Vertical Sync

[TechZ]

What is vertical sync ?
Is vertical sync good or bad?

[NooNoo]

vertical sync

The pulse that initiates the vertical retrace of the electron gun from the bottom of a frame back to the top.

here is some monitor faqs

Hope this explains it for you... it is neither good nor bad - it just is!

[confus-ed]

Lack of horizonal sync: Picture drifts smoothly horizontally. This may mean that the horizonal ync signal is missing, you are trying to sync to frequency which is outside monitor specs (above or below operating range) or there is some fault in the sync-processing circuitry inside the monitor. Note that depeneding the difference between the video horizonal rate and the free-run frequency of the horizonal oscillator, the picture may be torn left or right or have multiple images superimposed horizonally.

If the picture rolls shoothly up or down this can be caused because of missing vertical sync signal or the monitor sync processing circuitry can't sync to that (propably vertical sync rate out of monitor specs).

Same reasons for horizontal as vertical failure....

'Lack of...' = bad !

[TechZ]

After reading all that im going to asume it a good thing so i'll put it on

BTW what the difference between regular drivers and detonator drv, performance??

and why doesnt Gainward offer them at their website

[TechZ]

since were on the subject of drivers..

i installed the new gainward 42.30 normal GF4 drivers and in bothe ME and XP it flickers on part of the lcd during startup and then becomes ok

never happenned with the original drivers(really old) and they havent fixed it yet it seems, i think it only happens with lcd's

[NooNoo]

The detonator drivers are called "reference" drivers. That is they are the drivers supplied by the company that made the chipset, not the card.

Gainward makes cards, they may or may not use the reference drivers, they may rebuild them to add certain other features or remove something.

People use the detonators because they are compatible (mostly) and they love having the latest and greatest.
It is up to you to find out which suits you the best.

Your statement about vertical sync - I am assuming this is a setting in nview? (sorry gone ati here for the moment ) I believe that is a setting that restricts the card to the known capabilities of the monitor... but I am sure someone can explain it better.

[Platypus]

An article on Asheron's Call here:

http://microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2...tures_sync.htm

provides some useful discussion;

"A computer monitor works just like a television, drawing a picture one line at a time. Unlike a TV, which draws a new picture 30 times a second, a monitor draws its image much more quickly--at least 60 times a second (60 Hz), and over 100 Hz if you have a good video card and monitor. This value is called the "refresh rate," and you want to set it as high as possible for a nice no-flicker, no-headache display.

Now that you understand what the refresh rate is, we can discuss the "sync with refresh rate" setting in AC2. This setting is commonly called "VSYNC" in other games and video tweaking utilities. Simply put, when VSYNC is on, the video card displays animation frames in sync with the way the monitor draws the image; that is, one frame of game animation is displayed for at least one complete monitor draw pass, and a frame is never cut off in the middle of drawing.

When VSYNC is off, the video card dumps out frames as fast as it can, paying no attention to what the monitor is doing. When that happens, you can briefly see "tearing" and misaligned images. So why would you ever want this? Well, it can allow the game to run faster by letting the 3D card render as fast as it can, never having to wait for a new screen to be drawn by the monitor. But just like the "jaggies" (without) antialiasing, the image tearing this produces drives some people nuts.

So, VSYNC on or off, which is right for you? If you are suffering from poor frame rates and you need every speed boost you can get, turn VSYNC off. If you have decent frame rates, leave it on to preserve image quality."

[TechZ]

But if the Detonator drivesr are the reference drivesr for the chipset then why do nivida provide non-detonator drivers also?

[NooNoo]

Which drivers are you referring to? The only ones that are not called detonators are for the Riva and the Quadro. The riva is an old chipset and the quadro range is for professional graphics applications, not for gaming.

[TechZ]

sorry about not replying, bandwidth prob due to earthquake in algiers and we had a undersea cable prob already, i understood the drivers now, i was under the impression nVIDIA relesased two versions of drivers , detonator and non-detonator,

thanks