How can I force a higher display frequency?

D

DDuckMan

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Messages
195
I have Win7 64, a CRT (FW900), and nVidia driver 280.26 with 3D Vision active. My working desktop is 1900x1200x85 and I prefer to game at 1600x1000x110. With my previous driver set all I had to do was make a custom 1600x1000x110 resolution and any game I set to that resolution would pick that frequency.

Now my games default to 60Hz when I pick 1600x1000 for some reason. In the nVidia control panel it only lists 85Hz and 110Hz at that resolution. In the stereoscopic 3D test application there is an option to "apply this resolution to all games". I have checked that and selected 1600x1000x110, but games still load at 1600x1000x60. If I switch resolutions in game then back to 1600x1000, 110Hz is applied but it does not stick. Next launch is back to 60Hz.

I had hoped to delete the lower frequencies in the registry but that resolution is not even listed there (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{G ID}\0000\NV_Modes).

In the past I "fixed" a similar problem by running Rivatuner in the background which locked in the refresh rate for me when games switched resolution. If I can't find a better solution I can probably just run Refreshlock in the background, but I'd prefer to fix it without adding background processes.

I am using Win7s default monitor profile/driver. Would it work to modify the Sony .inf and install it? If I understand correctly, I should be able to take this section of the .inf:

[GDM-FW900.AddReg]
HKR,"MODES\2304,1440",Mode1,,"30.0-121.0,48.0-160.0,+,+"
HKR,,ICMProfile,0,"sony_d93.icm"

and add this line:
HKR,"MODES\1600,1000",Mode1,,"30.0-121.0,100.0-160.0,+,+"
to change the minimum Vfreq to 100 at 1600x1000

I would have to do the same thing for other resolutions I sometimes use like 1680x1050 and 1280x800, but it seems cleaner than running a background program. Installing the .inf also changes the registry, which I would rather not do if it may muck things up. Any suggestions?
 
I mucked with this exact problem for hours upon hours before figuring out a very simple solution, that only requires a couple bucks. I hacked together custom drivers, custom INFs, custom monitor drivers, edited the shit out of the registry, etc. and not being satisfied. I ended up doing this mod and being extremely happy with the solution. This way you can also switch monitors from your badass CRT to a LCD for LAN parties and you don't have to do anything funky.

Grab an extra DVI-I to VGA adapter. Break pins 2 and 3 off with a needlenose. These are the pins that send EDID information to your video card. The way Vista and 7 treat EDID information makes it extremely hard to run refresh rates over 85Hz, even if the monitor is reporting the capability. Be careful so you don't bend other pins. Let me see if I can find a picture to describe.
image608iv2.jpg


Plug monitor in. Right click desktop -> "Screen Resolution", "Advanced", then untick "hide modes this monitor can't display". Pick 1600x1024 at 100Hz for example.

I always use NVIDIA cards, so ATI options may differ. Go to NVIDIA Control Panel and specify the custom resolutions you want. If you have a FW900/A7217A, these are the ones I recommend:
2560x1600@68Hz (just for shits and giggles)
2304x1440@80Hz (EDID max)
1920x1200@96Hz
1680x1050@100Hz
1600x1024@100Hz
1600x1024@110Hz
1600x1000@110Hz
1280x768@144Hz

You should be able to select these in games now. Sometimes it helps to switch your desktop resolution to the resolution you want before gaming. I ended up just using mine at 1600x1024@100Hz for desktop and games, works like a charm. Also works if you have multiple monitors.
 
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Thanks. I've seen that tip before and thought it prevents bad EDID info from blocking certain resolutions. Maybe I misunderstand, but how would that prevent Win7 or games from selecting the wrong available frequency when the card switches resolution at game load? I have no problem selecting 1600x1000x110 for desktop, but the games insist on loading 60 Hz for some reason.
 
I can't claim to be an expert on why this works so well for me, but before I modded the DVI-I to VGA adapter I was having the same issue as you. I could run 1920x1200@96Hz just fine on the desktop but the majority of my games wouldn't let me select a refresh rate higher than 85Hz, and a lot of my higher resolutions were missing. Modern Warfare 2, in particular, wouldn't let me select anything higher than 1600x1200 at 85Hz maximum. Once I did the adapter pin mod, and re-set up my custom resolutions, everything worked fine.
 
I may give that a try then. The games I have problems with (TF2 and The Witcher) don't have refresh rate selections and I am able to get them to run at any available refresh rate with separate workarounds. For TF2 I just specify a command line launch option parameter. For The Witcher I have to swap resolutions from something else back to 1600x1000 after the game loads and it will change from 60 ro 110 Hz. It's a minor pain but nothing is blocked for me, so maybe we have slightly different issues.
 
We probably have different issues then. I could force -r 100 all day long and it wouldn't do jack until I removed the EDID pins.
 
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