Low image quality on newer GPUs

[KrakN]

 

1. What PSU/wattage are we using ?

2. What OS are we using ?

3. What motherboard are we using ?

4. What type of connection GPU-Monitor  are we using ?

 

1: Cooler Master G550M, 550W

2: Windows 10 Education

3: MSI H170 GAMING M3

4: Hdmi

[daraga123]

Guys i know its weird but can those with this problem check this video around 17:50? A friend with this problem send it to me and i see it there.Please don't laugh at me  

[silverhawk]

Guys i know its weird but can those with this problem check this video around 17:50? A friend with this problem send it to me and i see it there.Please don't laugh at me

Yes I see the jagginess at 17:50, but there's definitely something wrong there because I see the rest of the video just to see the soft spoken, softly gesture and whispering lady's face.. 

[DKL]

My GTX 950 just started its second week of use and already I noticed a problem. It failed to do resolutions properly. NVIDIA recommends that I make the image in a resolution higher than my monitor so the GPU can then reduce the resolution to my monitor's size to display with higher quality. 

 

That's cool and all until I go to start Star Craft and my monitor can't get an input signal while Star Craft is full screen because the resolution is stuck at the higher value. I had to go into the variables.txt to change it and now I'm afraid that Shadow of Mordor and similar games may experience the same problems.

 

Can we please put in the 1st post steps to fix these GPU's(at least a little bit)?

 

Also really disappointed to find this topic.

[James9883]

I have the same problem with a GTX 950 and a Pentium G3250. 

[tsrbino]

 

Along this same line of thought, I think we should clearly identify and specify all the different aspects of this problem, since different people seem to be reporting different things.  We can then determine if they are or are not related, and possibly start checking off solutions.

 

So far it seems as though: (please comment if I've missed any and I'll update this post)

• Anti-Aliasing not nearly as effective as it should be (example: see any of the many images that have been posted)
• Texture flickering/pop-in (objects randomly flash white on and off) (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prpkhkZszq0)
• Shimmering (flickering lighting on objects) (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlg4C0_3fUM)
• "Minecraft shadows" in a game that should look very realistic and does even with lower settings on other people's machines (example: http://s27.postimg.org/u4g6fcofn/563456.png)
• Claims that cards start out perfect and then develop this problem over time, getting progressively worse in discreet, identifiable "steps"

Anything not in this list (unless I've forgotten it) is the result of something else (like the VGA-connected display issue that was identified and resolved a few posts back)

 

It has been a long road proving that all of these are actually real things that happen, but I believe we are all in unanimous agreement that they do (with the possible exception of the last point).  Now there is still some debate over whether things like the anti-aliasing and shimmering are actual "problems" that some people get and some don't, or whether they are just normal operation of the game, but (afaik) we also all agree that the other issues mentioned here are not normal, and thus could possibly be fixed some how.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head but forgot one symptom.  I'll copy and paste it from one of my previous posts here:

 

There is a clearly defined and easily seen line about five feet in front of and on all sides of my character (for practical purposes I will call it a "render distance box") where everything inside of it is fully rendered and appears as it should. Outside of the box everything is way more pixelated with EXCESSIVE texture and shadow pop in. Let me repeat, THE BOX IS A MERE 5 FEET AROUND MY CHARACTER.

 

For an example of this, see the vid that Cloud 7_3 made of GTA on page 27 of this forum, entitled "GTA shadow box glitch"

[KrakN]

well this video show that we are not crazy since even real things (A paper in this case) are visually fucked up

[leandrocm86]

Does anybody remember if any of the pictures posted were from AMD cards? I read people saying this problem is not limited to Nvidia, but we actually may be dealing with multiple issues. I don't remember dealing with the jaggedness stuff when I owned a R9 270. And as far as I know, the PS4 and Xbox imperfections are not in the same scale we've seen in most pictures posted here.

Would it be possible that anyone here has access to more than one platform so we can make comparisons?

[Qwerty2323]

But why should newer gpus handle graphics much better than some older may be i m just blind but speed of gpu matters so newer ones can kick out more fps.

[MEC-777]

Does anybody remember if any of the pictures posted were from AMD cards? I read people saying this problem is not limited to Nvidia, but we actually may be dealing with multiple issues. I don't remember dealing with the jaggedness stuff when I owned a R9 270. And as far as I know, the PS4 and Xbox imperfections are not in the same scale we've seen in most pictures posted here.

Would it be possible that anyone here has access to more than one platform so we can make comparisons?

 

Problem with comparing to the consoles is we don't know the exact graphics settings they are using in each game (low, med, high, AA? etc.) and they are typically hooked up to TV's which can sometimes have an effect on the image quality depending on the specific TV. You'd have to match the game settings as close as possible (not sure how you'd find out) and use the same monitor as your display. 

[MarkFMB]

I've noticed this same "shadow box" thing being discussed some pages back in many games as well, where shadows seems to be rendered correctly up to a close distance around the character. Could this faulty rendering at distance be what's cause all the pop-ins, shimmering as well? Now that i think about it, they do seem to happen only in distance.

[daraga123]

My shadows looks like this in ac syndicate even when maxed out.

[MEC-777]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head but forgot one symptom.  I'll copy and paste it from one of my previous posts here:

 

There is a clearly defined and easily seen line about five feet in front of and on all sides of my character (for practical purposes I will call it a "render distance box") where everything inside of it is fully rendered and appears as it should. Outside of the box everything is way more pixelated with EXCESSIVE texture and shadow pop in. Let me repeat, THE BOX IS A MERE 5 FEET AROUND MY CHARACTER.

 

For an example of this, see the vid that Cloud 7_3 made of GTA on page 27 of this forum, entitled "GTA shadow box glitch"

 

 

I've noticed this same "shadow box" thing being discussed some pages back in many games as well, where shadows seems to be rendered correctly up to a close distance around the character. Could this faulty rendering at distance be what's cause all the pop-ins, shimmering as well? Now that i think about it, they do seem to happen only in distance.

 

I believe this may be LOD bias - based issues. Which we no longer have the ability to adjust or alter (since the GTX 400 series Nvidia cards, not sure when AMD removed it). In this case, it's more of a game engine based problem and I don't think there's anything we can do about it, afaik.

[MEC-777]

My shadows looks like this in ac syndicate even when maxed out.

 

I see the same thing in that game from time to time. It's a LOD distance thing tied to the game engine. Cannot be helped or changed unless the game devs change it and release a patch. Honestly, I don't notice it enough in this game for it to be a problem. At least in this game they have the shadow LOD "fade" between phases instead of poping in/out like some other games. At least that is what I have observed anyways.  

[vanished]

You pretty much hit the nail on the head but forgot one symptom.  I'll copy and paste it from one of my previous posts here:

 

There is a clearly defined and easily seen line about five feet in front of and on all sides of my character (for practical purposes I will call it a "render distance box") where everything inside of it is fully rendered and appears as it should. Outside of the box everything is way more pixelated with EXCESSIVE texture and shadow pop in. Let me repeat, THE BOX IS A MERE 5 FEET AROUND MY CHARACTER.

 

For an example of this, see the vid that Cloud 7_3 made of GTA on page 27 of this forum, entitled "GTA shadow box glitch"

Thanks, added.

[James9883]

I've noticed this same "shadow box" thing being discussed some pages back in many games as well, where shadows seems to be rendered correctly up to a close distance around the character. Could this faulty rendering at distance be what's cause all the pop-ins, shimmering as well? Now that i think about it, they do seem to happen only in distance.

 

I've noticed that any shimmering seems to disappear when I am near it.

 

[vanished]

I've noticed that any shimmering seems to disappear when I am near it.

 

That should be a fairly easy thing to tell indisputably whether it is happening or not, so there should be no confusion or argument over whether some people are just more sensitive to it; has anyone else noticed that happening in that game?

[James9883]

That should be a fairly easy thing to tell indisputably whether it is happening or not, so there should be no confusion or argument over whether some people are just more sensitive to it; has anyone else noticed that happening in that game?

Not that I know of, I also had the same thing occur in Fallout: New Vegas(with an ENB preset): http://imgur.com/a/NYxB2 The first and last are with ENB disabled. I would assume that this is part of the ENB, however I have not seen anyone else have this problem.

[DKL]

Do you notice the shadow box in Shadow of Mordor? Currently playing that and (my card is new) I have yet to notice/encounter that. (If you do I would really like to see a screenshot)

[NvidiaGPU]

From all the games I've played (trust me I have lots of AAA games in Steam),  the root of problem I concluded  is the DRAW DISTANCE, the farther you are from the object the less AA filter or no AA is applied.   The nearer you are, the better quality of AA is seen.  BUT I don't know what causes this sh*t.   I have a high end rig too, so that is not the case.

[Curufinwe_wins]

The way you describe this issue is in complete and utter conflict with my entire system of experiences thus far including my now 6 month old insane overkill gaming rig.

Have you tried any of the common troubleshooting methods? Because clearly bsod isn't happening to all of us.

EDIT: now having read the whole thread I'm still confused as to never having such bsod issues in the first place or seeing the results of these tests, but I believe that something is occurring for you all and that you have made real efforts to prevent the issue.

But yea. I've had drivers crash while overclocking and stability crashes from cpu overclocking, but I've never had bsod from gaming.

[FruitBasketSilex]

Not even sure if they've taken a look at the thread.

Not sure I blame them.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Lemme know what you want tested, I now have my G1 GTX 970 back from RMA and can do comparative testing if need be.

(I've read and posted in here previously and know what the situation is, just not for a month since RMA)

[MEC-777]

From all the games I've played (trust me I have lots of AAA games in Steam),  the root of problem I concluded  is the DRAW DISTANCE, the farther you are from the object the less AA filter or no AA is applied.   The nearer you are, the better quality of AA is seen.  BUT I don't know what causes this sh*t.   I have a high end rig too, so that is not the case.

 

I believe that is LOD bias related. We've been over that and it's been discussed. The ability to adjust LOD bias has been removed and not available ever since the GTX 400 series 5 years ago. Why people are only noticing now? I don't know. There is a solution for DX9 games, but any DX10 or newer games, there is no known software solution. The only real solution to this is to get a higher resolution display - if it bothers you that much. 

[jinx33]

Hi everyone, first of all, i'm french so bare with me if you have trouble to understand me

 

Since a week or so, i'm encountering the same issue that some people are having, as explained here or back to the old NVIDIA topic i also red. Shimmering textures with bad aliasing, thought its not the worst for me, i was used to play in 768p not even a year ago. The thing that bothers me the most is the LOD/draw distance and shadows rendering very close, totally broken, that happened out of the blue, and even sometimes it seems like a lighting issue (specifically on The Witcher 3, but this game is getting worse as more as its getting patched it seems). And that's not because i'm paying attention just now to the details or such, i actually play a lot of games, for the gameplay and story of course, but also for exploration when it comes to open world, for better immersion.

 

A month ago i finished AC IV Black Flag and two weeks ago The Witcher 2, without having those issues (intense pop-in of textures/meshes and shadows), and sadly now it's happening. There is even a weird grainy effect in some games. I just can't explain how it happened suddenly. I didn't change my graphic card, i'm on a ROG laptop with a GTX 860M, that i bought approx. 6 months ago. I was on 355.82 Nvidia drivers, cleanly reverting back to old drivers or install new ones didn't fix the issue, as well as formating Win 8.1. I actually didn't upgrade to Win10. I thought also about a DX driver issue, still the same after reinstalling. It just so happens a day, just like that, and like all the people having this problem, i can't explain neither understand why.

 

There is also a hardware french board where some people experience this. So I join you guys here as well, in case a solution will be found, or it will fix by itself, just like it never happened.

 

(And i add, it will be pretty worthless to advise me DSR, since i'm on Optimus based laptop, and my GFX is pretty weak considering this option ).