Monitor Frequency/Refresh Rate drop issue

[AcornBeing]

I think this problem might have been previously addressed, but I cannot seem to find anything on it here on the forum.

Anyway, recently I started getting these annoying horizontal lines and flickering when I run PR/BF2 at 1280x800 @ 60Hz. However, when I check the actual frequency it shows only 59.8Hz. I believe this slight drop, for whatever reason it happened, is responsible for the lines/flicker. Everything used to be fine just a few days ago, no settings were changed.

I've got a 21.5'' ViewSonic VX2250WM-LED monitor and GeForce GT 220 graphics.

I tried updating the drivers for both the monitor and the graphics card, but nothing helped.
It doesn't happen, though, when I launch any software and applications outside of PR. While on desktop the refresh rate is 60 Hz which corresponds to the general setting.

Also, I tried increasing the resolution while in PR to 1920x1080 @ 60Hz and lines/flicker disappear and the monitor indicates the factual 60 Hz rate as it is supposed to be.

Could this be a problem with the monitor's incompatibility for resolution settings outside of its native resolution (which is 1920X1080, by the way). Or does anyone have any other idea what might be causing the drop when in PR/BF2?

[nicoX]

Enable V-sync.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[AcornBeing]

Tried doing that. Visually it seems to make the lines look less noticable (more bleak) but their movement is still very apparent, especially against dark background. And despite the V-sync, monitor still indicates 59.8 Hz instead of 60.

[LITOralis.nMd]

It is your monitor's internal hardware most probably.

Go into your nVidia Display Control Panel,
click on "screen resolutions and refresh rates",
clear the "hides modes this monitor can't support" box,
then press "add" under the "custom resolutions and refresh rates" section,
fill in all the necessary stuff at 1280x800 and change the refresh rate to 60, then PRESS ADD.

Then start PR.

Edit, you could also try setting your shortcut to 1280 x 960 to see what happens. That is the proper 4:3 ratio for native BF2 support, i.e. no stretching inside the BF2 engine.

For reference, a chart of all common video resolutions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vecto ... dards2.svg

[AcornBeing]

It is your monitor's internal hardware most probably.

Go into your nVidia Display Control Panel,
click on "screen resolutions and refresh rates",
clear the "hides modes this monitor can't support" box,
then press "add" under the "custom resolutions and refresh rates" section,
fill in all the necessary stuff at 1280x800 and change the refresh rate to 60, then PRESS ADD.

I wanted to do that initially, but the "hide modes this monitor can't support" checkbox is clear and grey (non-selectable), and, for some reason, there is no "Add" either. The only refresh rate options the monitor allows me to select while in Windows are 59 Hz (in which case the lines traverse the screen even when on desktop), or 60 Hz, which works fine as long as I don't launch PR.

Edit, you could also try setting your shortcut to 1280 x 960 to see what happens. That is the proper 4:3 ratio for native BF2 support, i.e. no stretching inside the BF2 engine.

I tried this before, but the screen does actually stretch horizontally. But that's not an issue as much as it is one with respect to frequency. PR/BF2 video settings only allow 1280x960 @ 75Hz, which would have been perfect for me, but since my monitor doesn't support any frequency above 60, the screen covers in flicker like those old CRT tube TVs.

It is your monitor's internal hardware most probably.

So I gather. I begin to think that I originally got a defective unit which, by the way, was already once under the warranty repair in less than 1 year. I better go check if the manufacturer's warranty expired or not.

Anyway, thank you for your help, Litoralis.

[LITOralis.nMd]

To be clear, I do not think your monitor hardware is defective.

I haven't had daily interaction with NVidia control panel for a few years, I am sure there is a way to fix this, either using RivaTuner or another 3rd party utility, or maybe inside Control Panel, I just don't know the steps to get you there.

Are you running your PC with an administrator account?
What OS are you using?
What Nvidia drivers are you using?

[LITOralis.nMd]

To be clear, I do NOT think your monitor hardware is broken. Cheaper TN LCD monitors use some sort of scaling that is misreported in windows.

Video.con in \Documents\Battlefield 2\Profiles\000X

Video.con


VideoSettings.setResolution 1280x960@75Hz


This setting controls your current resolution in Battlefield 2. The format is Width x Height@Refresh Rate. If you cannot start up BF2 and change the resolution from within the game, try altering it here to help you startup the game. In particular when you want to launch BF2 for the first time and the game just crashes back to desktop (See Troubleshooting Tips section), you can change the resolution from its default of 800x600@60Hz to one your monitor supports. Note however that certain resolutions are unsupported and entering them here will not work - see the Command Line section further below.

[LITOralis.nMd]

Supported ResolutionsResolution Supported
1280 x 800 (16:9)
1366 x 768 (16:9)
1440 x 900 (16:10)
1600 x 900 (Check)
1680 x 1050 (16:10)
1920 x 1200 (16:10)
1366 x 768 (16:9)
1920 x 1080 (16:9)

Battlefield 2 - Widescreen Gaming Wiki

[AcornBeing]

To be clear, I do not think your monitor hardware is defective.

I haven't had daily interaction with NVidia control panel for a few years, I am sure there is a way to fix this, either using RivaTuner or another 3rd party utility, or maybe inside Control Panel, I just don't know the steps to get you there.

Are you running your PC with an administrator account?
What OS are you using?
What Nvidia drivers are you using?

Yes, I run Vista 64-bit as an admin. As per the drivers, I use the latest GeForce update 301.42 from nVidia.

Video.con in the Documents folder lists the resolution with the refresh rate that I set within PR/BF2, so no problem there. It is just that the frequency drop occurred only a few days ago. But before, upon log-in in PR/BF2 my monitor used to issue a warning message quite for some time (maybe half a year or so) suggesting me to use the native settings 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz, while I ignored it and continued with 1280x800 @ 60 Hz. Right now, it is like it is set to 60 Hz, but the actual output is 59.8 Hz, which suddenly dropped only last week. I am sort of under the impression that the resolution at which I was playing for a long time might have put some strain on the hardware, considering the pretty narrow and rigid frequency range supported by my monitor.

Otherwise, if I run the native resolution (1920x1080) and frequency in-game, the set refresh rate is 60 and the actual is 60 - so no flicker there, but the problem then is that if I want to play on medium-high settings such high resolution justifiably produces much lag.

I will try using some 3rd party software, as you suggested, because so far trying to solve the problem through the nVidia control panel didn't get me anywhere.

[whatshisname55]

I've played PR on a few different monitors and I always get those lines, with or without vsync. I figured it was just BF2 being weird or something.

The three monitors I know for sure had this issue were an old 1280x1024 (5:4) @75Hz using VGA, an Acer 1920x1080 (16:9) @60Hz using DVI, and the one I use now, a Dell Ultrasharp (IPS) 1920x1200 (16:10) @60Hz using DVI.

I haven't noticed this in any other games besides PR, so as far as I can tell it's a problem with BF2.

[AcornBeing]

I've played PR on a few different monitors and I always get those lines, with or without vsync. I figured it was just BF2 being weird or something.

The three monitors I know for sure had this issue were an old 1280x1024 (5:4) @75Hz using VGA, an Acer 1920x1080 (16:9) @60Hz using DVI, and the one I use now, a Dell Ultrasharp (IPS) 1920x1200 (16:10) @60Hz using DVI.

I haven't noticed this in any other games besides PR, so as far as I can tell it's a problem with BF2.

I guess, you're right, but it is just weird that I have been playing for years and haven't noticed it. I suppose the only solution would be to crank up the resolution to a higher level at which the lines disappear. Laggy gameplay, but hey, I now find myself looking at those lines passing in front of my eyes rather than focusing on crosshair or iron sights.

[whatshisname55]

Weird, I always use my monitors max supported resolution...

[AcornBeing]

Weird, I always use my monitors max supported resolution...

I would too, but with my graphics card, which is far from the top tier, I feel that I want to play rather on higher geometry/texture settings with smoother gameplay.

Yeah, and secondly, I am not too keen on overclocking to boost performance, which might be a bad thing, but I am currently using my PC for school work and other important projects, so if something goes wrong .... I'm screwed.

[whatshisname55]

No, I understand, I mean that it's weird that you don't have any problems when you use the max resolution. Or maybe it's weird that I do.

[AcornBeing]

I think this problem might have been present before, but somehow I didn't perceive it or it just didn't manifest itself as openly as now. Who knows... But the bottom line is that now that I am aware of it I can't throw it out from my head and always keep on watching for these lines when I play, which is both funny, but also very distracting.

Edit: As you tell me you have the refresh rate drop at high resolution, I just thought, it is not necessarily the highest resolution that removes the lines. It has to be designated as native for your particular monitor. For my monitor it is the highest (1920x1080 @ 60 Hz), but it could be different for you. There are also more common lower resolutions, such as 1024x768 which actually do work just as well, but why bother sliding down after you've been using a better option for some time. I guess, a monitor that prefers to have its own native resolution does a poor job when you set it to settings, other than the preferred one.

[MaSSive]

Anyone of you guys have V-Sync disabled in driver control panel? I doubt this is hardware issue my refresh frequency is always 60Hz no matter which resolution I use but I got V-Sync disable in Nvidia control panel. V-Sync is pretty much useless anyway unless your monitor is capable of running on higher refresh rates than 60Hz. Most of monitors nowadays dont go any higher than this so disabling it might fix it.

I might be wrong of course. Could be that monitor ROM based software is bad but not likely.

[whatshisname55]

For the past few months I have had CCC background processes disabled so I can't enable V-Sync anyway.

What do you mean by V-Sync being useless? The point of it is to stop the framerate from going higher than the monitor's refresh rate in order to prevent screen tearing. I would think it would be even more useful on monitors with low refresh rates and powerful GPU's.

[AcornBeing]

In my case, V-sync, whether enabled or disabled, didn't make any difference in terms of the monitor's performance at different frequencies. I just noticed that there are certain resolutions at which the refresh rate is stable (meaning it is what it's supposed to be according to the settings you pick), but for the rest of the resolution options at 60 Hz yield either slightly higher or slightly lower frequencies (e.g. 59.8Hz - 60.8Hz) that cause the lines/tearing.

Could be that monitor ROM based software is bad but not likely.

It definitely appears so, because changing the in-game or my graphics card's settings don't affect in any way the frequency settings of the display at specific resolutions. I guess, will have to deal with it, or buy a more expensive monitor that goes beyond 60 Hz.

[whatshisname55]

I don't think so. Like I said, I've gone through multiple monitors and at least three of them for sure had that problem, the others I don't remember. One of the monitors was on another computer with completely different hardware, Intel + NVidia, while the one I use currently is AMD + ATI. The only thing in common is the game (unless you count the OS, Win7x64, which I highly doubt.)

[AcornBeing]

Bumpy. Little update.

Recently I moved to another room, and when I powered the monitor after having physically moved it from one place to another the problem disappeared, as if it had never occured. Apparently, some light hardware rattle was enough to resolve the issue. :d uh: