I recently upgraded from an 8800GT to the 4870 and while so far everything has been peachy keen, one minor gripe I have is that when I ALT+TAB away from a fullscreen game and back into windows (or vice versa) the screen freezes for a good 6-10 seconds before making the switch. Never had this problem on the 8800GT or any of my old NVIDIA cards. I'm using XP 32bit, has anyone else noticed this problem since switching back to ATI? I'm wondering if its something specific to my machine or if its just the Catalyst drivers in general...
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ALT+TAB is slow with ATI compared to NVIDIA?
- Thread starter d7a7z7e7d
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I had the same problem before and I had to reinstall my drivers to fix it.
I'd guess it has something to do with refresh rates. I also noticed it when quitting games. For me, the screen would have to flicker first (screen goes black for a split second, then image comes back). My freeze was only for 2-3 seconds, definitely not a long pause like you're describing so it may be a different issue.
I spent a while tweaking all the settings and nothing seemed to fix it.
Uninstalled and cleaned the drivers, then installed a fresh copy and now it seems to work properly even though my settings are the same as before.
Does your monitor turn off and then back on during the ALT+TAB?
I'd guess it has something to do with refresh rates. I also noticed it when quitting games. For me, the screen would have to flicker first (screen goes black for a split second, then image comes back). My freeze was only for 2-3 seconds, definitely not a long pause like you're describing so it may be a different issue.
I spent a while tweaking all the settings and nothing seemed to fix it.
Uninstalled and cleaned the drivers, then installed a fresh copy and now it seems to work properly even though my settings are the same as before.
Does your monitor turn off and then back on during the ALT+TAB?
It happens any time its making the switch from 2D to fullscreen 3D, or fullscreen 3D to 2D. My monitor doesn't black out or anything but, everything including the mouse just freezes for about 6-10 seconds and then finally it switches over. I'll try reinstalling the drivers and give that a go. So, all of you ATI owners out there have nice and quick ALT+TABing ability in your games?
I've only used my Sapphire 3850 and a Diamond 3870, but yes, quitting and alt+tabbing is all instant. Just like alt+tabbing or closing normal windows, no freeze or blinks.
snowysnowcones
[H]ard|Gawd
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My guess is that it would be a powerplay issue. Perhaps the card is scaling it's clocks back when you alt-tab. But I'm just guessing here.
I try to avoid alt+tab'ing out of fullscreen games whether I'm running an ATI or Nvidia card.. More often than not, the game locks up or refuses to restore itself when I switch back to it, or the entire system freezes with a black screen, making it impossible to even bring up the task manager and forcing me to resort to the reset switch. Like I said, these things happened when I had a Geforce3, a 9700Pro, X800XT and it happens with my 8800GT..sometimes it works, but I usually don't risk it..
Ok so I've made sure all old NVIDIA drivers are removed, then I removed the ATI driver, restarted and reinstalled the latest from ATI's website (was using ones off the 4870 CD before) and still no luck. Oh well, its not that big of a deal, was just curious if you guys were experiencing the same thing or not. Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll let ya know if I ever figure out what was causing it...