Flickering and Screen tearing Problem with new Dell Beta Drivers 8.763 and Beta VBIOS

Hey everyone, is anyone able to reproduce issues concerning Flickering / Vibrating and Screen Tearing, upon having a Game run in Crossfire Mode with these drivers (Dell Beta 8.763 with new VBIOS)?

I seen many people that seem to have not such issues at all on their machine, i wonder what could be my specific problem...

I only have this problem when CrossFireX is enabled in Catalyst Control Center, there is no Tearing or any Flickering when only 1 GPU is running even if V.Sync is off, i'm also out of ideas on what settings to try, i don't get rid of it.

I tried testing it on Starcraft 2 and Mafia 2, with V.Sync Off. Catalyst AI to advanced and everything else to application controlled or default. I also reseted CCC to factory default, no luck.

By the way, the tearing is best seen upon starting Mafia2 with the Nvidia Logo and the 2KCzech Gun Clip and inside the Benchmark run, where especially the shooting gives flickering and local tearing normally right by the gun barrel fire.

Flickering is best seen right before loading the Benchmark.

Would be grateful for any info, on how to solve this problem, thanks. Also i'd like to list games which have this issue with this driver.

PS: I copied this out of the http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/512833-dell-ati-8-763-m15x-m17xr1-m17xr2-driver-discussion-thread.html for more overview.

here are the two cards i'm using, if that helps:

 

Are you able to reproduce with VSync turned ON in Crossfire mode? I suppose it is possible you could have a crossfire cable issue...

 

Maybe upload a youtube vid to see it better?

-Ash

 

I am able to reproduce this and i can say it does not occur in single gpu mode with vsync off, the issue is not present in crossfire mode when vsync is on, but when it's off i have tearing in crossfire mode while moving the mouse and flickering in valley areas and darker places. Only vsync on fixes the problem, but i dont understand why this is not occuring in single gpu mode with any settings.

In short, if vsync is on, picture quality is as it should, with vsync off the problem is there.

How can i check if the cable is alright?

 

Wouldn't that tearing be caused by your FPS exceeding your refresh rate?

If you don't see it with Vsync on, that would be my guess as it is limiting your FPS to 60. Also, with one card your FPS is probably staying below 60.

I would think this is normal. FPS above your monitor refresh will cause tearing in most if not all games at some point.

 

in cfx it's likely because the 2 cards finishes thier frames in a closer time then your screen can change from one to the other and then you have quite a "long" time befor any of your cards can finish a new frame

vsyinc set a fixed delay between frames so if your gpu finished a frame almost at the same time they will ethier remain idle until next frame or start working on it and display the frames when the delay ends

 

So simple said, i have to use V.Sync ON in every game, so i don't see this?

Do you all use V.Sync on with CrossFire enabled? and if not, do you have tearing in animated motion scenes and flickering in standing motion screens?

 

in short yes
at long you thoricaly prevent it by changing catalyst AI mode in some games

i see it only in benchmarks but in benches i don,t care as all i wan is numbers

 

Yeah I play every game with vsync on. Its one of the benefits of having the fastest system around.

-Ash

 

I just want to exclude any software releated things, so the other way around said, do you have tearing and flickering then in every game with vsync off and running on CrossFire?

 

I had the same problem, make sure all your colour settings in cc are at default, fixed the problem for me

 

it depends on the fps and sync rate of the monitor

if the monitor refreshes at a different time than the cards you will see a split frame, half will be the newer frame, and half the older frame (explains why this is only visible when in motion... if the two frames are identical or close, it will not be noticable). in order to avoid this you "sync" the vertical refresh rate (aka enable vsync)

vsync and triplebuffering should always be on unless benching for pure performance, for the best possible visual experience, always have them on.

 

Hmm, well then, i think i have to accept that then. It's just something that i don't understand completly.

I mean it's not occuring with single GPU, even if the framerate is higher than the refresh rate of the monitor. I just want to exclude that it is a hardware problem, or crossfire cable issue that is a bit worn out as it seems and the two cards are working correctly together. Also the build quality of the cable doesn't comfort me alot.

Others are not having the issue with crossfire and vsync turned off. No one confirmed that yet for real, i also know when it is working, but i want to know when it is not working for others, and if they see the same.

And its not just the tearing in animated motion, there is a flickering / vibrating in darker areas.

 

Grim, make a video and post it on youtube so we know exactly what you mean.

 

I can't make a video, since i don't have a video camera, maybe i can record videos with the normal digi camera i have... I try to find a youtube video for the time being if that exists and shows the same.

If it's a problem of the video cards or crossfire, i think i should be able to record the game with fraps and see if it looks the same, no? Since everyone is saying it has something to do with the monitor showing it, would the recorded image be smooth or also show the same symptoms, or do i have to make a video i hold on the laptop screen?

 

FRAPS won't show it. You will need an external video recorder to show us what you're referring to. Do you have a smartphone? Most of them have video recorders built in these days.

 

this is not related to vsync issues, indeed there may be something wrong in this case.

is it with all games? if not, try disabling catalyst AI.
a friend of mine with a desktop sli setup had a faulty bridge connecting the two cards and this was causing a slight misalignment with the two, it could be a similar effect for crossfire, i have no idea since i've never really worked with a crossfire setup long enough to learn its bugs and quirks.

 

Personally, I would prefer some kind of MXMX2 card or something that is twice the size of MXM 3.0, but allows for twice as much TDP on one card and twice as much wattage.

That way we can get (in the case of the dual HD5870m) a desktop HD5870 in there at lower clock speeds, and not worry about this crossfire crap.

There is plenty of room for it.

Ahh... one can dream!

-Ash

 

considering the state of thing we might get a mob 6970 wich would in fact be a real 6870 core but beware the 100wats tdp








disabeling the cvatalyst AI comes back to disabeling CFX

 

I tried to install this new driver + new vbios but that looks like something still the same as before with 8.692 driver and old vbios,I don't know what wrong and sometime its show blue screen with dump memory or something like that, what can I do now? I'm so confused!

P/S I test with NFS Shift and Street Fighter 4 before with old driver, everything max out and it show around 60 FPS, it's quite good enough but suddenlly it gone bad with 20-30 FPS, I don't know why and then I install new driver and new vbios and no result with them,and now I restore all to stock but it's not run smooth again, any suggestion?thanks..

My specs

M17x R2
A07 bios
i7 720
5870 xfire

My fault : Steath mode is enable lol, I've just downloaded the indicator and saw that lol!


I test with street fighter 4, it show about 120-130 FPS but some time it show 20-30, I guess I've got power problem, try to find out...

 

I know this thread is old but for those chasing a solution for flickering screen, upgrade to latest bios V9? and you should have it fixed.
This is what dell rep said:

"Some customers have reported LCD flickering during gaming on the M17x-R2. I just wanted to report that our engineers have investigated this issue and have reported the following:

◦This issue is specific only to the R2
◦There will be a BIOS update in the immediate future to address this issue.
◦ As a workaround, disabling turbo mode will eliminate the symptom."
Source: Sticky: M17x R2 Screen Flickering - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

Good Luck

 

Thanks saint however that is very old in itself as well. The issue Dell-JohnB documented in his post was resolved a few BIOS revs back shortly after the release of the R2.