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Very bad first experience with AVGA 9200
Gradius:
I've recently purchased a new 9200 model to replace my old 7500. I'd like to know if this is a bug of my card or is a normal issue with this model or its drivers. I'm been trying to discard the possibility of bad config issues, either in windows, driver, dx, mame, etc, and I've tried anything I can imagine. The problem is that games move jerky. And I'm talking about standard 60hz games, not rare 55, 57hz games. I see hiccup in scrolls every one or two secondsm which I didn't experience with my old card. I have to raise the rate to 61hz in order to fix the problem. I cannot believe this. With my old card I could be sure that all res modes at 60hz are perfectly synced with MAME 60hz games. Could I've tried with DX8 and DX9, using catuinstaller and drive cleaner in order to completelly remove all traces of my old installation. Maybe I should install Powerstrip and find out what's the exact refresh rate used by the modes built in this card. There must be a missmatch that is causing the hiccups. Let me clarify that I'm using the same enviroment for the 7500 and 9200 model (restoring norton ghost images for the tests): Pentium 4 3Ghz, 512mbs, windows98SE. Could anyone confirm this issue? If it's an issue with the card, have I the right to send it back to Ultimarc's and get my money back?
krick:
It sounds like you're having tearing issues.
The usual fix for that is to put "triplebuffer 1" in your mame.ini file.
See this thread...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,9195.0.html
However, there was an issue reported with triplebuffer and the drivers for the AVGA9200 that I'm not sure has been fixed yet.
See this thread...
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,22938.0.html
Gradius:
The problem I think is with the refresh rate for the modes built in the card. I can get rid of refresh rate in windows98 using triple buffer and in windows 2000 using vsync (tested this morning with the 9200). But in both cases hiccups appear, because the refresh rate of the 240 modes (for instance) seems not to match standard 60hz (must be a little higher). I cannot tell the exact refresh rate values for these low res modes because powerstrip doesn't work with them when I switch to them for windows desktop resolution. But taking a look at the rates of 640x480, it seems the 7500 has a refresh rate that is a little below 60, which results in no problems at all with 60hz games, but being a little higher, as I think happens with the 9200 model, hiccups occur. That's why raising to 61/60 in mame kill those hiccups. That's my theory. Just to the tests. Use Space Invaders DX, the screen after the Taito logo and winners don't use drugs. There's a long scroll there with large letters. It should be smooth all the time.
AndyWarne:
I am looking into this. It appears that the R9200 chip handles the granularity of the pixel clock in a different way to the R7000. So the lower res modes work out at a higher clock. I am looking into introducing a correction factor to cure this. Should be done in a few days time.
Andy Warne
Gradius:
Can this problem be fixed with a new set ot drivers? Please confirm because I'm about to sell my card, but I'll consider now if there's an easy way of righting the wrong. I'd need to be sure about the accuracy of the clock in all modes. Are you sure 640x480 is not wrong too? I've checked it out with Powerstrip and the values are also different with respect the old 7000 card.