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ATI Radeon users advice needed


Trickster

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Hi taffers, my old Geforce 8800GTS finally went to silicone heaven, and as i don´t play games anymore (except for THE game itself, TDM ;) ) i decided to purchase some sort of low-profile, low budget, low power consumption, low TDP card. I´ve chosen Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 (GDDR3, 128b) as it fits my 50Eur budget.

 

I was aware that there are issues with catylyst AI, but i learned that disabling catalyst AI solves that.

 

So i just installed the card and drivers, did quick gaming tests to see how much graphic power i did lose compared to g80, and overall i am pretty happy with the card. Its quiet, doesnt make my PSU howl like broken airconditioning while gaming, and while i can´t compare FPS directly, both games i have installed (other one is Dirt3) run pretty playable with the same detail levels i set with gf8800. Exact FPS should be bit lower of course, but if there´s no stuttering i´m ok with it.

 

Anyway, i have original cd´s driver installed, Catalyst 10.7, and it´s easy with disabling catalyst AI. I´ve read, that newer drivers doesn´t have that option, does this means i rather never update ?

 

What´s the best option ? I never had ATI card before (but i an still no fan of either brand, i go with whats best for me at the moment) so maybe some of you ATI users should provide some knowledge base...

 

Little OT: while playing Dirt3 for a while, i noticed two differences: antialiasing seems to look better (i did not touched the settings) than with nVidia, does that means ATI aliasing works better than nVidia´s ? Or does it mean it works better under DX11 ?

 

Also, there are some color issues, i got nasty red fonts and red lightning/speculars within menu screens, are such rendering issues something common ? may be that old driver though...

 

 

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Can you post a screen shot to show what you mean by the menu screen issues?

 

Sorry to confuse you, this was meant for Dirt3, so i just wanted to know if such issues are common with ATI...

 

you don´t wanna waste your time trying to solve another game issues, do you ? ;)

 

Back on topic. Just played Score To Settle for a while, in Sykes room, when i got into attic, game crashes to desktop...

 

sadly, i wasn´t there before with nVidia, so i can´t tell if its FM related or my VGA related...

 

looks this way: game freezes, when i hit ESC i get into desktop, there´s that "Doom3.exe has stopped working" window... i suppose this crashing issue was already covered, if so, would someone link me to the thread please ?

 

i´m going to try some different FMs now... will report back then.

 

EDIT: just replayed Winter Harvest v2, everything was fine... will replay another FMs when get some free time

 

 

 

Edited by Trickster
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The red specular on cars and stuff is quite Dirt specific, the problem has cropped up in Dirt2 and nvidia also has had trouble with it, I think its just a bug with the way they swizzle textures. Updating drivers is a good idea.

 

The driver version usually does not matter much, you can still disable Cat AI - it's just harder for some cards, i.e 6xxx's don't have the option, however changing the setting to "High Quality" seems to disable almost all of it now, at least its the same as having it disabled in doom3 (for me).

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The red specular on cars and stuff is quite Dirt specific, the problem has cropped up in Dirt2 and nvidia also has had trouble with it, I think its just a bug with the way they swizzle textures.

 

You´re right, there was hint of red with nVidia too. If it´s game specific i´ll just forget it.

 

Thanks for clarification.

 

What about that TDM crashes... i can reproduce it anytime i get to that point... is it known issue with ATI or is it just me ?

 

Also, there are very few settings within CCC... compared to nVidia control panel. Can anyone recommend some tweaker app ? With nVidia, you had options like: -number of frames to render ahead, "digital vibrance" in color settings, detailed AA/AF settings ...kinda miss those.

Edited by Trickster
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is it known issue with ATI or is it just me ?

 

I haven't heard anyone else report this. Can you tell me (in spoilers) exactly where it crashes? Is it exactly the same place each time?

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ATI has color saturation settings that can be tweaked to look like "digital vibrance"

 

From what I'm told, the latest ATI drivers will work without disabling Catalyst AI if you choose "Disable Surface Format Optimizations".

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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I haven't heard anyone else report this. Can you tell me (in spoilers) exactly where it crashes? Is it exactly the same place each time?

 

sure.

 

 

 

when i enter Sykes attic, theres a door with that nailboard trap. I grabbed pack of straw, and tried to enter using it as a shield. At the end, i just noclipped to the room. How´s that trap meant to avoid anyway ? If i do not mess with straw i just get hurt but no crash.

 

nbohr: thanks for that tip.

 

EDIT: just for the record, most recent driver (Catalyst 11.8 preview driver)

 

 

works with TDM right out of the box, no disabling needed.

 

And now, just to find out how to boost openGL performance :blink:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Trickster
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  • 2 weeks later...

I upgraded from XP to 7 and I'm getting the inverted/warped view problem that could be thwarted by disabling Catalyst AI.

 

Problem:

 

Driver Option for Disabling Catalyst AI not available

 

"Disable Surface Format Optimizations" is not having any noticable effect

 

Most weird:In XP I had the problem killed by disabling Catalyst AI with the tool "Radeon Pro".

To my discontent said option "Catalyst AI" whatever is missing in my Win7/Catalyst 11.8 preview driver (it was there under XP!) installed version of (the very same!) Radeon Pro.

 

DM is unusable so far;

I would very much appreciate any hint how to deal with this pesky issue.

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

"When outmatched... cheat."— Batman

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Ok, by far the best tool to use imho is ATI Tray Tools, get it at : attsetup.exe

This may sound like a mission, but it's actually really easy and I find it works completely, for everything I've tried.

  • I'd recommend first : Removing your current driver, getting the "display driver only" version from game.amd.com (i.e it does not include CCC, but you wont need it tbh)
  • Install the driver, make sure it's all happy.
  • Install ATT.
  • Then right click the ATT tray icon, if there are the options for Direct3D and OpenGL in the main menu : Things are looking good and you can skip the next part.
     
     
  • If there's only a "3D" section, Go to tweaks -> Advanced tweaks -> CCC Compatability, disable the CCC linked 3D options setting. Restart ATT.
     
  • You should now be able to go to the OpenGL section, go to "Settings" in the submenu. Go to the 2nd tab. Click "Defaults" and then change the Cat AI to "Off", hit apply then OK. This sounds silly, but it ensures that the registry entries are created. Things should now work correctly. If they don't, you can go to the Direct3D settings, disable the surface format stuff and drop the CatAI level, however for 6xxx's this does not seem to be needed, only the OpenGL Cat AI setting.

 

You will also want to disable the ATT OSD and such, have a look around its various options. I find it a very nifty and non-intrusive tool, far better than RadeonPro's bulky requirement of .net framework constantly hanging around (much like CCC)

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Fyi: chaps

 

AMD have an alternative to Catatlyst control panel (CCC) called AMD Vision Engine Control(AVEC). In AVEC you slide the catalyst Ai all the way to the left and untick the box underneith and hey presto sky is back to normal.

 

The only issue that isnt clear is does AVEC come with the driver or is it separate download. Anway, here is the annoucement page with a download link

 

 

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