Screen refresh rate problem!

[onelifecrisis]

For some reason Crysis (and only Crysis) sets my TV to 50Hz. Windows and all other games run at 60Hz (with the same resolution settings) but Crysis goes to 50Hz which gives me a headache.

I've tried RivaTuner's "force refresh rate" option but that did nothing. I've used RivaTuner to create a new monitor driver .inf file, and installed that driver as my monitor driver, but still nothing, so I switched back to the original "Generic PnP Monitor" driver.

PowerStrip tells me it is unable to access my TV's EDID, so I assume that Crysis can't either, in which case the TV's EDID is not causing the problem. PowerStrip can access my "stored EDID" (presumably that's the one in the registry under Local Machine > System > something > Enum > whatever) and that also reports a maximum refresh rate of 75Hz, but it mistakenly reports a maximum resolution of 1280x1024... however this is something that even Crysis seems to know to be nonsense since Crysis will happily switch to any resolution up to 1080p (at 50Hz :damn:).

MonInfo confirms what I already know - my TV can run all of it's various resolutions at either 50Hz or 60Hz, and some at 75Hz. However, the 50Hz modes are listed under "EIA/CEA-861 Information" whereas the 60Hz modes are not (they are listed under "CE video data (timings supported)" whatever that means).

My (nVidia) graphics card DVI-out is connected to my TV's HDMI-input via a DVI-HDMI converter. I'm running Vista in case that matters.

I just want to get the Crysis refresh rate to be 60Hz like it is in all my other games (at the same 1080p resolution)!! Help!?

[onelifecrisis]

It gets stranger. When I run Crysis in DX9 mode, it runs at 60Hz! Back to DX10, back to 50Hz! WTF?

[Arclight]

What driver version? :06:

I've had similar issues with Win7 desktop, seems the OS simply doesn't detect it propely (can't read EDID for some reason). As the drivers progressed out of beta, it got better, but varies issues pop up now and then, also with my TV (which is a CRT though).

You could try to find an .ini from Crysis that details your res settings and force it to 60Hz there, but I'm not sure that's a proper solution. :hmmm:

[onelifecrisis]

The latest, 191.07 IIRC.
Crysis has no refresh rate settings, not even in the cvars (command console).
My earlier attempts at finding info on this, by googling things like "crysis refresh rate hdmi" and similar, were fruitless... but now I'm googling "dx10 refresh rate" and finding loads of relevant info. Seems there's a lot of people with DX10 refresh rate problems, and not just in Crysis. :nope:

[Arclight]

Yeah, I've had issues with DX10 as well, though for me it was always "zooming"; the outer borders are rendered off the screen. I guess I can fix it by adjusting my monitor settings, but then I would have to revert after quiting again.

TBH, if a game can't even render properly, imho it's not worth the effort (Dawn of Discovery and Clear Sky). :down:

Bad news is, if you have an issue relating to DX10, there's nothing you can do but revert to DX9 (no biggie, really ;)). God knows I never found an answer. :nope:

[onelifecrisis]

Yeah, I've had issues with DX10 as well, though for me it was always "zooming"; the outer borders are rendered off the screen.

Do you mean overscan? :hmm2:

Bad news is, if you have an issue relating to DX10, there's nothing you can do but revert to DX9 (no biggie, really ;)). God knows I never found an answer. :nope:

I've not had any luck changing the Crysis refresh rate, but I did find the cause of my headache - it was actually caused by the motion blur, not the refresh rate. I disabled it and voila - no more headache! Strange that other games with motion blur didn't give me a headache :hmm2: but from what I've read, Crysis' motion blur is "special" :rotfl2:

Anyway thanks for the info. :ping:

[Arclight]

Do you mean overscan? :hmm2:
Yep. :yep:

No idea why it happens though, and why only in DX10 for only a few games. :hmmm:

[goldorak]

Unfortunately DX10 or 11 doesn't let you set anymore the refresh rate.
You could do that in windows xp, you can't in Vista or 7.
A boneheaded decision if you ask me.

[Arclight]

Could this be related to LCDs being so popular?

I mean, for an LCD it doesn't matter what the refresh rate is. For my CRT, I need to adjust the settings on the monitor, depending on res+refresh; settings are different for 1280x960 @85Hz than 1280x960 @60Hz.

When experiencing these overscan issues, my monitor still runs in 85Hz, but it's like the game is rendered (internally?) at improper res/refresh, resulting in incorrect output.

[goldorak]

Maybe, I think that Microsoft just said screw the CRT owners and from now on all games that use DX 10/11 will set their refresh rates locked to 60 Hz and thats it. Its part I think of the "consolization" process of computer games. Sad sad sad. :nope:

[Arclight]

Yeah, seems that way, huh? I still don't understand how those flatscreens took of like they did, guess not too many people are aware of their shortcomings, particularly the early ones. :-?

The current trend is actually to make more and more cheap panels; as long as it's cheap, people buy it. Even the HDTVs are being fitted with TN-panels nowadays. Very few actually look for quality. :shifty:

[TeaRex]

Here's how you actually do it without any third party software. I just figured this out after neither refreshlock nor refreshforce nor multires nor powerstrip nor registry editing nor Monitor .INF file patching helped and I was just about to give up.

In contrast, this one works flawlessly on my shiny new GTX 260 (Ain't I sneaky? OK, probably I'm not the first one to figure this out, but no answers on this or other forums suggested this yet.)

Create a custom resolution in your driver control panel. Just make it one line smaller than your desktop resolution - for example 1600x1599, or 1280x1023, or 1280x959, or 1024x767. You get the picture. The point is that you create only one version of this resolution - with your desired refresh rate. And with the timings changed so that to the monitor it looks identical to your desktop refresh rate - just turn the vertical display size down by one and the vertical front porch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_porch) size up by one. To the monitor this will just look like a black line that happens to be at the botttom of the normal picture.

Then start Crysis and set it to use this resolution. As there is only one version of it, with your desired refresh rate, Windows (and Crysis) has no other choice but to use that one. Boom, 85Hz (or 100Hz or whatever your heart desires).

[Onkel Neal]

Very cool, TeaRex. Welcome to Subsim :salute:

[Arclight]

Aye, creative solution. :up:

Never had much luck with custom resolutions though, fiddled with it on Win7 beta and beta graph. drivers, 'cause my CRT wouldn't get to 75Hz (ended up buying new monitor :lol:). Probably driver issue. :hmmm:

Anyway, welcome aboard. :salute:

[Task Force]

you useing any custom config? what resoulution?