Put in my new 290, weird problem...

[TemjinGold]

So I took the advice of some posters and ordered the XFX 290 for $240AR and it came in today. Used DDU to wipe the nVidia 580 drivers, then powered down, swapped the two, and fired back up. Noticed a few oddities:

1) The very first screen (CPU/ram/etc.) when I turn on is no longer showing correctly. The text is a tad too large and the left side is cut off.

2) Windows initially didn't recognize my screen. Then I had to mess with the overscan to get it to fill the whole screen.

3) Fired up Wolfenstein New Order and some "plays.tv beta" kept crashing the game. Found out how to wipe that and Wolf seems to be okay now.

4) Every game I fire up starts with messed up resolutions and overscan issues. Seems to fix when I fix resolution and refresh.

This has not been the smooth experience I was hoping for. Does this happen regardless of which side of the red <-> green you switch? Would just completely clean installing Windows have allowed me to avoid this? Anything else I should do to avoid problems? I just have this weird feeling in my stomach now...

 

[guskline]

What AMD drivers are you using? Make sure your motherboard bios is up to date.

 

[iiiankiii]

you're using a tv as a monitor. There will be quirks. Adjusting the overscan is normal. Depending on the TV, I had to do that on both AMD and Nvidia. Usually, to solve the overscan problem, there is a overscan option on your tv that you can adjust to make the screen fit correctly without touching AMD's control panel. Hope this helps.

 

[Hitman928]

Are you using hdmi?

 

[twjr]

Are you running the card through an amplifier or directly into the TV?

 

[TemjinGold]

Using HDMI, no amp. The nvidia card didn't have any of these issues. I'm not sure the TV itself has an overscan option (if there is, I can't seem to find it).

 

[The J]

Try looking for an Aspect Ratio or Zoom option and see if that has a "1:1" or "Just Scan" setting.

 

[Hitman928]

The overscan with HDMI is a known "issue" for AMD drivers (I say issue because I think I remember that it is suppose to be intentional). The first time you install AMD drivers, HDMI overscan isn't at 0 so you need to adjust that, but it should only need to be done after the initial install.

The post screen issue is probably because the card is sending 480p or something and your TV is stretching it to fit. You should have a setting like The_J mentioned to fix this.

For your games, they probably just reverted to "safe" settings after the new card which is why the resolutions are off. Nothing out of the normal unless they keep having to be reset when you start the game.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Looks like there's possibly a registry fix for the overscan issue (good to know):
http://josiahmanson.com/prose/overscan/
I'll agree, it's little things like this that ATI should handle better to improve their image (see what I did there?). But there are quirks with either brand. My 290 is on the way too, and having a 7850 & 6850 prior to it didn't scare me off from getting it. One great thing about staying team red is http://www.radeonpro.info/download/ .

 

[TemjinGold]

Thanks for the help, everyone. The post screen bothers me a bit (I've tried all 5 scan settings on this TV but nothing) but it otherwise seems to work. Seems like games do "stick" once I set things the first time. Interesting thing that games like Lords of Xulima (which is indie almost retro looking) do not have an issue from the first launch on.

 

[Seba]

I had a underscan problem (black borders around desktop) with a HD 4850 and a TV connected via HDMI. The solution was to disable underscan but I had to run Catalyst Control Center as Administrator (once) in order for this setting to stick (or to even appear - I do not remember exactly).

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Thanks for the help, everyone. The post screen bothers me a bit (I've tried all 5 scan settings on this TV but nothing) but it otherwise seems to work. Seems like games do "stick" once I set things the first time. Interesting thing that games like Lords of Xulima (which is indie almost retro looking) do not have an issue from the first launch on.

You might be able to catch it by going into the bios or boot menu, or just hitting the pause key during post, and manually adjusting the TV from there. Seems like I had to do this on my TV, but it's old and crappy.

 

[TemjinGold]

Hmm odd it seems to have fixed itself. Looks like we're problem free now!