ATI has built in REFRESH FORCE fix!!

shuki

Question: Does "DirectX Overide" work on OpenGL too?

I've just tested this and it does in fact work with BOTH d3d and openGL!! This is HUGE for me!! no more refreshFORCE, rage3dtweak, powerstrip, nothing!!! Thank you ATI!!

/me just wonders how long this has been in effect.... woot!

edit - quotes take from here

craig5320

LOL. Saves you messing bout with Powerstrip like before

RIV@NVX

w00t! w00t!
Great to hear!
I always thought it's only DirectX.

shuki

asked Catalyst Maker about this and lo and behold it has been both openGL and d3d since cat 3.1 release

RIV@NVX

But, if you ask me, I would still prefer another tab with Resolution list and posibility to set any refresh rate to any resolution.

SQUACHY

HE LIES!!!
or does he?


I should check this out...
but i never knew about the OGL thing since i always run Reforce right after...

but w00t now i dont have to run it again!!!

GUNNIX

U guys think it's hard to run refreshforce once ?? I really don't , so this ain't such great news coz u can't chose the res's hz .

grtz

gunnix

SQUACHY

in my case i like to set it at the highest my res supports.
Which is 85hz and since i run both desktop at games at 1024x768 which maxes out at 85hz its good for me!!
Plus i dont like digging thru my folders to get to reforce

Why dont i make a shortcut on the desktop? I dont like to clutter it with things i dont use often.

GOG

Yes I agree, when you have your desktop set on 1280*1024@85 Hz, playing games in 1600*1200@72 Hz and watching movies on TV in 1024*768@60 Hz this is useless.

shuki

and for me, I want as very little on my pc as possible!! the less to conflict with! For example, I got Enter the Matrix game and it just flat out WILL NOT WORK with refreshFORCE! gives an error every time! now, using ATI CP, works fine Also seem to remember BF1942 having troubles with refreshFORCE. So yeah, for me, it is really good to know

because when you have your desktop at 1280x1024 @ 85hz and play games at 1024x768 @ 85hz and have the TV in the living room it works perfectly

Rayder

Well, I tried that refresh deal within the control panel and it didn't work right. Sure, it set the refresh for desktop to the max my monitor could handle at that res (100hz), but when I went up and down through the resolutions, it reverted back to 60hz.

Let me try to explain a little better. I run desktop at 1152x864x32 (always 32bit color). OK, I turned off good ol' RefreshForce, rebooted and proceeded to the ATI control panel, set the refresh to "same as desktop" it set it too 100hz, good.....then I started raising the resolutions, one notch at a time, 1280x1024, 85hz...1600x1200, 70hz....everything was reading correct to spec....went to 1024x768 BOOM! 60hz, put it back to 1152x864 still 60hz, 800x600...60hz, back to 1152x864, 1600x1200 and 1280x1024, still 60hz.

So I concluded that it doesn't work right. I disabled that built-in one and re-asserted RefreshForce. No probs since. (but I understand that Enter the Matrix will fubar that deal with a "cannot create device 2" error, bad programming on the part of the game designer I guess)

Now I'm not complaining or anything, just stating my observations.

shuki

Rayder, it will not change your desktop resolution. you have to change that manually each time you change resolutions. it will however FORCE whatever rate you set in any game you fire up. FWIW.

Rayder

Well then....to me that means it doesn't work right. I want it to set the max refresh for EVERY resolution that I go to, whenever I go to it, that's all. When I stepped up the res, it adjusted accordingly, but when I went down, it defaulted to 60hz. It needs to work like Win98 always did. Microsoft is just stupid for not leaving that alone and screwing it up like it is now in XP.

Are you saying that through the ATI control panel deal, I'd have to go like 800x600 and set it, then go to 1024x768 and set it, and so on? If that's all it is, OK.

BTW, shuki, what does FWIW mean?

shuki

FWIW = for what its worth

what you do is set the refresh rate that you want for any 3d applications and it sets it. As you know, windows is 2d so it does not set that refresh rate. So when you change your desktop resolution this refresh rate override does nothing as its not a 3d app. So you have to manuallly set your desktop refresh rate.

and what you do is set the refresh rate you want for when you start up a 3d app. So I've mine at 85Hz and so any time I fire up a game (ie 3d ap) it kicks in and forces 85hz refresh rate....

Rayder

Thanks shuki, as always, informative and helpful. Maybe I can do away with RefreshForce for good. I set it to "same as desktop" and went through a few games that run at various resolutions. It seems to work at max refresh for whatever res the game was in.

And all this time I was wasting my time with RefreshForce

Zardon

I think most people will still be using some tweak program for overclocking the card. those who havent flashed the bios anyway

SQUACHY

for all those of u who wanted the option to use different refresh rates at different resolutions, heres a quick solution.

Change your desktop resolution to one of those other resolutions and change THAT refresh rate in the adapter properties to fit your preference.

Then all u have to do is set that DX override thing to "Same as desktop" and it will change it to whatever refresh you have set whatever your desktop resolution is.
you want 800x600 to be 100hz but you want 1280x1024 to be 85?
change desktop resolution to 800x600, set it to 100hz, change it to 1280x1024, set THAT to 85 and then change back to whatever you use for your desktop resolution.

I have not confirmed this working, but i HAVE confirmed that the DX override thing DOES set the refresh rate in opengl as well

TheIceMan

i love this new feature


thx ati

CATALYST maker

Gee I thought everyone knew about this. Guess its my fault for forgetting to request the text be changed from "DirectX Refresh Rate Override" to "Refresh Ride Override"

Makes me wonder how many other features we have that people arent aware of?

Ok, make sure everyone knows about the hotkey mapping functionality in the Cat 3.4 under the color control panel.
This lets you use hotkeys to adjust things like game gammas. Very useful if youre like me and play games like MOHAA one minute and NHL2003 the next.

Cheers guys

Alpha

Well Terry the override is pretty hidden all tucked away under Display tab and then Monitor properties
It'd be easier for people to find it in the Display tab above or below the Schemes thing

Crash Override

personally i never knew that you could change your test pattern under the color tab until i accidentally clicked on it one day

No_Style

Did this start working since 3.2s? Cuz, when i was doing some major tweaking for RTCW, I enabled VSync and the refresh rate was held at 85 Hz. I set the refresh rate fix for Direct3D at 85 Hz.

shuki

evidently since 3.1

and CM, I had just never tried it as initially it was d3d only. since I had no reason to believe otherwise I had just never tried it again....

FastGame

It doesn't work for me, set to 85 and after 3Dmark test results say 60hz does same in games also.

RefreshForce works

Greylock

the hotkeys dont work for me :-(
Actually, i can set alle the values for gamma, brightness and contrast to the very right and i has no effect in games at all!
What i find a little weird is that if i turn for example brightness in the Desktop setings all the way up, it HAS an effect in games...
Specs:
WinXP SP1
DirectX 9.0a
Cats3.4 (tried Omegas and officials on a fresh OS)
Hercules 3D Prophet 9700 Pro
Gigabyte 8INXP
PIV 2.66 GHz
2x256 MB RAM
Audigy Player

Would be a really nice feature, any ideas on what is wrong here?