Game frame rate stuck at 66.67 fps

[DSO]

My video card is a recently installed Gecube Radeon X1600. The driver
and Catalyst software were installed from the included disc. All
seems to work fine except in Unreal Tournament (the only game I play)
the frame rate is stuck at 66.67 fps when in Direct3D mode. Note that
66.67 is ~2/3 of 100, not just coincidence I suspect. Of course, the
frame rate should not be fixed to one value. Rather, it should vary
as the scene varies. Also, a frame rate of 66.67 is much lower than
this card is capable of when running UT in this system. For example,
the frame rate when I run UT in OpenGL mode is variable and averages
~180 fps on this machine with this card. Something is fixing the
frame rate at 66.67 when in Direct3D mode and I doubt it is the game
itself (for reasons I won't enumerate here). Surely there is an easy
fix for this. Thanks for any helpful pointers.

DSO

 

[Cookie]

My video card is a recently installed Gecube Radeon X1600. The driver
and Catalyst software were installed from the included disc. All
seems to work fine except in Unreal Tournament (the only game I play)
the frame rate is stuck at 66.67 fps when in Direct3D mode. Note that
66.67 is ~2/3 of 100, not just coincidence I suspect. Of course, the
frame rate should not be fixed to one value. Rather, it should vary
as the scene varies. Also, a frame rate of 66.67 is much lower than
this card is capable of when running UT in this system. For example,
the frame rate when I run UT in OpenGL mode is variable and averages
~180 fps on this machine with this card. Something is fixing the
frame rate at 66.67 when in Direct3D mode and I doubt it is the game
itself (for reasons I won't enumerate here). Surely there is an easy
fix for this. Thanks for any helpful pointers.

DSO

Try disable V-Sync

'V-Sync enabled' will keep the framerate the same as ur refresh rate,
66.67 is a weird rate tho

 

[DSO]

Try disable V-Sync

'V-Sync enabled' will keep the framerate the same as ur refresh rate,
66.67 is a weird rate tho

Thanks, I finally found where (in that clunky Catalyst software) to
disable v-sync. That fixed the problem. I now have ~160 fps in
Direct3D mode in Unreal Tournament.

 

[First of One]

And how does that help to make the game run better?

25-30 fps is needed to get a sense of motion, 60 fps gives smooth motion
when the view changes quickly (e.g. mouselook in a first-person shooter).
Anything above 60 fps brings no visual benefit and can in fact hurt network
performance depending on the game engine. You can verify this with the
/com_maxfps variable in Quake III.

 

[DSO]

And how does that help to make the game run better?

25-30 fps is needed to get a sense of motion, 60 fps gives smooth motion
when the view changes quickly (e.g. mouselook in a first-person shooter).
Anything above 60 fps brings no visual benefit and can in fact hurt network
performance depending on the game engine. You can verify this with the
/com_maxfps variable in Quake III.

No need to verify, I'll take your word for it.

Unfortunately, there are other issues with this card, like the "Cranky
Geeks" podcast (actually a downloaded wmv file) looking horrible in
Media Player Classic (blocky artifacts, skin color varying from flesh
to purple to green throughout the podcast). These problems don't
occur in MS Media Player and they don't occur in Media Player Classic
on the maching that this one was cloned from (with a Radeon 9800 Pro
card).

Also, and I've only noticed this so far in the Firefox browser, every
few minutes there will be a visible glitch while viewing a static
page. The glitch appears to be just one horizontal scan line in a
single vertical frame. Almost inperceptable but definitely there and
very annoying to me. As this will be the system I sit in front of for
hours each day, I must either find a fix for these problems or find
another card.

 

[First of One]

So you imaged the hard drive from another system with different hardware?
Did it have a different motherboard, too? Usually you will have to clean out
and reinstall the motherboard chipset drivers and the Catalyst driver. Look
for newer versions of the WMV codecs as well (found in the KLite codec
packs).

There's a checkbox in the ATi control panels called "WMV acceleration".
Toggle it and see what happens.

 

[DSO]

So you imaged the hard drive from another system with different hardware?
Did it have a different motherboard, too?

Yes, and yes. I did a "repair install" of XP Pro SP2 on the imaged
drive to get the new mobo up and running. XP has been activated and
all Windows updates performed.

Usually you will have to clean out
and reinstall the motherboard chipset drivers and the Catalyst driver.

I did that already.

Look
for newer versions of the WMV codecs as well (found in the KLite codec
packs).
OK.

There's a checkbox in the ATi control panels called "WMV acceleration".
Toggle it and see what happens.

The only ATI interface I have at the moment is "Catalyst Control
Center" set to Advanced View. I see no WMV acceleration checkbox in
it.

Thanks for any pointers.

DSO

 

[First of One]

In CCC it's the last item under AVIVO -> All Settings. Not sure if the AVIVO
section shows up for non-X1K cards. However, the setting shows up in Control
Panel and ATi Tray Tools for all cards, and it has an effect.

 

[DSO]

In CCC it's the last item under AVIVO -> All Settings. Not sure if the AVIVO
section shows up for non-X1K cards.

Found it. It was checked so I unchecked it and the color and blocky
artifact issues in Media Player Classic went away. You da man.

However, the setting shows up in Control
Panel and ATi Tray Tools for all cards, and it has an effect.

If by "Control Panel" you mean the windows "Display Properties" dialog
it's pretty sparse in the Settings->Advanced tab. Just 5 basic tabs
and then a tab to start ATI's CCC.

How do I get ATI Tray Tools? I typically avoid tray programs but I'd
like to try it out. Sorry to be such a nag (I usually search this
stuff out myself) but you're being so helpful and I'm feeling lazy.

Thanks again,

 

[Clint]

http://www.guru3d.com

Clint

Found it. It was checked so I unchecked it and the color and blocky
artifact issues in Media Player Classic went away. You da man.


If by "Control Panel" you mean the windows "Display Properties" dialog
it's pretty sparse in the Settings->Advanced tab. Just 5 basic tabs
and then a tab to start ATI's CCC.

How do I get ATI Tray Tools? I typically avoid tray programs but I'd
like to try it out. Sorry to be such a nag (I usually search this
stuff out myself) but you're being so helpful and I'm feeling lazy.

Thanks again,