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

[Basil Brush 10]

I wonder if someone can post a video using a 4870 looking at Chernogorsk and show if they dont get this issue(s)??.

[householddog 10]

I have been getting these effects as well.

I noticed that they seem to start when there is about 20mb of vram remaining.

Maybe setting the max vram to 1000, 980 etc might help? On a 1GB card that is.

Its a bit hard to tell from the video. But it sort of looks like I get the effect in the same location yours is coming from. Sort of on the last street of the city.

Edited June 17, 2009 by householddog

[sirex 0]

i have the exact same problem.

i had a 4850, but got screwed screen. Thought the gfx card was broken, so bought a 4870, and i get the same problem, even on the brand new drivers.

This didnt happen in ArmA1, and it does happen less with low texture settings. The thing is, this dosent happen with any other game, including gta4 with the settings cranked right up, so i cant see how this is a problem with anything other than ArmA2 code.

edit: oh and also, i have no overclocking, and an awful lot of fans. The system temp is around 30 degrees under load, 45 for chipset, and 65 for the 4850, around the same for the 4870.

also, i now have two cards (joy!) and crossfire isnt working in arma2 only. works in other games. So now i have an extra card i didnt need that dosent even work.

Edited June 17, 2009 by sirex

[miche86 10]

Hello everybody. New on this forum, i had the same issue, big rectangles filling part of the screen mostly when watching in the sun direction (running a 4870 512mb, 2gb ram, XP SP3). Installing catalyst 9.6 (leaked version) solved the problem for me. catalyst has all the options set to "let the game decide", and I disabled catalyst AI.

[householddog 10]

Funny, 9.6 final caused my problem.

I think if you tone down the texture details it might help. Haven't really tested this though.

The corruption only appears from buildings, so far.

[miche86 10]

Yeah funny. Lowering the texture detail and the drawing distance didn't help me with the previous catalyst version.

9.6 (leaked) solved the problem for me, only extra thing I did was disabling catalyst AI (don't know what it actually does, read to try disabling it somewhere on this forum).

I tried playing around with the graphic settings, it seems to be stabile whatever detail i set now..some flickering still remains, mostly on the buildings, but that is nothing compared to the massive screen corruption some of us are\were experiencing..

[householddog 10]

Yeah funny. Lowering the texture detail and the drawing distance didn't help me with the previous catalyst version.

9.6 (leaked) solved the problem for me, only extra thing I did was disabling catalyst AI (don't know what it actually does, read to try disabling it somewhere on this forum).

I tried playing around with the graphic settings, it seems to be stabile whatever detail i set now..some flickering still remains, mostly on the buildings, but that is nothing compared to the massive screen corruption some of us are\were experiencing..

Good to hear.

I might try one more install of 9.6. then try the betas again.

The AI lowers your graphics settings when your frame rate drops. Not too sure how effective it is. But you could have a play and see.

[thr0tt 12]

For AGP I tried to lower the AGP Aperture in the bios to 256MB instead of 512MB, this delayed the problem but it did occur later in a mission. So it appears that when the 256MB of aperture is used up it starts corrupting ? How does that work then ?

Would be nice to know if BIS are looking at the issue, I am happy to be contacted to perform tests on my system, I can duplicate the error at any time, guaranteed. -noCB does nothing for me.

Are there any other switches to force video memory, not sure the Arma2.cfg settings does much tbh when making changes to that.

[WoodShock 10]

I dont even have a problem with my Ati 4870.. running 9.6 and got a BIG performence boost! 60fps @ 3K viewdistance all medium

before 9.6 it was 30-40fps

System specs:

Ati 4870 512mb (driver 9.6)

E8400 Stock speed (still need to overclock it)

TWIN2x4096-8500 dominator DDR2

DFI P45-T2RS

Edited June 17, 2009 by WoodShock
System specs

[householddog 10]

OK I think I know what the problem is.

Can you guys tell me what your in game memory size is set to + whether you are getting the problem.

[moosenoodles 0]

Set to very high dog.. and no problems with textures

[householddog 10]

Ah, try setting it to "preunites" (panties) and drive around the city for a while. Try to do a lot of zooming, scanning around etc to force it to load textures.

OK Guys I Have a THEORY.

Since the driver update solved some memory fragmentation problems, maybe it is conflicting with the local swap file? Assuming there is one? Maybe existing data conflicts with the new data.

Anyone know what the swap file is called?

Second theory. Arma just can't handle 1GB with these drivers.

I have set my config to localVRAM=985661440;

So far no glitches.

Scratch that one - just got the problem. Was on very high for testing. Changing to the auto option gave me instant corruption.

Edited June 17, 2009 by householddog

[thr0tt 12]

Ah, try setting it to "preunites" (panties) and drive around the city for a while. Try to do a lot of zooming, scanning around etc to force it to load textures.

OK Guys I Have a THEORY.

Since the driver update solved some memory fragmentation problems, maybe it is conflicting with the local swap file? Assuming there is one? Maybe existing data conflicts with the new data.

Anyone know what the swap file is called?

Second theory. Arma just can't handle 1GB with these drivers.

I have set my config to localVRAM=985661440;

So far no glitches.

Scratch that one - just got the problem. Was on very high for testing. Changing to the auto option gave me instant corruption.

I have tried everything in the config file to reduce and increase memory, removed my pagefile from the system, changed resolutions to minimal etc. etc. and so far this is the only game that shows these problems...

I am happy to try any other settings, I even tried to underclock my CPU to run at 2Ghz (from 3.2Ghz) which had no effect, reduced AGP to 4x, slowed memory, sped memory up, ganged and unganged it, disabled sound... anything else someone want to suggest ?

Currently I am wearing my wifes panties to see if that also helps but so far a little chaffing but thats it. ;)

[householddog 10]

I have tried everything in the config file to reduce and increase memory, removed my pagefile from the system, changed resolutions to minimal etc. etc. and so far this is the only game that shows these problems...

I am happy to try any other settings, I even tried to underclock my CPU to run at 2Ghz (from 3.2Ghz) which had no effect, reduced AGP to 4x, slowed memory, sped memory up, ganged and unganged it, disabled sound... anything else someone want to suggest ?

Currently I am wearing my wifes panties to see if that also helps but so far a little chaffing but thats it. ;)

Nah its not your system, lets get that straight. Just tell the turkeys to gobble off, if they tell you that. :)

If something is coded properly it won't have issues with hardware etc. Certainly not common issues.

I think the problem is that setting your memory via the config file is causing the problem. I think that the config only changes texture memory not vram. Damned if I know what that means, but turning it to very high helped.

Try changing Video memory to Very High, in game. Let me know what it was set at before too. For a 512 card try Medium or even Low video memory

Damn still says preunites since the patch? Moose what is the last option called in Video Memory? In game. Underneath Very High.

Edited June 19, 2009 by householddog

[householddog 10]

Hi guys I think I might have a workaround to fix the graphics corruption issue with ATI cards.

It appears, at least on my computer, that changing the Video Memory option from default to Very High (with a 1GB 4890) seems to fox the problem.

I would like some testers, who have the problem, to check what their video memory is set to and let me know.

Also try setting the Video Memory option to Very High (if you have a 1GB card) and see if the problems stop.

The problem always seems to occur when the video memory fills up or hits the cfg limit. The best way to replicate it is in a city. Drive around, looking in all directions with very high textures on. Zoom in on things and generally soak up the graphics. Try to look at everything you can.

Sorry started new thread, 3 others with similar issues. Just need to organise testers. Hard to do in 3 separate threads.

I dare say setting your view distance up high might help with this.

For 1GB Video cards (or 2GB SLI/Crossfire) try it with Video Memory at default and with video memory at very high. For a 512 card try Medium or even Low video memory

Try it for 20 minutes on each setting and see what happens.

Cheers

OK looks like Arma2 does not want to use the Default settings in Video Memory.

The workaround is this.

For 512MB cards set memory to Medium or Low.

For 1GB (or 2GB crossfire) set video memory to Very High.

This will mean Arma won't use all your video memory, but it should help a few people.

Edited July 3, 2009 by householddog

[thr0tt 12]

Unable to comply, HD3850 says low / normal for memory and textures.

If I frig it using the config files then the issue happens sooner than before.

[moosenoodles 0]

Default :D

[Killerwatt 0]

Running on very high memory solved it for me on a 2gb ATI card. Default gave me the artifacts in towns.

[SD_BOB 10]

Never had any issues with my ATI, althouh i did notice that putting my video memory to default dropped my frame rate considerably, wih very high i get 60fps (think this is capped) yet when i go to default i get max of 25 fps.

Just though i would chip in with that...

What exactly does the option do?

[manzilla 1]

Never had any issues with my ATI, althouh i did notice that putting my video memory to default dropped my frame rate considerably, wih very high i get 60fps (think this is capped) yet when i go to default i get max of 25 fps.

Just though i would chip in with that...

What exactly does the option do?

I remember when they implemented it in ArmA but can't remember what it was for. I've never tried the settings on Very High, only Default. My fps is pretty damn good but I'll try Very High.

[sirex 0]

as a side note, i have a 512mb card. using normal fixes most of the issues, using high/very high makes the problem appear almost instantly.

[householddog 10]

Default :D

Thats it.

The secret is to use either very high, high, etc video memory selections - in game.

If you use the default setting, it uses the CFG file value and gives you issues.

[householddog 10]

as a side note, i have a 512mb card. using normal fixes most of the issues, using high/very high makes the problem appear almost instantly.

I think thats because very high is around 640mb-680mb.

The problem seems to be, when it references the Non local vram.

---------- Post added at 07:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 AM ----------

I remember when they implemented it in ArmA but can't remember what it was for. I've never tried the settings on Very High, only Default. My fps is pretty damn good but I'll try Very High.

If default is working for you, I dare say leave it there. This is really only for people getting massive corruption on their screen.

Edited June 18, 2009 by householddog

[palanoid 0]

i have an HD4870 512mb but by turning up or down the video memory setting the artifact/corruption is still there. having updated the display driver to 9.6 doesnt help :(

[thr0tt 12]

Looks like its more prevelant on 512MB cards then as the memory is being hit earlier on, my guess is the 1Gb cards may never or rarely get hit.

For PCI-E can you see if you have an option in you bios similar to that for AGP (Aperture) and see if you are able to increase its size, better still if you have AGP Aperture increase that to 512MB ? Not getting my PCI-e for a while so can't test.