Well, nowadays at least switching between Eyefinity and non Eyefinity profiles works quite well.
However whenever I return from Eyefinity I have to exchange both DVI-Cables.
Otherwise I couldn't rotate my monitor. Bliss! Maybe a clean reinstall of the Catalysts might solve that?
I also enjoyed a brief time, after either installing new drivers or after my PC was used for some LAN gaming at an so far unknown screen, when I could actually boot up my PC with all 3 screens turned on.
Then I finally felt the urge to Eyefinity some more, and after that the old issue popped up with a vengeance. Now it's not enough to boot with just the Display Port connected monitor turned off, no I also need to turn off my primary DVI connected Dell monitor.
However that might have changed as of today as I again played a bit of L4D2 in Eyefinity and had to do the dvi-switcharoo at back of the card. So my newly primary DVI connected Samsung monitor might be able to stay turned on, as it had been the case previously during the boot sequence? I shall see tomorrow and report!
That however has lead me to believe that the boot issue might actually be a driver issue, strange as it sounds.
Otherwise I couldn't think of a reason why it started happening exactly after I returned to Eyefinity. And not just this once I believe exactly that was the case before once or twice.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
My day with my Radeon 5850
...was interesting. And a nice summary of all the issues I've so far been experiencing on a more or less regular basis.
But first, the basics:
Windows 7 64Bit
Catalyst 10.1
Core2 Duo E6400 @ 3.2Ghz
Gigabyte 965P-DQ6
2*2048Mb DDR2 Ram AData Vitesta
2*1024Mb DDR2 Ram Corsair XMS2
Asus Radeon 5850
Cougar Power 750Watt PSU
Samsung F3 1Tb
Samsung F1 640Gb
2*Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500Gb
Samsung Sata DVD-Writer
Dell 2407WFP (connected via DVI, Display #3 according to CCC) (to my left)
Samsung 2493HM (DVI, #1) (center)
HP Compaq LA2405wq (Display Port, #2) (to my right)
LG 32LF2500 (HDMI, I guess #4) (to my far left)
Now then, let me begin:
For ordinary Internet/"productivity"-use my Dell is set up in Portrait mode, the Samsung and HP in Landscape.
Today at noon I decided to play a bit of Forza3 on my Xbox360 that is connected to my LG TV by way of an HDMI switch. Connected to said Switch is also the PC. The switch tends to automatically switch to a signal when it gets activated.
Well then, I was racing around the tracks when my PC sent its 3 screens into sleep mode. I woke them up pretty much before they managed to go to sleep. But lo and behold, all of a sudden my Dell is missing. In fact, CCC only showed the Samsung and HP screen as connected. Hm... Where did my TV go, where my Dell?
Thinking "A restart fixes most problems" I did just that. That ordinarily wouldn't be a big thing, except that I have to turn off my HP Monitor. Why do I have to do that to reboot? You see, my PC is over clocked. Oh, and it won't boot past the memory check, if the Display Port Monitor is turned on if it's over clocked, or rather if any BIOS settings involving clock rates are changed by even one digit. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that after disassembling my PC to troubleshoot that issue.
Anyway with the HP screen turned off, my HDMI-switch got the signal from the PC to switch its inputs around and show me the BIOS boot up on TV instead of the signal coming in from my Xbox360. Funny thing, a race was about to start. Well, actually not that funny for me.
Anyhow. after scrambling around madly and turning the Display Port screen back on, the PC yielded control of the HDMI port back to my Xbox.
Well, so far so good.
A couple of hours later and having finished Forza3 I read about Google Earth now having my home town, Vienna, with 3d building. I needed to check out, and well, it's true, there it was, Vienna with most of its building in badly textured polygons.
Playing around a bit with the graphics options of Google Earth yielded slightly nicer polygons. Fooling around a bit more I wondered about texturing the 3d buildings not realistically but just in grey. Well, that locked up my Computer. the second freeze I experienced so far after installing the Radeon 5850. Then again slightly before installing the Radeon I also switched to Windows 7 from Vista and installed the Samsung F3 HDD. I guess I can't solely blame the Radeon for these freezes.
Anyhow... as with the last freeze, after forcing the system to turn off, and turning it on again it wouldn't boot anymore, just start for a second or two and before any imagine appeared on either screen turn off again. And it did this ad infinitum.
Oh well, disconnecting it from the power outlet for several seconds solved that. I just kinda forgot to turn off the DP Monitor, so I got an instant reboot as my over clocked settings where still in effect. *sigh* Turning the DP screen off and restoring my over clocked settings I rebooted into Win7.
Hm, something's different here... Oh yeah, my Samsung screen is dark, and the resolution has changed to 640*480. Well at least my HP is still the secondary screen.
But my Dell is not in portrait anymore?
Hm.. well, trying to load my CCC-profile for that set up at least managed to restore the proper resolution and turn my Samsung on again. But why is my Dell still in landscape?
Ah well, profile loading never works the first time, just load it again... to no avail.
Hm, something's amiss here. So I tried to manually rotate the dell, wouldn't work. Neither in CC nor in the Windows display options. Funny thing.
And a reboot didn't fix it either. *sigh*
But at least I could switch between my eyefinity profile and my other 3 screens individually configured profile rather seemlessly. Well, it still misremembered the position of one of the screens after switching out of eyefinity, but loading the profile again it actually got that right too.
*sigh*
So in summary:
1) PC doesn't boot past the memory check and showing in what mode the memory runs (in my case dual channel interleaved) if _any_ clock speeds are changed. It doesn't even matter if I set PCIe settings from "Auto" to "100 Mhz" or over clock my CPU by 1 measly Mhz. It simply won't boot past the memory check if the Display Port connected monitor is turned on at the same time, when the PC is turned on.
2) If any monitor is turned on or off (either manually or automatically) while in Windows CCC redistributes the connected screens randomly.
3) If turning off the TV after connecting it by choice and reconnecting (in CCC) either monitor, it keeps the resolution of the TV and does not switch back to the resolution of the monitor.
4) Catalyst 10.1 suddenly doesn't allow me to rotate any screen anymore.
5) When watching a flash video or Youtube the screens flicker slightly just when it is loaded and again when it's closed.
6) Profiles obviously don't work.
So... before I go mad, is there at least a slight chance that I got a faulty card, and that exchanging my Asus Radeon 5850 would solve at least some of my issues? Or are at least some of them more widespread? In that case I'd seriously appreciate seeing that I'm not alone.
At least with the non-rotation issue there's someone else here that had the same thing yesterday and solved it by going back to Catalyst 9.12. *sigh*
[also posted on the AMD/ATI Radeon Forums]
But first, the basics:
Windows 7 64Bit
Catalyst 10.1
Core2 Duo E6400 @ 3.2Ghz
Gigabyte 965P-DQ6
2*2048Mb DDR2 Ram AData Vitesta
2*1024Mb DDR2 Ram Corsair XMS2
Asus Radeon 5850
Cougar Power 750Watt PSU
Samsung F3 1Tb
Samsung F1 640Gb
2*Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500Gb
Samsung Sata DVD-Writer
Dell 2407WFP (connected via DVI, Display #3 according to CCC) (to my left)
Samsung 2493HM (DVI, #1) (center)
HP Compaq LA2405wq (Display Port, #2) (to my right)
LG 32LF2500 (HDMI, I guess #4) (to my far left)
Now then, let me begin:
For ordinary Internet/"productivity"-use my Dell is set up in Portrait mode, the Samsung and HP in Landscape.
Today at noon I decided to play a bit of Forza3 on my Xbox360 that is connected to my LG TV by way of an HDMI switch. Connected to said Switch is also the PC. The switch tends to automatically switch to a signal when it gets activated.
Well then, I was racing around the tracks when my PC sent its 3 screens into sleep mode. I woke them up pretty much before they managed to go to sleep. But lo and behold, all of a sudden my Dell is missing. In fact, CCC only showed the Samsung and HP screen as connected. Hm... Where did my TV go, where my Dell?
Thinking "A restart fixes most problems" I did just that. That ordinarily wouldn't be a big thing, except that I have to turn off my HP Monitor. Why do I have to do that to reboot? You see, my PC is over clocked. Oh, and it won't boot past the memory check, if the Display Port Monitor is turned on if it's over clocked, or rather if any BIOS settings involving clock rates are changed by even one digit. Imagine my surprise when I noticed that after disassembling my PC to troubleshoot that issue.
Anyway with the HP screen turned off, my HDMI-switch got the signal from the PC to switch its inputs around and show me the BIOS boot up on TV instead of the signal coming in from my Xbox360. Funny thing, a race was about to start. Well, actually not that funny for me.
Anyhow. after scrambling around madly and turning the Display Port screen back on, the PC yielded control of the HDMI port back to my Xbox.
Well, so far so good.
A couple of hours later and having finished Forza3 I read about Google Earth now having my home town, Vienna, with 3d building. I needed to check out, and well, it's true, there it was, Vienna with most of its building in badly textured polygons.
Playing around a bit with the graphics options of Google Earth yielded slightly nicer polygons. Fooling around a bit more I wondered about texturing the 3d buildings not realistically but just in grey. Well, that locked up my Computer. the second freeze I experienced so far after installing the Radeon 5850. Then again slightly before installing the Radeon I also switched to Windows 7 from Vista and installed the Samsung F3 HDD. I guess I can't solely blame the Radeon for these freezes.
Anyhow... as with the last freeze, after forcing the system to turn off, and turning it on again it wouldn't boot anymore, just start for a second or two and before any imagine appeared on either screen turn off again. And it did this ad infinitum.
Oh well, disconnecting it from the power outlet for several seconds solved that. I just kinda forgot to turn off the DP Monitor, so I got an instant reboot as my over clocked settings where still in effect. *sigh* Turning the DP screen off and restoring my over clocked settings I rebooted into Win7.
Hm, something's different here... Oh yeah, my Samsung screen is dark, and the resolution has changed to 640*480. Well at least my HP is still the secondary screen.
But my Dell is not in portrait anymore?
Hm.. well, trying to load my CCC-profile for that set up at least managed to restore the proper resolution and turn my Samsung on again. But why is my Dell still in landscape?
Ah well, profile loading never works the first time, just load it again... to no avail.
Hm, something's amiss here. So I tried to manually rotate the dell, wouldn't work. Neither in CC nor in the Windows display options. Funny thing.
And a reboot didn't fix it either. *sigh*
But at least I could switch between my eyefinity profile and my other 3 screens individually configured profile rather seemlessly. Well, it still misremembered the position of one of the screens after switching out of eyefinity, but loading the profile again it actually got that right too.
*sigh*
So in summary:
1) PC doesn't boot past the memory check and showing in what mode the memory runs (in my case dual channel interleaved) if _any_ clock speeds are changed. It doesn't even matter if I set PCIe settings from "Auto" to "100 Mhz" or over clock my CPU by 1 measly Mhz. It simply won't boot past the memory check if the Display Port connected monitor is turned on at the same time, when the PC is turned on.
2) If any monitor is turned on or off (either manually or automatically) while in Windows CCC redistributes the connected screens randomly.
3) If turning off the TV after connecting it by choice and reconnecting (in CCC) either monitor, it keeps the resolution of the TV and does not switch back to the resolution of the monitor.
4) Catalyst 10.1 suddenly doesn't allow me to rotate any screen anymore.
5) When watching a flash video or Youtube the screens flicker slightly just when it is loaded and again when it's closed.
6) Profiles obviously don't work.
So... before I go mad, is there at least a slight chance that I got a faulty card, and that exchanging my Asus Radeon 5850 would solve at least some of my issues? Or are at least some of them more widespread? In that case I'd seriously appreciate seeing that I'm not alone.
At least with the non-rotation issue there's someone else here that had the same thing yesterday and solved it by going back to Catalyst 9.12. *sigh*
[also posted on the AMD/ATI Radeon Forums]
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thinking about things
Well again, as is obvious profiles are not yet working as they should.
After a quick read over at WSGF I did indeed come to the conclusion that profiles that switch between eyefinity and non-eyefinity definitely do not work as of now. Well, I can live with that, painful as it may be.
I can even live with having to reload the same profile 3 times, before Catalyst correctly remembers the location of the monitors, when switching between two non-Eyefinity profiles.
What I still can't live with, is Catalyst changing my desktop when I turn one screen off.
E.g.: Yesterday night, I would have liked to watch a streaming video (NFL Network on NFL Gamepass HD) while going to sleep.
I would have preferred to watch it on my middle monitor, my Samsung 2493HM that is connected via DVI. I would have liked to turn off my other two screens though.
So I did.
And well, as soon as I turned my display port connected HP off, the image vanished from the other two screens too.
So where did it go? Well obviously to my HDMI-connected LG TV. While that in this instance is actually an okay outcome, it still goes to show the problem.
Suddenly and only by turning monitors off, I'm in 1 screen mode.
And as previous experience shows, had I changed the channel on the TV, it probably would have fucked up the desktop again.
*sigh*
After a quick read over at WSGF I did indeed come to the conclusion that profiles that switch between eyefinity and non-eyefinity definitely do not work as of now. Well, I can live with that, painful as it may be.
I can even live with having to reload the same profile 3 times, before Catalyst correctly remembers the location of the monitors, when switching between two non-Eyefinity profiles.
What I still can't live with, is Catalyst changing my desktop when I turn one screen off.
E.g.: Yesterday night, I would have liked to watch a streaming video (NFL Network on NFL Gamepass HD) while going to sleep.
I would have preferred to watch it on my middle monitor, my Samsung 2493HM that is connected via DVI. I would have liked to turn off my other two screens though.
So I did.
And well, as soon as I turned my display port connected HP off, the image vanished from the other two screens too.
So where did it go? Well obviously to my HDMI-connected LG TV. While that in this instance is actually an okay outcome, it still goes to show the problem.
Suddenly and only by turning monitors off, I'm in 1 screen mode.
And as previous experience shows, had I changed the channel on the TV, it probably would have fucked up the desktop again.
*sigh*
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Pofiling profiles
Oh how annoying this is. Changing screens or just their alignment is such an exhibition in frustration.
I'm seriously considering just installing Windows several times and have each installation locked to one specific display setup.
Well not really, but still, tweaking the displays for 10 minutes just because profiles aren't saved as they are supposed to, windows suddenly appear where they once in a different configuration were supposed to be, resolution changes without any doing of my own, and on and on and on it goes.
Perfectly annoying.
And it's not just happening when trying to load profiles (which also causes Catalyst Control Center to crash lately), but also when switching things one by one.
Wonderful!
I'm seriously considering just installing Windows several times and have each installation locked to one specific display setup.
Well not really, but still, tweaking the displays for 10 minutes just because profiles aren't saved as they are supposed to, windows suddenly appear where they once in a different configuration were supposed to be, resolution changes without any doing of my own, and on and on and on it goes.
Perfectly annoying.
And it's not just happening when trying to load profiles (which also causes Catalyst Control Center to crash lately), but also when switching things one by one.
Wonderful!
Monday, February 8, 2010
The overclocking issue revisited
Today, about 5 days after first having the problem with my processor overclock not working anymore I found the time to do some testing.
I shall repeat the issue:
CPU was overclocked for nearly 3 years without an issue. About a week ago, about the same time I received my Display Port capable HP Monitor my PC would only boot when not overclocked. Otherwise it reset itself right after the memory check / message showing the "Memory runs in Dual Channel Interleaved". This is right before the detection of SATA/IDE devices. It did't matter how minor or major the overclock was. Even it technically wasn'T a overclock it still wouldn't boot completely.
My configuration is:
Intel Core2Duo Conroe E6400 2.13ghz (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
Gigabyte 965P-DQ6
2*1024 Corsair XMS2 8500
2*2048 AData Vitesta
Asus Radeon 5850
2* Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500gb
Samsung F2 640gb
Sasmung F3 1000gb
Cougar 750W Poer Supply
Aerocool ExtremEngine 3T (which is annoyingly small)
Well, first I tried to check the Ram, while Memtest86 didn't find any issue with it I decided to better be safe than sorry.
Taking out both 2048 sticks it booted... hm!
Installing one of the 2048 again - no boot.
Taking out both 1024 sticks while leaving both 2048 in - no boot.
Installing just one 2048 - booting.
Hm... so I guess it ain't the ram after all.
Well I remember not yet feeling quite at ease with the F3 which found its way into my cramped case just before Christmas. So lets take 'em out. Disconnecting all HDDs but leaving all the ram in - no boot.
*sigh*
Well... what else is new? And what did I change right about the time the trouble started? Yeah... that's right, the Display Port-Screen arrived and I connected it instead of the DP-VGA Adapter that lead to my TV.
Hm... Well, so let's imagine that this might be the general area of where to look.
So what's the difference? The TV was never turned on when I turned the PC on. The Display Port capable HP Monitor on the other hand always was.
Lets have a look... or rather no look and disconnect the Display Port. Surprise, surprise, it lives! Reconnecting the DP-Cable and leaving the monitor off, it boots again. Turning the monitor on, no boot.
So there we go, for whatever reason there might be, overclocking a Core2Duo in a Gigabyte 965p-DQ6 mainboard with more than 2gb of RAM and a Radeon 5850 and a Display Port connected device that is turned on results in not being able to overclock anymore. Brilliant!
Anyone care to explain this phenomenon to me or if it happens in different configurations as well?
I shall repeat the issue:
CPU was overclocked for nearly 3 years without an issue. About a week ago, about the same time I received my Display Port capable HP Monitor my PC would only boot when not overclocked. Otherwise it reset itself right after the memory check / message showing the "Memory runs in Dual Channel Interleaved". This is right before the detection of SATA/IDE devices. It did't matter how minor or major the overclock was. Even it technically wasn'T a overclock it still wouldn't boot completely.
My configuration is:
Intel Core2Duo Conroe E6400 2.13ghz (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
Gigabyte 965P-DQ6
2*1024 Corsair XMS2 8500
2*2048 AData Vitesta
Asus Radeon 5850
2* Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500gb
Samsung F2 640gb
Sasmung F3 1000gb
Cougar 750W Poer Supply
Aerocool ExtremEngine 3T (which is annoyingly small)
Well, first I tried to check the Ram, while Memtest86 didn't find any issue with it I decided to better be safe than sorry.
Taking out both 2048 sticks it booted... hm!
Installing one of the 2048 again - no boot.
Taking out both 1024 sticks while leaving both 2048 in - no boot.
Installing just one 2048 - booting.
Hm... so I guess it ain't the ram after all.
Well I remember not yet feeling quite at ease with the F3 which found its way into my cramped case just before Christmas. So lets take 'em out. Disconnecting all HDDs but leaving all the ram in - no boot.
*sigh*
Well... what else is new? And what did I change right about the time the trouble started? Yeah... that's right, the Display Port-Screen arrived and I connected it instead of the DP-VGA Adapter that lead to my TV.
Hm... Well, so let's imagine that this might be the general area of where to look.
So what's the difference? The TV was never turned on when I turned the PC on. The Display Port capable HP Monitor on the other hand always was.
Lets have a look... or rather no look and disconnect the Display Port. Surprise, surprise, it lives! Reconnecting the DP-Cable and leaving the monitor off, it boots again. Turning the monitor on, no boot.
So there we go, for whatever reason there might be, overclocking a Core2Duo in a Gigabyte 965p-DQ6 mainboard with more than 2gb of RAM and a Radeon 5850 and a Display Port connected device that is turned on results in not being able to overclock anymore. Brilliant!
Anyone care to explain this phenomenon to me or if it happens in different configurations as well?
Quirky Catalyst
Well as indicated before there is something not working as I would have hoped for it to:
This includes saving of profiles in the Catalyst Control Center as well as turning monitors on and off.
In normal operation I have my Dell 2407wfp (DVI) in portrait mode on the left, in center my Samsung 2493HM (DVI) in landscape and to my right my HP LA2405wg in landscape.
My Samsung is my primary screen. On it are: mail client, ICQ, other stuff that periodically asks for attention.
On my Dell I primarily surf. Using Firefox and Internet Explorer.
And the HP as latest addition is still kind of looking for a job.
I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and the latest Catalyst 10.1 drivers.
I also have my LG 32LF2500 connected to my card via HDMI to watch streaming TV from time to time.
Ideally I would save three profiles:
1) Eyefinity: Dell+Samsung+HP 5760*1200
2) Non-Gaming: Dell (portrait), Samsung (landscape), HP (landscape)
3) Movies: LG, Samsung, HP
I actually can save those profiles. Regrettably what isn't loaded when trying to load a profile is the position of the screens. Though sometimes it actually loads that correctly too.
Also forgotten is which screen is the primary one. Annoying.
And after using the TV with 120 pixels less in height, sometimes the driver seems to think that the PC Monitors (or at least any one of them) is also lacking in height.
Well, that's annoying but wouldn't even be that bad.
Much worse is that it also switches the configuration when screens are turned off.
E.g.: When using setup 3 with the TV I like to turn off the PC Screens. If I then switch away from the HDMI Input on the TV one of the turned off Monitors suddenly switches its windows with the TV (i.e.: The video stream from the tv is now on the pc monitor while the mail client, icq and web browser are on the tv instead of the monitor. The funny part of this is, that the Monitor stays the primary display through all of this.)
And that is really annoying. Especially when lying in bed and not wanting to get up again to return the settings to what they are supposed to be.
I've got a tough time wrapping my head around this. I don't really understand why it is hard to just leave the windows on the screen I left them on, and ignore any change in what is turned on and what is turned off.
I also don't quite get why it doesn't actually restore my profiles the same way I saved them. Or rather, why it seems to guess what I saved and most of the time guesses wrong.
Oh well, that's the breaks I guess.
This includes saving of profiles in the Catalyst Control Center as well as turning monitors on and off.
In normal operation I have my Dell 2407wfp (DVI) in portrait mode on the left, in center my Samsung 2493HM (DVI) in landscape and to my right my HP LA2405wg in landscape.
My Samsung is my primary screen. On it are: mail client, ICQ, other stuff that periodically asks for attention.
On my Dell I primarily surf. Using Firefox and Internet Explorer.
And the HP as latest addition is still kind of looking for a job.
I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and the latest Catalyst 10.1 drivers.
I also have my LG 32LF2500 connected to my card via HDMI to watch streaming TV from time to time.
Ideally I would save three profiles:
1) Eyefinity: Dell+Samsung+HP 5760*1200
2) Non-Gaming: Dell (portrait), Samsung (landscape), HP (landscape)
3) Movies: LG, Samsung, HP
I actually can save those profiles. Regrettably what isn't loaded when trying to load a profile is the position of the screens. Though sometimes it actually loads that correctly too.
Also forgotten is which screen is the primary one. Annoying.
And after using the TV with 120 pixels less in height, sometimes the driver seems to think that the PC Monitors (or at least any one of them) is also lacking in height.
Well, that's annoying but wouldn't even be that bad.
Much worse is that it also switches the configuration when screens are turned off.
E.g.: When using setup 3 with the TV I like to turn off the PC Screens. If I then switch away from the HDMI Input on the TV one of the turned off Monitors suddenly switches its windows with the TV (i.e.: The video stream from the tv is now on the pc monitor while the mail client, icq and web browser are on the tv instead of the monitor. The funny part of this is, that the Monitor stays the primary display through all of this.)
And that is really annoying. Especially when lying in bed and not wanting to get up again to return the settings to what they are supposed to be.
I've got a tough time wrapping my head around this. I don't really understand why it is hard to just leave the windows on the screen I left them on, and ignore any change in what is turned on and what is turned off.
I also don't quite get why it doesn't actually restore my profiles the same way I saved them. Or rather, why it seems to guess what I saved and most of the time guesses wrong.
Oh well, that's the breaks I guess.
The story so far...
My first Eyefinity trial happened about 3 weeks ago at the dawn of the new year.
It was quite interesting but rather short lived and not in a very harmonic way.
There were my two 24 inch PC-screens, a Dell 2407wfp and a Samsung 2493HM both natively running in 1920*1200 and connected via DVI. And then there was my TV, a LG 32LF2500 running 1920*1080 connected to my Radeon 5850 by a Display Port - VGA adapter.
While obviously just seen as a first taste of what was yet to come, with my two PC-screens stretching the image a bit to their native resolution and differently sized displays, it still was very impressive.
The first impression of Race Driver: Grid blew me away. And mind you, I'm not even talking about playing, but just the menu. Incredible.
Racing was rather nice too, however I noticed some not so slight slowdowns with everything turned to maximum (except FSAA which was turned off).
Oh well, off to Team Fortress 2 I went and validated my first impression. Yep... Eyefinity is what I imagined it to be. Actually much more than that.
I also used my TV to watch streaming videos from my PC (NFL Gamepass), and noticed the dreaded screen flicker. While not necessarily enough to annoy it was a slight negative. But for the time being the screen turning black for a second once per hour would have to make do.
Until this Tuesday when I finally received my 3rd 24" PC screen with 1920*1200 pixels. And also a display port. Granted it was the lowest priced one I could find, a HP LA2405wg but due to a number of mix ups I got it for a great price. Downside to this was a rather long waiting time.
Anyhow, that was this Tuesday, and I connected it.
And it worked. Beautifully indeed. However Grid, Dirt2 did not run as smoothly as I would have hoped. Admittedly 5760*1200 is a whole lot of pixels for a Radeon5850, but still, I would have hoped for fewer slowdowns while playing.
Even TeamFortress2 did dip down to 20 fps frequently.
*sigh*
Then again I certainly could have turned down the graphics setting by a fair margin to receive playable frame rates. Indeed I was set on doing his when a slight disaster struck.
My venerable Core2Duo E6400 (I nicknamed him Conroe), overclocked to >3Ghz since I got him nearly 3 years ago on his Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 mainboard suddenly didn't want to be overclocked anymore.
Or rather it did want to as I certainly managed to validate by using easy tune instead of the BIOS setting that worked before. But after the Memory Check and the Message that my Memory "run in Dual Channel Interleaved" right before taking stock of the attached SATA/IDE Drives the PC would reboot only to start with stock speeds again. That would happen even with very moderate overclocks. Actually even if just setting PCIe frequency to 100mhz instead of "Auto" it wouldn't completely boot.
Well that certainly was quite a downer right there. Especially considering that I didn't quite understand the reasons for. I would come to learn and understand. But before I found time to test for the faulty component I did notice some quirks with the Catalyst 10.1 drivers.
It was quite interesting but rather short lived and not in a very harmonic way.
There were my two 24 inch PC-screens, a Dell 2407wfp and a Samsung 2493HM both natively running in 1920*1200 and connected via DVI. And then there was my TV, a LG 32LF2500 running 1920*1080 connected to my Radeon 5850 by a Display Port - VGA adapter.
While obviously just seen as a first taste of what was yet to come, with my two PC-screens stretching the image a bit to their native resolution and differently sized displays, it still was very impressive.
The first impression of Race Driver: Grid blew me away. And mind you, I'm not even talking about playing, but just the menu. Incredible.
Racing was rather nice too, however I noticed some not so slight slowdowns with everything turned to maximum (except FSAA which was turned off).
Oh well, off to Team Fortress 2 I went and validated my first impression. Yep... Eyefinity is what I imagined it to be. Actually much more than that.
I also used my TV to watch streaming videos from my PC (NFL Gamepass), and noticed the dreaded screen flicker. While not necessarily enough to annoy it was a slight negative. But for the time being the screen turning black for a second once per hour would have to make do.
Until this Tuesday when I finally received my 3rd 24" PC screen with 1920*1200 pixels. And also a display port. Granted it was the lowest priced one I could find, a HP LA2405wg but due to a number of mix ups I got it for a great price. Downside to this was a rather long waiting time.
Anyhow, that was this Tuesday, and I connected it.
And it worked. Beautifully indeed. However Grid, Dirt2 did not run as smoothly as I would have hoped. Admittedly 5760*1200 is a whole lot of pixels for a Radeon5850, but still, I would have hoped for fewer slowdowns while playing.
Even TeamFortress2 did dip down to 20 fps frequently.
*sigh*
Then again I certainly could have turned down the graphics setting by a fair margin to receive playable frame rates. Indeed I was set on doing his when a slight disaster struck.
My venerable Core2Duo E6400 (I nicknamed him Conroe), overclocked to >3Ghz since I got him nearly 3 years ago on his Gigabyte 965P-DQ6 mainboard suddenly didn't want to be overclocked anymore.
Or rather it did want to as I certainly managed to validate by using easy tune instead of the BIOS setting that worked before. But after the Memory Check and the Message that my Memory "run in Dual Channel Interleaved" right before taking stock of the attached SATA/IDE Drives the PC would reboot only to start with stock speeds again. That would happen even with very moderate overclocks. Actually even if just setting PCIe frequency to 100mhz instead of "Auto" it wouldn't completely boot.
Well that certainly was quite a downer right there. Especially considering that I didn't quite understand the reasons for. I would come to learn and understand. But before I found time to test for the faulty component I did notice some quirks with the Catalyst 10.1 drivers.
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