ATI max refresh rates

B

ben6

Regular
was checking out the boxes of my 7500, 9000, 9700 Pro , and was wondering why the max refresh rates decreased from 8500 series to 9700 series?


7500 refresh rates
640x480 200
800x600 200
1024x768 200
1152x864 150
1280x1024 130
1600x1200 120
1920x1080 90
1920x1200 75
1920x1440 75
2048x1536 75

9000
640x480 200
800x600 200
1024x768 200
1152x864 150
1280x1024 130
1600x1200 120
1920x1080 90
1920x1200 90
1920x1440 100
2048x1536 85

9700
640x480 120
800x600 120
1024x768 120
1152x864 120
1280x1024 120
1600x1200 85
1920x1080 75
1920x1200 75
1920x1440 75
2048x1536 60
 
From what I've read the refreshrates for 9700 as published by ATi are wrong. ATi's site was updated with new numbers once, but reverted back to the old numbers quite soon after for some reason.
 
You are reading the box instead of asking people with the hardware?
And alexsok always quick with the le mot juste, tipical f@nboy drivel
The 9700 has a 400Mhz ramdac same as the 8500. I get the same refresh with my monitor as i did with my 8500.

These are my max refresh rates for my monitor:

640x480 160
800x600 120
1024x768 100
1152x852 85
1280x1024 85
1600x1200 75

Havent tried anything higher. It is a Samsung 700NF Win2k Pro drivers
 
Doesn't appear to be any higher than what Ben listed as possible, except for the 640x480 refresh, but that's more than believable...it's the higher resolutions that matter more...
 
ben6 said:
was checking out the boxes of my 7500, 9000, 9700 Pro , and was wondering why the max refresh rates decreased from 8500 series to 9700 series?
Click to expand...

The relevant portion of the .inf from the drivers shipping with the Radeon 9700...

HKR,"MODES\8\640,480",,,"60,72,75,85,90,100,120"
HKR,"MODES\8\800,600",,,"56,60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120"
HKR,"MODES\8\848,480",,,"60,88"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,768",,,"60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120"
HKR,"MODES\8\1152,864",,,"60,70,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,768",,,"56,60,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,960",,,"60,70,72,75,85,100,120"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,1024",,,"60,70,75,85,90,100,120"
HKR,"MODES\8\1600,1200",,,"60,70,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1792,1344",,,"60,75"
HKR,"MODES\8\1800,1440",,,"60,70"
HKR,"MODES\8\1856,1392",,,"60,75"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1080",,,"60,75"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1200",,,"60,75"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1440",,,"60,75"
HKR,"MODES\8\2048,1536",,,"60"

No refresh rate definitions are given for 16-bit or 32-bit display modes, so they should adopt the selection available to the 8-bit modes.

Regardless of what the hardware is capable of, the current drivers are exposing refresh rates that match Ben6's list.

The RV250 section of the same .inf doesn't quite match what was reported, though:

HKR,"MODES\8\640,480",,,"60,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\800,600",,,"56,60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\848,480",,,"60,88"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,768",,,"60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,150,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\1152,864",,,"60,70,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,768",,,"56,60,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,1024",,,"60,70,75,85,90,100,120,160"
HKR,"MODES\8\1600,1200",,,"60,70,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1792,1344",,,"60,75,85,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1800,1440",,,"60,70,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1856,1392",,,"60,75,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1080",,,"60,75,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1200",,,"60,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1440",,,"60,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\2048,1536",,,"60,66,70,75"

What drivers are the Radeon 9000 boards actually using?
 
i do have a 9700 Pro btw. But my monitor doesn't have the ability to keep the refresh rates as high as those listed
 
Update:

Here's a screenshot with dxdiag. I thought it could only go to 85hz @ 1280x1024 but i got it to 120Hz.
120hz.jpg


Trying higher resolutions now

Now here's 1600x1200 @ 85Hz, my monitor won't go any higher :(
85hz.jpg


Just for kicks i tried 2048x1536, max i got was 60Hz:

60hz.jpg


Any more questions?
 
Based upon the 400MHz DAC (as shown in the control panel thing), the following modes should be possible.

2048x1536@85Hz
1920x1440@90Hz
1600x1200@120Hz
1280x1024@160Hz
1280x960@200Hz

I have rounded down to the nearest common Refresh rate increment. The actual limits of a 400MHz DAC are different.


CC
 
Hrm been looking at the paperwork for the 9700 Pro , from ATI's launch it has the same refreshrates as the 8500, it's just strange that both the box and the website have different ones than the ones you'd expect on a 400Mhz RAMDAC
 
One thing that comes to my mind when talking about high refres rates: does the R9700 support any 3D shutter glasses?
 
ben6 said:
Hrm been looking at the paperwork for the 9700 Pro , from ATI's launch it has the same refreshrates as the 8500, it's just strange that both the box and the website have different ones than the ones you'd expect on a 400Mhz RAMDAC
Click to expand...

Just thought to check what the R300 supports as of the 7.76 (Catalyst 2.3) drivers:

HKR,"MODES\8\640,480",,,"60,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\800,600",,,"56,60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\848,480",,,"60,88"
HKR,"MODES\8\1024,768",,,"60,70,72,75,85,90,100,120,150,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\1152,864",,,"60,70,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,768",,,"56,60,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,960",,,"60,70,72,75,85,100,120,160,200"
HKR,"MODES\8\1280,1024",,,"60,70,75,85,90,100,120,160"
HKR,"MODES\8\1600,1200",,,"60,70,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\1792,1344",,,"60,75,85,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1800,1440",,,"60,70,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1856,1392",,,"60,75,90"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1080",,,"60,75,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1200",,,"60,75,85,100"
HKR,"MODES\8\1920,1440",,,"60,75,85"
HKR,"MODES\8\2048,1536",,,"60,66,70,75"

While it's still not exposing the peak levels possible for a 400MHz RAMDAC, it's now offering a much expanded set of refresh rates.
 
Re

I know it's off topic, but ben6, how did you manage to get the boxes of BOTH the Radeon 9000 and 9700 ????
Don't tell me you bought both of them, or did you????
Do you work for the press, and if yes, where can I read your radeon review (when it's done)? Do you get to keep the radeon 9700 or must you give it back (if you work for the press)?
 
How does one calculate max refresh rate for any given resolution from a 400 mhz ramdac? I know it is not just resolution height x width x refresh rate since the electron beam has some time delays when it draws each line on the screen and then when the electron beam goes from the bottom horizontal line to the top line. Someone please explain.
 
Xmas said:
One thing that comes to my mind when talking about high refres rates: does the R9700 support any 3D shutter glasses?
Click to expand...

AFAIK it does not. And ATI (or just an employee) stated somewhere they'll not implement this technology in the future 'cause it's unecessary. Hmmm...

Personally I don't care about it: I've tried the Asus' one (few times) and it's just ridiculous, absolutely useless.
 
Chalnoth said:
Doesn't appear to be any higher than what Ben listed as possible, except for the 640x480 refresh, but that's more than believable...it's the higher resolutions that matter more...
Click to expand...


Here are my 9700, WinXP SP1 refresh rates with my Sony E540 FT 21" monitor (All APIs and color depths):

640x480 = 160Hz (my choice, the monitor will do 170Hz--I've done it)

800x600 = 160Hz

1024x768 = 120Hz (my choice, monitor will do 130Hz, I've done it)

1152x768 = 100Hz (my choice, monitor will do 110Hz, I've done it)

1280x1024 = 100Hz

1600x1200 = 85Hz

2048x1536 = 66Hz

Scan rate for monitor is 110kHz, 170Hz

The rates featured on the box the Ben saw were the top rates, standard PnP monitor refresh rates actually, that one could get with any videocard and monitor combination in WinXP, pre-SP1, without running some 3rd-party refresh rate programs and doing some other work (when I had my GF4 Ti4600 installed with drivers up to 30.82, pre-SP1, I had to edit the install .inf myself to get the refresh rates listed above--except that some of those are more than I could manage with the GF4's 350MHz RAMDAC--ie, 60Hz at 2048x1536.)

SP1 did half the job in at least correctly integrating the information between a graphics card driver and the installed monitor driver (monitor .inf.) As such, after SP1 was installed I no longer had to edit my videocard driver's install .inf to get the refresh rates my videocard and monitor driver were capable of---YAY! However....WinXP SP1 still does not allow you to save a particular refresh rate to a particular resolution and color depth. IE, if you go to 640x480x32 , dial up 160Hz, and then save it; then switch to 1024x768x32 at 120Hz, then save that; when you return to 640x480x32 you will be refreshed at 120Hz--instead of the the 160Hz you attempted to save using only the WinXP Display properties interface.

So even with SPI you still have to use a 3rd-party refresh rate program to set the refresh rates you want in each resolution--and have them locked in place. The default behavior of WinXP SP1 is still, unfortunately, to prefer a single refresh rate for all resolutions and color depths--which is I suppose certainly workable--but I still don't like it....

The refresh rate utility I use is RefreshLock, at this address:

www.pagehosting.co.uk/rl/

It's a neat little proggy that does everything "permanently" in the registry so that you don't have to have a little application or anything running in the background--and it works great. SP1 got at least the hard part done--Heh, heh--but I wonder if M$ will actually ever get all of it done so that you can save the refresh rates of your choice to the resolution and color depths of your choice from within WinXP directly (didn't seem too hard for them to manage in Win9x.) Because of the ease of doing this in Win9x, the lack of this functionality in XP has had me scratching my head more than once.
 
Calculating refresh rates.
These can be got a few ways.
VESA have some standard modes called the Discrete Monitor Timings, which specify the dot clock and blanking sizes used.
These obviously can't cover everything and so to cope with this they developed the Generalized Timing Formula, which give a good approximation of the standard timings, and useable timings for inbetween modes. I am not sure if I am able to divulge the workings of the equation or not.

One thing you could do is to download powerstrip, and use it to adjust the refresh rate, and watch the dotclock, when it hits 400MHz then you have the highest mode for that resolution.

CC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
fraps Benchmarking
2 3
Replies
45
Views
10K
WaltC
W
Back
Top