6870 tearing issue

[s1kb45trd]

Hi guys,

I'm in desperate need of help/advice/pointers/info. I've been going through a lot of forums for a solution but it's mostly the same answer.

I have in my rig a MSI 6870 + q9450 + 4GB of RAM. (tested both on WinXP and Win7 64bit)

Ever since I changed my videocard to the 6870 I've been experiencing a lot of screen tearing in almost all the games I've tried (HL2, FEAR, COD4, BioShock etc.). Especially in fast moving environments, dark areas with a lot of lights flickering, or when I quickly move my mouse left/right I can see visible horizontal lines = tearing.

Now, I personally don't like to use vsync, and enabling it does to some extent decrease the problem. I realize that my LCD only goes up to 60hz, but with my other card (GTX280) I never came across any tearing whatsoever.

I've tried multiple driver versions on a clean install of XP and Win7 64-bit, but the tearing is still visible. How can it be, that using the same hardware, older cards can pump out similar FPS but with NO tearing?

ANY help or insight, I'd love to hear them.

 

[mactronix]

Hi s1kb45trd,

Probably the easiest thing to do to start with is to ask if you have read this http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html

If not read it through and hopefully it will give you a better understanding of whats actually going on and how best to go about fixing your issue. Its quite in depth but not overly complicated,it covers a lot of stuff that a lot of people are not aware of like how Tripple buffering can cause its own issues so maybe using it alongside V-sync isnt such a great idea etc.

Any questions please just ask.

Mactronix

 

[bystander]

"Now, I personally don't like to use vsync, and enabling it does to some extent decrease the problem. I realize that my LCD only goes up to 60hz, but with my other card (GTX280) I never came across any tearing whatsoever. "

The only way this can be true is if you used vsync, and didn't play certain games which didn't work with vsync.

You likely just had lower FPS and it was not as noticeable. The higher your FPS, the more tearing you can have. Now that you are looking for it, you see it more than before.

I currently am playing a game which doesn't work with vsync (I tried on a 470 and 6970), at first it was noticeable because I was checking out all my image settings for the best fit. Now I don't notice it because I'm not looking for it.

 

[s1kb45trd]

@ mactronix

Thanks for the excellent article. I've already read through the part which covers Vertical Sync when I was researching this issue. And I'm definitely experiencing "tearing" as explained and showed in the article. I'm going to experiment a bit to see if triple buffering + vsync off/on will make it better.

@ bystander

Are you saying that the better the card, and therefore the higher the FPS, the more tearing I will experience on my 60hz LCD monitor? Or in other words, the card is too fast for the monitor?

I always put vsync off because of the stuttering (sometimes), and I never had any tearing issue before with my GTX280 in those fast-action games (Crysis, COD4 1&2, HL2).

I did however had to force vsync on in certain games (FIFA or ProEvoSoccer) on both cards. It's just that, it seems like it's more noticeable with the 6870, maybe cus its pumping out more fps?

 

[bystander]

The higher your FPS, the more chance for tearing you have.