Jagged Shadows, Low LOD, Jagged AA, and Shimmering Borders

[SStre2]

After almost a year of trial and error from thousands of users we think we have a lead on the problem. As stated in the title there is a largely known problem that causes shadows to be jagged, low level of detail, jagged AA, and shimmering borders. Most would probably go to the AMD forum of Nvidia as it seems it is a graphical rendering error. Most thought this but through the year of testing Ryzen has come out. Now let me preface and say not everyone has this problem and the cause is still unknown. I am one that is affected by it and it simply started after I turned on my PC the next day. In some games it is more prominent and also some games have issues that are unrelated that some users confuse with what we are talking about. Now the reason Ryzen is important is a user on the LTT forum had the issue before and once they installed a new Ryzen CPU they said everything was better, shadows blended properly and weren't jagged, lighting was better, LOD at greater distances was apparent on the same settings, and the shimmering jagged AA problems were gone. As of now there are 4 confirmed cases of having the problem and upgrading to Ryzen made it vanish. Many users have been turned down from tech support or simply ignored. There has never been a strong answer from a dev and after hundreds of pages on forums no one has yet to find an answer of what causes it and a solution. As you might expect with thousands having the issue hundreds of thousands of combinations of CPUs, motherboards, memory, and every tiny detail about them is different. Every driver setting has been carefully tweaked, people have bought many CPUs over hoping to fix the problem to no avail. I will provide all the forum posts so you can throughly read through every testing means done and the specs. Enough talking and here are some videos showing the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiwhQo5UDlk&feature=youtu.be PayDay 2 Intel Test 1 - YouTube

PayDay 2 has head bob with breathing so it works very well to see the shimmering lines and jagged appearance of the escalator. All settings were max and it was played at 1440p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zMSX94vMB4 MC Problem - YouTube

Due to minecraft's grass on top blocks and it being a block based game you can see a grid pattern that shows every border. In the end you can see shimmering on the edges of the block. I used to play on an old macbook pro dual core and the settings were no where near what they are in the video but I never had this issue. I also tested older versions of minecraft and they all share the same problem. Setting again were max 1440p.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3Qi6YYg2_s Jagged Bro - YouTube

This was the first time I noticed the problem. The settings are max 1080p but 4:3 this time so some jaggedness is going to happen but the level of jagged in the video is much greater than what it was the day before. The ump magazine was what caught my eye as it was very jagged compared to the day before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NBtsSHu-E Graphics Issue - YouTube

Now in overwatch the settings were again ultra 1080p and this was the second game I played the day I noticed the issue. The issue I started seeing is apparent in an official Blizzard trailer that was posted a couple months after it started for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xFKckFCGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xFKckFCGM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3xFKckFCGM [NOW AVAILABLE] Eichenwalde | New Map Preview | Overwatch - YouTube

You can see as the camera pans slowly white shimmering on all the edges of objects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytNZyuk2Iew texture flickering, pixelated shadows, texture-popins, low draw distance - YouTube

The settings of the games is unknown as the user didn't specify but the problem is present through out all games new and old. Users in the comments also say they are having the same issue.

Here are all the forum posts about it.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/831430/geforce-900-series/pixelated-shadows-texture-popins-gtx-960-970-980-ect-/1/ https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/831430/geforce-900-series/pixelated-shadows-texture-popins-gtx-960-970-980-ect-…

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/638876-jagged-shadowspop-inlow-lod-and-jagged-aa/ https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/638876-jagged-shadowspop-inlow-lod-and-jagged-aa/

https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV_PC/comments/32o4j4/anyone_else_seeing_shadow_quality_change_at_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV_PC/comments/32o4j4/anyone_else_seeing_shadow_quality_change_at_a/

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/42m6he/anyone_else_getting_distracted_by_cascade_shadow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/42m6he/anyone_else_getting_distracted_by_cascade_shadow/

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/922631/pixelated-shadows-jaggies-shimmering-textures-lines-around-objects-stair-climbing-bad-aa-tessel/ https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/922631/pixelated-shadows-jaggies-shimmering-textures-lines-around-objects-stair…

User who found Ryzen helps https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/784090-4790k-to-r7-1700x-comparison-updated/ https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/784090-4790k-to-r7-1700x-comparison-updated/

According to one user they found this to be the solution

"Imagine running a game such as GTA V. The first time you run it the settings are usually set on lowest meaning no AF or AA, low shadow resolution and distance. So the NvAPI takes these settings and unloads them into the L2 Cache of GPU so that the Stream-multiprocessors can read them and when ever you exit the game NvAPI should force the GPU to flush the settings by writing Global Settings into the cache area. For some reason it's stuck. It can happen when you change a setting by dramatically tuning it up and the variant is not fast enough to rewrite. Now the settings cannot be verified by any variant in order to be flushed. The only way to fix this is to find the way to flush the cache and unload a clean NvAPI into the cache. Now this also answers why this happens again when you insert new parts into the PC and that is because the drivers always keep the same buggy variant in their backup files and loads it into memory if its missing. It also works the other way, if you reinstall the drivers, it automatically reads the variants setting from the cache and make a copy of the variant. In order to fix it we have to unlock the resources and unload a variant . However we have no idea how to do that atm."

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you very much for joining the Intel® Processors communities.

Thank you very much as well for sharing that information with all the peers in our communities, we really appreciate you took the time to do that. While we take all competition seriously, Intel continues to push new innovation with our products. Our 7th Gen Intel® Core™ products in market today deliver the best PC experiences, and later this year, we will launch 8th Gen Intel Core and new technologies like Intel® Optane™ memory. RegardsAlberto R

[SStre2]

Here is a picture I recently took in Minecraft to demonstrate the shimmering edges. Minecraft is a great game to demonstrate as the problem is magnified due to the 8 bit style of the game. Notice the white or transparent lines in the dark that aren't suppose to be there. Or the vertical black and white lines near the bottom left.

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you very much for providing that picture and all the details above.

RegardsAlberto R

[SStre2]

So here is the same game, Minecraft, running on a Macbook pro 17in from 2009 with a core dual and 9600M.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB_hJ7bcmYk&list=UUaQ6sWp2WERNFRaBGkks5hA MC Problem - YouTube

Then this is it on windows with a 6800K and GTX1080

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zMSX94vMB4&list=UUaQ6sWp2WERNFRaBGkks5hA&index=5 MC Problem - YouTube

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you once again for sharing that feedback in our communities, I am sure this information will be really helpful for all the peers viewing this thread.

Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto R

[SStre2]

I feel as if nothing is being done to resolve the issue. All I need is 30 minutes with a developer or someone with an advanced understanding of the computations involved in rendering 3D games. Here is more videos of the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-2ESTfQhMY GTA Shadows Test - YouTube

[idata]

SamJam: I will do further research on this matter and in regard to your request. As soon as I get any updates I will post all the information on this thread.

Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto R

[SStre2]

Is there any way I could get a diagram of an intel processor dye? One that shows all the components and how they are connected. Also one that shows how the CPU talks to the motherboard and what components interact with the CPU. Thanks

[idata]

SamJam: In regard to your request, we will do further research to try to gather the information you are asking for. In order to better assist you, please provide the information requested on the thread below:

/thread/77761 https://communities.intel.com/thread/77761 Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto R

[idata]

SamJam: I just wanted to check if you saw the information we requested on the previous post and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Any questions, please let me know. RegardsAlberto R

[SStre2]

Category

Questions

Answers (N/A if not applicable)

Description

Provide a detailed description of the issue

Please place an X to the right of the option showing how often you see this issue using specific steps. (Ex: 'Every few times a game is started it flickers.' <- This would be "Often")<p> 

Always (100%):

Hardware (HW)

Brand and Model of the system.

Custom Built

Hybrid or switchable graphics system?

ie Does it have AMD or NV graphics too?

GTX 1080

Make and model of any Displays that are used to see the issue (see note2 below). 

LFP = Local Flat Panel (Laptop panel)EFP = External Flat Panel (Monitor you plug in)<p style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; ...

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you very much for providing that information.

We will start our research on this matter in order to try to find a possible solution for this issue. As soon as I get any updates, I will post all the details on this thread. Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto R

[idata]

SamJam: Could you please provide the SSU report as well? So we can start our research. Also, just to confirm, are you using a video card: GTX 1080?

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Alberto R

[SStre2]

Yes the GTX1080. Here is the SSU file

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you very much for providing that file.

Remember that when you are using a video card, the graphics of the processor get automatically disable. In this case, the graphics controller that is currently working is the one that belongs to the Nvidia card.

The best thing to do then will be to get in contact with Nvidia directly to confirm if there is a problem with the video card or to try to install the drivers that belong to it:http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/120905/en-us http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/120905/en-ushttp://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-communities.html http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia-communities.html

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Alberto R

[SStre2]

Yes I know, the 6800K doesn't even have an iGPU. The reason I am posting this here is the issue goes away when you swap to an AMD CPU and other in depth testing has proven that it isn't the GPU.

[idata]

SamJam: Thank you very much for clarifying that information. Yes, in this case, as you mentioned before, the processor does not have integrated graphics, which means that all the tasks in regard to graphics are supported by the video card.

The fact that everything works fine with the AMD processor could be related to compatibility or drivers. We appreciate that you are reporting this scenario, and we will take your feedback under consideration and I will send it to the proper department so they can be aware of your comments. Any questions, please let me know. Regards,Alberto R

[DNayt]

Hi, I'm not the OP of this, but i have the same issue. Has anything been done about this?

[letna]

Hi!

I'm french, so sorry if my english is not perfect.

I allready get in contact with Intel after sales services. They choose to cashback the CPU (i returned it).

They made me test all things i can on the computer.

So, if you can find my "case", you will have lot of information on the trouble.

Right now i changed lot of hardware, the only thing in comon = Intel processor. Like in first post, i read the Ryzen saved someone, so i go for it. I just wait for a new GPU and i will see.

[SStre2]

Alright thanks for the info. I think I might invest in a R3 1200 and simply swap out my current mobo and if the problems go away intel has a lot of fixing to do