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4870x2: frustrating vsync problem?

H

Harb

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
155
I've had a 4870x2 since the card launched, and my experience has been almost entirely positive. However, there is one bizarre problem that I have experienced in several games while using this card that is just getting to be too frustrating to ignore any more.

The problem is somewhat difficult to describe, and I can't document it easily because for some reason I can't take a screenshot of the game while the problem is happening; for example, in Civ 5 it just takes a black screenshot and in Spore my 'print screen' key just captures the screen as if the game were minimized to the taskbar. I have resorted to taking pictures with my digital camera and they can be found at the bottom of this post.

Basically, the entire game looks "shuttered", as if every other line of pixels is offset or something. So far this has happened in Spore, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Civilization V, Metro 2033, and more but I can't remember every single one. I'm not 100% sure if this is a vsync issue, but in some games I can work around the issue by toggling the vsync setting. I tried forcing vsync off in the catalyst control panel, but that didn't help. In other games, I have to change the resolution to something else, save the setting, then change it back to 1920x1080 for the problem to go away. Other games simply require a restart, but Civilization 5 simply won't run without this issue occurring unless I launch the non-DX11 .exe, but when I do that I can't use any anti-aliasing. This has been happening to me for well over a year, through several driver iterations ranging from the current 10.9 drivers back to even the 9.x series.

The system this is happening on is the rig in my signature. Click HERE for my dxdiag; I put it on pastebin to keep this thread tidy. Below are links to pictures of the issue in both Civ 5 and Spore. In these digicam pics, the problem is most easily seen on any text, but rest assured the -entire- screen is like that.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/vsync bug/DSC01292.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/vsync bug/DSC01293.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/vsync bug/DSC01294.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/vsync bug/DSC01294.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/vsync bug/DSC01297.jpg

If anyone as any ideas, I'm all ears. Even if the issue is unfixable, it'd be nice to know what the hell the problem is called, because so far I've been able to find nothing on this topic.
 
Honestly never seen that before. The fact that switching between full screen applications can cause it to come and go suggests it might be a problem between the monitor and video card.

You're running a 1080p monitor, which model? I have seen some odd behaviour sort of like this with the cheaper types of monitor using default display drivers. I would certainly update the monitor drivers from the default windows ones to specific ones for your model if I were you.

The best test would be an entirely different monitor if possible, if you can get a friend to bring one over or have a spare, definitely give that a go, it will narrow down the problem much faster.

It might be worth uninstalling the drivers, booting into safe mode and running a driver cleaner software to remove everything driver related, then reinstall the latest drivers, see if that helps. Driver cleaners can help fix corrupted driver installs.
 
Hi Harb,

Try disabling catalyst AI and see what happens, or turning it to standard (or advanced if you have it on standard)

Another thing to try to try in the catalyst control centre is to add the 1080p resolutions. You do this by going into the HDTV support tab and then tick every box in the top panel. And in the bottom panel select 1080p60 standard (1920 x1080 @ 60Hz)

Oh, and if you haven't done it already, you should update to the latest 10.9 hotfix drivers for the 4870x2.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
You're running a 1080p monitor, which model?
Click to expand...

Westinghouse LVM-37w3 firmware V1.80

ShuttleLuv said:
What refresh are you running?
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand your question; refresh of what, the video card? It's a Visiontek model and I bought it about a week after the card launched (if that), so whatever the first revision is is what I've got. How do I find out exactly what I've got?


reaper12 said:
Hi Harb,

Try disabling catalyst AI and see what happens, or turning it to standard (or advanced if you have it on standard)

Another thing to try to try in the catalyst control centre is to add the 1080p resolutions. You do this by going into the HDTV support tab and then tick every box in the top panel. And in the bottom panel select 1080p60 standard (1920 x1080 @ 60Hz)

Oh, and if you haven't done it already, you should update to the latest 10.9 hotfix drivers for the 4870x2.
Click to expand...

I had tried playing with the Catalyst AI settings and it didn't seem to have any effect.

I added the 1080p resolutions like you suggested and it seems to have made an improvement. 1920x1080@60hz is no longer an option in game, but running it at 1920x1080@59hz didn't give me the 'shuttered' effect. I'll play around with things a bit more but if I can't see any issues with running 59hz instead of 60hz, I'll count this as a win and leave it at that.

I got the 10.9 drivers by just going to ati.com and using the 'download drivers' menus right on their front page; do I need to go elsewhere to get the hotfix drivers? I read that they basically 'fixed' the 2nd core on 4870x2's but I've been really busy and havn't gotten around to finding them yet.

Thanks for the help everyone! It seems I may be on my way to having this fixed but until I get some time later today to really sit down and play with this I can't say it's 100% fixed yet.
 
I've always suspected something is unusual about ATI's vsync implementation. It's not an issue for everyone, but I've had stuttering issues with my single card on certain monitors and with certain games.
One partial fix was to change the AA filter setting in the control panel over to "Edge Detect" from the default.
Other partial fixes are games that feature manual Maximum FPS settings and setting them between 59 and 61.
 
Get the 10.9a hotfix here:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst109Hotfix.aspx

As for your issue, I've never seen anything like that.

I see you have a P5Q-Pro, if it comes down to it and you are able to identify your card has having a display issue somehow, you could get a cheap 4870 and do triple-crossfire. Chances are the issue would simply be bypassed if the card was only used as a slave card in crossfire.
 
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