Refresh Rates, once again revisited?

My monitor can run modes such as 1280x1024, 1280x800, 1024x768, etc. In the former two, the vertical refresh rate is locked in at 60Hz, but the monitor actually only refreshes at 59.9Hz. The latter, the refresh rate is locked in at 85Hz and my monitor only will refresh at 84.9Hz.

I've tried two other monitors, and both have the same unusual trouble with refresh rates. Surely it's a configuration issue. And it is a real issue, especially in this case when I wish to use ZSNES but when scrolling around it gives pretty nasty tearing. What should I check to get on the track towards making the refresh rate truly exactly 60.0Hz?

Edit: Numbers correction.

Thanks in advance.

Did you setup the "HorizSync" and "VertRefresh" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf according to the manufacturers specifications?

Yes, I did.

Nothing seems to be fixing my refresh rate to 60.0Hz instead of 59.9. I will try Windows shortly and see if its suckiness will aid me in my quest to configure the display of Linux......

Could you please post your xorg.conf?

If you set your video modes like this in a Display subsection of the Screen section:

Code:

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Modes "1280x1024" "1280x800" "1024x768"

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then you are actually asking for one of X's predefined video modes, which, evidently, are not exactly what you want. To define your own video modes, you should add a line like this to your Monitor section:

Code:

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ModeLine "1280x1024-tweaked" 135.00  1280 1296 1440 1688  1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

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Note: do not actually use that particular line! You can get the line by running xvidtune, adjusting the parameters appropriately (and testing them!), and clicking the 'Show' button. Paste everything after the quoted string into the mode line, so you end up with something like the above. The quoted string is a name for the video mode; you can make it whatever you want.

Now, you just have to change your Screen section to use your newly defined video mode. Where you would have written:

Code:

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Modes "1280x1024"

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or something like it, you should now write:

Code:

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Modes "1280x1024-tweaked"

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or whatever else you named your new video mode.

Let me know if that works!