ATI Graphical Corruption: Hyper-Threading Solution

[PilusPrimus_aka_jONATHAN 0]

Found a solution on the BTS board that worked like a charm for me and my ATI problems, same as described below:

Quote[/b] ]Hi ive just got the UK release of Arma and im getting these weird graphical issues. I have the latest ati drivers, turned everything on full/ lowest and normal graphical settings and i still get it. Ive followed this guide, and tried forcing 24bit Z buffering aswell as triple buffering but nothing seems to work. Ive even tried overclocking my gfx card but no use. What does seem to work (if onoly for a short while, maybe 10 mins) is if I alt tab to my desktop and come back in i dont experience it for a short while. Any ideas on how to fix this will be most appreciated.

Im running a P4 2.8 Ghz with 1024Mb of RAM with a radeon 9800

Here is a link to what happens:

http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/knockedeye/

Many thanks

KnockedEye

Edited by knockedeye on Feb. 16 2007,18:27

Apparently, ArmA + ATI doesn't like hyper-threading. As soon as I disabled it in my BIOS, this problem completely disappeared.

Ironically, this Bug-Tracker post lists this as a minor problem. If only they knew, right?

Here's the bug-tracker thread for reference:

http://bugs.armed-assault.net/view.php?id=2285

My specs:

Toshiba P90 Satellite Notebook

Intel 3.0ghz HT processor

2g ram

ATI 9700 Mobility Radeon w/ 128M non-shared VRAM

ATI Catalyst drivers v.6.7 (using DHModTool4)

ArmA 1.06

See you in the field - J.

[NeZz_DK 1]

All bugs should be reported as minor it stands in the info about the bug tracker, the developers are then responsible for changing the Severity of the bug

[Mister Frag 0]

Rather than disabling Hyperthreading completely for your system, try changing the Processor Affinity Mask (PAM) of the ArmA executable using the ImageCFG tool:

http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php

The PAM determines which processor(s) a process is allowed to execute on, and restricting it to one processor (CPU 0) should have the same effect as disabling Hyperthreading.

[Sleek 0]

Well i don't think it's to do with HT because i was running a 7900GT since the german release with np's what so-ever..it's got to an ATI problem because i have HT and I've just switched to a 1950 pro and now i'm having some strange things going on with my graphics.

[PilusPrimus_aka_jONATHAN 0]

Quote[/b] ]All bugs should be reported as minor it stands in the info about the bug tracker, the developers are then responsible for changing the Severity of the bug

My comment was with regards to the severity not being changed. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that...

Quote[/b] ]Rather than disabling Hyperthreading completely for your system, try changing the Processor Affinity Mask (PAM) of the ArmA executable using the ImageCFG tool:

http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php

The PAM determines which processor(s) a process is allowed to execute on, and restricting it to one processor (CPU 0) should have the same effect as disabling Hyperthreading.

Good suggestion....but...

That was the first solution I tried, but it didn't work for me. I even checked Task Manager after loading a savegame to verify that the ArmA application processor affinity was only checked for one processor, which it was.

Even if this had worked, however, it would only be a part solution, since I'd then be running the game on half the CPU horsepower.

Quote[/b] ]Well i don't think it's to do with HT because i was running a 7900GT since the german release with np's what so-ever..it's got to an ATI problem because i have HT and I've just switched to a 1950 pro and now i'm having some strange things going on with my graphics.

Read my post again Sleek.

I specifically stated "Apparently, ArmA + ATI doesn't like hyper-threading. ", because in all the threads I've been scanning for this problem, I haven't seen any NVIDIA users describing the same symptoms. And it's not just an ATI problem, otherwise all of your other games (and mine) would have the same problems with HT enabled, so it seems more likely that is the combination of Armed Assault's handling of ATI driver calls that is causing the issue.

Not surprising at all actually, when one stops to consider the BEST PLAYED ON NVIDIA logo plastered in the opening logos...conspiracy theories anyone? I mean who better to exploit a product's potential weakness than their COMPETITORS....

Anyways, hope this helped some other poor frustrated soul.

See you in the field - J.