ATI Issues and Settings Recommendations

Alright, ive read as much as i can without going blind and maybe this particular post was answered before and i just missed it, so flame if you must for inattentiveness, but here goes:

im running a 9250 128MB card, PCI interface. CCC says im running driver 8.2, CAT ver 6.11

i also have an embedded GForce4 chip in my mobo which is currently disabled to prevent conflicts.

IF i were to upgrade my HP pavilion a520n, what would be a reasonable card to upgrade to, since i seem to have distinct problems locating a PCI card(everything these days is PCI-E). bear in mind, im running XP platform and have no real interest in upgrading the mobo, the computer in its entirety, the OS, or pretty much anything else for that matter. the reason im asking for help theorizing on a card upgrade is simply to resolve lag/rubber banding and maybe make the game sparkle a bit more brightly. aside from those 2 issues, i really dont have too much trouble playing/streaming the game.

thanx for the advice!

New to ATI...

When I play the game, my computer automatically restarts...whats going on?

Hey, I need some help testing something.

Ive noticed that on my 5850, anti-aliasing doesn't work at all at the character creation/character select/tailor interface. I've tried rolling back to the 10.4 Catalysts, but the problem remains.

I need people running something other than a 5xxx series card to see if they have anti-aliasing at those screens, and to report back. Be sure to list your card(s) and the drivers you're using.

Thanks.

Fixed the problem. I had installed some new type of driver, either processor driver or card drivers and the game would restart the system when graphics were ar reccomended. since I got the system 2 days ago i just reset the settings to factory.

My only issue was the i was supposed to get 8 gigs with an ati 5450 but instead dell sent me a 6 gig ati 4200.

Ok, this is a new one for me... noticed this starting today.


If I have the water effects on, I can see environment reflections,but not the reflections in the water, if I turn it off, then I can see the reflections in the water, but cant see the reflections in the buildings!

ATI RADEON 5970
OS : Windows 7 64 bit
drivers 10.4

I just finished upgrading my system from an Nvidia 8600GT to an ATI 5770. I've read through the thread but I'm at a loss trying to figure out what the optimal settings for my system ought to be, especially since Ultra Mode came out and significantly boosted what tweaks there are available. Any advice??

I think this is an ATI issue....

Hi Guys,

I need some tech type help with the game.

Already logged a request from tech support but I know you guys can be quicker.

I've jsut returned to the game, installed the client, fully patched it and update all my drivers, but I can't get the game to run outside of safe mode.

I click the "I Agree" button - get the "Loading" message and then it hangs there. Nothing else happens.

Any ideas?

Spec below:

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at June 6, 2010 10:01 (+01:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 07/17/09 19:50:55 Ver: 08.00.15
Central Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 4096MB
.Net Memory Report: 2815MB out of 4095MB available
Page File: 6626MB (1561MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3500418AS ATA Device) 230109MB out of 476837MB (48%) free
E Drive: (WDC WD10EADS-00M2B0 ATA Device) 571543MB out of 953866MB (59%) free
H Drive: (WD 5000KS External USB Device) 217143MB out of 476937MB (45%) free
D Drive: (DVDRW IDE1008 ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x9440)
Video Memory: 2808 MB
Driver Version: 8.732.0.0
Driver Date: 05/05/2010 03:18:36
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Headset Earphone (Logitech USB Headset)
Driver File: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 01/01/0001 00:00:00

Sound Device Description: Digital Audio (S/PDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 01/01/0001 00:00:00

Sound Device Description: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 01/01/0001 00:00:00

Sound Device Description: Digital Audio (S/PDIF) (High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7600.16385
Driver Date: 01/01/0001 00:00:00


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: M4A79XTD EVO
Motherboard Version: Rev X.0X
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: BIOS Date: 07/17/09 19:50:55 Ver: 08.00.15
BIOS Version: 071709 - 20090717
BIOS Release: 20090717000000.000000+000

In the hopes this may help someone else with a similar problem...

Win7-64bit, 8GB DDR3, Core i7-860, ATI HD5850 (Catalyst 10.5).

I don't recall when this started but particularly with Ultra Mode, I have been having massive stuttering issues whenever I move into a new area. It can be travelling across a zone, entering a new zone, or just logging in. I experienced a massive drop in framerate which I assumed must be texture or geometry loading. If I just stood there and turned 360 degrees around, I'd get stuttering framerate until I'd completed the turn, but then I'd be back at 50-60 fps and everything was fine. It was maddening. And certain instances, like the first mission of the LRSF, were constant stuttering low frame-rate for no apparent reason. Low as in 6fps where I get 30-60 in most other zones with most UM setting maxed.

Turns out I had Catalyst AI enabled and set to "Advanced". Disabling it or moving the slider back to "Standard" fixed the problem entirely. I haven't had a chance to check out the Agincourt instance in the LRSF yet, but I am hopeful that was caused by the same setting.

I am not entirely sure what Catalyst AI does. Perhaps those of you more expert on ATI drivers can clue me in. I thought it was some kind of per-game optimization built in to the driver. Apparently, it can be pretty unstable in some circumstances. I feel like an idiot for not finding this sooner. I tried playing with other settings but for some reason kept overlooking this one. Doh!

So anyone using the 10.5s to better/worse effect?

Have any of you tried uninstalling the Catalyst Control center? (But not the drivers of course)

I tend to find that programs sitting on top of drivers make things worse than just using the drivers.

I have (for reference):
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6ghz
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi
ATI Radeon 4870 1gig DDR5
and 4 gigs DDR3 for RAM
With Win7 x64 as my operating system.

I was having problems where for no apparent reason the floating text from damage in large groups could cause my computer to become crippling slow. (I tested this on an Electric Electric tank and with Lightning Field on in large groups I would actually get server disconnects from the lag). Among a few other issues. I tried all kinds of things to get it to work including updating to 10.5.

Finally got tired of playing with all the settings in the various programs (SB ALchemy and ATI Catalyst) so I uninstalled both and now I'm getting amazing frame rates with full Ultra Mode settings.

(Note I run at 1920x1200 so I only use 2x AA as 1) you can't really tell the difference between no AA 2x AA and 4x AA at this resolution, and 2) 4x AA at that resolution would require LOTS of ram to be effective.

Note: this is a 4xxx series card so I don't have the AO+AA issues that others have reported...

Just though I would toss that out there;
_WAter_

Not sure what base item this is (seems like some sort of reflecting pool) but it doesn't play especially well with Ultra Mode Water Effects, and it's completely broken with Water Effects + FSAA. Here's an example of the latter (Water Effects turned up to high):



Turning FSAA off removes the blockiness, but high Water Effects still aren't working quite right...



FSAA off + medium Water Effects:



Turning Water Effects to Low yields a new problem but it's closer to how it should be:



Turning Water Effects off yields the expected result (namely, nothing).

That's not water. There are no water effects for bases. However some enterprising sort figured out that Slow Fields create a shimmer effect similar to water and thus with proper positioning and planning, one can create something akin to the illusion of it.

oh. welp.

Although frankly I'm not sure I can believe you, given that your post count as I type this is 666. How do I know you're not the Great Beast?

I have been reading through what I can, but I haven't seen my issue yet. Every so often when I am zoning into a mission my screen goes black, and then it says my display driver reset. I have looked up a lot of fixes for this issue, but most of them are seriously outdated.

I have the most current driver, anyone have any answers, or can you point me to one?




---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at June 16, 2010 18:44 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100218-0019)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Dell XPS420
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A03
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
Memory: 3070MB
.Net Memory Report: 2027MB out of 3069MB available
Page File: 4462MB (1913MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST3320620AS ATA Device) 167992MB out of 289835MB (57%) free
D Drive: (ST3320620AS ATA Device) 4856MB out of 15359MB (31%) free
F Drive: (WD My Book 1110 USB Device) 1809782MB out of 1907057MB (94%) free
G Drive: (WD Virtual CD 1110 USB Device) zero-size drive
E Drive: (TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-H653B ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 7.00.6002.18107 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Dell E207WFP
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x9588)
Video Memory: 1522 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.0010.0024
Driver Date: 5/4/2010 9:19:38 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers / Headphones (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver File: stwrt.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.5511.0000
Driver Date: 9/12/2007 3:40:48 AM

Sound Device Description: Digital Output Device (SPDIF Out) (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC)
Driver File: stwrt.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.5511.0000
Driver Date: 9/12/2007 3:40:48 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: 0TP406
Motherboard Version:
BIOS Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
BIOS Name: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A03
BIOS Version: DELL - 15
BIOS Release: 20080102000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1676x1026
3D Resolution: 1676x1026 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: No
Maximized: Yes
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Medium quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Stencil shadows
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 644631 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201005212331.2T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Quick question -- I'm on a 4770 running CoH with "Low Quality" water. The problem is that every time I exit the program, the next time I turn it on the water is practically nonexistent. I can see the color change, but the distortion caused by the water diffraction is missing. If I move the slider up to "Medium Quality", then go back to "Low", it comes back. That's the only way to get it to work.

Having to do this every time is getting kind of annoying. Is there a way around this problem? Thanks.

Oh, and yeah, I'm running latest drivers, clean installed.

Hey guys,

I'm randomly having my GPU stop responding to driver commands, and the ATI recovery program keeps rebooting it, while im playing City.. I've narrowed it down to only city that causes the problem, and i recently updated to the 10.6 drivers.. I'm running a Radeon HD 4870 with 512RAM, with most of the UM stuff maxed out. i know, low end of the 4870 spectrum, but it should still be able to handle everything right?

Any advise on whats the best settings for me to use for my card? I'm running Win XP pro, with up to date patches, and about 4 gigs of ram.

Thanx in advance

Its 32 bit XP Pro, so its only using 3.25Gigs of my ram, I have a AMD Phenom II X2 550 so its a dual core, and I fully upgraded to the 10.6 drivers, with CCC reinstalled each time i updated the drivers.

I have noticed overall performance increase with the higher end drivers, aside from the GPU randomly becoming nonresponsive, at which point ATI asks for a crash report email (which i send each time) so would it really be worth while to downgrade to the 10.2 drivers? I haven't tested the AO and FSAA compatibility yet, but I've read its working on the 4800 series with the 10.6 drivers, I just wanted to fix the crashing before i started testing around with it. I lowered my settings down to the 'Performance' setting and so far I haven't crashed out.

I'll set up the CCC the way you've listed and then adjust things up from there until it crashes out.

The original post on this sticky is a bit dated. It's settings for Catalyst 7.12, but the current version is 10.6. And I'm seeing conflicting configurations in subsequent posts. What is the current CCC settings we ATI users should be using? Because I'm experiencing horrid crashing issues with my Desktop. I've got a separate thread running with the details and the specs, but just a quick explanation in case someone reads here and not there =P

Game crashing randomly, sometimes after an hour, sometimes right after I log in and try to move. Happens even on Minimum graphic settings. Causes the computer to freeze, cannot alt+F4, ctrl+alt+del, nothing. I'm forced to hard reboot, so I don't have an error message to go by. Is there someplace an error log might be kept that I can look up? CoHHelper below:

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at July 16, 2010 01:51 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.100218-0019)
System Manufacturer: HP-Pavilion
System Model: NC686AA-ABA a6700y
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) 9150e Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~1.8GHz
Memory: 4094MB
.Net Memory Report: 2572MB out of 4093MB available
Page File: 6566MB (1852MB currently in use)
C Drive: (ST350062 0AS SCSI Disk Device) 280679MB out of 463460MB (60%) free
D Drive: (ST350062 0AS SCSI Disk Device) 1837MB out of 13476MB (13%) free
E Drive: (HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH15L SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
K Drive: (ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 7.00.6002.18107 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Acer X203H
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x9490)
Video Memory: 2808 MB
Driver Version: 8.17.0010.0029
Driver Date: 5/27/2010 12:02:04 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5789
Driver Date: 2/11/2009 12:39:24 PM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5789
Driver Date: 2/11/2009 12:39:24 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ECS
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: Nettle3
Motherboard Version: 2.2
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: HPQOEM - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20081008000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1600x900
3D Resolution: 1600x900 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No


Physics Quality: None
Maximum Particles: 100
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: None
Texture LOD Bias: Crisp
Water Effects: None
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: No
Shader Detail: Unknown (4)


World Texture Level: Low
Character Texture Level: Medium
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 0.500
Entity Detail Level: 0.300
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Disabled
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: Yes
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 106835 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.8T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

LD,

Current CCC settings should be Let Application Decide for FSAA and AF. Everything else to default except Vertical Sync to Always On and under OpenGL Enable Triple Buffering. On that last bit, Vertical Sync should only be forced on if you normally experience screen tearing while turning left and right.