Please help... something is so wrong

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:01

bought this system 6 months (from OCUK of course

) ago but i am really confused as to what is wrong. it could be my EVGA GTX 295 or it could be my NEC 24WMXG3 monitor or it could be windows 7.

*the problem*

i have noticed it in two separate places the first is in games, Dawn of war2 in places has trouble with certain frames with quick moments, if you have played the game when the drop pods hits the ground at the start of the game the screen shakes. but I don't get a smooth shake I get a frame that is half / quarter drawn like a miss match of frames...this continues till the frame shake stops and the men get out. now this can't be low frame rate. in general where there is lots of motion this keeps happening

it also happens with Photo shop using CS4, I'm using the 3d acceleration option in PS to. this has the same issue again when i make a layer move things around quickly with the mouse and the object is almost jumping to the next place not moving smoothly like I would expect.

so i am not sure at all what's wrong, off the top of my head I'd say its not my 295 nor my monitor but windows 7, since installing 7 this has started happening really. but it could be coincidence.

so i ask / beg for some help on this i want my 2 grand set up to be flawless again. what could be the problem? please help its driving me mad.

Paul

Badas · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:05

what nvidea drivers are you using? when did you last do a windows update?

i had black flashing issues etc, did full updates (this is all when i first installed) and was fixed and still is

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:15

running with driver version 196.21, windows update is on so updates install everyday or when they are released.

rhys216 · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:19

Running W7 x64 with PS CS4 on 5870 perfectly, so it's not windows 7.
Maybe a driver issue?

Rroff · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:27

Try 191.07 drivers - 195.xx and newer do cause problems for some people.

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:28

well maybe, how would i check? i have no idea that's why i am asking here

stulid · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:40

I played the demo of DoW2, I thought the drop pod slow down was because its a demo? Guess iwas wrong. P.s I have 4gbs of ram in this machine, what do you have?

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:49

i have 12GB of ram

stulid · 3 Feb 2010 at 01:04

So you have i7? Bet it rips through crysis, but can't manage a RTS, or moving a image around without issues. Try rroffs driver suggestion.

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 19:22

yeah crysis ran gr8 (on vista) not installed it since but fear that it would not be as good with the current problem. im gonna run Drive sweeper clear out the old driver and re install one of the older drivers above. and see if that helps. hope so. will let you know if this fixes it. thx for the help people

Elston15 · 3 Feb 2010 at 19:31

was it a fresh install of windows 7, or did you upgrade from vista? Upgrading can cause problems.

I have a i7 920 and a hd5770 and DOW2 runs absolutely fine at 1920x1200 with the fps constantly at 50-60fps (with vsync), so your system should handle it with ease.

I would perhaps try running furmark to stress you gfx to see if any problems occur there, I also make sure that you are updated to the latest version of DOW2, however it sounds like a driver issue to me.

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 22:32

nope that has not helped at all. still the same

installed the 195.64 drivers . anyone else have have any ideas what this could be?

Thx

Paul

PaulW · 3 Feb 2010 at 23:51

i have now had a good hunt on the web for this type of problem, and from what i have read it seems that it is a 59HZ Refresh rate issue that is now present in Windows 7 with certain monitor displays. others with this problem report tearing in games to do with Vsync not being applaible in games as it need to be 60HZ.

mine is set to 59hz and when i try and set it to 60HZ it defaults back to 59HZ. basically this is screwing me over i think. others also mentioned that Nvidia will not sort this out and point the finger at Microsoft who call this a "feature" and not a problem.

well microsoft this is a problem a very real problem that means i cant now work in Photoshop since i upgraded to windows 7... thank you very much

if anyone can help me out here i'd appreciate it. i will keep looking. the only other solution is using a HDMI cable to my display. luckly my card has a HDMI from the card. will this degrade image quality? compared to DVI?

Paul

Rroff · 4 Feb 2010 at 00:09

HDMI and DVI are electrically the same so no image quality shouldn't suffer.

Elston15 · 4 Feb 2010 at 02:22

A little research suggests that the problem is windows truncating the frequency, many monitors may run at 59.994hz instead of 60hz (for some reason, possible NTSC related) and windows truncates this to 59hz which is causing the tearing problems.

Apparently ATi "fixed" this problem in a catalyst update, whereas nvidia are pointing the finger at M$. However I found this on another forum and it apparently works.

-open nv cp / Change Resolution
-select the desired display then Add Resolutions...
-Create Custom Resolution
-Change refresh rate to 60Hz
-Click on timing and select manual
-change refresh rate to 60.001Hz
-Apply

Whether it works or not I don't know but I can see how this problem would be fustrating especially on an expensive rig.

PaulW · 4 Feb 2010 at 08:58

yes it is frustrating, i have tried this and i just get "this frequency is out of range!" my only option is try the HDMI cable or go back to vista or XP where is worked perfectly fine before i upgraded. i hate it when two big companies start bickering about a big problem. knowing full well that people have spent a small fortune on there setups.

Sucks!

SMAndy · 4 Feb 2010 at 09:36

Tried forcing vsync on using the nvcp? tearing is usually caused by being out of sync.. Not sure if DoW2 forces vsync on, or has an option for it in the game settings.

PaulW · 4 Feb 2010 at 09:53

well im not concerned with games that much tbh, its more of Photoshop that i have a problem with a tool i use everyday, for artists in the Games industry its an essential piece of kit

PaulW · 6 Feb 2010 at 15:27

right its my monitor, little did I know that the NEC 24WMXG3 has a refresh rate of 8.8ms - 20ms on "Through Mode" and even more with it off 15ms - 30ms Average. even though its states its a gaming monitor at 6ms? while games are playable the full screen videos in these games with fast motion screen tear to hell. im learning allot of lessons with PCs these days same its costing a lot of money in the process.

i only hope that over the next year that Display Port really helps these response timing problems and that they become a thing of the past.

Blackbadger · 6 Feb 2010 at 19:02

Photoshop does not support sli/x-fire- so try disabling that.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html

Note

:Important: If you turn on Enable OpenGL Drawing before you update your driver, then Photoshop uses the old display driver again. If the driver wasn't updated, then Photoshop fails again. If you do not turn on Enable OpenGL Drawing, then the GPU won't be accessed and Photoshop does not fail.

- make sure you disable openGL in photoshop before updating your gfx card drivers. :|

Also

After Photoshop CS4 shipped, a problem was found that caused a variety of slowdowns related to GPU functionality, in Windows XP and Vista. This issue was fixed in Photoshop CS4 11.0.1.

- I'd expect that windows 7 would suffer the same, so ensure your photoshop is updated.

Display Port wont help at all. It's not a data transfer issue.
I doubt that it's your monitor either - the 20ms thing is input lag, not refresh rate. However a 120hz monitor may alleviate the issue.

I think it's just down to having a dual gpu gaming card, being used for a pro app. Try the above I'd guess you should be sorted.