ATI virgin needs tips

[Carfax]

I just got my very first ATI card :clap:

It's an Asus HD 4870 1GB Dark Knight edition, and right now, it's idling at 40 degrees celsius at 30% fan speed, which is pretty good.

My GTX 260 216 typically idled around 43 degrees at 40% fan speed.

Anyway, so far, I have no complaints really. Catalyst 8.12 driver installation was a breeze for the most part. The only hiccup I had was it took me a minute to figure out why the overdrive section was completely greyed out. :rofl:

I haven't tested it out in games yet though, because I'm still tweaking the IQ settings. Right now, I'm looking for a comparable option to Nvidia's digital vibrance.

Digital vibrance is awesome and can make the colors really kick if used correctly.

So is there a comparable option for ATI cards?

Also, it's strange that increasing the contrast level using Nvidia forceware drivers seems to impact the depth and saturation of the colors, but with ATI Catalyst, it either brightens or darkens the screen :shrug:

And, do I enable Catalyst A.I or not?

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

yes you should leave catalyst A.I. on :)

as far as you image adjustment question I am not sure really because I have always had a screen calibrator at my disposal. I will play around with my settings after lunch and see what I can come up with.

[Carfax]

OK I got the image quality right where I want it :D

Next question.....is there a V-Sync on or off option?

Also I just played Mass Effect, and I saw some graphical anomalies. Firing weapons leaves a trail of some sort. I doubt it's artifacts as the card runs VERY cool. So far, temps haven't exceeded 53 degrees celsius, which is very impressive.

The Witcher was perfect, no problems there....except that I need to enable V-Sync to get rid of the tearing.

Now I'm going to try CoD4.

[Boogerlad]

v-sync limits your frames to 60, but is more smooth. sync with monitor refresh rate.

[Carfax]

OK just played CoD4. The IQ was SUPERB. Textures seemed very crisp and clear.

This is the first game I've played so far where I noticed a difference in the IQ between the HD 4870 and my GTX 260 216.

The Radeon seems to have better IQ in CoD4, although I'm not sure whether this is due to the card itself, or to my different color and display settings.

Overall I'm impressed so far though. Asus really nailed the cooling solution, because the card hasn't even surpassed 53 degrees during gaming, and I've noticed no lag or performance issues.

The only thing now is to find out why Mass Effect has those graphical anomalies and how to force V-Sync in games.

[Carfax]

v-sync limits your frames to 60, but is more smooth. sync with monitor refresh rate.

Man I'm blind. The V-Sync option was staring at me the entire time :doh:

*edit* I guess the always on option for Vsync in CCC doesn't work.

The Witcher still has lots of tearing.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

the witcher doesn't have the option built into the game? thats odd

glad to hear you are enjoying your card :up::up::up:, its funny how the people who finally use an ATI card after nvidia don't usually turn back and end up loving it. I know that for me it was that way ;).

[vinister]

Ya force V-sync doesn't work in all games. Does the game not have a vsync option in the menu?

[Carfax]

the witcher doesn't have the option built into the game? thats odd

Nope it doesn't.


glad to hear you are enjoying your card :up::up::up:, its funny how the people who finally use an ATI card after nvidia don't usually turn back and end up loving it. I know that for me it was that way ;).

Yeah I have to admit, it's a great card. :up:

The performance is much better than I expected. The Witcher seems smoother to me than with my GTX 260 216 even though I haven't even overclocked the card yet.

That doesn't mean I've abandoned Nvidia though :D

My GTX 285 should be arriving next week, and that it untouchable for single core machines.

I also found a work around for the Vsync problem in the Witcher. You can use the D3D override option in Rivatuner to force Vsync.

Only one problem remaining and thats the Mass Effect graphic anomaly. It's not game breaking, but it's definitely annoying.

Although I will say, that Mass Effect is the most :banana::banana::banana::banana:ed up PC game from a technical perspective.

I've had nothing but problems with this game, from EAX issues to Nvidia driver problems to you name it...

It's the WORST console port I've ever had played, which is a damn shame because the game itself is awesome.

Next game I will be testing is Assassin's Creed.

[Carfax]

Assassin's Creed runs smooth as butter..

It's amazing how cool this card runs though.. Right now I have it overclocked at 850/1100 and it's still not passing 55 degrees under load!

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Assassin's Creed runs smooth as butter..

It's amazing how cool this card runs though.. Right now I have it overclocked at 850/1100 and it's still not passing 55 degrees under load!

nice clocks :cool: probably want to put the ram down to like 1000 though because it has been known to cause issues with artifacting and such. that said the bandwidth that the memory gives is more than excess at 950 so you won't see any performance hit but power draw will go down :)

[Carfax]

nice clocks :cool: probably want to put the ram down to like 1000 though because it has been known to cause issues with artifacting and such. that said the bandwidth that the memory gives is more than excess at 950 so you won't see any performance hit but power draw will go down :)

I think you may be right. I was just playing the Witcher and I noticed that the game would stutter randomly, something which never occurred before when I had the card at default clocks.

So I switched back to default core and mem speeds, and sure enough, the stuttering went away.

More than likely it's probably the memory like you said. I'll drop the memory clocks down to 1000 and leave the core at 850 and see if the problem still occurs.

*edit* Dropped memory clock down to 1000 and it fixed the stuttering issue. Core is still at 850.

Insofar though, I'm overall very pleased with this video card. The performance is very good, and it runs very cool and quiet.

My biggest disappointments so far are:

1) Minor graphic anomalies in Mass Effect (smoke trails when firing weapons, probably driver related)

2) Much lower performance in NWN2 compared with my GTX 260. Now this surprised me, because the Witcher has such good performance and it's based on the same engine as NWN2 :shrug:

3) Driver issues, such as V-Sync not working, and inability to force AA in games like Mass Effect.. There are work arounds for these though.

All in all, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives :up:

[zanzabar]

on assasins creed make sure that on the unpatched game its way better with dx10.1 (they removed it latter)

also try watching a video with some avivo codecs

[B.E.E.F.]

That's a creative title! :up:


Most of your problems can be solved by RivaTuner or ATi Tray Tools.

I like tray tools myself, but it requires more work. You have to disable driver signing on Vista, and then you need to patch two .mui files to remove the resulting watermarks on the desktop.

[Carfax]

I've found solutions to most of my problems so far, with the exception of the bullet trails in Mass Effect PC.

I have no idea whats causing this one..

If anyone with an ATI card has Mass Effect installed on their computer, see if you have bullet trails when you fire weapons.

It looks like this (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/masseffect/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-44014298&pid=944902)

[zanzabar]

thats how it looks on the console i thought it was supposed to do that, it just stays there on the pc

[Carfax]

thats how it looks on the console i thought it was supposed to do that, it just stays there on the pc

Are you serious?

With my GTX 260 216, I couldn't see any bullet trails at all, which suited me fine because I find it annoying.

[gamervivek]

That's a creative title! :up:


Most of your problems can be solved by RivaTuner or ATi Tray Tools.

I like tray tools myself, but it requires more work. You have to disable driver signing on Vista, and then you need to patch two .mui files to remove the resulting watermarks on the desktop.

i read that the latest betas had a att loader that let you get around that.

[saki_bomber]

I've found solutions to most of my problems so far, with the exception of the bullet trails in Mass Effect PC.

I have no idea whats causing this one..

If anyone with an ATI card has Mass Effect installed on their computer, see if you have bullet trails when you fire weapons.

It looks like this (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/masseffect/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-44014298&pid=944902)

i had an nvidia card gtx8800 that showed it every once in a while but not all the time. my ati card shows it all the time and it doesnt look like its out of place, it looks like its supposed to be there. i like it:up:

[Craftyman.]

Hello, my name is Kraft E. Mann and I am an ATI Virgin.

[Kumakichi]

Nice card and very quiet. My last 2 vid cards sounded like hair dryers. These run whisper quiet. I keep my fan speed up around 65% and its barely audible.

[Carfax]

i had an nvidia card gtx8800 that showed it every once in a while but not all the time. my ati card shows it all the time and it doesnt look like its out of place, it looks like its supposed to be there. i like it:up:

You're the third person online, including myself that has mentioned this problem with Mass Effect.....and we all have one thing in common.

We installed an ATI card after previously having an Nvidia card, without reformatting I'm guessing (in my case I didn't reformat)