Odd flickering while using 5900 Ultra

[flyinj]

I recently got a GeForce 5900 Ultra... and I've been experiencing this odd, subtle "flickering" of the scene at times. It usually happens when looking out over a large distance with a semi-bright sky in Planetside, Battlefield 1942 and, most recently, Star Wars Galaxies. It almost looks like my monitor is set to a poor refresh, like 60hz, for very small intervals, then it goes back to normal refresh. If I look down at the ground, the flickering stops. In Battlefield and in Planetside, the flickering only happens when I'm standing in certain positions looking at the sky from certain angles. On a bright day in Galaxies, however, it seems to happen whenever I walk forward.

My previous card was a GeForce 4400, on the same monitor (a Viewsonic PF795 19") and I NEVER noticed any of this behavior. This pretty much rules out my monitor as the culprit. Also, I am running a refresh override program to lock the refresh at 85hz. I tried Galaxies without this running, and it made absolutely no difference. I'm definately running at 85hz in Galaxies, I would notice if it was running at anything lower. Like I said previously, the "flickering" only happens while walking forward with the sky and horizon in view.

I'm not running any anti-aliasing or antistropic filtering. Vsync is definately on... even though this behavior isn't "tearing" as happens when Vsync is off. I have the latest detonator (FX) drivers installed. I even installed the correct .inf for my monitor... none of this has helped.

To elaborate further, the geometry itself isn't flickering. It almost seems like the whole scene is subtly changing brightness at a very rapid rate. I'd go so far to say that it almost looks like my monitor is having a hard time with the contrast between the light sky and the darker ground... but if I have my GeForce 4400 installed, it doesn't happen at all. It's a pretty subtle effect, but it's enough to drive me crazy.

Anyone have any advice, or had anything similar to them occur?

SYSTEM:
P4 2.5ghz
WinXP Pro
GeForce 5900 Ultra latest dets
SBLive latest drivers

[uncle_jimbo]

Is it almost like its stuttering ?

welcome to timo

[VHockey86]

What happens when you lower the refresh rate, same problem?

[flyinj]

Not stuttering... it looks like the monitor refresh is at like 60hz or less... my roommate took a look at it and agreed... but, it only looks like it's running at 60hz when I look at bright objects.

[flyinj]

Yes, I've set my refresh from 70 to 100 hz, and the same problem occurs. This is a GeForce 5900 Ultra board we got from NVidia for E3. Is it possible that it's just shoddily made? I would assume that nvidia would send out very quality boards, especially for the E3 event.

[Auswak]

I don't have this problem, but have some suggestions for yah.

1. Did you get the latest Detonator FX Drivers 44.65 from www.guru3d.com

2. I would suggest killing the refresh rate program

3. You should be able to play those games with all the settings for the card set to 8xAA/8xAF

4. What is your Resolution 1024x768? At this setting your Viewsonic should handle 100hz no problem. I am using 1280x1024 @ 75hz on a Viewsonic G810 True Color 32bit

5. There is a Refresh Rate Overide for Direct 3D games, but I don't need to use for my FX5900 Ultra (e-VGA latest retail release)

6. You may want to set your motherboard BIOS to disable 8X AGP or make sure it is only 4X AGP.

7. Make sure you have enough power from your power supply, 350W or greater is needed with the FX5900 Ultra, and if you are running more than a basic setup (multiple HD/CDRW/Fans) you might need more power.

8. Do remember you have a First Revision FX5900 Ultra or what is also called a Reference Board. Even though they used the reference board for the retail release, they did make some component changes (like smaller capcitors). Overall though the board should rock.

Good Luck

[XShadowZxX]

Wow i wanna get that but its to pricy. I need to save some money for it.

[Auswak]

Originally posted by flyinj
I recently got a GeForce 5900 Ultra... and I've been experiencing this odd, subtle "flickering" of the scene at times. It usually happens when looking out over a large distance with a semi-bright sky in Planetside, Battlefield 1942 and, most recently, Star Wars Galaxies. It almost looks like my monitor is set to a poor refresh, like 60hz, for very small intervals, then it goes back to normal refresh. If I look down at the ground, the flickering stops. In Battlefield and in Planetside, the flickering only happens when I'm standing in certain positions looking at the sky from certain angles. On a bright day in Galaxies, however, it seems to happen whenever I walk forward.

My previous card was a GeForce 4400, on the same monitor (a Viewsonic PF795 19") and I NEVER noticed any of this behavior. This pretty much rules out my monitor as the culprit. Also, I am running a refresh override program to lock the refresh at 85hz. I tried Galaxies without this running, and it made absolutely no difference. I'm definately running at 85hz in Galaxies, I would notice if it was running at anything lower. Like I said previously, the "flickering" only happens while walking forward with the sky and horizon in view.

I'm not running any anti-aliasing or antistropic filtering. Vsync is definately on... even though this behavior isn't "tearing" as happens when Vsync is off. I have the latest detonator (FX) drivers installed. I even installed the correct .inf for my monitor... none of this has helped.

To elaborate further, the geometry itself isn't flickering. It almost seems like the whole scene is subtly changing brightness at a very rapid rate. I'd go so far to say that it almost looks like my monitor is having a hard time with the contrast between the light sky and the darker ground... but if I have my GeForce 4400 installed, it doesn't happen at all. It's a pretty subtle effect, but it's enough to drive me crazy.

Anyone have any advice, or had anything similar to them occur?

SYSTEM:
P4 2.5ghz
WinXP Pro
GeForce 5900 Ultra latest dets
SBLive latest drivers

Been doing some investigating.

One Question:

Is your card from e-VGA?

If YES I might have a solution for you.

[uncle_jimbo]

Auswak, I think I know what youre talking about.

Apparently, eVGA screwed up, they overclocked FX5900s, from 450/850 to 500/900, giving you an FX5900 "Ultra", my suggestion, send it back, or underclock it down to 450/800.

[Auswak]

Originally posted by uncle_jimbo
Auswak, I think I know what youre talking about.

Apparently, eVGA screwed up, they overclocked FX5900s, from 450/850 to 500/900, giving you an FX5900 "Ultra", my suggestion, send it back, or underclock it down to 450/800.

Thanks uncle-jimbo, but I do not have the problem. I was trying to help out flyinJ.

So while I am here I will get you up to date on the true e-VGA situation.

e-VGA didn't screw up, the "Performance Bios" that was shipped with their initial batch of FX5900Ultra cards has been causing a problem with some people, one of the problems being the Flickering. Most people had no problem at all. It's another one of those 'can't cover every system configuration out there' situations.

They released a "Reference Bios" which in essence clocked the card back to nVidia standard of 450/850, but when you flash the Bios and then use coolbits to clock back to 500/900 the problem for most with the 'Flickering Problem' disappeared.

e-VGA has now released a new 'Performance Bios' that they are still requesting feedback on by those of us who are willing to test it. They have also released new Detonator Drivers 44.67 which do provide an increase in performance.