Refresh Rate Fix?

[TitusTroy]

can someone explain to me what this 60Hz Refresh Rate issue is all about?...I have my monitor's 'screen refresh rate' set to 85 Hertz in my Monitor Properties tab (see attachment)...does this mean that whenever I run a game that all my games will run at 85Hz as well?

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9020/monitorwo2.jpg

what are people talking about when they say that the refresh rate resets to 60Hz?...I hear people talking about using 3rd party programs such as RivaTuner or Refresh Force to manually override Windows reverting to 60Hz?...I don't want to play games or even use my Desktop at 60Hz so do I need to use these programs for that or is setting it to 85 Hertz in my monitor properties enough?...Thanks for any help

 

[CP5670]

can someone explain to me what this 60Hz Refresh Rate issue is all about?...I have my monitor's 'screen refresh rate' set to 85 Hertz in my Monitor Properties tab (see attachment)...does this mean that whenever I run a game that all my games will run at 85Hz as well?

No, not necessarily. Most games will revert to 60hz in fact.

What OS do you have? There is are a couple of ways to force refresh rates in XP and probably also Vista 32, but most of them don't work in Vista 64.

 

[TitusTroy]

I'm running XP Pro

 

[TitusTroy]

is it still necessary to use a program like RefreshForce to fix this issue?...or has it been fixed without having to use a program such as that?

http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/

 

[Donts00tmesanta]

i remember the days where the nvidia drivers had that option, why is it gone?

 

[Cogman]

What type of monitor do you have? Really, if you have a LCD this doesn't matter a whole lot. The only time there is a real issue is when you are dealing with CRTs.

My eyes can instantly detect a low refresh rate on a CRT monitor, I can't stand it. but with an LCD it really doesn't make a difference one way or another.

 

[CP5670]

I'm running XP Pro

I've found that the most reliable method is to load a modified inf file into Windows, as I described in this thread. This is good in XP at least.

is it still necessary to use a program like RefreshForce to fix this issue?...or has it been fixed without having to use a program such as that?

http://www.pagehosting.co.uk/rf/

You can try it, but there were a few games where it didn't work for me. The monitor driver thing works everywhere since it tricks Windows into thinking your monitor doesn't support the low refresh rates at all.

 

[BFG10K]

is it still necessary to use a program like RefreshForce to fix this issue?..

Yes. Either that or load a custom monitor INF.

 

[TitusTroy]

I'm using a 21' CRT monitor

but when I load up Crysis and press my monitor's 'Menu' button it shows the refresh rate being used as 85Hz...and this is without using any program such as RefreshForce...maybe this 60Hz bug only affects older games?

 

[CP5670]

It used to happen at least until 2005 or so. I started using this inf hack at that point and didn't worry about it again, but my guess is there are still some games with this issue.

Are you running Crysis at the same resolution as Windows? It's more likely to work in that case, since the game doesn't switch the resolution when it loads up.

 

[Auric]

Full-screen applications (including games) are configured independently from the desktop. Dodgy developers often failed to provide an easy way to configure the refresh rate along with the resolution, if at all. So, in ye olden days, Microsoft added an an override function to DirectX. ATI expanded upon that by adding the same function for OpenGL in its drivers. I do not know what the state of Nvidia drivers are in this regard. In recent years though with common panels limited to 60Hz which matches the safety default, it is a non-issue whether poorly programmed or whether the user fails to configure.

 

[TitusTroy]

Originally posted by: Auric
Full-screen applications (including games) are configured independently from the desktop. Dodgy developers often failed to provide an easy way to configure the refresh rate along with the resolution, if at all. So, in ye olden days, Microsoft added an an override function to DirectX. ATI expanded upon that by adding the same function for OpenGL in its drivers. I do not know what the state of Nvidia drivers are in this regard. In recent years though with common panels limited to 60Hz which matches the safety default, it is a non-issue whether poorly programmed or whether the user fails to configure.

thanks for the info

so for all games that use D3D using the override setting in the dxdiag box will force custom refresh rates?

how would I know what refresh rate a game is running at?...would pressing the 'Menu' button on my monitor give me that info?...because when I press the 'Menu' button I am given my current resolution plus the refresh rate---for example right now it is showing 1280 x 1024/85 Hz...when playing Crysis it shows 1600 x 1200/85Hz...so does this mean Crysis is running at a refresh rate of 85Hz?

 

[Auric]

Willkommen.

Yes, the override should work for all such games. I can only presume the monitor OSD is accurate. Since Crysis is a recent game from very capable developers I would be surprised if it lacks configuration but then again perhaps it can pick up on the monitor's capabilities given specific driver installation and/or tries to match desktop setting. One way to confirm the refresh rate is to enable Vertical Syncronization and display the frame rate.

 

[TitusTroy]

Originally posted by: Auric
One way to confirm the refresh rate is to enable Vertical Syncronization and display the frame rate.

how will that confirm the refresh rate?...suppose my frame rate is 25...how will enabling Vsync and displaying my frame rates confirm what my refresh rate is?

 

[Auric]

Heh, that's right it won't work with a demanding game where the frame rate cannot at least be maintained at the refresh rate. I suppose the resolution and quality could be lowered for testing but there must be a better way. One would guess Crysis sports extensive console commands for displaying info, no?

 

[TitusTroy]

that's true I could lower my settings to something like 800 x 600 with all graphical settings on low for testing...I'll try that out and report back

 

[TitusTroy]

well I tested Crysis out at 800 x 600 without the use of any 3rd party software such as RefreshForce...looks like the game runs at 85Hz becuase when I enabled VSync my frame rate never went above 85...so it looks like my monitor's display reading is correct...I guess newer games don't have that 60Hz bug...maybe this bug only applies to older games...when I get a chance I'll install some older games and test this out...but my guess would be that for older games I would have to use a program that forces custom refresh rates

thanks again for your help Auric

 

[Auric]

I realize it was en vogue to refer to it as a bug but really, as said, it was merely a default for full-screen DirectDraw -much as the desktop also defaulted to 60Hz. Your case is a good example of why it would have been ill-conceived for the game to be made to arbitrarily match the desktop since the display would not necessarily be capable of the same RR at a different (higher) resolution (although yours is a much higher spec and more flexible display in that regard than was common). Also, the user could just as well have failed to configure the desktop which is/was rather common. So, there was no "win" for trying to second-guess the user.

I am curious whether Crysis was "intelligently designed" as 'twere, to pick up on the monitor capabilities and try to match the desktop RR even at a higher resolution or if something else is going on. What happens to the game RR if that for the desktop is set lower to, say, 75Hz and then again higher (and this is where it would get particularly interesting) at the 1280x1024 than the display is capable of matching at the game configured 1600x1200? For instance, if it can manage 120Hz at the lower resolution but cannot at the higher, then what RR is applied in game?

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: Auric
I am curious whether Crysis was "intelligently designed" as 'twere, to pick up on the monitor capabilities and try to match the desktop RR even at a higher resolution or if something else is going on.

Certianly not inteligent. The game insists on using 50hz when I try running it at 720p on my plasma, and when I was using a CRT at a lan the other day I couldn't get the game to run at anything but 60hz.

 

[Auric]

Perhaps OP used a third-party utility which altered the registry then so that the change was not undone when not running or even uninstalled.