Using a refresh rate higher than 60Hz in Vista

[Xtinctpaul]

I've been reading around for quite a while now, looking for an answer to my problem with no luck in sight (so far).

I've recently upgraded to Vista using a dual boot setup with XP. I have a 42" Sharp Aquous (1080p) display through DVI-HDMI. In Windows XP, using the default "Plug and Play Monitor" driver, I'm able to use 75Hz or 85Hz at 1920x1080 (which the monitor does support).

In Vista however, with the "generic pnp monitor" driver, it won't allow anything other than 60Hz, regardless of the 'hide modes' check box. Now, some people would say that 60Hz should be fine for an LCD monitor, but here's the problem. With 60Hz, for some reason, the actual screen display size is somewhat smaller than the actual screen size (about a 1-1/2" border all around) which was the case in XP as well (issue with the sharp display i suppose). In 30Hz, the display size is perfect (just as in 75 or 85Hz), but at 30 it becomes very blurry and terrible with any motion on the screen. So basically, I can only use this monitor at either 75 or 85Hz.

This has to be a Vista OS problem (and not at fault by the ATI display drivers). I've read that some people have had similar problems with their CRT monitors as well. Some have suggested using refresh rate forcing programs, but since they were all made for XP, none of them work in vista (I've tried reforce, refreshlock, pstrip and reschange).

Any ideas on how to remove the 60Hz cap, or make a custom monitor driver that will allow it?

Thanks!

 

[Xtinctpaul]

I also can't live with using 60Hz, despite the fact that it becomes a 40" monitor instead of 42", but because it's displaying 1920x1080 at smaller scale, it ends up compressing the pixels which gives a really bad blur effect.

 

[DC187]

What an interesting problem.

The refresh locking programs afaik just fix an issue with XP being locked at 60Hz in OpenGL video modes (Vista also has this issue and there is a nvidia utility to fix it)

I have come accross a similar issue with a 32" LCD in that we had to connect both DVI ports to be able to produce higher refresh rates at higher resolutions, otherwise we were forced at 60Hz and a funny res and that was on XP. I think it may have something to do with DVI limitations.
Could it be possible you have a similar issue?

 

[SirJames]

Same issue on Samsung 46'' 1080p

Hi Guys

I have just joined the forum whilst looking to fix this error.. :-0

I have a brand new Samsung 46'' 1080p and have exactly the same problem, I have done some searching but have not found any thing conclusive..

When I run 1900x1080 the 5% of the screen al around the desktop is missing, I am running a 8800gts and the latest nVidia drivers from guru3g.. There is no way I can adjust my desktop size to fit of the TV to fit like can be done with an lcd monitor..

I will keep looking... cheers..

[email protected]
Vista64MCE, 5600+, 4GbCosair, Leadtek-8800GTS

 

[lonelyprogrammer]

What an interesting problem.

The refresh locking programs afaik just fix an issue with XP being locked at 60Hz in OpenGL video modes (Vista also has this issue and there is a nvidia utility to fix it)

I have come accross a similar issue with a 32" LCD in that we had to connect both DVI ports to be able to produce higher refresh rates at higher resolutions, otherwise we were forced at 60Hz and a funny res and that was on XP. I think it may have something to do with DVI limitations.
Could it be possible you have a similar issue?

--------------
I have the same problem with my widows Vista Home ,too.Thats really a big problem with my CRT monitor. I cant stay too much !

 

[Xtinctpaul]

Aha!

It's been a while since I last posted here. Thought I would update.

After getting rid of Vista and just using XP (64-bit), I had a similar problem, but was able to enable higher than 60Hz support in ATI's CCC (control center). But even in 75 or 85Hz, i would have to change the TV's input to HDMI2 for example, and back to HDMI1 (computer) in order for the screen to asjust properly to it's borders. After installing a newer version of ATI's drivers (April v7.4), now regardless of it being set to 75 or 85 Hz, the screen would not adjust properly, even using the input change trick.

Next, I had an idea. I uninstalled all the ATI drivers, and installed v7.1 (from January), and presto, automatically it gave me support for multitudes of refresh rates in the windows display settings (without installing CCC), and gave proper dimensions for the screen automatically (in 75Hz, or 85).

I havent tested this in Vista yet, but will try with a new install. So the problem lies with the ATI display drivers. I suppose I will just have to use the older version, and use ATT (Ati Tray Tools, latest version) instead of ATI's CCC. I wonder if I should try sending ATI-AMD this info, since if it's only limited to HDTV users, then i doubt they will bother (at least for now).

Hope this helps anyone else who has a similar issue. Again, this might only be ATI related, and those Nvidia users probably don't have this problem. Would like to hear from those people on their experience.

 

[Asky]

^Even i was stuck @ 60hz for my Samsung 940BW w/X1900GT.
You can "force reresh rate" to be 75hz in CCC altho i think 7.4 and 7.5 add 75hz support by default.

 

[OctoberASSaSIN]

Same thing here, I wish I would have came across these forums earlier, I usually don't hunt forums but this sire is useful so far, I am running x32 Vista Ultimate, currently downloading x64 as we speak, I have a ViewSonic VX2025wm 21"widescreen LCD and have donwloaded both their signed and unsgned versions for Vista, it sill shows up Generic PnP Monitor and only capable of 59 or 60, 75 makes it distort but still visible enough to set it back where it needs to be. I'm running ATI cat 7.5 w/ Radeon X1900XTX why cant I get better refresh?

 

[Zammo]

This same thing bugged me for a long time too, I used to have a llyama vision master pro that could have a resolution of 160Hz so having to drop down to 60Hz I was far from impressive.

I found changing the resolution on the monitor would enable more rate options and the refresh rate could get to 75Hz but still this is below the 85Hz monitors should be set to to help prevent RSA.

I have a ViewSonic VX2025wm 21"widescreen LCD and have donwloaded both their signed and unsgned versions for Vista, it sill shows up Generic PnP Monitor and only capable of 59 or 60, 75 makes it distort but still visible enough to set it back where it needs to be. I'm running ATI cat 7.5 w/ Radeon X1900XTX why cant I get better refresh?

I had also not only changed from xp64 vista64 but also from a high end CRT to a 5ms refresh LCD screen. LCD pixels can't refresh as fast as CRT , it has always been the major disadvantage of them. Great for an office, crap for gaming. Although before the start of this year, the LCD rate was averaging around 16ms (which is why some fast action games used to blur) they now are producing rates of 5-6ms so they they are improving. There is very little you can do about expect get a decent CRT monitor.

Using drivers made for the monitor would help slightly but there's not much to them which is why your screen can run perfectly fine with Windows Generic drivers (although atm device manager shows my monitors as "no driver are loaded or needed for this object")

 

[Brink]

Same thing here, I wish I would have came across these forums earlier, I usually don't hunt forums but this sire is useful so far, I am running x32 Vista Ultimate, currently downloading x64 as we speak, I have a ViewSonic VX2025wm 21"widescreen LCD and have donwloaded both their signed and unsgned versions for Vista, it sill shows up Generic PnP Monitor and only capable of 59 or 60, 75 makes it distort but still visible enough to set it back where it needs to be. I'm running ATI cat 7.5 w/ Radeon X1900XTX why cant I get better refresh?

ATI has a newer driver version 7.7 for your Radeon X1900 series. Perhaps they may help with better refreshing.

Drivers & Software

Shawn

 

[MDOC]

my monitor is a Samsung 226bw, 1680x1050 resolution, and fixed at 60HZ. But I don't have any problems that I can see. the pixel response time is only 2ms, but that is G to G, not B to W.

Made sure I installed the driver for the moniter (digital version), too.

The video adapter is a Radeon x1300 XGE with 512 MB video RAM.

 

[MDOC]

OK, now I have a 64bit display driver installed instead of 32bit. (I recently installed Ult x64 over Home Premium x32 previously)

 

[nowhereman]

i am using a geforce and a lcd and the problem can be solved with the new drivers, and chosing the right scaling methode.

the are a couple of options like nvidia card with or without fixed aspect ratio and the built in monitor.

built in seems to be the default setting, i tested it with nvida graphic and there's not problem at all.

 

[Choogster]

in my experience its not the refresh rate that causes the problem, its using the monitor in a resolution which isn't its premium resolution. you always notice blurring at anything less than 1680x1050 on my monitor, as its designed to be run at that size.

 

[Brink]

I agree with Choogster. This tutorial has a graph on it showing the recommended resolutions for monitor sizes. It is best to use whatever the native resolution is for the monitor for less display problems.

How to Change the Screen Resolution in Vista


In general, the higher the resolution, the higher your refresh rate should be.

To each their own though,
Shawn

 

[Choogster]

In general, the higher the resolution, the higher your refresh rate should be.

That isn't technically true - I think the way that TFT monitors are made, the refresh rate isn't the key factor in sharpness, its purely the screen resolution.

At least, thats my reckoning. I don't remember getting any significant change in quality between 60 and 75hz on my old tft BUT when I changed it to 1280x1024 the quality was perfect. and that was at 60hz.

 

[Brink]

That isn't technically true - I think the way that TFT monitors are made, the refresh rate isn't the key factor in sharpness, its purely the screen resolution.

At least, thats my reckoning. I don't remember getting any significant change in quality between 60 and 75hz on my old tft BUT when I changed it to 1280x1024 the quality was perfect. and that was at 60hz.

Yes, the refresh rate only deals with redrawing the picture rate and any flickering issues. It does not help with sharpness.

Sometimes at 60hz it can cause a eye strain, and increasing the refresh rate helps resolve this. It is just sometimes more noticable on bigger monitors. That's where the In general comes from.

This of course is very subjective. Everyone has their own preferences, and some monitors do better than others.

Shawn