Slight 'overlapping' screen effects in games

[petem222]

Hey all- been going through the boards for a few days looking for a solution but I'm not sure what to do in my particular case:

My specs: p4 2.68, 1gb OCZ RAM in dual channel mode, BFG 6800 GT OC, 61.77 drivers

The problem seems to be not so much 'stuttering' as the games (Doom 3, little bit in older games like HL and DOD) do not slow down at all and everything seems to flow pretty smooth. What's happening is almost this 'dragging' effect that occurs whenever the screen moves around more than a little bit or if I move the mouse & look around...

For example: There's a scene early in Doom 3 where you get off the elevator and then the scene flashes over to the bald dude with the goatee and glasses (and his marine escort) talking with the crusty scientist guy on the video phone. While the scene is in transition, going through the vents and to the other room, you can clearly see the screen staggering and skipping a bit, but it never pauses or stops completely...

I've been trying all the stuff I've been reading on here as it relates to AA/AF settings, fastwrites (on/off), the D3D 'blit' tweaks, and basically turning all the eye candy off and I still get this effect to some degree every time. Like I said, I even get it in Day of Defeat & Half Life, and theoretically those games shouldn't even make my card sweat. Even got it a little bit in Call of Duty too.

I was also wondering if an older monitor might be holding me back as well. Just a thought.

ANY help would be appreciated. I'm seriously ready to box this thing up and return it- problem is I wouldn't know what else I could buy that wouldn't be giving me this sort of trouble....possibly an x800 XT?

 

[imported_Harbinger]

first of all get newer drivers (like 66.81).
If I understand correctly your problem is tearing. Turning on vsync should solve it immediatly. I always get tearing effects in doom3 without vsync.

 

[Vallybally]

What/where/why exactly is vsynch?

 

[petem222]

YES- 'tearing'- I knew I had heard of that before but I couldn't think of it....thanks!

But I thought vSync was 'bad'...and where would I be getting those latest drivers? The ones on nvidia.com only go up to 61.77

 

[kylebisme]

The 61.77s are the latest drivers, anything newer are beta drivers and I can't recomend them as I have had various major issues with all of them I tried while the 61.77s work good for the most part. As for vsync being bad; it can be troublesome without triple buffering, but vsync is the only way to get rid of the tearing you are complaining about. You should try vsync yourself as it will solve your complaint completely, and hopefully the lack of triple buffering support won't bother you.

Originally posted by: Vallybally
What/where/why exactly is vsynch?

Vsync is vertical synchronization between the the swaping of frames on the videocard and the monitor's refresh cycle. Your monitor refreshes the screen left to right, line by line from top to bottom; and, vsync makes sure that your monitor is aloud to draw a full frame for each one of those refreshs. Otherwise, the videocard switchs frames whenever it is done and the monitor winds up drawing from a new frame mid-refresh, hence the look of parts of the screen lagging behind others.

 

[imported_Harbinger]

vsync stands for vertical syncronization. check this to learn how v-sync works.

vsync was considered "bad" beacuse you could get more performance by disabling it. Thats not true anymore, vsycn might cause you to lose 1-2 fps, no more. So since vsync elliminates tearing it should be on.

and about drivers you can download them from guru3d

 

[imported_Harbinger]

Originally posted by: TheSnowman
The 61.77s are the latest drivers, anything newer are beta drivers and I can't recomend them as I have had various major issues with all of them I tried while the 61.77s work good for the most part.

66.81 are official whql certified drivers. I am using them with no problem at all.

 

[RealityTime]

Originally posted by: Harbinger
vsync stands for vertical syncronization. check this to learn how v-sync works.

vsync was considered "bad" beacuse you could get more performance by disabling it. Thats not true anymore, vsycn might cause you to lose 1-2 fps, no more. So since vsync elliminates tearing it should be on.

and about drivers you can download them from guru3d

vsync causes a much bigger hit than 1-2fps.. i run d3 at 1600x1200, high quality, 8xaf and 2xaa vsync off i get 58fps on timedemo1 vsync on i get 51-52

 

[petem222]

Originally posted by: RealityTime

Originally posted by: Harbinger
vsync stands for vertical syncronization. check this to learn how v-sync works.

vsync was considered "bad" beacuse you could get more performance by disabling it. Thats not true anymore, vsycn might cause you to lose 1-2 fps, no more. So since vsync elliminates tearing it should be on.

and about drivers you can download them from guru3d

vsync causes a much bigger hit than 1-2fps.. i run d3 at 1600x1200, high quality, 8xaf and 2xaa vsync off i get 58fps on timedemo1 vsync on i get 51-52

Thanks all- I will try vsync on before I try the other set of drivers, and I run at 1280 res. anyway so I don't think my FPS hit would be as great as if I were on 1600 like Reality...

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: Harbinger
vsync was considered "bad" beacuse you could get more performance by disabling it. Thats not true anymore, vsycn might cause you to lose 1-2 fps, no more. So since vsync elliminates tearing it should be on.

You can loose a lot more than fps that with vsync unless you have triple buffering. For instance, vsync and a 85hz refresh rate will give you 43fps wheverer you would get anything between 84fps and 43fps without vsync. At the same refresh rate anything that would be 42fps-28fps without vsync is automaticly stuck at 28fps with vsync and only double buffering. This is the way things have always been as It is simply a phyisical reality, nothing has changed or could ever change to make that "not true anymore." Triple buffering does solve the harsh framerate drops, but triple buffering is nothing new.

Originally posted by: Harbinger
66.81 are official whql certified drivers. I am using them with no problem at all.

Lucky you.
Personally, I play a lot of Splinter Cell multiplayer and, with the 66.81 drivers, half the shadows are gone. This is porbably one of the reasons that, while the drivers are considered WHQL, they are still beta drivers.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

one thing that will help while using vsync is make sure your not running at 60hz in the game. at 1280x1024 with a good monitor you should be able to run at 85hz atleast.

JB