Hi Folks

As the delivery date (hopefully) moves closer for my HD5870, and thus the arrival of my new built, I just wanted to check in quickly and see if there are any known ATI driver problems with the games I currently play. If it's the same as with Nvidia, there might be certain settings needed for certain games to avoid bugs or artifacts.

I know Allen has Fallout3 running fine, Arma2 works. FS2004 should work.

Any Thirdwire sim players here - SF2 Europe and First Eagles?

BoBII?

Friend of mine said he's running Silent Hinter IV fine.

Stalker Clear Sky does DX10.1 so definitly ATI-Friendly (does FSAA now actually work?)

Anyone playing Mount & Blade on an ATI?

I hope the ENBSeries mod (shader mod for DX9 games) works with ATI.

Sorry for bothering you, but I already did check for W7 problems and 64bit problems, yet have no idea where to find a list of possible ATI bugs. I just want to make sure I won't pull my hair out trying to play my favorite stuff on the new system, and it's a rather huge transition (completely new hardware, new OS, 64bit, new GFX company).

As a general note:

I have not had ATI GPU problems with any game I play since SW:KotOR. In KotOR, there was a known ATI glitch that really mattered in one game area (not the whole game -- and there was an easy manual work around). There was also some known tiny texture flickers in Gothic 2 when I played that.

BUT, I only use the in-game settings. I do not try to over-ride in-game settings using the Catalyst Control Center. For example, if the game does not have an in-game AA setting, I do not force AA with the CCC. I read some time ago, there are good reasons why game developers leave some options out of their in-game settings. It has to do with customizations of the game engines they make for specific games. I go along for that ride.

Thus, though I never seem to have issues (and I DON'T play all the games), one who wants to make heavy use of CCC to over-ride in-game settings may find some issues. I imagine Nvidia users might have fewer such issues because so many games are TWIMTBP titles.

Fallout 3 can "lock up" on 4 core systems depending on the patch level. If one has that problem, and I did when I first got my AMD quad, one can set the game to only use 2 cores. I have not noticed it with the new expansions.

ATI 4890 XOC:

Fallout 3: Unusual GPU load after using V.A.T.S. Disable Catalyst A.I.

ArmA II: No outstanding GPU related problems.

FS2004: FSX displays artifacts w/ Autogen objects.

Thirdwire: SF/WoV/WoE/FE/WoI: Water taxes the GPU more than it should w/ recent updates. Older updates work fine.

BoB II: New Autogen objects tax the system w/ recent updates but is likely to be CPU related. No other outstanding GPU related problems.

Silent Hunter IV: No outstanding GPU related problems.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: I'm currently playin' S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl w/ no outstanding GPU related problems. Clear Sky is known to be unstable but it may not be GPU related.

ENBSeries: Fully functional.

If you have any questions regarding any of the above feel free to ask. I always use ATI Tray Tools and I never install ATI CCC. Specs are below...

Thanks guys.

My F3 patch level is super low - I only applied the first one after initial release, but had no problems ever after. Good to know about the possible Quad Core problem, I recon I can set affinity just fine (as far as I know it isn't even Dual Core?) or maybe set it to single Core in the compatibility options altogether.

Brennus - FSX has artifacts on Autogen with ATI? I'll have to look into that since it's a possible upgrade I want to be doing.

Thirdwire stuff is generally overtaxing system resources (the graphics aren't that stellar, but quite slow) I suppose the mass power of a HD5870 will still be plenty.

And yes, the BoBII Autogen slowdown is CPU related.

Looks like I'll survive. Problem with the ATI Tray Tools is that they require a hack to run in Win7 (test mode for self-signed drivers).

Fallout 3 does use multi-core. When I had a problem, it froze within minutes on 4 cores. It took a lot longer to freeze on 3 cores. 2 cores worked without issue when I had a dual-core and with the quad-core.

Certainly try CCC. It has a lot of functionality that virtually always works right. Just be aware that you may run into a game that has a conflict. Or, you may not. They improve it every month. I've just gotten into the habit of only using CCC to set fan speeds and overclock (for fun). So, since I use it in a limited way now, I can't say from my own experience how it currently works with every game.

Did you just set Affinity for F3 in the Task Manager, did it memorize that?

I actually changed a fallout.ini file -- which is super easy. Honestly, I forgot which one. So, I just Googled "Fallout 3 quad core fix" and got plenty of hits. Here is the text from one:



You could set "iNumHWThreads=" to 1, 2, 3, or 4 -- depending on how many cores you want to try. I found 3 and 4 froze on my system.

P.S.

I checked my FO3 .ini file on my Windows 7RC installation. Its been so long, I had to check to be sure. I do NOT use the fix and I do NOT have any problems -- similar to what I implied above.

I had to use the fix initially with my new quad on Vista. However, with the expansion packs installed, I don't need it on Windows 7 (so far, at least).

I'm not gonna patch very high, so I might need the fix - thanks for googling it. "ThreadedAI" actually sounds like it should be on by default.

Regarding FSX texture flicker:

Having just done a clean install of Windows 7 HP 64b, I am reinstalling games. The first was FSX.

I installed the game and patches. Maxxed nearly every setting. No problem.

I added the FSGenesis terrain sets for the entire planet (no textures, just topography -- gives down to 10 meter resolution). No problem.

I added the Ultimate Terrain pack and patches for the USA (all roads, streams, railroads, lakes, ponds, golf courses, etcetera) which adds a lot of stuff and new textures. I maxxed the remaining unmaxxed scenery and visual settings (even AA which I never use). I got flicker in spots on the runway of my favorite airport.

Also ran slightly choppy with my system -- I guess I can't add almost literally everything and max the visual sliders at the same time. But, not to shabby

Since I am still loading other games and applications, I have not investigated further. In limited flying, the flicker only happened in limited spots on the one very long runway I used. I am not sure it is an ATI issue alone, since it did not happen with the standard install -- only after I added packs that changed some textures and added a dramatic amount of content and topography.