Starcraft 2 Performance Tip for Native Resolution+ or High AA

I must have missed something... I don't see the 10.8 drivers on the ATI website... were they released through some beta channel?

Also, I have no problems with external displays - I run dual external - though I never sleep/resume and have disabled hibernation so can't say if those cause any problems for me or not.

 

So can you run a test?

Plug in your HDMI or Displayport monitor. Then, set the external monitor as primary (though this shouldnt be necessary).
Then, run a game fullscreen on the external monitor. SC2 and NWN2 are good examples.

Tell me what you see?

-Ash

 

I am 2,000 miles from home this week on a work assignment otherwise I would do that for you right now

Normally my "primary" display is my Acer 24", but it is connected to the VGA port. HDMI is used to connect my "secondary" display - the HP 24". I play SC2 fullscreen on the VGA port external display because it is the one physically in the center of my desk.

I originally wanted to have the Acer as primary on HDMI but was getting a 2" black frame around the perimeter of the display. I know now that I can fix that by messing with some adapter settings in CCC, but I didn't know that a few months ago when I set everything up.

Anyhow, once I get back home I will swap them and run the exact test you are asking for. I assume you are expecting the HDMI port to have problems with fullscreen stuff?

 

Yeah, I posted a youtube vid about it, its in the 10.8 beta driver thread.

-Ash

 

Does the disappearing unit bug only occur with the stock dell drivers? Or does it also happen with 10.7 and is fixed by 10.7a? I can't get a straight answer as to whether or not a) 10.7a ONLY adds aa to SC2 or does it do more? b) How is Maedhros able to use Dell stock drivers and turn aa on in SC2? I was told that if you just do general max aa in the ccc, it didn't affect SC2.

 

Only occurs with the dells.

10.2 is dell stock. Has issues with newer games but can sleep/wake/dual display just fine. (enabling AA in control center doesnt make AA in game, just fixes a bug)

10.7 was released for SC2 performance increase and a fix to the dissapearing units. (enabling AA in control center does nothing)

10.7a was released to allow you to manually enable AA in SC2 amongst other things.

10.8 is just a few more tweaks and a rebundling.

-Ash

 

I'd let you have my first born.

 

OK, it took a bit of hunting to find your post in that thread. I will try whatever combinations I can once I get back on Saturday and will post the results assuming something doesn't change between now and then (like a new driver release).

 

I connected an external display to the HDMI port (no conversion plugs - this was HDMI on the laptop going right to HDMI on the monitor). I just finished playing WoW for a few hours followed by SC2 for a few hours. I tried various combinations of Windowed and Fullscreen - everything worked fine.

I also have a second monitor as extended desktop using VGA port. But this one just had Ventrilo and email up while gaming, and was not the "primary" display. The HDMI was primary at all times.

This was also while using the 10.7 public drivers from AMD.

Please let me know if you would like for me to alter my test.

 

I guess it must be the specific combination of my monitor and my laptop then. Or displayport.

Thats really frustrating.

Thanks for checking though, I appreciate it!

-Ash

EDIT:

Wait a sec, I just noticed you have a HD4870. That will be why. I am pretty sure my issue is specific to the HD5870 AND crossfire configuration.

Again, thanks for testing!

-Ash

 

I wonder if this problem only exists with x-fire 5870's or if it also affects single-card machines?

I still haven't decided if I want to go to dual 4870's right now, or upgrade to a single 5870 and then get the second 5870 later.

If the displayport/hdmi problem is tied to x-fire, the 5870 card itself, or only x-fire 5870 setups, then that greatly affects my decision.... I am not willing to give up the dual external monitors.

 

Definately only affects crossfire 5870 configs, as with crossfire disabled it works fine.

The most worrying thing is that the engineers couldnt detect the problem.

I however was able to get around the issue by changing the crossfire mode from AFR to Tiling, which means it is definately a driver issue.

If, after the driver release, my display still doesnt work with my laptop, I would expect Dell to bring out a 3008WFP to test, and if it does work, I would expect to get the 3008WFP as a free upgrade for my troubles.

This config has cost me over $5000 AUD. And it doesnt work.

-Ash

 

Ive played about 40+ games now. Everything is on Ultra except shaders which is on high. I did go into CC and set AA to 16X and I am getting 25-40fps even in heavy combat and haven't had the minerals disappear once.

Hopefully when Dell releases the new drivers I can run shaders on ultra and higher FPS

 

Hmm, which catalyst version are you using? I haven't seen anything dissapear so far with any catalyst version i have used. What i do know is that when you are not using catalyst 10.7a or the latest CrossFire Profile, not sure if the later one has influence on AA, anyway if you have a driver prior to that, even if you set AA in CCC it is not applicable to SC2. So you might try changing that for once and see if the fps is still the same. For me with Dells Driver it didn't have any influence. If i set AA to 16x with 10.7 it's running very very slowly, like 10fps.

 

Sorry I'm running stock dell drivers! The only reason I set AA to 16 was to try and eliminate minerals from disappearing ... it actually worked!

 

Wasn't the dissapearing of units an issue of shaders set to ultra, and you have it on high now, or any other ingame graphic option? Anyway as mentioned already it seems to be a CrossFire problem with the 5870.

And are you saying that if you DO NOT set AA to 16x with Dells Stock Drivers you have this issue?

So while there isn't actually an AA of 16x, it may have a side-effect that solves that bug. If you have the chance, i would like to know if the fps changes for you if you set AA to something lower.

Edit: Just read up a little on this thread, and Ash and Intense already confirmed what i just summarize for you

 

I now have Dell's 8.763 aka 10.8 which means I should be able to use AA in SC2. How do I go about doing this without forcing all application's aa? I prefer to leave aa application controlled, but I'd like to add a contingency for SC2. Anyone know how to do this without having to go in and out of CCC to check "app controlled" every single time I want to play?

 

Wow i was just going to post this too. I hope some nice techie comes along and lets you and i know

 

Radeonpro.

-Ash

 

Elaborate, kitten?

 

Google's awesome and mighty power can help there

Also, the 16x AA "fix" for sc2 is garbage. All it does is disable crossfire when you set AA to 16x. Thus, you are only disabling crossfire and not fixing the problem.

-Ash

 

I downloaded it, but for some reason the program has some odd graphical glitch. The window flashes occasionally on the right side, and has some really odd glitching. Any ideas?

In addition, will the official application profiles I downloaded not work without RadeonPro activated? Also, the official application profiles did not appear in the RadeonPro window. Were they supposed to? I love you ash

 

Radeonpro has inbuilt profiles that work with many games.

As for the glitching, its probably the crossfire mode or somesuch.

Try changing it to "supertiling", as that seems to work best.

One more thing, make sure to add SC2.exe in the bin folder to your detection list, as starcraft2.exe is not actually the game.

-Ash

 

A.A.(Anti-Aliasing) at resolutions above 1920 x1080 is unnecessary as A.A. becomes less noticeable and therefore you can set it low(4x,2x) to off it is mostly used for lower resolution settings. Where A.F.(Anisotropic Filtering) on the other hand, would be best to use at 16X as it enhances textures. Also, less GPU hungry than A.A.

here is an article to read up on it if interested
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2136956,00.asp

Also, VSYNC should not be used when frames do not stay above 60 at all times. because if enabled and there is a slowdown below 60 frames, you will get even poorer performance. (why the slow down when a stealthed unit crosses your path)

 

I game at 2560x1440, and I can definately see the jaggies without AA.

At 4x AA on 2560x1440 I cant see them anymore. At 2x AA I can see them occasionally.

At 1920x1200, I cant see them at 8x.

I guess it depends on how good your eyes are.

-Ash

 

That's a common misconception. Anti-Aliasing definitely provides a nicer and cleaner looking image at any resolution. It smooths the edges and can also reduce shimmering. I certainly can see the difference between no Anti-Aliasing and Anti-Aliasing at 1920x1080 and higher resolutions. In fact, games are atrocious without anti-aliasing at these resolutions still. Personally, I wouldn't even play anything without 4x Anti-Aliasing or higher these days, no matter the resolution.

 

So has anyone tried starcraft 2 with the new beta drivers? I've tried running the new drivers with the new vbios. At default settings in CCC, and crossfire enabled - I get only an avg of 40 fps. All settings on starcraft 2 at ultra. Is anyone getting higher?
Just worried bout these cards... shouldn't they perform better?

 

They perform as they should.

40fps average on ultra is good.

Ultra is for people with TRI SLI GTX 480's, etc.

The HD5870m is the equivalent of a HD5760. So basically, we have 2x HD5760 in crossfire.

Decent, but not great.

-Ash

 

I dunno Ash. I have been playing SC2 the last two nights, and 40-ish has been normal - even under heavy combat (assuming the fraps overlay fps indicator is accurate).

But I am only running a single 4870. T3Vince says he is using the new vbios in xfire, so I assume that means he has a pair of 5870's. I would think he should be seeing a little bit better than 40 fps unless there is a CPU difference? I would think he should at least be hitting the vsync cap, shouldn't he?

What CPU and how much memory are in your machine T3Vince?

 

I have the 920XM and 4gb 1333 ram.