NVidia "Shimmering" Graphics

[ubergeekmeister]

What's this all about? I never heard of this before and it sort of sucks that I find out about it now when I have just ordered my 7800GT. :|

 

[Gatt]

I've been running a 7800GTX without any problems for a few weeks now without any problems.

Perhaps some people have been running the Beta Drivers? I've heard of it with them.

 

[gac009]

its not that big a deal, at first there was some shimmering and now with the new drivers it seems to be gone. Fans of ATI like to make a big deal out of it, just because.

 

[ubergeekmeister]

Originally posted by: Gatt
I've been running a 7800GTX without any problems for a few weeks now without any problems.

Perhaps some people have been running the Beta Drivers? I've heard of it with them.

Ok thought as much, cool thanks for posting.

 

[Hacp]

I've had shimmering problems in FC, but I can't test now because My 6800GT is in a trade, and my copy of FC is sold . Was using latest drivers, etc. Shimmering wasn't AS bad as with old drivers, but once you notice it, then even if it is reduced, you will still look for it.

 

[will889]

That's exactly why i sold my 6800GT and use an X800XL now - because of the shimmer and shadow issues in several games. I tried 4 different drivers across 3 A64 chipsets with eh 6800GT. Same result - so i don't mind giving up SM 3.0 for better IQ.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: will889
That's exactly why i sold my 6800GT and use an X800XL now - because of the shimmer and shadow issues in several games. I tried 4 different drivers across 3 A64 chipsets with eh 6800GT. Same result - so i don't mind giving up SM 3.0 for better IQ.

Well, on the other side of the coin, I currently own FarCry, a 6800GT and a 7800GTX and played the hell out of FarCry on both. Never a single shimmer.

 

[biostud]

*pssst* there's a search function on these forums.

 

[Topweasel]

I have a 7800GTX and since hearing about the "shimmering" issue I have tried to look for it and haven't found it in HL2, BF2, FARcry, Citizen Kabuto, BFME, AoWA, or DOD:S.

 

[nRollo]

I never noticed the "shimmer" before people asked me to look for it, but could find it then if I looked.

nVidia is working on a fix for it, the 78.03 drivers are the first attempt. They eliminate the shimmering in some games, reduce it to varying degrees in others. You have to set it to High Quality in the drivers to use the "fix" as this turns off AF optomizations. "High Quality" affects framerates to varying degrees depending on the game and setting, from 0-20% usually. Fortunately with a 7800GT you'll likely have some fps to spare.

The "shimmer" is the band between mip map transitions. ATI cards have it too, to a lesser degree because they've been working with the same core features for years in their drivers.

 

[VIAN]

The newest official drivers 78.01 still has shimmering. All this is, is that High Quality doesn't give you the highest quality filtering like it says. But if you have used a Nvidia card previously and used the Quality mode you should be fine. The shimmering is supposedly a bug and should be fixed in the next driver release, whenever that is.

That's exactly why i sold my 6800GT and use an X800XL now - because of the shimmer and shadow issues in several games. I tried 4 different drivers across 3 A64 chipsets with eh 6800GT. Same result - so i don't mind giving up SM 3.0 for better IQ.

That's probably because you had the Image Settings set to Quality, which is the default setting, instead of High Quality. Quality has more shimmering than the shimmering in ATI's filtering, but High Quality in Nvidia has much less shimmering than either of those.

The "shimmer" is the band between mip map transitions. ATI cards have it too, to a lesser degree because they've been working with the same core features for years in their drivers.

I hope their new cards are better at it, but I doubt it.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: biostud
*pssst* there's a search function on these forums.

:thumbsup:

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: biostud
*pssst* there's a search function on these forums.

You can't seriously expect someone to search for the word shimmer, then spend the next 4 hours of their life reading through all that crap, can you?

 

[Hacp]

Ok my suggestion is to Download the lateste drivers as those seem to lessen the problems, AND NOT LOOK FOR THE SHIMMERING.If you look for the shimmering, you'll def find it on some games, but if you just play along, you will have a very low chance of noticing it with the latest drivers.