Radeon HD 4850 Graphics Issues - Not quite what I expected!

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Guest

Guest
Hi All

I just purchased a HIS Radeon HD4850 512mb as seen in the link below.

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(37491)HIS-ATI-4850-512MBDDR3-DVI-PCIE.aspx

Now its supposed to have a gpu clock speed of 625mhz which according to Catalyst is correct, but the memory speed seems to be out, its supposed to be 1986mhz but Catalyst tells me its only 993mhz ?

Also according to PC Wizard 2008 its pixel shader is only 3.0 but its supposed to be 4.1 ??

See screen shots below;

I originally purchased a GF 9600gt 512mb and some games liked Gears of War and Vegas 2 still seemed a little quirky, so I upgraded to a leadtek px8800gts 640mb and Vegas 2 still seemed a tiny bit quirky (the odd slight stutter when spinning round for some shootage) so then I decided to go with the hd4850 and still Vegas 2 seems a little quirky! I cant afford another card any better than this so will I have to put up with the slight graphics issue with this game?

I thought that with a dual core cpu running at 3.0ghz with 4gb of installed ram, fast 32mb hard drive and Windows Vista Premium I would have the world at my hands! My Vista score beats the recommended so whats the issue? Should I be getting slight stutter glitches in graphics with a 4850 or should I be looking to solve the problem elsewhere?

Is this a fairly common problem with modern pc games? This is the first time Ive gone for a powerful gaming pc as ive always used a 360 for games. I need to get on the better quality pc band wagon!

Any advice or similar experience would be much appreciated.

My systems specs are:

Gigabyte ga-p35c-ds3r mb
E6600 cpu @ 2400 (tested overclocked @ 3ghz also)(watercooled)
4gb OZC 800mhz memory (rated at 3.25 Vista 32-bit)
Seagate 500gb 32mb Hard Drive

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It's dual data rate memory - 993MHz*2 transfers per clock cycle = 1986 million transfers per second. Oh, and it definitely shouldn't be stuttering. Something seems to be wrong if it is doing that.
 
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Guest

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I have the latest 8.8 catalyst drivers. The 4850 is also brand new and not a refurb etc.

Im using 32-bit Vista Premium.

Thanks for the info cjl :) So my cards not reading the wrong the memory speed then! How does that explain the shader in PC Wizard 2008? Or is this software known to behave like this?

The graphics is not so much a stutter as when it stutters to make you get shot etc but a slight stutter that someone watching will not see, but when you have some heavy gun fire at you then you can sure see it yourself, its something you have to look for but lets say when your under fire and you look left then right some of the backdrop images stutter for a split second.
 

suspect

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Micro stutters are a known issue with ATI cards do a search around the web and you will find heaps of info.

You dont say how many or which games stutter.. I had terrible stuttering and some micro stutter in COD4 with 3870 and so have many others.

The simple fix for that game was to enable dual video cards setting in the games options, even tho I had a single card.
It transrormed the experience into beautiful and smooth action.

As for other games I have had no trouble.
 

slush_poepie

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Mar 31, 2008
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Hello

I'm not sure if the micro stuttering is ATI only...currently I have the following Graphics cards...Geforce 8800GT 512mb, 9600GT 512mb , Radeon 1950 pro AGP , Radeon 3870 (crossfire) , Radeon 4850...

I have experienced the same stuttering with all the graphics cards. This might have been a issue relating to the UNREAL engine 3.0 rather than Graphics cards...

I noticed it with Unreal tournament 3 as well until I installed the latest patches for the game. Never had any issues with COD4 but the games I did have issues with were BIOSHOCK, GEARS OF WAR, UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3, RAINBOW 6 VEGAS, SPLINTER CELL DOUBLE AGENT, BLACKSITE AREA 51, MASS EFFECT...

All these games use the UNREAL ENGINE...And for the other shader model 4.1 issue..If it works it works...If you run CRYSIS and the DIRECTX 10 options are there then PC wizard 2008 is reading your card wrong...Use GPU-Z if you want to see your card specs...
 

Alatriste

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All those cards, have relatively slow bandwith, could this be the problem of the stuttering?? Maybe the bottleneck is real and all tweaks to save bandwith are a ****.

 


Try doing the search yourself, they are a result of multi-gpu rendering where the delay between cards it pronounced and aren't limited to ATi.

http://www.pcgameshardware.de/?article_id=631668

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerbase.de%2Fartikel%2Fhardware%2Fgrafikkarten%2F2008%2Ftest_nvidia_3-way-sli_triple-sli%2F7%2F&sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Preformance dips happen with single cards too, but that's not micro-stutter.
 

suspect

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@ ape if you were you telling me to do the search?? I already did and solved problems with major stutters and micro stutters... (on more than one PC)
Micro stutters are not limited to dual card setups..

You obviously did not read/understand my post.

@ slush if your rig is setup correctly with the right settings to maintain a smooth frame rate then you should not get stutters.

You will get frame rate drops if your rig is working too hard... but its not the same thing.

 

slush_poepie

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Again like I said the only games I had issues with were UNREAL ENGINE 3.0 games...

No other games stutter and I do have a lot of games(I run a small internet cafe) The way I resolved my problem was with patches for the games...

Again like I said Unreal tournament 3 had Issues and was solved with a patch...The issue is not ATI specific it is in the software you are using. It happens with all cards crossfire, SLI or single. I'm not talking about my setting for the games. Hell I play CRYSIS 1440x900 MAX settings above 45fps and it runs fine...Unreal tournament 3 which is optimized for QUAD core CPUS ran at the same quality with jerky gameplay until I installed the latest patch...

The problem is not just ATI and if you enable dual video card for COD4 it doesnt really use it if you dont have 2 graphics cards. Check the config file the setting still stays the same just in the game you think it is enabled.
 
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Thanks for the responses everyone, Ive only tried Vegas 2 so far on my machine, im going to try some more today to see how things go.

I really want Crysis - It comes accross as the ultimate game to throw at you rig to test its performance! Anyone know where I can get it cheap? Its still £35 in the shops near me!
 

slush_poepie

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Not to sure where you'll get it cheap. I live in South africa and the game goes for about R180 - R200 ($23 - $25)...

Your slowdown in VEGAS 2 might just be related to the graphics engine...Try a game that doesnt use Unreal engine 3 and just see what you think. Like I said patches fixed the error for me in the games. Micro stuttering is exclusive to multi cards yes. But the problem you have with your graphics card is not related to the card. Also just try tweaking some of your graphics settings in CATALYST and play the game again. Push detail up and down till you get what you want.


 


Microstutter is limited to dual card setups, what you're experiencing is framerate drops. You wanna use a term that has a defined meaning then use it correctly.
It's like telling someone it's an AF issue but that's because to you AF mean Alias-Fixer not Anisotropic Filtering. Start making up your own terms, yeah it's your Flaven flange rubbing up against your Flux Rasterizer, it's solved by enabling V-sync, which synchronizes your Vertexes with your Geometry. :sarcastic:

You may have frame rate drops, it may cause your system and visuals to stutter, but they are not the micro stutter issue that affects all mfrs and is specific to many multi-gpu setups.

As for understanding your post, I understood it and reject it with support. Show me something to back up your statements and prove you understand my reply.
 
My problem with MS (micro stutter) is the MS is now being used in so many ways, its lost its true identity. Also, pointing to ATI asthe only one having MS is a utterly false and very non informed and incriminating opinion, based neither on fact, or in this case relevance
 
Yeah, and sofar I haven't seen people really do much in depth testing of the X2 and whether it has it beat over situations that hurt two 4870 in CF or 2 GTX in SLi.

That both nV and AMD officially recognize the issue in many of those related threads with replies back from their support/engineers, shows it's a problem across IHVs.

I also dislike it being used incorrectly for other issues, it lessen it by assigning it to anything and everything. It's a tricky issue before people start confusing it with other stuff.
 
Yea, Ive seen the threads where theyve tested the x2 vs other cards, but not 4870s in CF. So far tho, most of the MS problems on most current games isnt an issue with the x2. Tho, that could change with newer games