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ATi Forcing Vertical Sync in Vista

H0wz3r

H0wz3r

H0wz3r

Associate
Joined
12 Dec 2006
Posts
188
Location
Huddersfield
Hi all,

Since I installed Vista, I started with the catalyst 7.1 drivers and have since upgraded to the 7.2 drivers, however, no matter what I try, I cannot seem to force vertical sync to be always on.

It is a big problem for me in games like BF2 and BF2142 where a lot of tearing occurs due to the framerates being so high. Unfortunately there is no option to enable vertical sync in either of these games.

I can, however, enable vertical sync in games that have this option e.g. Half-Life 2 but in games that don't have it, I am forced to go without.

If it makes any difference, I'm running crossfire.

Has anyone come about this problem or have a solution to it?

I am running the following spec:

Intel E6600 C2D
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
2Gb Corsair Dominator PC8500
SB X-Fi Fatal1ty
2 x 150Gb Raptors in RAID 0
2 x 250Gb WD Caviars in RAID 1
1 x ATi Radeon X1950XTX Crossfire Master Card
1 x ATi Radeon X1900XTX Slave Card
Windows Vista Ultimate
 
Use the frame rate cap to lower the frame rate in BF2 if your really stuck.

game.lockfps xxx where xxx is the frame rate you'd like to limit it to, it's at 100 by default.
 
Thanks, just read about Vista not supporting v-sync unless the app does. That really sucks. Hope Microsoft sort this problem out as it's a real pain!

Unfortunately, whilst the frame limiting does work in battlefield, it still isn't the same as turning v-sync on. You do still get horrible tearing / glitching effects and is actually worse than not limiting the frame rate at all. I do find that setting it to limit at about 200fps seems to be the best compromise so far, not that my system can hit 200fps but it still seems to help nonetheless.
 
OK, it seems that I can't even use the game.lockfps option anymore in BF2142, at least not for long periods of time. The reason being that punkbuster seems to think that I'm hacking the game and so kicks me off!

Anyway, this isn't a BF2142 thread... does anyone know if the vsync problem in vista can be circumvented by drivers or are we solely relying on Microsoft to fix the issue? Is a fix of any description looking likely anytime soon?

Surely if vsync can be forced on through games that support this option, it can be exploited in some way to force vsync for all directx games?
 
Ok so we're now on catalyst 7.4 for ATi cards now and STILL no sign of vertical sync in Vista (don't know about nVidia though)

Can anyone shed any more light on this very frustrating subject?
 
H0wz3r said:
Ok so we're now on catalyst 7.4 for ATi cards now and STILL no sign of vertical sync in Vista (don't know about nVidia though)

Can anyone shed any more light on this very frustrating subject?
Click to expand...

nothing ati can do about it. it's down to microsoft to implement changes in the operating system if this is ever to be fixed. i'll agree it's a little confusing when you see the ati CCC has the option to turn on/off when it has no effect. this really should be removed from the user interface with a prominent notice to explain why. :)
 
Coolasmoo said:
I know nvidia drivers allow forcing of Vsync in there latest drivers, so im sure Ati will be able to implement it eventually.
Click to expand...
This is what I've read but I can't find anything to confirm this.

Can it be confirmed that nVidia's latest drivers do actually work in so much as allowing you to force vertical sync on in any directx game i.e. you don't need the option in the game to enable it or not? This would be fantastic news to all battlefield players out there (including myself!) that have gone back to WinXP simply because of the screen tearing!

If so, then I suppose there is hope that ATi can do the same in their drivers. I agree tho, they really should remove the force vsync option in the catalyst control centre if it doesn't work at all!
 
marc2003 said:
i didn't know that.... :p but i just checked the release notes for their drivers. here on page 15 anyone can see for themselves. :)

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/158.18/158.18_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf

i really did think it was an OS thing. i've been betrayed.... :p
Click to expand...
Wow, so it really is true - nVidia, for all their faults, have redeemed themselves and sorted the problem!

Let's hope that ATi follow suit and fast! At least we know that it isn't singled out as an OS issue and that it can be fixed! Any news of a pending fix from ATi or otherwise will be gratefully received!
 
LoadsaMoney said:
Yeah just like when Nvidia said the Fog Problem in HL2 etc... ws nothing to do with them and blamed Valve, then they magically fixed it in their drivers. :D
Click to expand...

bunch of *****. i managed to find the old release notes... :D

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/100.65/100.65_ForceWare_Release_Notes.pdf (page 21)

Not NVIDIA Issues
This section lists issues that are not due to the NVIDIA driver as well as features
that are not meant to be supported by the NVIDIA driver for Windows Vista.
Windows Vista Limitations
These are behaviors that may be different from Windows XP and are related
directly to the Windows Vista operating system.
• Selecting Vertical Sync (vsync) from the NVIDIA Control Panel has no
effect with DirectX applications.
Due to architectural changes in the new Windows Vista Window Display
Driver Model (WDDM), the graphics driver can no longer disable vsync
from its own driver or Control Panel. Selecting this option from the NVIDIA
Control Panel will have no effect with DirectX applications. For applications
that use Direct3D on Windows Vista, use the vertical sync setting within the
application. We are adjusting the help text in the NVIDIA Control Panel to
make this clearer to our customers.
Click to expand...
 
Just an update - the lastest version of ATi Tray Tools now supports vertical sync under Vista.

The only 2 catches are that it isn't advisable to use it in conjuction with CCC and you also have to create a game profile for each game you want to enable v-sync in.

It does work, however, I'm not sure it supports crossfire properly if at all as I'm only getting 30 - 40fps in BF2142 at 1920 x 1200 with 4xAA and 16xAF (I get about 120FPS+ with V-Sync turned off and crossfire enabled in CCC) This is based on an X1950XTX crossfire setup.

Hopefully ATi will realise that it is possible and implement this feature in a future version of their drivers!
 
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