stevethea5250]

@@poizonedcookie2669 thx

[@roarkemoore]

Steve is so young here.

[@Kureiji-Desu]

i always wondered about this when playing games, but never found the words for it other than "lag" or "stutter" thanks for doing all of this.

[@michellopes9750]

When there is a big disparity between 1% and 0.1% low in a particular game, what is supposed to be done? Turn off some effects until stability is reached?

[@school_pizza]

get a new card

[@benjaminoechsli1941]

I've heard tuning your RAM can help with that, but have no personal experience to back it up.

[@KFC-Warrior]

Two questions... So now that we know what they are, how can we make measures to improve 1% and 0.1% lows? Are these more so cpu constraints causing the dips to begin with or gpu constraints?

[@68Warpigs]

Nice one Steve, as usual the best info anywhere on the planet.

[@Appalling68]

I am SO GLAD I came across this video and explanation. Thank you!

[@Fr33domSouL]

I'm having some strange situation where "minimum fps" has higher results compare to "1% low". how is that possible??

[@Dimwitland]

Great video, and useful discussion moving the metrics to where they need to go. @Sergei, agree, but - small steps. We're almost halfway there if we get people to start understanding and demanding it from other review sites...

[@Trader-CL]

It's basically the cumulative distribution function or CDF. For the layman, it's easier to say (in human terms) that 99% or 99.9% of the time it is XXX FPS, rather than 1% low or 0.1% low respectively

[@Pushing_Pixels]

I really like the way you present the information, it's what attracted me to your channel. I wish other reviewers would adopt the same metric.

[@mattg8888]

How can you have such a small group of subscribers. I really like you scientific approach. I just started watching your videos, but they make so much more sense than many of the "big" channels......not naming any, but you know who I mean. Great channel, keep up the good work

[@69NIPAD]

2021 - Thank you for this video

[@soniccinos]

Wow, I'm watching this video wondering, "That's pretty old tech there"... lol, the tech is old, but the info is fresh as always!

[@FeelMyLance]

You have OPENED MINE EYES!

[@smellymomo]

It's really informative. Thank you! I went through the article as well. It's great.

[@funtaril]

Young Steve is so sweet (not that the current version is not, but you know what I mean)

[@charliebrownnz1]

Another really good video - these guys make great, informative and vendor neutral content. I find the rise of the tomb raider benchmark a classic example of why average frame rates are not what they are cracked up to be. Unfortunately it doesn't give 1% and 0.1% lows but the lows are so common that to hit a frame rate where I rarely dropped under 60fps, I needed to drop the settings down substantially on my 390x. Apart from bragging rights, what use are fps averages anyway?

[@LevisL95]

Have been watching some of your content since the rx 480 hybrid videos. I like how you go in depth with the testing and explaining technical details. And the janky modding stuff is fun to watch, so I subscribed! Keep up the good work.

[@neef68]

This explained a lot! Thanks for uploading this.

[@AirshipFury]

I've been wondering what those stats were for months now. Thanks guys!

[@deltax930]

I've always like that you showed 1%/0.1% averages instead of minimums. Max frames per second is a completely useless metric that other reviewers show, and I've always been hesitant to trust minimums for fear of outliers

[@nikwalker570]

Can you please explain in the year 2019 anew what 0.1 and 1% lows exactly means, because I have a hard time to understand it. I know what stuttering is, but what is a good value for 0.1 and 1% low?

[@ionlyusetheinternetcauseih200]

Hey man I found you really knowledgeable and easy to understand. Also if anybody (my friends you know who you are) hate on u for ur features hair and pimples don’t listen to them. In recent times youtubers have been getting a ton of flack for their appearance.

[@OnionRingsGaming]

Ok cool makes sense, I like it when you used the 0.1% lows cus then when you benchmark a game (for example battle field 1) when I see a really low 0.1% score I can expect that game to stutter, and it usually does, as I said ex : BF1, DX12 as you saw in your testing had big stutters and it did indeed stutter really bad with my R7 370.

[@mafbloggerdanny]

subbed! wow what a great explanation of a complicated topic. I now have a better understanding of how to look at component benchmarks critically and take things with a grain of salt. Hope more channels start looking into these metrics deeper and giving people a more full picture of overall component performance and not just one limited indicator.

[@Ross-ow1ld]

6 years ago, wow. You’re like baby Jesus - perfect time of year for a nativity scene.

[@topredtv3275]

excellent explanation, subbed!

[@DreamBlissYT]

Thank you for this. Is there a chart somewhere that is kept updated that shows the best, on average, performing video cards at 1% lows?

[@Damarcuhh]

i know this video is old but i have a RTX 4090 and i9 14900k and get over 200 fps in all games but my 1% lows in rivatuner read under 1 fps most of the time in every game but yet i see no stutters is there a fix or should i not be too worried about it?

[@youssefd1024]

You must run the benchmark when you're in game. You must chose a hotkey to bbegin and stop recording benchmark in msi afterburner in the benchmark tab in the settings window.

[@sequal9807]

Great video, very interesting and needed ! Thanks :)

[@lukenycz7967]

So what's the best thing we can do if we are experiencing the bad drops from .1% lows? Change settings or hardware?

[@DETERMINOLOGY]

Depends.

[@tlita93]

Do you use Fraps or FCAT for measuring frame times? :) Although I really have no idea how FCAT actually works..

[@xnax1993]

This is why I hold the GN benchmarks higher than everyone else's. Best gaming-related tech channel on KZbin, and that's not up for discussion.

[@AK-IT]

I liked when you put the frame times of the GPUs in the DOOM Vulkan comparisons

[@Annatar.]

Can you do a video on the question whether lowering max frames in favor of higher 1% and .1% lows works and with wich limiting processes?

[@johnnypopstar]

That would vary game-to-game. General advice would be just reduce graphics settings to reduce the load on the RAM and thus the chance of spikes.

[@Annatar.]

johnnypopstar yeah sure, even I can think of lowering settings to gain fps and increase lows. I'm still interested in what i asked^^

[@Fail.Better]

Great video, and a very eloquent explanation. This helps me feel a bit better about going for the 8GB RX 480 rather than the 4GB.

[@cristiansancho7086]

guys u r one of the best tech channels!!!

[@pappaxray2]

On games I worked on in the past we'd do memory defragmentation or in newer games garbage collection during a scene transition when the screen is black. It would be unnoticeable to the player but would look really bad on the profiler if you were looking at the worst (longest) frame.

[@meph5291]

Excellent methodology. I was sick of whole "average fps" thing as it shows unreliable data. Instant subscription because of this work. Thank you. Average fps does not mean you will have a stable gaming fps of that number. I would prefer stable 40 fps to 60 fps if i will have spikes and random fluctuations.

[@wolfie8748]

i really dont understand these things but i sub because you are so cool

[@Keivz]

I wish we could see the raw data of the 0.1% frametimes. That’s like 6-15 frametimes to report depending on the avg framerate and length of the benchmark(?) There’s a case to be made in knowing these minimums because even an average of the lowest 6-15 frames can be misleading. For example, if you get 3-4 significant frame drops (let’s say double the frametime avg of the entire dataset) over a two minute benchmark and the rest of those 0.1% ft’s are close to average, then the 0.1% low could still look pretty good even though most of us wouldn’t like 3-4 stutters every 2 minutes. Maybe most stutters don’t work this way so it’s not worth showing but I’d like to know what hardware has the least minimums since sutters are a real pet peeve of mine

[@jrye3493]

2021.....just found this. Great explanation!!!!!

[@Trustachio]

as a new subscriber this video was great. Thanks a bunch

[@SonnyCloud]

Is the 0.1 and 1 % low measured by msi afterburner representative or useless?

[@Hadar1991]

OMG, such young and such camera shy TechJesus. :D

[@vekdroid]

Thank you for this very informative video... I'm just getting back into computers and maybe gaming so this is a great help.

[@lategamingwithiainjarvis]

@thegamrone you didn’t show the 1% and 0.1% lows which shows the stabilize fps

[@brieflyATyours_community]

So basically it's mean,if the 1% low is closer to average fps,its good right?

[@andrej8861]

Can you test the lows in a scenario where you limit the FPS?

[@anthonyrobertson6458]

Great video, thanks for explaining this.

[@mikesrandomchannel]

You know your life is going well when you get to casually drop "we've got a tray of CPUs" into an FPS backgrounder

[@iamtheonewhoyoulove]

furyx does have some frametime issues yeah, but if you have a freesync monitor its completely gone

[@radtech246]

Super useful video, will be doing this ourselves in the future 😃

[@TechOwnage]

i hope the other reviewers follow suit to your format of 1% and 0.1% lows.

[@obzen33]

thanks for explaining this in greater detail!

[@LAN-w-]

If I'm trying to cap my fps, should I cap inbetween average and 1% lows or just the 1% lows?

[@streetguru9350]

For that 4gbs vs 8gbs testing though, you could always drop the textures or something to use less VRAM. More just a note for the end user, Game X at Ultra Settings on the fury X with textures set to medium/high. Probably not worth the time to include and test that though.

[@deekdouglas3055]

the 4gb vs 8gb test is a little crazy, if you use less than 4gb its basically going to be a draw if you use more than 4gb its going to be a win for the 8gb card. Kind of doesn't need to be tested. I think of it as being like asking what can hold 3L of water better a 4L jug or an 8L jug, they are both equally capable. If you asked the question which can hold 6L water tho there is obviously only 1 winner. Note in this 4gb vs 8gb test it wasn't a clock for clock false test it was a true to life out the box performance test as the 4gb models have 7ghz memory and the 8gb have 8ghz memory, G.N. tested it the right way and did find the benefits of the 8gb card.

[@AnjayKm]

Great explanation, thanks!

[@prashanthdoshi9926]

after 6 years i getting this in my youtube video had to watch it lol

[@klyded8523]

Do you test with FCAT Steve?

[@zahee241]

how's the rx480 endurance test going sir?

[@OrlandoDiddyLaw]

I was wondering the same. By the way, great video as always Steve!

[@VGDocs]

so as an example, does this mean that 0.1% = 30 fps would mean: the slowest 0.1% of frames are being delivered at an average of 33ms?

[@Dobermanator]

I think you are bettering the process of informing people about the Products. It almost comes across like the FPS avg / min / max information we are provided (elsewhere) is what you might describe as "filtered." I had a similar thought process regarding the power consumption of the GPU because it acts similarly to FPS with broad range of spikes (both up and down) possible. Do you think a similar metric can be used to better qualify the power data because what I believe what we are seeing is a similar filter applied as to the FPS measurements we're accustomed to seeing?

[@littlerhino2006]

How ironic, I got a PUBG ad on a video explaining low FPS.

[@Piercingthesky1]

what I'd like to know is that how does the software know that those frames are the slowest at 1%?

[@Standard.Candle]

Amazing video, this is enough for me to seek council from GN first in the future. Perfectly explained to my knowledge level, without over or under simplifying

[@bellotriggerfish]

Looking at this video in 2020, and it was a great explanation of what these numbers mean. But I also have to wonder: what causes these 1% lows? Is it CPU-related? Does a CPU with better IPC make these numbers better? I am asking because I genuinely perceive these dips very frequently in Fortnite, usually in the lobby area, but also during gliding down from the bus to the ground and even on occasion in certain areas of the map. I am on a Ryzen 2600 CPU and have a GTX 1080. Would a Ryzen 3600 or even the new 5600X help with these dips?

[@_sdorts_718]

Hello from 2021 i have r5 3600 and a 1080ti i have these dips in all games would love to know how to fix them. Some say go intel

[@bellotriggerfish]

@@_sdorts_718 If they are like micro blips, that could be a frame time issue that I've seen in the past. It's where, yes you're getting a consistent 60fps output, but the frame time moves around between 12 and 17 ms, where it should be a consrtant 16.6ms. That is with me assuming you've got V-Sync on to avoid screen tearing. If not, then ignore the next suggestion. So, if you do have v-syn on, try to use MSI After burner, then click on the tray icon for the Rivatuner, and put a 60 for frames per second instead of 0. IN the game, you may now set the FPS limiter to unlimited (you still get only 60fps since Rivatuner is limiting the frames). And your frame times should have stabilized to 16.6 ms. Other reasons for dips if they are not of this nature could be sudden loading spikes from the HDD (if you still run from one of those), Windows doing some background task that momentarily takes away from processing the game. And yes, Intel CPU tend to have better IPC numbers that help with draw calls to the GPU. I have since upgraded to a Ryzen 7 5800x, and I couldn't be happier with the CPU (aside from its crazy heat which can be worked around by undervolting the CPU). I also now have a RTX 3090 FE, and I still sometimes get blips in games, especially Fortnite in waiting area as players load in. I chalk it up to the game being online 100%. Hope my reply helps you a bit. EDIT: You may also want to checkk in nVidia settings for the Power setting. If it is set to " Normal" (default), your GPU might run at lower clock to conserve power, but clocks up when it's needed, which that split second can also result in a small blip. I also would try going into the Windows power settings, and if you are running Power saver, you definitely wan t to change that to either Balanced or even High Performance. So: for maximum imopact, I would go High Performance for Windows power plan and with Prefer Performance for nVidia power settings. Also, make sure your case gets good air as thermal throttling on the GPU can also lead to blips.

[@_sdorts_718]

@@bellotriggerfish yeah ive done that with rtss. I can get all games smooth with gsync 135fps 7.2ms 1080p low setting and i get these spikes to 10ms 15ms 20ms to highest ive seen is 50ms spike. Gpu usage drops cpu usage drops game stutters for a split second. Setting ram to use 2T kinda made these spikes a bit softer but they are still present. Got m.2 and ive noticed that these frame time spikes come when i move in a new area of a map. I kinda think i need a better cpu i got r5 3600 with 1080ti gskil 3200mzh cl14 ram . Ive been trying to fix these frametime spikes for months.it f***s with my aim in fps games.

[@bellotriggerfish]

@@_sdorts_718 Yeah, so CPU does become more important towards higher frame rates. I do not have any monitor, only a TV. So I run everything at 60fps. So yeah, you're potentially beter off with an Intel CPU for their high IPC count. Those, again, can affect draw calls quite a bit. There are videos that compare GTA 5 AMD vs Intel unlocked frames, and Intel clearly takes the cake. As you know, Intel is a bit more pricey, although AMD has also gotten more expensive. Plus, you will most surely need a new motherboard, whereas your current board for the R5 3600 will most likely be able to made compatible with the new Zen 3 chips. I have an Asus Prime X470 and was able to upgrade to the new chip with a Firmware update. Just food for thought.

[@_sdorts_718]

@@bellotriggerfish yeah i got b450m mortar max. Good board. I dont think i will upgrade anytime soon to a intel. Ive built this pc early this year. Dont have to mutch money to throw around. Ill just try to ignore those spikes. And thx for clearing things out for me a bit was thinking that i have a hardware isue.

[@TheCoIdDark]

Quality work GN.

[@danielberg5908]

What tool do you use to messure this?

[@niloticshadow]

There are numerous software you can use but I think the most common one is MSI Afterburner along with RivaTuner Statistics Server (which usually comes pre-packaged with MSI anyway). You can find videos on how to set it up properly since it can be a little bit of a hassle to use if you're new to it.

[@teddygoboom1]

Here from hammer on box's poll, I'm glad 70% of people were right. This makes much more sense than 99th percentile low to me

[@cm3462]

Sick video. Subscribed.

[@atnfn]

One thing I don't get is, when using Afterburner to log framerate. "Minimum" framerate is higher than both 1% low and 0.1% low. Shouldn't minimum be "minimum".

[@kamalhm-dev]

Finally, I've been wondering this a lot

[@tgdhsuk3589]

in CSGO terms 1% when you walk into a smoke 0.1% when you try to zeus at knife range

[@sangeeth.47]

lol

[@InsanoVZ]

Now I understand that 1% and 0.1% are important. Thanks for the explanation! ♥