8800 series owners, mind trying something for me? (ATi & older nV owners are welcome also)

[n7]

I asked this exact same thing this summer regarding nVidia cards, & i am wondering if they have fixed it in the 8800s.

Could you rotate your display (especially if you have multiple, the secondary ones too) into portrait mode, & try running your browser like that, on say, the forums here.
What would be the most helpful though is if you could run the secondary display in portrait mode if you have one.

Now scroll up & down & tell me if there's tearing.


Basically, you should be able to scroll up & down very quickly completely smoothly.
You should also find that pulldown menus, etc., are NOT sluggish & laggy.
If they are, you are experiencing the issue i am looking to avoid.

For those not familiar with portrait mode, the monitor on the left is in portrait mode; the center & right one are in landscape mode.

Please let me know the results.

Thank you very much.

 

[Arcada]

I have an 8800. I test this for you and it works fine. No tearing.

I know what you are referring to because I've seen other models not run very smoothly in portrait mode.

 

[Captante]

Works fine with my GTX using Forceware v97.44 with the exception of some minor, but visable tearing in Firefox v2 which happens in landscape mode as well.

 

[microAmp]

Didn't notice anything, 97.92's

 

[FireChicken]

wierd my 7950 gx2 tears.

How did you find this quirk out?

It was actually acting pretty strange in this mode. when I right click on the desk top to change it back, and clicked on my video card tab. i keep getting an error saying that "app running as a dll" needs to close and could not access my settings. But I changed it back through the icon in the task bar and everything works fine now..

Ill check it again next week when my 8800GTS arrives

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: FireChicken
wierd my 7950 gx2 tears.

How did you find this quirk out?

It was actually acting pretty strange in this mode. when I right click on the desk top to change it back, and clicked on my video card tab. i keep getting an error saying that "app running as a dll" needs to close and could not access my settings. But I changed it back through the icon in the task bar and everything works fine now..

Ill check it again next week when my 8800GTS arrives

Thankyou very much.

This is exactly the comparison i needed.

I run my secondary display in portrait mode, mainly for internet use.
(I am typing this from that secondary display in portait mode now.)

I had noticed previously that on older cards (like my old Radeon 7000 Pro), there was bad tearing if i used it in portrait mode, but never on newer ATi cards.

Then i got a 7900 GTO, & to my great horror, it had terrible tearing as well.
I tried every possible driver & application combinations to fix it, but i soon realized there was no fix, so i sold it

I have since found out that it seems every nVidia card out there has this issue, from onboard 6150 chipsets to the 7900 series.

After a little research, it appeared that nVidia simply does not have hardware acceleration when running in portrait mode.

Frankly, there are no words to explain my disgust for this oversight, as it pretty much removes nVidia cards from my purchase options.

So far it sounds like they might have actually decided to design properly working cards & drivers with the new 8800 series, which is a relief.

 

[n7]

I wouldn't mind hearing from more nVidia owners or older ATi card owners too, as there is incredibly little documention or discussion of these issues.

I realize running displays in portrait mode isn't exactly common, but there are still a few of us who do it.

 

[ss284]

This has always been a problem with nvidia cards. Since people rarely use portrait mode, theres not too much talk about it. The real test, is to see if there is still acceleration when secondary monitor is in portrait.

 

[Pugnate]

What is portrait mode and how do you run it? Are you talking about hitting F11?

 

[secretanchitman]

6600GT AGP running 91.47s and no tearing here.

 

[JBT]

running X1900XT with 2405FPW using Cat 7.1's no tearing. Wow is this tall lol....
This is also with only a single monitor.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: ss284
This has always been a problem with nvidia cards. Since people rarely use portrait mode, theres not too much talk about it. The real test, is to see if there is still acceleration when secondary monitor is in portrait.

Actually that's a good point.

That's what i really want to find out.

I shoulda specified that earlier.

Secondary display running in portrait mode is my main concern.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
6600GT AGP running 91.47s and no tearing here.

See now that doesn't make sense.

You should be getting visible tearing if you're running portrait mode

Unless this is only an issue with secondary displays in portrait mode...

Argh.

 

[n7]

I updated original post with a better description of what i am looking for.

 

[TheRyuu]

Yup.
As far as I can tell it was tearing.

My monitor doesn't rotate (physically) so it was a PITA to control the mouse

XG97.92 drivers.
8800GTS
Basically, rig in sig.

 

[schneiderguy]

7600gt running 91.31, no tearing, but it felt a little sluggish scrolling up and down.

Are you getting tearing like you would get when you're running windows without a video driver installed?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Yup.
As far as I can tell it was tearing.

My monitor doesn't rotate (physically) so it was a PITA to control the mouse

XG97.92 drivers.
8800GTS
Basically, rig in sig.

I really appreciate you trying it even though you had to run things sideways

Only thing is wtf are you getting tearing, yet others not

This is very confusing.

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
7600gt running 91.31, no tearing, but it felt a little sluggish scrolling up and down.

Are you getting tearing like you would get when you're running windows without a video driver installed?

Sorta, though w/o driver is usually much worse.

Sounds like i'm gonna have to wait for R600...
I suspect i'll end up with the same issue if i get an 8800 from the sounds of things.

 

[secretanchitman]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: wizboy11
Yup.
As far as I can tell it was tearing.

My monitor doesn't rotate (physically) so it was a PITA to control the mouse

XG97.92 drivers.
8800GTS
Basically, rig in sig.

I really appreciate you trying it even though you had to run things sideways

Only thing is wtf are you getting tearing, yet others not

This is very confusing.

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
7600gt running 91.31, no tearing, but it felt a little sluggish scrolling up and down.

Are you getting tearing like you would get when you're running windows without a video driver installed?

Sorta, though w/o driver is usually much worse.

Sounds like i'm gonna have to wait for R600...
I suspect i'll end up with the same issue if i get an 8800 from the sounds of things.

im with schneiderguy . i get no tearing, but it definitely felt sluggish scrolling up and down.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: microAmp
Didn't notice anything, 97.92's

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: n7
Only thing is wtf are you getting tearing, yet others not

This is very confusing.

Well.

Tried it again.
It LOOKS like tearing.

The areas in between the posts (gray on mine, I think blue on the default) look like it's tearing.

I can see those tearing lines that you normally get when something tears.
Now, if it's really tearing or not, I don't know.

Edit:
The tearing seemed minimal on gmail though.

And the bookmarks menu, when I scrolled down, seems slightly sluggish.
I think the tearing might depend on what your looking at.

 

[BassBomb]

I tear abit in normal mode :S

 

[n7]

So it seems for the most part, my assumptions were correct.
Just seems some users are reporting different results than the rest, which makes it hard to know what exactly is fact.

What i am sorta hearing (though not entirely this way):
Most nV cards pre-8800 series aren't working correctly in portrait mode (either tears, looks like it tears, feels sluggish/laggy) likely due to no hardware acceleration.
Anything 8800s is working correctly (none of the aforementioned issues).



Keep teh results coming...i was hoping to find an exact consensus here, but already that's not happening, as we have contradicting results...

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: ss284
This has always been a problem with nvidia cards. Since people rarely use portrait mode, theres not too much talk about it. The real test, is to see if there is still acceleration when secondary monitor is in portrait.

Actually that's a good point.

That's what i really want to find out.

I shoulda specified that earlier.

Secondary display running in portrait mode is my main concern.

I'll hook up my CRT tomorrow somtime if I get a chance & let you know what happens ... too tired to do it now.

 

[dunno99]

I'm a developer (games) so I run two monitors (one a ViewSonic 20" CRT and another Dell 2007FP), with the CRT in landscape and Dell 2007FP as the secondary (on the right side) in portrait. I run a 7600GT with one in analog and one in DVI. I get very visible tearing on my portrait monitor when I scroll really fast on webpages and code. But after using it a few months, I guess I got used to it. Hope this helps (can't answer for the 8800s, but at least this is some sort of reference point).

*edit* BTW, the CRT (landscape) gets full hardware acceleration when I play games...fullscreen or windowed. As soon as the window touches the second display, things start slowing down.

 

[n7]

Thanx for the added input.

As for getting used to the lag/tearing, there is no way i could.

Not when i know ATi hardware works 100% properly in that regard.

It sounds like the 8800s are okay though, but i wouldn't mind hearing from a few more 8800 series users to be sure.