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

[domokun 515]

@ kklownboy : I deleted the latest beta patch (59323) and installed the preceding one (59210) but it didn't make a blind bit of difference.

Next I set (in Video options) my vidram to default. Although this made a difference, it only last 2 seconds before the return of the flashing polygons.

@ Dwarden : I tried using the -winxp command line but that didn't make any difference either. Maybe that's because I only have 4GB and run WinXP?

I then updated my Catalyst drivers from 9.8 to 9.9 but that didn't improve the situation either.

I even deleted my ARMA2.cfg to start afresh. Guess what? No improvement.

I'm really fed up.

I've spent hours trying to sort this out and the game is still completely unplayable.

Any other ideas?

[kklownboy 43]

when you first see it , flush the ram, with this(was above too) "leftshift" "minus"(-) on the keypad, then type "flush"You will get a black screen.

Also your 4850 is a 512mb card?

[telejunky 0]

try it with vram and texture detail on normal with 512mb ram. The issue seems to be less often/ none. I have tried it for 10-20 minutes and did not see any polygons at chernogorsk at 4850 512MB and arma 2 1.04 and ccc 9.9. maybe they will appear on longer playtime...

Edited October 11, 2009 by telejunky

[Ascorius 10]

Hi everyone,

my first post in the forums (too bad it has to be in troubleshooting eh?). I have gone through this thread from start to finish, because I am experiencing the polygon issue. Nothing has helped I am afraid. I have tried rolling back to several different catalyst drivers (for my 4870 512mb), tons of different settings in ccc (or running without ccc for that matter) and all the other ideas I have gotten from the board here. But as many others I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that helps in the long run is low textures and video mem. I got the game for like a week ago, and I must say that I have been enjoying it alot, but this issue is driving me nuts. Chernogorsk is unplayable except with outdated graphics, and I hate to tune graphics down in a game as beautiful as this.

I dont think there is much I can do except to hope for a patch that will fix the issue. Or get a new graphics card, but I want to wait with buying a new graphics card until the there are more choices of high end dx11 cards.

[ginger mcale 11]

Hey Ascorius,

i know exactly how you feel. It are months later since this problem have been reported by people here, nothing happened so far. I for myself gave up hoping for Bohemia to fix it and decided to take the workaround way. The workaround seems to be to install Windows 7 (64 bit version). It worked for me. I can play the game now with high settings without getting the artefacts. I was before that on Windows XP (32 bit version).

What i wanna to say is, if you have the possibility and dont want to wait at some point longer for Bohemia, you can still install Windows 7. Its a bad thing to have to install another operating system in order to be able to play this wonderful game but hey, what else can we do then reporting the problem here and at the bug tracker? I dont know. I closed that file and installed Windows 7. That workaround helped other people and helped me too.

ATI Radeon 4850 - 512 MB

[Abc94 10]

I got the artifacting as soon as I got the demo. I managed to get rid of it by playing with CCC and the in game settings. I have no idea what I did though. When I bought the actual game the problems were gone for about three weeks until I got two Blue Screens. After that the problems came back as bad as before which is major artifacting about every minute of flying in the editor. Even turning video memory down to normal does not help. My artifacting is exactly the same the same thing that Ginger McAle had in his video (the post above me)

wfGea5Bl5I0

It's a good thing that you finaly fixed the problem by swtiching to windows 7. I am going to stay with XP and hope for the best.

my specs are:

ATI radeon HD 4850 (Is at Version 9.8, even though 9.9 is released, I heard it makes no differnce)

XP Service pack 3

3070MB RAM

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz (If this helps) (64 bit)

I might be missing something here, I don't know.

Also, did you vote on the poll about which operating system this problem is the most common on? http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=86688

Edited October 12, 2009 by Abc94
Addition Information

[Drew 10]

you have the Exact same specs as me, except I'm not sure what the MMX and 3dnow is? I have 32 bit instead of 64 bit tho, and none of these problems. we also have the same card, I'm on 9.9 tho.

[Abc94 10]

Oh I just took some of that from dxdiag (direct X diagnosis I think). I don't know what 3d now or MMX is either. It might be worth looking at.

I probably will try the 9.9 drivers. Did you have this problem before Drew?

[Ascorius 10]

9.9 did not fix the problem for me. But then again my specs are different. But I have decided to convert to windows 7, I was gonna do it sooner or later anyways. I did try the beta version of windows 7, but I had alot of problems with driversupport for several games at that time, I just hope its better now.

[Abc94 10]

I think I am going to try to do a complete uninstall of my ATI drivers, install the drivers that came on a CD, try Arma 2, and if that doesn't work, try 9.9 anyways.

[domokun 515]

@ kklownboy : emptying the card's memory using the "flush" command worked but 15 seconds later the flashing polygons invaded my screen ::eek:

yes my 4850 is a 512MB card. I understand I'd be better off with a bigger card but how big a card do I need!? it works fine in every single other game!!!

@ telejunky : I tried setting VRAM and texture detail on Normal and Default. Changing these settings results in the same effect as the "flush" command, i.e. 15 secs of clear gameplay before poly invasion :(

This is crazy. I have recent hardware. A legitimate copy. Yet it doesn't work!

The only credible suggestion is to replace WinXP with Win7.

Replacing a tried and tested OS with a unreleased one!!!!

Come on BIS! Sort it out! :mad:

Instead of releasing beta patches that correct minor issues, how about addressing this one?

[Abc94 10]

I think I am going to try to do a complete uninstall of my ATI drivers, install the drivers that came on a CD, try Arma 2, and if that doesn't work, try 9.9 anyways.

Using the old drivers seemed to make the artifacting go away completly when flying over a large town in editor. When I tried multiplayer, I got artifacting right from the start.

Then I insalled 9.9 drivers and was able to play for a bit in armory with no artifacting, but when I tried the editor flying over a large town, it came back. After exiting the editor the main menu was back to its artifacting as well.

[Drew 10]

Oh I just took some of that from dxdiag (direct X diagnosis I think). I don't know what 3d now or MMX is either. It might be worth looking at.

I probably will try the 9.9 drivers. Did you have this problem before Drew?

Nope no problems I think its either your card or the 64 bit? dont quote me on that tho, mess around with the 3d settings on your card, try my settings.

try disableing catalyst AI see if it helps. All my ingame settings are Normal with AA/AF/PP Off. with Object detail set to very high.

[due-_- 10]

Since there are like 2407280 new replys since the last time i was lookin in this thread and my artifacting started again after a long time for no reason.... are there any news about how to fix it? its really annoying to buy a game and think "urg damn best game ever" blabla spend like 60€ on it and u cant really play it cause of u use a ATI card? cant be real ;/

[Ascorius 10]

Well, I did the same as Ginger McAle and converted to Windows 7 64bit on my gaming rig, and that actually fixed it. But it is kind of annoying to have to change to a new OS just for one game :P

[due-_- 10]

Yes it is...but maybe i just do it ;<

[Abc94 10]

Ok, the only differnt things on your CCC and mine is adaptave Anti-Aliasing (Used to cause problems for me before) and mipmap detail at performance. My in game settings are usually maxed out except for 3d resolution and having AA disabled.

I just tried to play it with the settings flying in editor and it took much longer to artifact (about 3 minutes). Even though it didn't work, I really appreactiate the help. :) (It could also be that I didn't restart ARMA/my PC after changing the settings)

I have two questions to ask though.

When you change the video settings around in game, are some settings missing sometimes, eg. only being able to set terrain detail up to normal, while other times you can set it to very high?

Have you ever seen objects/textures being loaded in game while your flying or moving very fast, like buildings appearing out of no where or trees/bushes appearing super low detail for a quick period of time?

Well, I did the same as Ginger McAle and converted to Windows 7 64bit on my gaming rig, and that actually fixed it. But it is kind of annoying to have to change to a new OS just for one game :P

I am going to wait for a few new patches before doing anything drastic. I just hope something comes out.

[Drew 10]

NO to the settings question, and YES to the some objects appear super low for like 2 secconds question.

[InFireBaptize 0]

Have you ever seen objects/textures being loaded in game while your flying or moving very fast, like buildings appearing out of no where or trees/bushes appearing super low detail for a quick period of time?

i have that too and i don't believe it is ATI causing this i could be wrong though? i think it's happening to everybody.

[Abc94 10]

Ok thanks for the quick replys. I was thinking that they might be related to the artifacting or whatever else is going on.

You're might be right about ATI not causing the problem, since Nvidea has the same issues as well.

[Ascorius 10]

I had the disapering/appearing structures in win xp, but not in windows 7 64bit. I even have 5fps more on average now. I dont think that its possible to get rid of the artifacting by fidling with ccc adjustments, at least it wasnt for me.

[LRK89 10]

I would like to say i have HD4890 1gb and have everthing on very high with a view distance of 3000 (can do 7000 but when looking in the distance threw a scope the textures look crap) AA is on normal. and it looks great at 1280 * 1024 on my 28 inch HD TV.

I encounted the artifacting when i installed the new 9.9 drivers but im not sure thats what caused it beacuse i turned AA off to increase FPS but when i tested my system in the editor (had about 100 v 100 ) the artifacting kicked in! i then when in the options and changed video memory from very high to defult and it was fine but it did it again so i changed AA to medium and it has not done it since. and im getting about 28 FPS average which is good enough to play.

have you guys tried with AA on and off? I also had it on high and never had it but it would lag when alot of stuff is going on.

Also when looking threw my scope with the m4 (so far..) there is glare (sometimes) on the optics. is this a glitch or annoying feature?

[watu 0]

Just my luck, I finally buy a PC 1 month ago and get what I thought were impressive specs (mainly for my design work but also to play games).

Then I finally buy Arma2 today- all these years after playing the original OFP1 and not playing Arma1- only for it not to work.

Then low and behold the number 1 topic in troubleshooting is a thread with my graphics card in the heading..............(groan!).

So after deciding to stop reading on page 14 it looks like the "solution" is still inconclusive.

So all I can do is throw my rig into the ring of PCs that cant' play Arma2

I've got:

ATI HD 4890 1GB

12GB RAM

Core i7 3.0Ghz

Windows Vista 64bit.

I downloaded and installed the latest patch right after installing Arma2 today and was gutted at what I saw when I tried to play it.

So my problem is that I'm getting issues from word go. Textures aren't loading and full models aren't loading.- from the get go. I thought the menu fly-over of the fleet looked unimpressive and once I loaded my first ever mission - the boot camp, I knew why- All the grass and bushes and almost everything else are colored squares. Textures pop on and off between variing levels of low texture. 3D models pop in and out of detail as well- even when near by. The gun model in FP view never loses it's quality but the texturews on the gun hardly ever load. Oh I could go on ..............would love to take a screen grab but it doesnt' seem to work with Arma (it does with other games)

As I said I read up to page 14 then skipped to the last couple and I can't see any difference in what people are suggesting. I'm gutted.....I've been messing around actually playing a bit of the boot camp and in the editor like this cos I was so looking forward to this game- I'm sooo gutted...

**PS I'm a virtual noob, so I have no idea what suggestions of command lines and "press shift and -" mean!? Is there a troubleshooting section for idiots like me who need to know what the hell some of these suggestions are? Someone suggested to someone with 8GB ram to turn half off- I've got 12Gb and I have no idea how to turn half of that off. Basically all I've been able to understand so far is the suggestions regarding playing with the ATI Catalyst Controller- of which playing around with different setting suggestions has not helped.

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but it's hard reading 14 pages into a 78 page thread and already not know what half the people are talking about.

Edited October 15, 2009 by watu

[LRK89 10]

This is my specs:

AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE @ 3.2Ghz

XFX HD 4890 1GB

Corsair DDR3 2GB

And like i said above I can run it fine with no problem. I read somewhere that for Core-I users they should turn of hyper threading which should give a decent performance when running Arma 2. also what resolution are you trying to run the game at? if your trying it at 1920×1080 you can dream on. try 1600 or 1400 if you dont want to run at 1280...

Also set Graphic resolution (think thats what its called) to the same as your screen resolution.

see if that helps.

[watu 0]

Cheers- how can I turn off hyperthreading? WHat exactly am I doing to my system if I do?

You said: "Also set Graphic resolution (think thats what its called) to the same as your screen resolution."

Are you talking about in game settings here? DO you mean the 3D resolution setting in game?

PS, it's disappointing you saying I should forget about running 1920 x 1080- is my rig THAT poor? It's not like that's the largest res.