AOC G2460PF

[Barnacles]

the 'anon' bit I mention in my previous post above is this:

I've swapped in my r9270, only to find, contrary to some reports online, that it doesn't support freesync for gaming - only for some video features (thanks AMD), and, sure enough, the windmill demo has the 'freesync' button greyed out and unuseable ...


but here's the rub: setting the monitor refresh rate at 144hz, and trying a couple of games out accordingly (Morrowind and the Witcher 3), and the in-game results are pretty much exactly the same (at equivalent fps) as I was getting with my freesync enabling r9290. Seriously.

I've just got the Witcher going at this moment - and there's no tearing I can see.
I get the Vertical Sync 'look' down to about 40fps - and acceptably smooth down to about 31hz (still no tearing).
Below 30 it starts to get uncomfortably choppy etc ... but basically this is the same performance I was getting when freesync was 'on'.

Completely confused now, I have to admit!

 

[Barnacles]

yea completely uninstalled the drivers making sure to select delete. it does seem to be windows messing up. might have to wait for the signed version.. if there will be a signed one. odd thing is. i can install other unsigned drivers, for example bluetooth drivers for a ps3/ps4 pad..
i even completely cleared the driver store of aoc g2460pf drivers and tried that way, but no luck. will try some other ways tomorrow.

OK - but are you sure you opened the right file with Mam?
as I say - it's not allowing me to do so, although it will open other drivers with no problem.

Also - I notice your screenshots of Mam and Phoenix seem to show the file name beginning with AOC - the 'new' driver I downloaded today is just: 2460G4.inf, so that again makes me wonder if you've opened up the new driver?

Also, I'm not quite clear what you encountered now, as you seem to be saying you weren't allowed to install the driver ['odd thing is. I can install other unsigned drivers'] - I was allowed to, although the red warning text options came up about it being 'unsigned'.
Sorry to go on - but as you can see from my other post now (results without freesync enabled at all) this is turning into one huge cluster**** of oddness.

 

[henson0115]

OK - but are you sure you opened the right file with Mam?
as I say - it's not allowing me to do so, although it will open other drivers with no problem.

Also, I'm not quite clear what you encountered now, as you seem to be saying you weren't allowed to install the driver ['odd thing is. I can install other unsigned drivers'] - I was allowed to, although the red warning text options came up about it being 'unsigned'.
Sorry to go on - but as you can see from my other post now (results without freesync enabled at all) this is turning into one huge cluster**** of oddness.

Yea it installs, but on reboot, the only options I get in the windmill are 55 and 60. Along with the other tools reporting 48 as the low rate. Can you describe how you did the installation? On another note I think I see what you mean with the load up of the windmill demo. It's not a flicker as such, it's like it's going through the shades of black.

Have you checked the digital panel section with the 270? I am assuming it is enabled. But as you say it's not compatible in games. Most odd.

 

[PCM2]

I had previously been informed by AOC that there will be an official WHQL/signed version. I'm not happy with this 'official' driver if it isn't WHQL certified - that's what most people would call 'beta'. There was a beta driver I have been testing for a number of weeks and I was told the official driver should bypass this whole driver signing debacle. Hopefully AOC will release an official official driver, not this official beta.

 

[Barnacles]

Yea it installs, but on reboot, the only options I get in the windmill are 55 and 60. Along with the other tools reporting 48 as the low rate. Can you describe how you did the installation? On another note I think I see what you mean with the load up of the windmill demo. It's not a flicker as such, it's like it's going through the shades of black.

ok, that is odd -when I could still enable Freesync (i.e when I had my 290 installed) I definitely had the options down to 35hz in the windmill demo...

Windows machine off now - but will try and check what I did in terms of installation later on and post.

** one other thing - using the 270 at 144 hz, I'm not getting any of the loading screen flickering I've mentioned previously...
obviously I'd really need to test my 290 with freesync off too, but maybe that issue was down to the particular gpu ... goodness knows.

 

[henson0115]

ok, that is odd -when I could still enable Freesync (i.e when I had my 290 installed) I definitely had the options down to 35hz in the windmill demo...

Windows machine off now - but will try and check what I did in terms of installation later on and post.

Much appreciated, thank you.

I had previously been informed by AOC that there will be an official WHQL/signed version. I'm not happy with this 'official' driver if it isn't WHQL certified - that's what most people would call 'beta'. There was a beta driver I have been testing for a number of weeks and I was told the official driver should bypass this whole driver signing debacle. Hopefully AOC will release an official official driver, not this official beta.

I really hope so, non signed drivers are a huge pain in the ass.

 

[Barnacles]

Have you checked the digital panel section with the 270? I am assuming it is enabled. But as you say it's not compatible in games. Most odd.

sorry - didn't see this part of your post before.

are you referring to 'digital panel properties' in Catalyst Control?

if so, yes: with the 270 I don't have the freesync option, and also, as mentioned, the windmill demo clearly reports that it isn't available...

but then - check out my comments on how the card performs in-game regardless of the supposed lack of freesync ... bizarre!

 

[coreupted]

I also have the problems henson0115 is experiencing (windmill demo + Mon).
Pretty frustrating and disappointing.

@PCM2, Thanks for all the work improving the visuals.

 

[henson0115]

pcm, are you able to post the beta driver that you used at all? i just want to test for sanity reasons. im pretty sure this driver is capped with a 48hz floor now.

 

[mum1989]

sorry - didn't see this part of your post before.

are you referring to 'digital panel properties' in Catalyst Control?

if so, yes: with the 270 I don't have the freesync option, and also, as mentioned, the windmill demo clearly reports that it isn't available...

but then - check out my comments on how the card performs in-game regardless of the supposed lack of freesync ... bizarre!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSync#List_of_FreeSync-compatible_APUs_and_GPUs
The 270 is a old 7870 GPU, it's GCN 1.0
So no FreeSync support

 

[henson0115]

sorry - didn't see this part of your post before.

are you referring to 'digital panel properties' in Catalyst Control?

if so, yes: with the 270 I don't have the freesync option, and also, as mentioned, the windmill demo clearly reports that it isn't available...

but then - check out my comments on how the card performs in-game regardless of the supposed lack of freesync ... bizarre!

Yes I was. Very odd. When you go into the osdwith the 270 and a game running. Look in the details section. What does it say. Do the same for the 290 and make sure your game is full screen on both.

 

[Barnacles]

pcm, are you able to post the beta driver that you used at all? i just want to test for sanity reasons. im pretty sure this driver is capped with a 48hz floor now.

definitely getting very 'twilight zone' ...

I'm really not clear what and why is going on now ...

I can't open the new driver with monitor assets manager ... yet Henson can and finds it reporting 48hz (?)

I know, repeat, know, that the windmill demo with the new driver worked just fine (when I still had my 290 installed) ... but I also know ... that I'm getting freesync performance (edit: or something so close that I can't really tell the difference in isolation) with my 270 without it (freesync) apparently being 'on' ...

honestly, before turning my windows pc off, I had the Witcher 3 running - and was standing near the windmill nr. white orchard (for those that know the game), near some wild horses.
FPS was 40... and I had the 'vertical sync' look and smoothness without any doubt.

 

[Barnacles]

Yes I was. Very odd. When you go into the osdwith the 270 and a game running. Look in the details section. What does it say. Do the same for the 290 and make sure your game is full screen on both.

unfortunately don't have the time to be swapping the cards in and out to do such testing etc, this evening - but, tbh, I don't believe it's necessary (also, both the games I've been observing, Morrowind and the Witcher 3 have indeed been in full-screen).

AMD's official line (when you read the small print, so to speak) is that for the 270 (and quite a few other cards) freesync is only applicable for video (so really it's something 'else' and not the gaming freesync we're talking about).
As I say, the freesync option in the 'digital panels properties' page isn't there and the Windmill demo clearly confirmed the same situation.

 

[Barnacles]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSync#List_of_FreeSync-compatible_APUs_and_GPUs
The 270 is a old 7870 GPU, it's GCN 1.0
So no FreeSync support

yes, I found the AMD official info on it (had just gone on web 'wisdom' before actually putting the card in).

tbh, I'm sort of glad I was misinformed, because, while confusing, the results I'm getting with the non-freesync 270 are as I've noted in this thread.
Crazy ... but true.

I can only conclude from what I've been seeing tonight, that setting a 144hz refresh rate is the most important thing ... unless there's a lot going on under the hood which contradicts the official AMD line on freesync and their products.

 

[Barnacles]

okay, my procedure for installing the driver, for what it's worth:

haven't got an account with any web-hosting service for images atm, so will describe as best I can:

1) go into device manager, right click on your monitor, and select the 'update driver' option.

2) choose 'browse for software on your computer' rather than 'allow automatic...' etc, etc, of course.

3) choose the 'let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer option'.

4)and now: this is the bit that seemed to make a difference for me:
uncheck the 'show compatible hardware' box.,
then click 'have disk' and browse to the new driver.

5) of course you should have rebooted enabling 'use unsigned drivers' option before doing the above.

I'm 99% certain this is what I did.

you should see the red text warning about an unsigned driver after 4), above, and then you should actually 'see' the driver being installed with its little animation for a split-second.

anyhow, hope it helps / works.

 

[henson0115]

Thank you, one question if i may. did you previously install a custom made driver and if so did you uninstall it, using the delete option.if you did apply one, As it's an override, it may be interfering. Seems unlikely but the last thing I can think of really.
Another thing is the windmill test will give you a demo of 5fps higher than your capability as that's how it works.
So if the driver is 35hz then you should see 40hz in the windmill test and 35hz in the test if the monitor can do 30hz at freesync. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Barnacles]

Thank you, one question if i may. did you previously install a custom made driver and if so did you uninstall it, using the delete option.if you did apply one, As it's an override, it may be interfering. Seems unlikely but the last thing I can think of really.
Another thing is the windmill test will give you a demo of 5fps higher than your capability as that's how it works.
So if the driver is 35hz then you should see 40hz in the windmill test and 35hz in the test if the monitor can do 30hz at freesync. I hope that makes sense.

I tried the Hagerdoom hack at one point- although it didn't work for me on the original AOC driver. That's all I can say.
But this is the first I've seen about 'overides'. You may be correct, but I 'updated' the driver as described - and as it's 'supposed' to work.
I did, however, 'move' the previous drivers to try and ensure Windows couldn't use them regardless.
Have you tried my procedure (unticking 'compatible hardware' and making sure you've turned off digital signing in the reboot immediately before the install)?

I have to say things generally, at my end, seem rather inconsistent and unreliable - how much of it is specific to my hard- and software I can't say.

Windows 10 seems to be trying to update this morning - so I'm sure that'll Bork things if nothing else does!

I should add that what you say about the Windmill test bears out what I was saying last night about my 270 performance - I said I was getting the v-sync look down to 40fps - and, yep, the Windmill test (which I did again this morning) let's me choose 45fps.
Using the 'test signal' (which I find more useful than the windmill animation) things get more confusing really - with 'v-sync' on, the bar is pretty smooth (although not quite as good as using freesync with my 290), but clearly tears with v-sync off... which was not at all my experience in- game, as described.
The point being that I've got v-sync turned off in both the games I've mentioned ... 'you couldn't make it up' ... and, honestly, I'm not...

quite a mix-up!

As such, I think maybe I'm not helping in the general scheme of things - I'm seeing what I"m seeing, but none of it makes much sense.
I will re-install my 290 at some point today, and see how I get on with freesync off there too (in this case, actually turning it 'off' in catalyst control), I think...

 

[henson0115]

I tried the Hagerdoom hack at one point- although it didn't work for me on the original AOC driver. That's all I can say.
But this is the first I've seen about 'overides'. You may be correct, but I 'updated' the driver as described - and as it's 'supposed' to work.
I did, however, 'move' the previous drivers to try and ensure Windows couldn't use them regardless.
Have you tried my procedure (unticking 'compatible hardware' and making sure you've turned off digital signing in the reboot immediately before the install)?

I have to say things generally, at my end, seem rather inconsistent and unreliable - how much of it is specific to my hard- and software I can't say.

Windows 10 seems to be trying to update this morning - so I'm sure that'll Bork things if nothing else does!

I should add that what you say about the Windmill test bears out what I was saying last night about my 270 performance - I said I was getting the v-sync look down to 40fps - and, yep, the Windmill test (which I did again this morning) let's me choose 45fps.
Using the 'test signal' (which I find more useful than the windmill animation) things get more confusing really - with 'v-sync' on, the bar is pretty smooth (although not quite as good as using freesync with my 290), but clearly tears with v-sync off... which was not at all my experience in- game, as described.
The point being that I've got v-sync turned off in both the games I've mentioned ... 'you couldn't make it up' ... and, honestly, I'm not...

quite a mix-up!

As such, I think maybe I'm not helping in the general scheme of things - I'm seeing what I"m seeing, but none of it makes much sense.
I will re-install my 290 at some point today, and see how I get on with freesync off there too (in this case, actually turning it 'off' in catalyst control), I think...

i havnt tried it yet, i will give it a try when i get back from work. thank you for all of the information. i am going to try it on another machine as well - 8.1 and see if it works on there.

I also have the problems henson0115 is experiencing (windmill demo + Mon).
Pretty frustrating and disappointing.

@PCM2, Thanks for all the work improving the visuals.

coreupted, can you confirm which version of windows it is that you tried on please?

 

[coreupted]

Using 8.1 pro henson.
I've tried all i can but still the same, will look more into it later.

 

[henson0115]

thanks, we need more people to try installing it and testing it, however its not looking good so far.