Wildly Inaccurate Refresh Rate Detection, Screen Tearing Abound

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I wasn’t around when RetroArch 1.2 was released, so allow me first to congratulate you all for the milestone. I had a hunch that there wouldn’t be a 1.1 release!

Anyways, with recent versions of RetroArch I’ve ran into a game-breaking issue: the detected refresh rate of my monitor is incredibly wrong. My monitor (hooked up to a machine with an AMD 7970/280X) works up to 60 Hz, but RetroArch is detecting my refresh rate as four times that… 240 Hz! As amusing as this may be at first, the fun stops quickly. I’ve found that all of my games now suffer from a copious amount of dropped frames and screen tearing. Unfortunately, this has effectively rendered the entire program useless to me for the time being.

Can someone please assist me with this issue? I’d really like to be able to use it again with proper performance.

#2

Have you tried settings > frame throttle > limit maximum runspeed ON?

#3

I’ve always had that setting on, still is. I actually have to struggle to disable it, as it tries to stay locked at ON. Regardless, changing it does nothing.

EDIT: This post is incorrect, I looked more into the issue in the next post.

#4

I decided to try using a fresh config file to see if that fixed the problem.

Now the program runs at approximately 2400 FPS. I can’t even control the menus properly anymore.

The issue as it previously was was at least liveable for many people. This, on the other hand, is just unacceptable any which way you look at it.

A little bit more investigating leads me to believe that fast forwarding is broken. Limiting maximum speed to 1.0x makes everything run at the “proper” framerate, but at the cost of being able to speed up the games at one’s leisure. Also, V-sync might be broken, as well. I don’t get any more dropped frames when I do , but screen tearing is still abundant.

#5

are you sure it’s detecting 240hz? I think this might just be a case of broken vsync on your end

#6

I might be reiterating myself a bit in this post, but only because you probably typed your response before I edited my post. Sorry for that, I just had a realization shortly after I posted it.

The issue looks to be tied to the frame throttling option. If I set “Limit Maximum Run Speed” to OFF, the framerate speeds up as much as my graphics card can handle. It’s noticeable in menus because I can’t precisely select anything with it off. The games try to remain at their proper speed, but discrepancies between RetroArch’s internal framerate and what the game/monitor are capable of result in great amounts of screen tearing and dropped frames.

If I set it to ON, it’ll speed up to whatever I have the multiplier at. If I set the multiplier to 1.0x, I don’t have any more dropped frames. Periodic screen tearing persists, though. I also can’t fast forward if I set it to 1.0x.

My notion before recently was that this option was used to control the maximum fast forward speed. Has this changed?

#7

RA never goes over vsync when vsync is working. Here on a clean installation (zero config) it caps itself a 60fps (because VSYNC is working)

The Maximum run speed multiplier is what it is, a speed limiter, it’s used for fast forward, but also to control the maximum speed when vsync isn’t working which seems to be your case.

#8

A fresh update/install of RetroArch - main config file included - gave me the same result as in post #4: uncapped framerate everywhere. If I’m to assume that all else is working fine, it would be a VSync issue.

I recently (past month or so) updated the driver to my AMD graphics card. Sometime later today I’ll see what I get when using integrated Intel graphics. Would the driver/card possibly be the problem? Maybe the update changed a setting in my graphics configuration?

#9

Maybe you tinkered with the driver control panel or something like that, some people try to disable vsync to “improve performance” or to force triple buffering. Or maybe are you a RadeonPro user? There are options to override vsync bvehavior on that program too

#10

Does “having RadeonPro installed” count as being a RadeonPro user? I thought about using it to change how some PC games look, but I’ve never actually messed with it. It’s strange, though. Besides the driver update, I myself haven’t messed with anything graphics-related, settings or otherwise. The last time I used RetroArch before taking a break from it, everything was working fine, too.

I’ll take a closer look at things when I get a chance again later today. It’s just that nothing obvious pops out at me as to what could have happened.

[Solved] CRT Monitor - Almost perfect, need some help
#11

Anticlimactic conclusion: The problem was the wait for refresh setting in Catalyst Control Center, perhaps unsurprisingly. As I said before, I don’t recall setting it to “Always off”. It must have been a driver update that did that or something. Thanks anyways for the help.

#12

ah, yeah, the driver control panels are bad about doing weird shit like that. Glad you got it figured out :slight_smile: