Is my LED monitor faulty?

[Master]

hello all .
i just installed Crysis 2 and noticed alot of ghosting around characters in the game .
i have the ASUS ML238 , 2MS 23" LED Monitor which i bought almost 2 months ago ( i had a topic here too) .
i captured a video using my cellphone ( nokia5800xm), so that you can see what i mean , the quality is not high but its the best i could do , you will see the ghosting though !!
there is another video clip ( 39Mb!) that if the needs be i will upload it to let you see what i see here ! .

my system spec is :

CPU : Pentium 4 @3.3
RAM: 2Gig DDR400
VGA : ATI4670 1G AGP8X
MB: Asus P4P800-x

and the game graphics is set to Advanced .
and game resolution is 1920*1080 .
is this because of my LED monitor which is faulty ? or no its because of my system spec?
by the way my monitor is connected via VGA port .

the video :
http://masterdownload.persiangig.com/Videos/Video164.mp4

thank you all in advance .

 

[Jstn7477]

by the way my monitor is connected via VGA port .

the video :
http://masterdownload.persiangig.com/Videos/Video164.mp4

thank you all in advance .

I haven't watched the video (at work), but a great way to make an LCD monitor look bad is by using a VGA cable. Try a DVI or HDMI cable and see if it makes a difference.

 

[Sinzia]

is it just in crysis 2?

 

[scaminatrix]

Yes, I think it's something to do with your system specs.
I would blame the system before I blame an almost new, decent monitor.

 

[qubit]

I've had a look at the video and can see some juddering, which can look like ghosting. Run Fraps www.fraps.com and see if you're getting dropped frames.

Stuff like this can be driver issues, so make sure that you've updated to the latest one and that there's no dropped frames.

Note that all LCD monitors show significant ghosting with animation though, but some are indeed better than others.

And to follow up what Sinzia asked, try other games and see how it looks - make sure to do the other things I've said as well, or you won't really have a handle on it.

I don't think your monitor is faulty.

EDIT

Yes, I think it's something to do with your system specs.
I would blame the system before I blame an almost new, decent monitor.

I've just checked his specs after reading your post and I must say +1 to that. I'm surprised an old Pentium 4 has enough performance to run that game at any decent frame rate at all. It must be dropping frames like crazy. The HD4670 is a bit low end, too and will bottleneck it significantly.

 

[Red_Machine]

You're running a Pentium 4 and a 4670? No wonder you're having issues with Crysis 2. That thing would crap out at ANY setting, let alone advanced @ 1920x1080. You need a new PC before you get a high-res monitor...

 

[Master]

is it just in crysis 2?

in NFS most wanted , i could see some ghosting at high speeds , but my brothers convinced me that its just normal , and we had such a thing at the crt monitor too , the new monitor is just bigger and that effect! gets bigger for you can made you to suspect it ! so i forgot about it ! .
in Crysis 1 i had no ghosting though!

I've had a look at the video and can see some juddering, which can look like ghosting. Run Fraps www.fraps.com and see if you're getting dropped frames.

Stuff like this can be driver issues, so make sure that you've updated to the latest one and that there's no dropped frames.

Note that all LCD monitors show significant ghosting with animation though, but some are indeed better than others.

And to follow up what Sinzia asked, try other games and see how it looks - make sure to do the other things I've said as well, or you won't really have a handle on it.

I don't think your monitor is faulty.

EDIT



I've just checked his specs after reading your post and I must say +1 to that. I'm surprised an old Pentium 4 has enough performance to run that game at any decent frame rate at all. It must be dropping frames like crazy. The HD4670 is a bit low end, too and will bottleneck it significantly.

the frame is verygood comparing to crysis warehead which i used to play with i dont know maybe 10 fps! and alot of stuttering! this game runs smoothy ! but kinda slowly but thats fine with me , with such an ancient system i dont expect much .
i'll try to use hdmi cable (DVI to hdmi! in fact!) and after that i use fraps .
i'll let you know when im done .
thanks everybody for all of your helps God bless you all

 

[qubit]

You're very welcome, Master.

Please do try my suggestions, but I forgot to mention to also reduce the resolution to something silly like 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768 - the lower the better.

Do this with fraps running and vsync locked or "on". The idea is to get a solid 60 frames per second and then see how the monitor looks.

If you can't acheive it with this game, then use an old game that isn't demanding and try it. You'll see, there's nothing wrong with your monitor. These artefacts are purely down to this old system not being fast enough for a modern game like this.

Also, just to labour the point, I saw funnies like this years ago with certain nvidia cards, while using a CRT monitor and fraps showing a solid 60fps. These were driver faults, that nvidia eventually fixed after a couple of years - yes it was that long. The ATI cards of the time worked flawlessly in the same scenario.

 

[scaminatrix]

You're very welcome, Master.

Please do try my suggestions, but I forgot to mention to also reduce the resolution to something silly like 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768 - the lower the better.

Aren't resolutions that low usually more "CPU intensive"? If his CPU's already not good enough, going that low in res would actually make it worse wouldn't it? 1280x1024 / 1366x768 would be better IMO. But tbh, I don't know how Crysis 2 runs on that system at all!

 

[Derek12]

Assuming that happens on any situation, from the video seems that the VGA cable is faulty (the v-sync signal is being lost or weakened and the image is "dancing" try to reseat the connector in both ends. If this only happens in games then is a video card or driver issue as usual
If this still happens on DVI then seems for me it's a monitor issue (I had similar issues and were monitor faults) as long as it happens also outside of games

 

[qubit]

Aren't resolutions that low usually more "CPU intensive"? If his CPU's already not good enough, going that low in res would actually make it worse wouldn't it? 1280x1024 / 1366x768 would be better IMO. But tbh, I don't know how Crysis 2 runs on that system at all!

No, the lower the better (for testing only!) The point is that the frame rate goes up until the system can hopefully consistently render more than 60 frames per second. With vsync locked, fraps should show a solid 60fps. Master can then look out for the odd judders. If he still sees them, then there's software issues causing them. It's certainly not the monitor.

What you're thinking of is that the lower the res, the more the CPU is the bottleneck. In fact, this is what you want when comparing the performance of one CPU with another.

Think about when w1zz reviews the graphics cards on here. He has the most powerful system he can (CPU, mobo and RAM) to make the graphics card the bottleneck as much as possible. Then, the framerate results show the difference in performance of only the graphics cards.

 

[Master]

i used the DIV to HDMI connector and still no luck .
i didnt lower the res , im going for it now . and im making sure the vga cables on both ends are firmly connected , installed fraps .
i am now on vga again ( cause the HDMI didnt do any better ,and also when i connected the DVI , i kinda felt the screen got more blur !! !) .
ok i'll be updating in couple of minutes .

 

[Derek12]

i used the DIV to HDMI connector and still no luck .
i didnt lower the res , im going for it now . and im making sure the vga cables on both ends are firmly connected , installed fraps .
i am now on vga again ( cause the HDMI didnt do any better ,and also when i connected the DVI , i kinda felt the screen got more blur !! !) .
ok i'll be updating in couple of minutes .

I have a idea to test if it's the monitor.

Turn on the menu OSD while this is happening. Is the OSD menu intact or is affected? it it's intact the problem is in the computer 99% (video card, drivers, or configuration). On the other hand, if the OSD is affected is monitor issue 100%

Also, very strange it's blurrier with DVI being DVI/HDMI the best quality connection

 

[Master]

ok .
i lowered the res to 800*600 and the ghosting problem is gone ! ( 50 to 60 fps at the begining)
the rest of the game i have 17 to 35~45 fps and there are some slight ghosting but not as sever as before !
so it is the system right?

Also, very strange it's blurrier with DVI being DVI/HDMI the best quality connection

i really have no idea why! , maybe thats a driver issue? or my wrong setting for the HDMI connection ? ( i mean at catalyst! .i used overspan setting! )

 

[qubit]

ok .
i lowered the res to 800*600 and the ghosting problem is gone ! ( 50 to 60 fps at the begining)
the rest of the game i have 17 to 35~45 fps and there are some slight ghosting but not as sever as before !
so it is the system right?

There's your answer right there. It's just the frame drops causing it. The exact way that stutter looks can vary a lot depending on things like the monitor refresh rate (60/72/100Hz etc) game engine, drivers/card, monitor model. Note that the ambient lighting can also affect your exact perception of it in subtle ways, too.

If you are in a position to upgrade to a modern and high performance system, then this problem will be gone and you can enjoy your game. Have a look at my specs for an example. My CPU is old, but it's still fast, it's also overclocked and I've recently paired it with a GTX 580, which gave gaming performance a mid-life boost. I had a GTX 285 before that. I don't have the money right now to upgrade the CPU to the latest and greatest, which will be much faster still.

 

[Derek12]

ok .
i lowered the res to 800*600 and the ghosting problem is gone ! ( 50 to 60 fps at the begining)
the rest of the game i have 17 to 35~45 fps and there are some slight ghosting but not as sever as before !
so it is the system right?

i really have no idea why! , maybe thats a driver issue? or my wrong setting for the HDMI connection ? ( i mean at catalyst! .i used overspan setting! )

OK then it's a video card, drivers or game issue have you tried updating your drivers? if you try to reduce quality settings on game without changing the resolution, the ghosting disappears?. Note: IMHO what happens you in your video is NOT normal, because it looks like it was losing the V-sync. Anyway if reducing your resolution solves it, well sort off, then you're OK

About the DVI blurriness, is it happen in games or in entire Windows desktop?? because unless it isn't in your native res it is very kinda strange.

UPDATE: I was seeing your video in more detail and doesn't "lose the v-sync" but looks more like if the game camera man was "jumping" then I think stronger it's a driver or game issue .

 

[Master]

There's your answer right there. It's just the frame drops causing it. The exact way that stutter looks can vary a lot depending on things like the monitor refresh rate (60/72/100Hz etc) game engine, drivers/card, monitor model. Note that the ambient lighting can also affect your exact perception of it in subtle ways, too.

If you are in a position to upgrade to a modern and high performance system, then this problem will be gone and you can enjoy your game. Have a look at my specs for an example. My CPU is old, but it's still fast, it's also overclocked and I've recently paired it with a GTX 580, which gave gaming performance a mid-life boost. I had a GTX 285 before that. I don't have the money right now to upgrade the CPU to the latest and greatest, which will be much faster still.

Thanks a million .
ok i'll have that in mind ,

OK then it's a video card, drivers or game issue have you tried updating your drivers? if you try to reduce quality settings on game without changing the resolution, the ghosting disappears?. Note: IMHO what happens you in your video is NOT normal, because it looks like it was losing the V-sync. Anyway if reducing your resolution solves it, well sort off, then you're OK

About the DVI blurriness, is it happen in games or in entire Windows desktop?? because unless it isn't in your native res it is very kinda strange.

UPDATE: I was seeing your video in more detail and doesn't "lose the v-sync" but looks more like if the game camera man was "jumping" then I think stronger it's a driver or game issue .

the whole desktop kinda was blured out , specially the fonts seemed kinda bold?! and what i am so sure about is that they weren't as sharp and vivid as they are now with the vga! .

and by the way , i cant find any advanced setting for the graphics in the game , there's just an option with 3 preset modes, gamer, advanced and hardcore , which i chose advanced!

 

[qubit]

Thanks a million .
ok i'll have that in mind ,

the whole desktop kinda was blured out , specially the fonts seemed kinda bold?! and what i am so sure about is that they weren't as sharp and vivid as they are now with the vga!

Are you saying that the desktop looks blurred with the PC resolution set to the monitor's native 1920x1080? If so, you're not imagining it, I've noticed this too occasionally and seems to be a driver/Windows glitch. Especially as it looks better with the analog connection, I have my suspicions as to the cause of the problem.

Unfortunately, I've never seen a definitive answer for what causes this, but I think it's the Windows Protected Video Path DRM* kicking in at the wrong moment (heck, there's never a right moment for DRM ).

Basically, it's supposed to reduce the definition of HD videos to standard def, depending on various copy protection criteria, but it looks like it's triggered in error during normal desktop use, when there's no video being played. :shadedshu I've found that updating/reinstalling video drivers usually cures this. Heck sometimes just switching resolutions a couple of times fixes it. There's certainly no driver control panel option for it, as you can imagine.

*This DRM was introduced from Vista onwards.

 

[qubit]

Master, since we're on the subject of stutter in this thread, you might be interested in my thread on microstutter, here.

 

[Master]

Are you saying that the desktop looks blurred with the PC resolution set to the monitor's native 1920x1080? If so, you're not imagining it, I've noticed this too occasionally and seems to be a driver/Windows glitch. Especially as it looks better with the analog connection, I have my suspicions as to the cause of the problem.

Unfortunately, I've never seen a definitive answer for what causes this, but I think it's the Windows Protected Video Path DRM* kicking in at the wrong moment (heck, there's never a right moment for DRM ).

Basically, it's supposed to reduce the definition of HD videos to standard def, depending on various copy protection criteria, but it looks like it's triggered in error during normal desktop use, when there's no video being played. :shadedshu I've found that updating/reinstalling video drivers usually cures this. Heck sometimes just switching resolutions a couple of times fixes it. There's certainly no driver control panel option for it, as you can imagine.

*This DRM was introduced from Vista onwards.

yes native resolution of 1920*1080 and the whole desktop was kinda blurred .i'd recently tried to update my graphics driver , but it failed , reverted back to the old driver afterward . dont know , maybe this is the cause ! or maybe my windows xp (xp3) installation needs to be redone .

 

[qubit]

So this is happening on XP? Now that's got me.

A driver install failure would be quite likely to cause this. Try to remove the old driver and install the new one. Use the driver cleaner from AMD if you have to or that third party one (I can't remember the name of it now).

If anyone can remember the name of that third party driver cleaner, please post it here.