graphics bugs with ATI 4800 series (4850/4870/4890)

[von_paulus 0]

Hope you don't mind me commenting in this thread. I have a sapphire 4870 HD and noticed you were talking about temperetures early in the thread. Just standing my GPU is at 63 degrees celsius so god knows how high it gets when playing. Do you think increasing fan speed could improve game performance for me?

Core 2 e8200 2.66ghz, 2GB Pny Ram, 1GB saphire 4870HD

running the game on windows 7

thanks :)

Try to use GPU-Z when playing and see what temperatures you get.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/

Around 70º, I think, it's natural with your video card. I've a 4890 63/65º is what I get when pushing.

But don't expect improve game performance. Low temperatures will improve your card's life and stability.

[kremator 1065]

New 9.7 Catalyst drivers (beta) have had a beneficial effect on the 'locked' FPS (at 60). I now find that with these drivers I can get a whopping 225FPS when looking at the sky.

Will do a test flying over Chernogorsk at low level to see if there GFX tearing occurs as much. Even if it does I think they are worth getting.

EDIT : Nope the tearing STILL occurs when flying low over Chernogorsk. Is it the rate of transfer of textures that is causing the problem or the size of those textures ?

Edited July 15, 2009 by Kremator
More testing

[thr0tt 12]

New 9.7 Catalyst drivers (beta) have had a beneficial effect on the 'locked' FPS (at 60). I now find that with these drivers I can get a whopping 225FPS when looking at the sky.

Will do a test flying over Chernogorsk at low level to see if there GFX tearing occurs as much. Even if it does I think they are worth getting.

EDIT : Nope the tearing STILL occurs when flying low over Chernogorsk. Is it the rate of transfer of textures that is causing the problem or the size of those textures ?

If you don't want tearing then you need to have vsync on, that way your FPS will be 'locked' to your maximum refresh rate (60 is you are using LCD normally). Maybe you are getting confused as to the issue here in this thread ? This one is about graphical corruption not vsync problems. No offense. :)

[choC 10]

Can somebody suggest why my framerate dips everytime textures load?

I've got an i7 920, 6GB of ram and a 512mb 4870, yet for some reason the game doesn't want to load the textures smoothly on the fly.

When approaching a city for example, I get quite a bit of stuttering until everything is loaded.

[thr0tt 12]

Can somebody suggest why my framerate dips everytime textures load?

I've got an i7 920, 6GB of ram and a 512mb 4870, yet for some reason the game doesn't want to load the textures smoothly on the fly.

When approaching a city for example, I get quite a bit of stuttering until everything is loaded.

Engine problem, how much graphical corruption or bugs are you getting ?

[choC 10]

Engine problem, how much graphical corruption or bugs are you getting ?

Not too much, nothing that's jumping out at me anyway.

Pretty much the only issue I have with the game is my framerate dropping while objects load.

It's stupid how I have 6GB of DDR3 which is hardly being utilised, yet I get loading problems...

[thr0tt 12]

graphics bugs with ATI 4800 series (4850/4870/4890)

[Adyj7 10]

Been reading all the posts and i have exactly the same problem!!!When i first start playing the game everything is ok!!!But after a few mins,the game becomes unplayable--graphical glitches everywhere!!!I have a 4870x2 and i wish i could find a solution to this!!!Hopefully there will be one soon!!!Arma 2,is the only game i have problems with!!!not happy,Adyj7

[kremator 1065]

If you don't want tearing then you need to have vsync on, that way your FPS will be 'locked' to your maximum refresh rate (60 is you are using LCD normally). Maybe you are getting confused as to the issue here in this thread ? This one is about graphical corruption not vsync problems. No offense. :)

Used the wrong terminology. It's not tearing (and therefore a vsync problem) is complete GFX corruption.

It seems to happen when lots of textures are to be loaded at the same time. The GFX card can't handle it.

[krony1664 10]

Been reading all the posts and i have exactly the same problem!!!When i first start playing the game everything is ok!!!But after a few mins,the game becomes unplayable--graphical glitches everywhere!!!I have a 4870x2 and i wish i could find a solution to this!!!Hopefully there will be one soon!!!Arma 2,is the only game i have problems with!!!not happy,Adyj7

this worked for me and made the game playable again (25-30ish fps)after having all the same probs as everyone else....i`m running an e8400@3.6ghz 4870x2 4gb ram xp sp3....check your virtual ram/page file settings and if possible move it to another hard drive and see what windows thinks your system managed size should be(mine was 6gigs!)the more the better and set it to that,restart computer,then start the game with low to normal settings and crank them up until your fps start to drop,the artifacts stopped appearing and the game stopped crashing for me.

hope this helps.

[thr0tt 12]

this worked for me and made the game playable again (25-30ish fps)after having all the same probs as everyone else....i`m running an e8400@3.6ghz 4870x2 4gb ram xp sp3....check your virtual ram/page file settings and if possible move it to another hard drive and see what windows thinks your system managed size should be(mine was 6gigs!)the more the better and set it to that,restart computer,then start the game with low to normal settings and crank them up until your fps start to drop,the artifacts stopped appearing and the game stopped crashing for me.

hope this helps.

Windows managed pagefile will be 1.5 times your installed RAM, this is normal XP behaviour. Mine is moved to another SATA drive that has nothing on it at all and it makes no difference to the game.

[roya 10]

I have troubles too. My specs:

CPU: E8400

RAM: 4GB 800mhz

GPU: MSI R4870HD 1GB

Drivers: 9.7 beta

Problem is, I seem to be having problems that differ from what I have seen thus far. I made video's, posted them on YouTube:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-On8TJB_Wb0

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YPcBagyFuA

In the first video and the first part of the second video, green dots can be seen that look like dead pixels, but they are moving. In reality the effect is worse the it looks on the video's. The dots look like http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/screen0032fh.jpg, only in this screenshot there are more artifacts.

I'd say artifacts caused by the videocard, but it might be the game. Can play GRID and COD4 for multiple consecutive hours, not having any trouble, only ARMA2 has this problem.

Anybody else have this particular problem?

[Morbo513 10]

Oopsie, didn't realise this was a sticky. Anyway, I'm having the same problems as the OP as I described in my thread, and I'm using a Radeon X1650.

[thr0tt 12]

I have troubles too. My specs:

CPU: E8400

RAM: 4GB 800mhz

GPU: MSI R4870HD 1GB

Drivers: 9.7 beta

Problem is, I seem to be having problems that differ from what I have seen thus far. I made video's, posted them on YouTube:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-On8TJB_Wb0

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YPcBagyFuA

In the first video and the first part of the second video, green dots can be seen that look like dead pixels, but they are moving. In reality the effect is worse the it looks on the video's. The dots look like http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/screen0032fh.jpg, only in this screenshot there are more artifacts.

I'd say artifacts caused by the videocard, but it might be the game. Can play GRID and COD4 for multiple consecutive hours, not having any trouble, only ARMA2 has this problem.

Anybody else have this particular problem?

Very interesting, I have had a few dots but nothing as bad as that. Sometimes I get a few square pixels just off screen as I turn in busy towns but they are def. text load failures.

Those small dots do not look like the original post that this thread is about, so I can suggest checking to see if the card is overheating and cleaning the fan out / reseating the card (in joke :D lol).

[roya 10]

Very interesting, I have had a few dots but nothing as bad as that. Sometimes I get a few square pixels just off screen as I turn in busy towns but they are def. text load failures.

Those small dots do not look like the original post that this thread is about, so I can suggest checking to see if the card is overheating and cleaning the fan out / reseating the card (in joke :D lol).

So this probably indicates a broken video card? Have to say I just got the thing delivered last thursday :j: I tested with Furmark, 3dMark vantage, GRID and COD4 and couldn't reproduce the error... guess I'll be calling the shop I bought it from on monday.

It's a shame that there are these kind of bugs, as it gets more difficult to see whether an error is Arma-related or is simply caused by bad hardware...

Thanks for the reply. In case you (or anybody) can advise some good programs to test for faulty hardware (stresstest?), dont hesitate!

Edit: the card is not overheating. ATI overdrive (not overclocked of course) shows 75 degrees max, which seems alright.

Edited July 18, 2009 by roya
Info about temps

[von_paulus 0]

Edit: the card is not overheating. ATI overdrive (not overclocked of course) shows 75 degrees max, which seems alright.

Could you give us the maker and details, like power and amp (12V), of your power supply?

[el_muerko 0]

with leaked Catalyst 9.7 WHQL it seems that ARMA 2 crossfire works in Vista DX9Ex

tho i would like hear some comments about stability from XP users with these 9.7

btw. placing ARMA 2 on SSD is quite wise due to extremely fast seek

i have windows7 RC and a pair of 4870-512megs, on 9.6 i couldn't use crossfire and got no graphical bugs, on 9.7 i can use crossfire and get a lot of artefacts

Edited July 18, 2009 by El_MUERkO

[roya 10]

Could you give us the maker and details, like power and amp (12V), of your power supply?

It's a HKC USP 5580. The specs can be read on a sticker that's on the psu, posted a photograph on http://www.happypanda.nl/psu.jpg. It says 30A on the rails I guess. Only PSU I have for testing purposes is my old one, a 400W with 8 and 14 A on the 12V rails, so I think that PSU wouldn't be of any use, would it?

Thanks again for the reply, it's much appreciated!

Edit: I just reinstalled drivers (9.7 beta again) and the game seems to be running fine (played for half an hour / 45 minutes or so)... tomorrow wil probably be the moment of truth as I'll be cooping the best part of the day :) I'll let you know.

Edit2: Got the same artifacts within a few minutes, when playing this morning... so should be either my video card or my psu I guess, as nobody else seems to be having these problems.

Edit3: Get the artifacts in Furmark and AtiTool Artifacts test too now, so THIS problem is NOT a problem in Arma2. Thanks for all the help, I'll be contacting the shop I bought the parts from.

Edited July 19, 2009 by roya

[Psycho84 10]

I think I'm having a different problem to the artifact one most of you are experiencing.

Is anyone else having a graphical problem where when looking at a dark area makes the bloom and light level adjustment go crazy causing the screen to flash really brightly and eventually turn completely white?

If I look at a bright area (like the sky) the issue completely reverses and the game looks normal.

Didn't happen in the demo and I have the latest drivers for everything (tried both Catalyst 9.6 and 9.7 beta). PC is a E8500 @ 4.3ghz, 4850X2, 2gb of ram, Win XP.

[Richieb0y 0]

does some know which driver is the best one whit arma2

[kklownboy 43]

Is anyone else having a graphical problem where when looking at a dark area makes the bloom and light level adjustment go crazy causing the screen to flash really brightly and eventually turn completely white?

...4850X2, ....

CF setups should rename the arma2.exe to Crysis.exe to level off the way out of wack bloom stuff. It works great.

---------- Post added at 08:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:11 AM ----------

does some know which driver is the best one whit arma2

i use 9.6 in all OSes and it works. I am becoming a believer with xp64 tho. (9.7s where good but i want a the real deal from ATI)

[Conkermon 10]

Fucks sake how much longer must I wait before I can play this fucking game.

[Adyj7 10]

Ive tried everything now with the video settings of this game,i have a 4870x2,and when i first play the game all is well but after a few mins- graphical glitches everywhere which causes the game to crash!!!i have now given up!!!Have even tried the 9.7 beta driver!!!Just waiting for a patch for arma 2 to sort this shit out!!!!At the moment i feel rather ripped off!!!:mad:

[ginger mcale 11]

Welcome to the club. I hope there comes some patch soon that fix this issue. You can play the game on low settings, but that is not very attractive :(

Please Bohemia, fix that issue :butbut:

[kremator 1065]

Fucks sake how much longer must I wait before I can play this fucking game.

Patch will be released when you learn to be civil and not before!