ATi Catalyst 9.5 Z-Fighting Problem

[GamerX5500]

I have an ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT and the Z-Fighting problem has existed since ATi 9.2 until 9.5 for me. Is anyone else getting this?

 

Processor: C2D 1.8 GHz

[Nillus]

... what do you mean with z-fighting?

Since I moved from Catalyst 9.4 to Catalyst 9.5, I have the feeling that my 'lines' on the screen are not syncing together while moving camera ingame etc.

It's like some lines are moved in a later frame than others, giving it a 'distorted' view. |

 

The effect you get whe v-sync is disabled, while I always have it at enabled. Do you get this aswell?

[Confucius44]

Yes, I have exactly the same problem on a Radeon 3650. I get z-fighting with all drivers except Catalyst 9.1. And that driver is pretty bad overall. It breaks Photoshop CS2 and even gives me graphical corruption on the Windows login screen.

 

The issue has been mentioned a few times. There's another thread here: http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=384291&st=0

 

I've decided to put gta4 on hold until they (AMD or Rockstar) fix it.

 

I have the same processor as you, but that couldn't possibly be the cause, could it?

And btw, I get the problem with the same machine on both Windows XP and Vista. I think Vista uses the dx10 shaderpath while XP uses the one called "low_ati" so the problem persists across both driver architectures and different shader models.

 

Nillus, your problem sounds like something else.

Edited May 23, 2009 by Confucius44

[wesley123]

Running 9.4 here and no problems, it might be in your CCC settings or in the app, as it forces its own settings above the games own settings, so you might check these one. I believe you can set v-sync aa and other things in CCC, wich gets forced above the original games.

 

EDIT: woow that was a wrong post by me xD

 

I saw the pics and it seems that those are 'stripes' on things, i dont know gta4 without them, just be clear, it is a gta4 problem, not an ati one, every game is ok with mine.

This problem seems to appen because 2 objects are close too each other(like a poster on a wall, then it happens), the only way it is a ati problem it is when the drivers cant handle the lightning etc. correctly.

Edited May 23, 2009 by wesley123

[okei]

This is what he means by 'Z-fighting':

http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/~kchustl/zfighting.png

[The Horror Is Alive]

Wow, that picture hurt my eyes.

 

OP, try getting a better computer. You're running on minimum spec with a game that needs double it's minimum for a decent experience.

[craig3000]

 

Wow, that picture hurt my eyes.

 

OP, try getting a better computer. You're running on minimum spec with a game that needs double it's minimum for a decent experience.

It has nothing to do with getting a better computer although he may need one its not causing the z-fighting problem

 

Many people with an ATI card probably do not think of it as a problem because they think its natural to the GTA4 game, since it made such a disappointing entrance with problems and lack of performance they probably think its just another problem within the game itself

 

Anyway there have been a few threads about it, pointing to ATI cards only, the perfect place to check if you have the Z-fighting problem is to go to the airport and get some height off the runway (not really high) and you should see the runway flicker this is z-fighting

 

Now when GTA4 first came out and for a little while after I don't think I remember the runway having such a problem previously but its very apparent atm I noticed it at the beginning of they year so it seems to me as if it is the ATI driver it could be something to do with a game patch can't really say but the problem wasn't there to start with

Edited May 23, 2009 by craig3000

[fungus303]

Im running HD4870 512mb @ 820/1100 (OC) with 9.5 vista 64bit drivers. Works like a charm!

 

45-55fps the whole time, no lag. no textures problems and so on.

 

Installed the ultimate graphic tweaks, after that the game runs GREAT, no problem @ all

 

 

[craig3000]

Im running HD4870 512mb @ 820/1100 (OC) with 9.5 vista 64bit drivers. Works like a charm!

 

45-55fps the whole time, no lag. no textures problems and so on.

 

Installed the ultimate graphic tweaks, after that the game runs GREAT, no problem @ all

I'm also running an overclock with my 4850, vista 64bit and cat 9.5

 

And I do get good performance, I run the ultimate graphic tweak for the motion blur which makes everything seem silky smooth its only the z-fighting being a little annoying for me I only really notice it at the airport on the runway and a few buildings part from that all good

[GamerX5500]

It's an ATi problem. Maybe.

 

9.1 is fine, but I don't like the FPS. I get probably +4 or +6 FPS (28 average) with 9.5.

 

9.5 Drivers give me the Z-Fighting/texture problems whereas the 9.1 doesn't give me a single problem but the FPS drop. =|

 

ATi has screwed me over for the past four months. Or is it three? Who cares, really. Rockstar Games should release a new patch for God's sake. I hope they haven't abandoned us!

[craig3000]

Well I gave feedback to the AMD GAME feedback program

 

I told them about this problem and that it seems to be drivers themselves after 9.1/9.2 versions, blah blah blah (won't go into detail)

 

BUT

 

hopefully it will get fixed I reported a crashing problem in Race driver: GRID with a previous release and that got fixed so lets hope for the best

[Confucius44]

I reported this to AMD feedback as well last month. The more bugreports they get about this, the more likely it is that they'll spend some time fixing it.

 

Like GamerX5500 I also get lower fps with Cat9.1. My main fear is that 9.1 was slower exactly because it worked properly. Maybe 9.1 forces the proper 32-bit z-buffer and thus uses way more memory than the other drivers that use 16-bit z-buffers. That would explain why the later drivers are both broken and fast. Maybe it's just really misconfigured z-clip planes. To be clear, I'd rather have lower fps than this current mess.