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

[ginger mcale 11]

Hey,

welcome to the club of ATI card players annoyed by graphic artefacts.

Is there an official bug submission site or tracker or anything for this?

Yes. Ive created a ticket for this issue at the Arma2 community issue tracker:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2500

Please vote it up.

[el_muerko 0]

I updated the devheaven issue.

I have the same graphical glitches but only when using Crossfire.

Win7 64bit RC, 2x4870, CAT 9.6/7/8beta

[GLeek 10]

Hey,

welcome to the club of ATI card players annoyed by graphic artefacts.

Yes. Ive created a ticket for this issue at the Arma2 community issue tracker:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2500

Please vote it up.

i though this problem was only related to parameter video ram = "default" ?

i personnaly don't have this problem with 9.6 and 9.7 (4GB ,1GB vidram,vista64 SP2), but i always play with video ram = "very high"

i heard it's 2 different settings. the default value probably try to use PCI texturing (using sys RAM for store texture) , and maybe then ATI fail to get a proper feature.

am i wrong ?

---------- Post added at 08:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 AM ----------

I have had problems running Arma2 at my system.

My specs= 3,2g X4 955 black edition, 4 gig ram, two ati 4870 1gb, windows xp professional 32 bit.

Running my cards crossfire made my screen have the sunflickering all the time.

Playing with 1 card made artifacts specially in cities.

I dicided to install windows 7 64bit version.

Also by having that installing direct x 11.

All i can say is.... WOW !

The difference is HUGE !

Game looks perfect, no artifacts, great FPS everywhere.

My cards are running crossfire perfectly

So, people who are still having problems, downloading and installing windows 7 with perhaps direct x 11 is a great try!

It solved all my problems

lol DX11 libs aren't even loaded when you play arma2. arma2 is DX9 period.

maybe it has something to do with default settings of ati drivers .? something like catalyst AI ?

just a guess ...

---------- Post added at 08:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 AM ----------

Judging by the amount of pages this thread has i would love to hear a statement from BIS regarding this.

Who is to blame here, BIS or ATI?

I have a 4870 512MB myself and in some missions especialyl the SP mission "Counterattack" its extremely bad.

My settings are mostly on normal, blur and bloom off, 100% fillrate only nothing too amazing.

Yet in this mission after few mins of playing i get constant blurry textures, lods pop up everywhere and soon i get flickering shadows and soon after polygon spikes that flicker wild around.

it looks like not enough vid ram avaiable for display all that stuff... recurrent problem still arma 1. my hint ? texture detail to normal, or low, with video ram to normal.

and antialiasing to low too , because normal (aka4X) still eat a bunch of megabyte more. and it seem you lack some. don't forget to disable catalyst AI , as personnaly think it can slower down a bit, the loading of texture on mesh.

---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 AM ----------

About this texture artefact, i reproduce the bug with catalyst AI to advanced. it came after 2 min , flying osprey around coast with view distance 6000 (texture very high).

i just finished my 2nd pass , this time catalyst AI disabled. i don't see any glitch.

people who suffer of this , please, try without catalyst AI as this feature is a texture analyser , my logic sens make me think it might be the cause of these artefact.

i understand people with crossfire will suffer of that, but better than nothing , isnt it ?

---------- Post added at 09:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:01 AM ----------

Hey,

welcome to the club of ATI card players annoyed by graphic artefacts.

Yes. Ive created a ticket for this issue at the Arma2 community issue tracker:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2500

Please vote it up.

your test was quit complet, but one time again , you didn't think about test without AMD texture analyser . do it agian please , it can shorter the fix

Edited August 12, 2009 by GLeek

[noradbase 10]

and antialiasing to low too , because normal (aka4X) still eat a bunch of megabyte more. and it seem you lack some. don't forget to disable catalyst AI , as personnaly think it can slower down a bit, the loading of texture on mesh.

I played without anti aliasing, I also tried turing AF off, textures using high, normal, and low, patch 1.02 and patch 1.03. I don't use catalyst AI, and I don't have crossfire, and everytime if it's a big city level it will eventually happen.

[kklownboy 43]

...

HIS HD 4870 X2 with 8.9 cats,

...

WTF 8.9? Go 9.7, its the best CF driver.

[d3lta 10]

WTF 8.9? Go 9.7, its the best CF driver.

I Agree!!;)

[GLeek 10]

I played without anti aliasing, I also tried turing AF off, textures using high, normal, and low, patch 1.02 and patch 1.03. I don't use catalyst AI, and I don't have crossfire, and everytime if it's a big city level it will eventually happen.

here end my experience. because i CAN'T reproduce this texture artefact without catalyst ai . fortunaly, i'm not debugger :D

[ginger mcale 11]

I have the same graphical glitches but only when using Crossfire. Win7 64bit RC, 2x4870, CAT 9.6/7/8beta

Hmmm you are the first person i see with Windows 7 and the artefacts. I know it sucks but i ask anyway, are you sure your card is not overheating? Normally i would not ask but people reporting in this thread had the artefacts dissapear after going over to Windows 7.

i though this problem was only related to parameter video ram = "default" ?

i personnaly don't have this problem with 9.6 and 9.7 (4GB ,1GB vidram,vista64 SP2), but i always play with video ram = "very high"

I think you dont get the artefacts because you have 1 gb ram on your graphic card. But i think its also possible to get them on them but then you need to use unrealistic ingame settings to maximum the texture size usage of your local vram.

people who suffer of this , please, try without catalyst AI as this feature is a texture analyser , my logic sens make me think it might be the cause of these artefact.

Tried it out, still had the artefacts, sadly not the solution :(

By now iam totally pissed off. I have to play with textures and texture memory on low to keep the vram usage low to not get the artefacts. Someone knows maybe why the developers dont fix this issue with ATI cards? Any theories? We have this problems now since almost 3 months . Three patches and two graphic card driver versions later we still have the artefacts. The thread title still says "graphic bugs with ATI 4800 series", we have seen people by now with all series from ATI cards having this issue. Sad.

Please register and vote up the issue at the bug tracker. Maybe they see it there:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2500

I dont know, maybe people think this thread is only for computer noobs having problems with setting up their graphic cards correctly, but its not the case. We have a major problem/bug here. Sad thing.

imN3xa0sZxU

wfGea5Bl5I0

Regards

ginger

Edited August 13, 2009 by Ginger McAle

[thr0tt 12]

Those are 2 perfect samples of the issue that we all experience. I am preordering the expansion now as we speak, I hope it comes with a replacement GPU in the box. j/k

[noradbase 10]

By now iam totally pissed off. I have to play with textures and texture memory on low to keep the vram usage low to not get the artefacts. Someone knows maybe why the developers dont fix this issue with ATI cards? Any theories? We have this problems now since almost 3 months . Three patches and two graphic card driver versions later we still have the artefacts. The thread title still says "graphic bugs with ATI 4800 series", we have seen people by now with all series from ATI cards having this issue. Sad.

Please register and vote up the issue at the bug tracker. Maybe they see it there:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2500

I dont know, maybe people think this thread is only for computer noobs having problems with setting up their graphic cards correctly, but its not the case. We have a major problem/bug here. Sad thing.

imN3xa0sZxU

wfGea5Bl5I0

Regards

ginger

Yeah you nailed my feelings. I didn't buy the game right away, saw it was 3 patches in already and figured it's good enough to play through. Buy it, install it, play a few missions, then the first city and kaboom! Can't play, that's it. Feels like I dropped 50 bucks to play a demo version.

Seeing how big this thread is, and how widespread this issue is, even if it takes them a while to fix it, they could at least have someone say, "yeah, sorry it's taking so long, but we are aware of this and we are working." That alone would make me feel better, if they just say they got people on it. Right now I feel like I'm in the dark.

[Skeptic 10]

Yep, I've had better experience on W7 64bit. Will install 1.03 today on XP and see what's up.

[von_paulus 0]

There will be new catalyst drivers soon.

The next ATI graphics cards drivers will also get released on August 17th. It includes some enhancements specific to performance platforms which are meant to improve system performance in CPU bound situations. It is said that at 1680x1050 and higher, crossfire setups benefit considerably when used as part of the Dragon Platform. This means the AMD platform is more effective as a whole. Titles such as Far Cry 2, H.A.W.X., Battleforge, Stalker Clear Sky, Crysis, Company of Heroes, and World in Conflict show the largest gains, with Far Cry 2 getting up to approximately 50% more performance. Intel based computers featuring an ATI graphics solution will also see some increases, although they will be much less important.

Source: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii_965/2.html

I don't think it will solve your problems, but...

[kremator 1064]

I finally got rid of my microstutters with my 4870! All I did was to put it into -window mode and they were gone !

Try and see if it works for you.

[GLeek 10]

i will light a candy tonight, thinking and preying for you all guys . xD

BI need to hurry up ,

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

i said bullshit . AMD cpu are 20% less effective @given frequency face to intel .

i lauled !

Edited August 14, 2009 by GLeek

[I.like.Pwnies 10]

There will be new catalyst drivers soon.

Source: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii_965/2.html

I don't think it will solve your problems, but...

already use 9.8 beta drivers and im not sure if there is a benefit from it.

[Viral.BadKarma 10]

Source: http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/pii_965/2.html

Doesn't the "cpu bound" just mean if your cpu is spiked it is the bottleneck for your gfx card?

---------- Post added at 07:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 AM ----------

[/color]i said bullshit . AMD cpu are 20% less effective @given frequency face to intel .

i lauled !

x2(don't know about "20%" but agree for given frequency AMD does not perform as well as intel)

[InFireBaptize 0]

hi guys,

i just upgraded my graphic card "see my sig." and have not so far experienced any artifact/corruption "finger crossed", i have also had no artifact/corruption with my previous card as well "see my sig".

[morthawt 0]

amd, intel? this thread is about how this game does not like ATI cards. I myself am on a completely new system with an AMD phenom II X4 945 8GB corsair gamers DDR3 memory and an ATI HD4890 xxx. If i install the game and turn everything way up, it goes to absolute crap on windows 7 ultimate x64. Now on XP 64 it was more tolerable but still i had issues with objects looking smooth for a while before they got their true texture back. Its funny i dont have any of these issues on anything else.

[ginger mcale 11]

@InFireBaptize: You are Windows 7. It seems people with Windows 7 don get the artifacts.

@techwg: Does your 4890 have 1 GB videoram? It seems cards with 1 GB videoram dont get the artifacts or only in very rare cases (because the game seems not to need that much videoram).

[GLeek 10]

CATALYST 9.8 with CPU bound optimization avaiable .no comment, as i havent installed it , yet .

[el_muerko 0]

CATALYST 9.8 with CPU bound optimization avaiable .no comment, as i havent installed it , yet .

i've installed them, got a blue screen the first time i attempted it but the second time it worked, not getting artifacts but my ARMA performance seems noticeably worse than in 9.6/7

[von_paulus 0]

Well no BSOD yet, and at least it's no worst in terms of performance than 9.6/7.

I've to test it more. But then again I don't have so many problems of performance or others.

[stevieboy 10]

I've got to say that I'm extremely disappointed in V 9.8. For those 4870X2 card owners who hoped that this update would fix the snowy flickering on the intro video etc, you are bound for no joy. We hoped that BIS would get together with AMD to resolve this, but no. AMD seems happier to improve FPS on year old games like Crysis, when we gamers who buy their high spec cards, play the latest games like Arma2. Whats the point in these cards if the manufacturer is unable or unwilling to support its customers. Their help in fixing this leaves alot to be desired. Wake up.

[morthawt 0]

@InFireBaptize: You are Windows 7. It seems people with Windows 7 don get the artifacts.

@techwg: Does your 4890 have 1 GB videoram? It seems cards with 1 GB videoram dont get the artifacts or only in very rare cases (because the game seems not to need that much videoram).

I have the 1GB xxx 4890 and if i put the video memory setting on maximum i think its called "very high" the game looks like trash, trees like like paper mache, bicycle wheeles look like solid black squares etc, absolutely awful.

[InFireBaptize 0]

I have the 1GB xxx 4890 and if i put the video memory setting on maximum i think its called "very high" the game looks like trash, trees like like paper mache, bicycle wheeles look like solid black squares etc, absolutely awful.

Quit the game, go to you document profile and rename both files "add bkp before the period. Then start the game, in video option click on default and run the game, if it runs fine then gradually increase video options, one at a time.

what i would also try is to downclock your ATI core and memory clock in the CCC, just give it a try.