Everything lags and stutters after Strobe Utility and VTOTAL

[crash48]

Hi Everyone,

I have a huge problem on my XL2411Z
Yesterday I went through the guidelines and turned on Blur reduction, installed the Strobe Utility, applied the VTOTAL 1350 tweak with ToastyX's utility (Radeon HD7950), but there's a huge problem with this.

Everything is "lagging" now. By lagging I mean, that Youtube videos stutter, when I move an explorer window fast round the screen it behaves like my PC would "freeze up" or run out of resources, it just isn't fluid.
Scrolling in chrome is the same, when I scroll down a page it's not fluid, it stutters. Don't know how to better explain this, but imagine a PC that is doing something performance intense in the background and what you do in the foreground is affected by that.
It's almost like my GPU throttles itself or something.

I have since reverted the changes, meaning I have turned of Blur reduction, unchecked override in the Strobe Utility, and reset settings with "reset-all" in the CRU app.
I have a triple monitor setup with the XL2411Z as the main and two G2420HD's on it's sides, the performance is now affected on ALL of them.

Is there a way I can "wipe" the changes this has done to my PC totally?

Some facts to mention:
i7-2600K @ 4.4GHz - temp not an issue, this is happening at idle where my temp is at 42C
16GB RAM
Samsung 840 SSD
Radeon 7950
Windows 7 64bit, "fresh" install, maybe 3 months old.

Nothing like this was happening before I have fiddled around with the blurbusters tweaks.
I desperately need help, working on the PC like this is annoying as hell.

EDIT: Ok, I had the latest stable catalyst drivers, but decided to install 15.6 beta ones now and the issue seems to be completely gone. The installation has probably wiped whatever changes were done to the settings.
Still strange that my entire system was affected by this. I am very reluctant now to implement any of the tweaks suggested. Didn't really see that much difference anyway, besides the fact that the Blur Reduction significantly lowers the brightness and is a pain to tweak it to what it used to be...

[Falkentyne]

First, there is no such thing as a 15.6 beta driver. It isn't out yet. Plus that leaves beta 4 and 5...the current one is beta 3.

Second, what resolution and refresh ratewere you using the Vertical total tweak on? I assume it was 1920x1080, 120hz?
What timings did you use for porch sync and horizontal total?
48/3 for front porch, 32/5 for sync width and 2080 HT and 1350 VT?
Did you use the Pixel clock patcher if the pixel clock exceeded 330.00 MHz?
Did you edit the resolution of the Benq monitor only? (i never used multi monitor, so I don't know how it works), but you definitely don't want to change the vertical totals of the other 2 monitors.

Also, you have a triple monitor setup---have you tried using only a single monitor?
This problem should NOT happen with a single monitor. try it.

BTW, you don't have to uninstall drivers.
All you need to do is run reset-all.exe in the toastyx CRU package, and then run the driver restarter restart64.exe or whatever it's called. That should save you time in the future.

Running reset through the monitor OSD (recall settings or reset all) is never necessary. I only had to do that when SoftMCCS messed with the defaults and almost cut off the backlight permanently.

Please try it again with ONLY one monitor attached, not 3.
If it works, but then you get problems with multi-monitor, that isn't the benq's or the Vertical total issue.

I've encountered "lag" with vertical total tweaks, but this only happens when doing certain vertical totals which are at the edge of tolerances. On my XL2720Z, for example:

85 hz refresh rate (has to be created as a custom resolution; no default 85 hz resolutions exist in the EDID by default): 1500/1502 VT=lag stutter fest, pulsating backlight. 1350 VT is fine.
84 hz refreh rate: 1500 VT is fine (1502 stutters/lags).
76 hz: monitor either works or says 'out of range' seems random.
120hz: 1502 VT either works or stutter lags when set (if it works it keeps working unless it is reinitialized). 1500 VT works always.
125 hz: 1502/1500 VT stutter like mad. 1498 VT works fine. (league of legends stutters massively, but that's a problem with the game not liking 125hz refresh rate at all, because the FPS counter actually drops to 115 back and forth)
100 hz: 1502 VT works fine.
91 hz: 1502 VT works fine.

the XL2411Z doesn't have the intermittent issue at 120hz and VT 1502.

[crash48]

Hi,

Yes, sorry I meant the 15.3 driver.

Res 1920x1080 @ 120Hz - edited only the XL2411Z resolutions, didn't touch the other monitors.

I used 2080 HT and 1350 VT but I had no idea I should touch the front porch and sync width and I have not used any pixel clock patcher.
I just went by what is in the guide on the main Blurbusters page.

[Falkentyne]

I think the reason it isn't working is because you did not use the pixel clock patcher.
I just quickly entered a 1350 VT at 120hz, and even at reduced timings (horizontal total 2080, versus the 2200 which is the default value), the pixel clock was higher than 330.00mhz (336.96). So to avoid this, you NEED the pixel clock patcher OR you can lower the horizontal total to 2040.

Ok so let's try this again.
Unplug the side monitors that are not benqs.
Start with single monitor.
Use toastyX custom resolution utility.
If you made any changes previously, run reset-all, then run the toastyX driver restarter.
Then,

Make a custom 120hz resolution at 1920x1080, manual settings.

Front porch will be 48 pixels, 3 lines
Sync width will be 32, 5
Horizontal total will be 2080.
Vertical total will be 1350.

Pixel clock should be 336.96 mhz.
Ok it out then close it. Do not restart the driver yet.
Run CRU Again and it should say "needs restarting"-this makes sure your changes are actually ready (just a double check).

Download the AMD clock patcher from
http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Threa ... ck-Patcher
Run it.

After it patches, then run the driver restarter restart64.exe
Then test the 120hz mhz.

if fine, I suggest you raise the VT from 1350 to 1500. Things will look even better, this way.
(pixel clock should read 374.40)
Save, restart driver.

And test. 1 monitor only.

[crash48]

Hi,

Awesome stuff! Those settings worked like a charm.
It is working now at VT 1500.

I do have another question though.
I play CS:GO at 1280x1024. Is there any way for this to carry over to that resolution?
When I launch CS with Blur Reduction on, the brightness now goes down quite significantly, which means that the VT1500 tweak does not carry over to that resolution.

EDIT:
Got it to work in 1440x1080.

I did however notice another strange thing now. At the edges of the screen, stripes and squares are now clearly visible.
Attached are two pics which show this somewhat, but they do not depict it fully,
The lines are distinct and clearly visible especially on the vertical scroll bar in chrome on the right.
They fade out towards the screens center. It's like the backlight is visible between the square spaces. Is this normal?

[Falkentyne]

Oh, those horizontal scanlines appear when you use a high vertical total to accelerate the scanout.
They appear in Nvidia Lightboost mode (if unlocked) but more intensely, because lightboost uses accelerated scanout (through the LC panel), also to reduce strobing crosstalk at the top and bottom of the screen. That's a side effect of accelerating the scanout. On some panels, they can also appear in non lightboost mode at 144 hz refresh rate on the windows desktop (not using a VT tweak).

This does not damage or lessen the lifetime of the panel in any way. But the only fix is to use a lower vertical total (and then deal with more strobing crosstalk, usually around the bottom area of the screen).

The amount of how much the scanlines will appear is a panel lottery. One of my VG248QE's only has a faint scanlines pattern in lightboost mode and very very faint at 144 hz refresh rate (non lightboost), mostly in the top right corner, and isn't bothersome at all. On a 2nd VG248QE(funny enough, the one without a stuck pixel), it's -much- worse...VERY apparent in lightboost mode and you can even see them in 120hz refresh rate without lightboost.

My XL2720Z shows absolutely none of that at 144 hz in non lightboost (no VT Tweak), but shows it pretty well in lightboost (not as much as the 'worse' VG248QE but far more than the better one). With a VT 1500 tweak, it's there but only if I actually look for it (not bothersome at all).

[crash48]

Ok,

Thanks once again for the very thorough explanation
I guess it's now up to me to decide whether I can live with this, and whether the benefits of the blur reduction outweigh the visible scanlines.

I'm pretty picky, I played about an hour of CS with the scanlines visible and I gotta say they annoy the sh*t out of me, since I see them all over the screen, not only on the edges...
I'll fiddle around with lower VT values, maybe I'll find a sweet spot.

Thanks again for all the advice!

[Falkentyne]

Yeah the 24" panel has that scanlines issue.
It's the same issue that people discussed about when the VG248QE in Lightboost was popular. That's the same panel as the VG248QE. One of my two VG248's have it badly in Lightboost and i DO notice it and it's annoying. But that VG has no stuck pixels.
The other VG248 barely has it at all in Lightboost, none at 120hz (non LB), barely visible at 144 hz, but, stuck pixel.

It's a panel lottery.
The 27" panels were not affected as much. although my 2720Z DOES show it in Lightboost mode but its very faint (and unnoticeable unless i look for it) with VT 1500 tweak in blur reduction or desktop.