james.johnson

26th November 2002 15:27 UTC

Matrox AVS Problems
Greetings

I think this is a problem, but im not 100% sure. I would appreciate your help

At the moment i am running a P800, 384mb with a Matrox G550 AGP Dual Head..

My problem is that when i run avs in a window, i can only get 64fps n a 172x140 windows, no more, no less. This is with the refresh rate of my monitor set to 100hz, and with the windowed performance set to max. Even when the avs window set to its smallest size i cant get over 64fps, it wont budge when it should be doing over 150fps....

At first i thought it was the card, but i tried a Quattro4 200 i have spare and its excatly the same story.. Stuck at 64fps.... I tried adjusting the refresh rate of the 2nd monitor (even though its not activated) and still no joy....

Also, one more queery. On my home pc 1ghz, 512mb Gforce 2mx, I can get around 100fps with screen overlay, yet when i put it to full screen im lucky to get 30 even as low as 512*384..

before anyone asks, i have the latest drivers for all components of my machines.....

Please help
kind regards
James

Jaheckelsafar

26th November 2002 16:07 UTC

Welcome to the world of AVS.

Lesson 1: AVS is slow.

30 fps at 512x384 is a decent frame rate (depending on the complexity of the preset).

blazer1504

26th November 2002 16:12 UTC

Lesson 2. Your video card doesn't affect to speed of AVS anyhow

Like Jaheckelsafar said, 30 fps with 512x384 is a good fps rate.

UnConeD

26th November 2002 16:12 UTC

Read the FAQ, AVS doesn't care about your video card because it renders everything in software.

james.johnson

26th November 2002 16:45 UTC

Sweet, if it renders in software that explains a few things, in which case something is definately wrong then.... As if im right, the faster the cpu the quicker it will render the avs...

Ok, these are the results i have from all 3 of my pcs, have a sniff

All running avs windowed 172*140 32bit

1ghz desktop 150fps - tops out at highest monitor refresh rate
750mhz laptop 100fps - tops out at highest monitor refresh rate
800mhz desktop 64fps - refresh rate set at 100, fps doesnt get close

The 800mhz machine isnt the slowest, yet is running at 2/3rds the fps of a slower machine....


Im still confused, sorry to keep going round the same idea, please help.....

dirkdeftly

26th November 2002 17:56 UTC

I don't think this is in the FAQ, but the way to stop it from sticking at or below the refresh rate of your monitor is to uncheck 'Wait for retrace'

That option is there because if you're doing something really fast it gets, well, too fast; OR sometimes if the vis is rendering between frames (on your monitor), you'll get this ugly line in the middle of your AVS window.

james.johnson

27th November 2002 09:19 UTC

Tried that, same result

Sorry to be a pain

UnConeD

27th November 2002 15:49 UTC

AVS is very dependant on memory bus speed, because of all the color operations. Could it be that one of the two machines is a celeron-like processor (i.e. lower busspeed) and the other is not?

There's also a performance slider in AVS' options... it affects the amount of CPU power AVS is allowed to use (if you slide it all the way to the left, other apps become choppy). Make sure they're set in the same position everywhere.

Also, make sure all displays use 32-bit color. AVS calculates everything in 32-bit internally (fastest because of the layout of the channels per byte), so if a different color depth is used, it'll have to be converted at the end of the frame.

dirkdeftly

27th November 2002 19:44 UTC

I've never had a problem with my other apps being 'choppy', and I leave the performance slider all the way to the left all the time (unless I need to slow something down to see wtf it's doing, like my Life preset)

UnConeD

27th November 2002 20:36 UTC

Really? I get a noticable slowdown.

For example, if I set it completely to the left and then click the menu "Preset > Load", I can see the file selector dialog being drawn item per item.

dirkdeftly

28th November 2002 07:03 UTC

Oh, well I get that...I just don't give a crap since I don't have to have my computer DO THIS RIGHT FUCKING NOW GOD DAMMIT...unless it starts to have to get the whole hard drive running at top speed before I can bring down the history menu in Explorer. That pisses me off. But that's about it.

jheriko

3rd December 2002 00:48 UTC

Setting render priority to Idle will fix that... instead your AVS render will be choppy.

For the guy with AVS slowness, remove your background services and TSRs if you have any, also try setting your render thread priority to the 'highest' setting, then AVS will chew up all of your resources to draw as fast as it can.

dirkdeftly

3rd December 2002 07:51 UTC

"Press down and hold down the key that says 'CTRL' on it. Tap the 'R' key. Now, once it stops whirring and buzzing and you get a screen that will change when you type something, type 'format', a space, 'c' and then a colon. Tap the key that says 'ENTER'. All your problems will be solved."

;)

(btw, if you're considering doing that, do it.)