The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

Yer usually any lighting inconsistencies or flickering will be from failed cold-cathode backlights. Some brands have easily replaceable bulbs from any major components dealer, but others need to be RMA'd. AFAIK I know where to get the right bulbs for most 17 to 19" 1280 x 1024, 20" and 22" 1680 x 1050 displays and most HDTVs between 17 and 37" as these are the cheapest bulbs and the most common to fail. Also, monitors and TVs have entirely different standards of picture quality and color accuracy based entirely on how close you sit to them, so the bulbs don't interchange.

The only reason I bought the ASUS VH242H was price($140 shipped) and sheer image quality/viewing experience with 1080p film. Even though it's capable of displaying the full resolution, my 2407WFP isn't the correct aspect ratio for most films. The Acer just works so well because 99% of my film/TV fills it completely. Also Asus doesn't really produce monitors in-house so the OEM grants me a cushion of safety from the usual ASUSfail. So far so good. Very pleased with the image quality and it's a better size-match with my 2407WFP for dual monitors.

Also since we're on the subject of display technology, just replaced the focus-lens in a 65" Mitsubishi DLP HDTV. The family was moving, and the internal mirror slipped its brackets and fell down scratching the lens. Tried polishing it but it was never quite right, so we ended up finding a replacement part. Everything else was perfectly A-OK and the image quality is perfect with the new lens. DLP TVs are surprisingly simple and non-sensitive to DIY repairs. Just wish the parts weren't so expensive as I'd have fixed a broken one for myself long ago XD The image quality is superior to LCD and Plasma, just IMO. Only problem is the unit itself is about twice the price if not more especially for the larger(37"+) displays. Currently using a robustly-featured 32" LG 32LD400 LCD and quite happy.

 

With stuff like OEMs, think of it in the term of non-reference graphics cards. They don't make the GPU, but they designed the rest. With the one chance I gave Asus at a graphics card, the rest failed, hard. I initially attributed it to the HD3870. When nobody else replicated the symptom, and I found the symptom infected the OS post-removal, the penny dropped. Haven't owned, nor recommended an Asus graphics card since. Can't be dealing with that crap again.

 

Oh likewise I feel much the same about ASUS products. But you know, it was just a monitor, it has great features, decent connection options, and slightly above average image quality. Not to mention it was cheap. It has a 2 year warranty and has lasted so far. No complaints. Maybe that if you press the buttons at the wrong angle, they slip into the bezel a bit and you have to pop them back out with a knife. But that's a mild design oversight that isn't even that annoying, not a manufacturing flaw built into the product.

 

Rofl. I'd point and laugh at that but I did have the same issue with the power switch on my Toshiba 24Z33 24" CRT TV. Fortunately, a delicate finger prod would resolve it.
Felt quite guilty about retiring that TV only 5 years into its life.

 

Had a 30" RCA CRT TV for about 5 years. Really nice unit, built into a wooden entertainment center(not the old cabinet TVs, like spots for VCRs and consoles and stuff). The thing took like 20 seconds to warm up but it had great IQ and was packed with features. Would do 1080i through component as well which was impressive. I used that for everything right up until I got my 32" LG

Was such a shame to get rid of it.

 

You lucky dog! I paid $180 for the Asus VH242H. It does have a slightly better viewing screen than my Samsung. Perhaps I should restate. The "flickering" is pretty minor. I just worry that it could be a problem one day. It does have a 3yr warranty. And it won't expire til november of 2012. Perhaps I'll wait and see what happens.
It's similar to this ones problem, only not as pronounced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENxqjxzuht8

 

Oh man that would drive me nuts. Thankfully, I extended the 3 year warranty on my 2407 to a 5 year warranty. Got till August of this year to get a new one if I need it. The image quality is still impressive to me. I always find myself looking for high resolution pictures to check out or playing really pretty games and just staring. Really satisfied with it

 

Well...it would drive me nuts, if it did that non stop! It only does that while it's warming up. Not major, just noticing it

 

BF3 is lookign mighty tasty. also just got my self a corsair F60 sandforce 60GB SSD, for 70 quid, so nearly a £/gb.


but for BF3, i wonder how bad it will tax GPUS.

 

Well, I'm thinking at least as bad as BBC2, maybe slightly worse, so probably quite the graphically taxing game. I sincerely hope it isn't as finicky as its predecessor, I'm not sure I know anyone who can run Bad Company 2 stable and glitch-free.

 

i dont think anyone can, unless you have a single nvidia GPU by the looks of it

 

Nah, my friend's PC with a 9600GT locks up when he plays BC2. No problems in anything else, Metro 2033 included. Could be an nvidia issue, but then why would my other friend's HD6850 do it as well?

 

i think its an ATi thing, BC2 locks up @ random on my 2 5770's but on my single GTX460 its flawless...just cant turn on all the goodies

 

Read my post above...

 

its a GT9600.....i'm surprised that runs it at all.

 

A 9600GT isn't that slow really, it may not be up to recent standards, but the difference between the 9600 and the 8600 was vast, a 9600GT could still take on the HD3870 and HD2900s pretty well, it was the next card down from the 8800GT at the time.

 

have you tried another directX mode? you can choose between 9 10.1 and 11. i personally have mine set to DirectX 11. DX9 likes to unload alot of stuff to the CPU.. stuff that the GPU can clearly handle.

 

Honestly my 6850s have never scaled worth a damn in BC2. On some maps running 30-60FPS which for an online FPS can be quite jittery. A single card runs it fine though. Driver revisions have been hit and miss. The 5850s straight up scaled better. Oddly enough in the Vietnam expansion, I don't have this problem, runs 70-90FPS, perfect scaling.

If BF3 at least has decent scaling I should be pretty well equipped for it. Even if it's worse than BC2. Really must say the good ole 955BE hasn't let me down yet. Bring it on let's see what this old girl can do

So yeah one of my 6850s had a fan burn out today. Shipped off for RMA. Thank you XFX for the double lifetime warranty, screw you XFX for the bad fan. Cost me $20 to ship it and I'ma be at half capacity for a week. Just started The Witcher 2 which is amazing but it's so demanding Crossfire is essential to running it properly

Yeah I had a 9600GT for a while in one of my secondary rigs and it really wasn't that slow. Managed Crysis pretty adequately and BC2 is a far Cry from being as demanding as Crysis. AFAIK it was neck-and-neck with a 3870, maybe 2 or 3% faster. Which IMO is still quite usable.

 

I don't have any performance issues with the game, for the vast majority the game is very smooth for me, it's just the black screen and corrupted shadows that wind me up.

 

Yep I still get the black screens too. Though recently they have been happening much less. I think it was the 11.5b hotfix driver that improved it.

I miss Crossfire and it's only been one day. Can't play Witcher 2