Monitor refresh problem
Hi all, It snowed here yesterday morning. Writing from Ipswich, UK. Life's first snow for someone from a tropical climate can be a little exhilarating experience. Both me and my wife had a good time in the morning. For nearly five whole minutes. We had to go to work :-( However, here is a problem which is more like a five-day trouble to me. I have an IIyama 21" monitor [Visionmaster Pro502]. Refresh rates for this are 27-110 Hor and 50-120 Vert and it can do upto 100Hz at 1024x768. But this would have been a waste, so I tried to get something like 1400x1050 from it. With 0.28 mm dot pitch, this was the combination where physical limitations of the monitor would have closely matched the pixel size - and hence I would have been able to get the highest pixel count - without losing too much unnecessarily on contrast. The pixel size would have co-incided with the physically supported dot pitch. However, this is where the trouble started with my dual-boot system. In both windows and Linux, 1024x768 mode works fine at 100Hz. However, anywhere above 1024x768, I get 60Hz as the refresh rate. Not acceptable. When I manually set the refresh rate in Win98SE, although I am told that the card is sending 100Hz signal, I always get a pathetic display of 60Hz [this can be confirmed from the monitor's own menu]. No matter what settings I give for refresh, I always get a lousy refresh from Windows. Never mind. So I go to SuSE and faithfully replace the monitor's specs in my XF86Config. Out goes the old Samsung 55E and enter IIyama refresh rates. Officially it is supposed to be able to do 1600x1200 at 75 MHz and 1280x1024 at 85 Hz and I know from experience that it works at 100Hz for lower res. I start X. After a little bit of pain, I see 60 Hz. No matter what res, I see 60 Hz. Sax used to hang my system bad, so I generated a configfile from xf86config and used other entries from my old XF86Config file [to get all smart detection by SaX2 in place]. So here, all else is fine. Ball mouse works fine. Keyboard refresh rates are OK. And in the end, the refresh is still bad :-( I remember that I had to configure my Nvidia card as generic nvidia card while working with xf86config. But later I had enabled use of OpenGL and loading of nvidia.o module, which was on my system for a while now. GL applications were working fine, including gears, so we knew that nvidia.o was loaded. The log of X server tells that many modes are rejected, because of graphics card's memory bandwidth being too less. I kow that my GeForce2 MX [on board Asus A7N266 VM, sharing DDR RAM for video purposes] is fast enough. Should there be a problem? So I have the following info. * Card : Memory bandwidth on card 1.3 GHz at least. [Can be 2.7 GHz but not sure] * Card : Pixel clock on card = 350 MHz [= RAMDAC I think] * Card : Vert frequency = 60-85 Hz * Card : Controller clock speed = 175 MHz * Monitor : Video bandwidth = 240 MHz dot clock * Monitor : refresh rates 27-110 KHz horiz and 50-120 Hz vert. And the following questions : * The graphics card's clock is probably not being utilized to the fullest. How can I specify the clock speed for the graphics card in XF86Config? So that it does not reject modes for 1600x1200 or 1400x1050 for refresh rates higher than 60 Hz. * Another person on the net faced similar problem but they were all windows people and were either not reachable, or did not care to investigate deep enough. For my multisync monitor, I feel that it may be the card at this time. May be there is something [a lot of things] that sax2 does which xf86config can not. Can anyone tell me? Thanks and regards, Rohit PS - I know this is a long mail, and I hope you guys get how desperate I have grown over the last week. -- SDE, MBT, 52 Barrack SQ, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK 1473 667138 rohit.sharma@iitbombay.org rohitibsharma@yahoo.com ********************************************************* Disclaimer This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited. ********************************************************* Visit us at http://www.mahindrabt.com
On Tuesday 23 December 2003 10:10 am, Rohit wrote:
Hi all,
However, here is a problem which is more like a five-day trouble to me. I have an IIyama 21" monitor [Visionmaster Pro502]. Refresh rates for this are 27-110 Hor and 50-120 Vert and it can do upto 100Hz at 1024x768. But this would have been a waste, so I tried to get something like 1400x1050 from it. With 0.28 mm dot pitch, this was the combination where physical limitations of the monitor would have closely matched the pixel size - and hence I would have been able to get the highest pixel count - without losing too much unnecessarily on contrast. The pixel size would have co-incided with the physically supported dot pitch.
However, this is where the trouble started with my dual-boot system. In both windows and Linux, 1024x768 mode works fine at 100Hz. However, anywhere above 1024x768, I get 60Hz as the refresh rate. Not acceptable. When I manually set the refresh rate in Win98SE, although I am told that the card is sending 100Hz signal, I always get a pathetic display of 60Hz [this can be confirmed from the monitor's own menu]. No matter what settings I give for refresh, I always get a lousy refresh from Windows. Never mind.
If you;re using KDE goto the control panel and under periphereals, and then monitor, you can select resolution and refresh rate.
So I go to SuSE and faithfully replace the monitor's specs in my XF86Config. Out goes the old Samsung 55E and enter IIyama refresh rates. Officially it is supposed to be able to do 1600x1200 at 75 MHz and 1280x1024 at 85 Hz and I know from experience that it works at 100Hz for lower res. I start X. After a little bit of pain, I see 60 Hz. No matter what res, I see 60 Hz. See above. Maybe the resolution and HZ config lines must be corect in XF86 config to do it this way, but im not sure. You should be able to pick anything you put in your xf86config.
I remember that I had to configure my Nvidia card as generic nvidia card while working with xf86config. But later I had enabled use of OpenGL and loading of nvidia.o module, which was on my system for a while now. GL applications were working fine, including gears, so we knew that nvidia.o was loaded. Good... The log of X server tells that many modes are rejected, because of graphics card's memory bandwidth being too less. I kow that my GeForce2 MX [on board Asus A7N266 VM, sharing DDR RAM for video purposes] is fast enough. Should there be a problem? Nah, its normal too see many mode rejections in the log file, as long as the ones you SPECIFIED in the XF86 config file work, I wouldnt worry about what the log tells you. So I have the following info.
* Card : Memory bandwidth on card 1.3 GHz at least. [Can be 2.7 GHz but not sure] * Card : Pixel clock on card = 350 MHz [= RAMDAC I think] * Card : Vert frequency = 60-85 Hz * Card : Controller clock speed = 175 MHz * Monitor : Video bandwidth = 240 MHz dot clock * Monitor : refresh rates 27-110 KHz horiz and 50-120 Hz vert. I see no problems, its a very nice setup.
------------------------- Eric Bambach Eric at cisu dot net -------------------------
Eric wrote:
If you;re using KDE goto the control panel and under periphereals, and then monitor, you can select resolution and refresh rate.
I shall try that, Eric. Thanks for replying. But it gets interesting, so please [all] see below.
So I go to SuSE and faithfully replace the monitor's specs in my XF86Config. Out goes the old Samsung 55E and enter IIyama refresh rates. Officially it is supposed to be able to do 1600x1200 at 75 MHz and 1280x1024 at 85 Hz and I know from experience that it works at 100Hz for lower res. I start X. After a little bit of pain, I see 60 Hz. No matter what res, I see 60 Hz.
See above. Maybe the resolution and HZ config lines must be corect in XF86 config to do it this way, but im not sure. You should be able to pick anything you put in your xf86config.
I assure that the lines are correct and a lot of hard work has gone into estimating whether the lines were wrong. It seems that the lines are not being picked up.
The log of X server tells that many modes are rejected, because of graphics card's memory bandwidth being too less. I kow that my GeForce2 MX [on board Asus A7N266 VM, sharing DDR RAM for video purposes] is fast enough. Should there be a problem?
Nah, its normal too see many mode rejections in the log file, as long as the ones you SPECIFIED in the XF86 config file work, I wouldnt worry about what the log tells you.
Probably. But I am skeptical here. I know that the lines are being rejected all over the world, but what I suspect here is this. The modelines that I specified, are not being used at all. I used a website [actually two] that BandiPat [on this list] showed to me. Calculated the modelines which would be valid for my system and actually put them inside the file. They are all rejected saying that "Rejecting mode because it is not supported by the card's memory bandwidth". So my take is that X server is assuming low-duty for my card. There are lines rejected for other reasons, which is fine with me - but suppose I wish to force my Xserver to NOT calculate modes on its own, and rather use one of my supplied lines, how can I do that? Because I know that my card can take all that load. In this case I am particularly worried - there just needs to be a way for me to override the value of pixel clock /RAMDAC for my card. There is one thing, seems that this monitor is nod EDID compliant, seems that it can not send its own info to both Linux and Windows OS probes [Sax2 included]. So I think I need methods to specify the parameters like these [related to my hardware and monitor] into the XF86Config file itself. I also feel I need to override the X server's deductions about my hardware. All ye men, contribute wholeheartedly. -- SDE, MBT, 52 Barrack SQ, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK 1473 667138 rohit.sharma@iitbombay.org rohitibsharma@yahoo.com ********************************************************* Disclaimer This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, is strictly prohibited. ********************************************************* Visit us at http://www.mahindrabt.com
On Tuesday 23 December 2003 11:15 am, Rohit wrote:
Eric wrote:
If you;re using KDE goto the control panel and under periphereals, and then monitor, you can select resolution and refresh rate.
I shall try that, Eric. Thanks for replying. But it gets interesting, so please [all] see below.
So I go to SuSE and faithfully replace the monitor's specs in my XF86Config. Out goes the old Samsung 55E and enter IIyama refresh rates. Officially it is supposed to be able to do 1600x1200 at 75 MHz and 1280x1024 at 85 Hz and I know from experience that it works at 100Hz for lower res. I start X. After a little bit of pain, I see 60 Hz. No matter what res, I see 60 Hz.
See above. Maybe the resolution and HZ config lines must be corect in XF86 config to do it this way, but im not sure. You should be able to pick anything you put in your xf86config.
I assure that the lines are correct and a lot of hard work has gone into estimating whether the lines were wrong. It seems that the lines are not being picked up.
The log of X server tells that many modes are rejected, because of graphics card's memory bandwidth being too less. I kow that my GeForce2 MX [on board Asus A7N266 VM, sharing DDR RAM for video purposes] is fast enough. Should there be a problem? Could you attach your XFF86 logfile? Please use gzip or bzip because mine are about 40 k in size, I assuume yours are just as large. If you want just directly e-mail me your logfile instead of posting to the list, please feel free. I own my own mailserver so space/bandwidth don't concern me. Nah, its normal too see many mode rejections in the log file, as long as the ones you SPECIFIED in the XF86 config file work, I wouldnt worry about what the log tells you.
Probably. But I am skeptical here. I know that the lines are being rejected all over the world, but what I suspect here is this. The modelines that I specified, are not being used at all. I used a website [actually two] that BandiPat [on this list] showed to me. Calculated the modelines which would be valid for my system and actually put them inside the file. They are all rejected saying that "Rejecting mode because it is not supported by the card's memory bandwidth". Hmm that is interesting, Here are the lines I was refering to that won't cause a problem. They are in my XF86 logfile: (II) RADEON(0): Not using default mode "1024x768" (hsync out of range) (II) RADEON(0): Not using default mode "2048x1536" (hsync out of range) (II) RADEON(0): Not using default mode "1024x768" (hsync out of range) (II) RADEON(0): Not using default mode "2048x1536" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) RADEON(0): Not using default mode "1024x768" (hsync out of range) So my take is that X server is assuming low-duty for my card. There are lines rejected for other reasons, which is fine with me - but suppose I wish to force my Xserver to NOT calculate modes on its own, and rather use one of my supplied lines, how can I do that? Because I know that my card can take all that load. In this case I am particularly worried - there just needs to be a way for me to override the value of pixel clock /RAMDAC for my card. What version of SuSE/ XFree are you using. You said you were using the nvidia.o driver correct? What version is that? There is one thing, seems that this monitor is nod EDID compliant, seems that it can not send its own info to both Linux and Windows OS probes [Sax2 included]. So I think I need methods to specify the parameters like these [related to my hardware and monitor] into the XF86Config file itself. I also feel I need to override the X server's deductions about my hardware. From what I remember your hardware seems MORE than powerful enough to support the modes. I would first try to get some modes working w/o acceleration because adding DRI and acceleration uusees more memory on the card. So if it IS complaining about an underpowered card, we can see if we can reduce its requirements some first before re-enabling DRI and loading nvidia.o All ye men, contribute wholeheartedly.
------------------------- Eric Bambach Eric at cisu dot net -------------------------
The Tuesday 2003-12-23 at 16:10 -0000, Rohit wrote:
It snowed here yesterday morning. Writing from Ipswich, UK. Life's first snow for someone from a tropical climate can be a little exhilarating experience. Both me and my wife had a good time in the morning. For nearly five whole minutes. We had to go to work :-(
I understand, I experienced that - in Ottawa, and I'm Spanish. O:-)
However, here is a problem which is more like a five-day trouble to me. I have an IIyama 21" monitor [Visionmaster Pro502]. Refresh rates for
I have the Pro 410 here.
1280x1024 at 85 Hz and I know from experience that it works at 100Hz for lower res. I start X. After a little bit of pain, I see 60 Hz. No matter what res, I see 60 Hz.
I use 1280*1024 @ Fh=95.6Khz Fv=89 Hz (SXGA), according to the monitor info menu itself. The modeline is: Modeline "1280x1024" 158.47 1280 1344 1600 1664 1024 1024 1039 1070 My card is: Model: "Micro-Star International GeForce2 MX/MX 400" Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation" Device: pci 0x0110 "GeForce2 MX/MX 400" SubVendor: pci 0x1462 "Micro-Star International Co., Ltd." And I configure it as (/etc/X11/XF86Config): Section "Device" # ---- Driver "abierto", o sea, GPL --- Identifier "Device[0]" BoardName "GeForce2 MX/MX 400" BusID "1:0:0" Driver "nv" VendorName "NVidia" EndSection Section "Device" # --- Driver "cerrado", de NVidia (el binario) - Identifier "Device[1]" BoardName "GeForce2 MX/MX 400" BusID "1:0:0" Driver "nvidia" # Option "sw_cursor" Option "NvAGP" "3" # try 2 then 1 #Option "NvAGP" "2" # use agpgart #Option "NvAGP" "1" # use nvidia agp #Option "NvAGP" "0" # disable agp Option "NoLogo" "true" Screen 0 Option "Rotate" "off" VendorName "NVidia" EndSection Notice that I have my XF86Config prepared to use the open or the closed source drivers as needed, with just a keyword change. The file was made from combining there or four files created via sax2. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
participants (3)
-
Carlos E. R. -
Eric -
Rohit