Not optimum mode. Recommended mode...

I get this error message every time I try to play a game. The message is in white text in a grey box, on an opaque black background:

I've tried this on the three games I've got installed at the moment, Crysis, Civ V, and BF3. The error appeared for BF3 only after I specifically set the resolution and refresh rate to 1920x1080 & 60Hz. Playing 1080p videos works fine.

Windows says that the display is at 1920x1080@60Hz, so does the Catalyst Control Center, even the monitor's menu says it. It just doesn't make sense.

The game is still running underneath, there's still sound, and I can get rid of the error by presing Alt+F4 to close the game. However, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work.

The monitor is a Samsung P2250. GPU is HD6950 2GB unlocked to 6970 shaders, connected with DVI. CPU is Core i7 920.

I've read around, it seems like a Samsung display problem, but I've had this display for years without this issue. I recently changed my GPU, but again, I used to be able to play games a few days ago.

The message is most likely coming from the monitor's on screen display.

Some possible causes:
1. a 59 vs 60 hz refresh rate issue.
2. you're running at 1920x1200 instead of 1920x1080, or vice versa.
3. a bad/weird cable

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=156098&enterthread=y maybe helptful.
Btw. that's a totally useless message stated by the OSD - not possible to troubleshoot it at all. It would be nice, if they would show what timings that were used to invoke this message.

I was receiving this issue with BF3 on my Crossfire setup. (a few posts down) I was able to remedy by dropping back to 11.9's with Cap 4 instead of the 11.10's. I swapped out a few monitors myself (3 different model samsung 24's and a Dell 24") and it didn't improve until yesterday (oddly though a new dell that came in the mail yesterday works with the latest drivers).

I noticed that even though the game is set to 60hz, the drivers are polling the monitor and setting it to 100hz (odd, didn't think the monitors supported it). What's worse is you could apply changes and it would look fine, the moment you saved the settings.. boom out of range.

I would put the fault on AMD on this one.. here's hoping the put out a patch.

stewartjm said:

The message is most likely coming from the monitor's on screen display.

Some possible causes:
1. a 59 vs 60 hz refresh rate issue.
2. you're running at 1920x1200 instead of 1920x1080, or vice versa.
3. a bad/weird cable

Click to expand...

Every time I check, it's 1920x1080@60Hz. It could be changing afterwards, but there's no way to tell if that's the case.

tk-don said:

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=156098&enterthread=y maybe helptful.
Btw. that's a totally useless message stated by the OSD - not possible to troubleshoot it at all. It would be nice, if they would show what timings that were used to invoke this message.

Click to expand...

Eh. Hate driver issues.

And I agree. I can't do anything with it at all. I can't get rid of it, I can't get a log or anything to tell me why it's happening, it just stays there.

Reverting to 11.9 fixed the issue.