Various questions, bios flashing, image problems etc

[Etacovda]

Ive lost count how many times ive written this

Basically, i have jerkiness issues in gaming etc.

In bf and UT2k4, basically anything direct3d, i get tearing when moving my mouse quickly...

In cs, if i have m_filter 0, i get the massive jerks when i move my mouse sideways. Yes, ive tried a different mouse, and different usb ports.

The processing part is fine - but it seems like a I get image jerks etc.

It passses prime fine. Memory benchmarks are where they should be, everything benchmarks fine etc. 3dmark2k1se, Without my vid card overclocked, im looking at 12500 marks. Basically, its just like my input is jerky, and player models jerk around too.

Memtest86 shows no errors.

Could it be my motherboard? Is it worth flashing the bios to see if it makes a difference? If i do flash, is it ok to use a windows98 disk to flash with? it says i need iosys.drv file (something to that effect)

I'm pretty confused... I want a new, decent mobo now, as this board hasnt really lived up to expectation, but if its not going to fix the problem, i guess theres not much point - i was thinking DFI infinity or the cheap option i have is the Asus A7N8X-X, but id like sata.

 

[Nazo]

Do you have video synchronization on? It's a common annoyance of having that off that if the framerates aren't super-high (seems to take 120+ for me sometimes,) then sudden extreme changes cause a sort of tearing effect. Bear in mind that setting that in the game may not work since the drivers usually allow you to set it to always be on or always off.

Oh, and even if that isn't the issue, it still sounds like the issue is purely video related and not your motherboard to me.

 

[TheMostWantedPolishTwin]

...did you try a PS/2 mouse?

 

[Nazo]

Erm, PS2? Doesn't that run on a low refresh rate by default? I remember I used to raise mine considerably to get my PS2 mouse running better way back when. However, every since I got my current mouse (Intellimouse optical) which came with a PS2 adaptor, I tried it first on PS2, then put it on USB and it ran about 3x smoother on the USB. Well, maybe if you had bandwidth issues, but even with all my junk loaded on the same bus (which it isn't) I'd only see about 20% or so bandwidth utilization. So I guess if that bus is loaded up, move the mouse to one that isn't. Oh, and you don't actually have to get a PS2 mouse. I think that all the USB mice are supposed to work through PS2 if only you get an adaptor. At least, I'm pretty sure... I've only done that to a few under special circumstances since they started making those.

Anyway, I still wonder about the vsync. I had that problem before I realized how important it was and it drove me insane because I thought it was due to my overclocking, but when I set the clocks back to the default I still saw it sometimes. Finally I saw someone mention somewhere the reasons to use vsync and the tearing effect was one of those. (The primary reason not to use it besides the small extra work being done to synchronize is the fact that it screws up benchmarks since fps shouldn't rise above your screen refresh rate...)

EDIT: BTW, in answer to your other question, it's PROBABLY (not impossible) not related to the motherboard. At least, not directly. There may be an incorrect setting somewhere or something. However, flashing the bios most probably wouldn't fix that. Here are the settings that Omegacorner (the people who make alternative video drivers meant to improve on the originals by some extent) recommend for best gaming speed/etc:

Fast Gate A20 Option : ENABLED
Video BIOS shadowing : DISABLED
Video BIOS cacheable : DISABLED
xxxxx - xxxxx Shadow : ALL DISABLED
IDE prefetch mode : ENABLED
Init Display First : AGP or PCI (SELECT YOUR CARD TYPE)
IDE HDD Block Mode : ENABLED
IDE 32-bit transfer mode : ENABLED
Assign IRQ for USB : DISABLED (UNLESS YOU USE USB DEVICES)
Assign IRQ for VGA : ENABLED
PCI/VGA palette snoop : DISABLED
PNP OS Installed : ENABLED (UNLESS YOU WANT TO MANUALLY ASSIGN IRQ's)
Resource Controlled By : AUTO (UNLESS YOU WANT TO MANUALLY ASSIGN IRQs AND DMAs)
AGP aperture size : 128 (USE 64MB IF YOU EXPERIENCE TEXTURE CORRUPTION)
AGP master 1 WS write : DISABLED***
AGP master 1 WS read : DISABLED***
Bank 0/1, 2/3 DRAM timing : TURBO***
CPU to PCI write buffer : ENABLED
Delayed Transaction : DISABLED (ENABLE IF YOU EXPERIENCE PROBLEMS WITH CREATIVE SOUND CARDS)
DRAM speculative leadoff : ENABLED***
DRAM Data Integrity Mode : NON-ECC (UNLESS YOU HAVE ECC MEMORY)
Delay DRAM read latch : (THE LOWER, THE FASTER)***
Fast writes : DISABLED
Memory parity/ECC check : DISABLED***
Passive Release : ENABLED
PCI Concurrency : ENABLED
PCI master 0 WS write : ENABLED***
RAS active time : (THE LOWER, THE FASTER)***
RAS to CAS delay : (THE LOWER, THE FASTER)**
Read around write : ENABLED
SDRAM Bank Interleave : 4-bank/way
SDRAM CAS Latency Time : 2**
SDRAM cycle length : 2**
SDRAM Precharge control : ENABLED
Spread spectrum (modulation): DISABLED
System BIOS cacheable : DISABLED
Video RAM cacheable : DISABLED
8 bit I/O Recovery Time : 1
16 bit I/O Recovery Time : 1
Turbo frequency : ENABLED


** = ONLY IF YOUR MEMORY SUPPORT IT, OTHERWISE USE THE NEXT
HIGHER VALUE

*** = WILL IMPROVE SPEED BUT DECREASES STABILITY, IF YOU HAVE
PROBLEMS CHANGE IT

Well, that's all for the BIOS.
This settings should increase you framerates with your video card, if you want do a benchmark before and after the changes, it will give you a good idea of the gain obtained.

Please be sure to try turning on the vsync if you already haven't btw. Just remember to turn it off when you want to benchmark. Oh, and for those settings, the memory latencies need to be set to whatever the memory was meant to take usually. You can sometimes get away with lower latency settings, but it rarely improves performance. In fact, when I was testing with 2-2-2-5, I noticed it was slower than 2-2-2-6 but still ran just fine. When I pulled them out so I could look at them, I noticed that it explicitely said 2-2-2-6 on the chips, so I wasn't terribly surprised. I think I needn't tell you that the actual settings, choices, and etc will vary depending on the BIOS.

 

[Captain Rehab]

Sounds like a videocard problem to me.