3 Monitors - R9 280X not working

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

zakwild

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
2
0
10,510
So I've bought myself a new graphics card to switch over from Nvidia GTX 670. I still like nvidia I just thought why not give amd a go, I had ATI a while ago but then I switched to Nvidia. I have 3 24" monitors that have the same resolution etc, same everything. PS. nvidia surround works pretty well with them.

But now I have a problem connecting my 3rd monitor , I have the Windforce R9 280x version from Gigabyte which has 1x DVI 1x HDMI and 2x mini-display ports. Now ,I've read that you don't require a displayport to displayport monitor connection anymore to make eyefinity work. Besides my monitors don't have displayports in them, BUT I have a display port to DVI cable with a reduction to mini display port. To make it sound less confusing , the DVI goes into my monitor since it doesnt have a DP and the DP goes to DP to DP mini reduction which goes straight to my graphics card.

I've tried switching tons of variations of cables like DVI , DVI(DP to DVI) , HDMI or HDMI, HDMI(DP to HDMI), DVI and nothing seems to work.
Both windows and AMD catalyst center register ALL 3 monitors and ofcourse all of them work perfectly fine. But when I try to activate a 3rd monitor , windows says unable to save display configuration and then in catalyst center thats impossible since I dont have such option there for the 3rd monitor I can only switch it while disabling another one.

Please help me , this is giving me a headache. On Nvidia I had no such problems, I could be using HDMI , DVI and DP to DVI and it would work just fine, hell even VGA worked with 4th monitor.
 
Solution
Jonathan Cave
I've re-created the problem and took screenshots of how to fix it.

MAKE SURE YOU DUPLICATE THESE STEPS TO THE LETTER AND NOTICE IN THE PICTURES THE SELECTED MONITOR HAS A BLUE EDGE ALSO MY MAIN DISPLAY IS MONITOR 3.

My config [1 HDMI] [3 DVI] [2 DVI]

1. This is how your displays should look right now (1 redundant monitor)
screenshot_76.jpg


2. Select 'Duplicate desktop on 1 & 2' for the left screen - DO NOT EXTEND YET YOU FIRST MUST COMBINE THEM TOGETHER!
screenshot_77.jpg


3.it should now look like this.
screenshot_78.jpg


4.Select 'extend desktop to 1 & 2'...
Sort by date Sort by votes
1. No, the op had a 280, I have a MSI R9 270 Gaming Edition

2. My card has 2 DVI ports and a HDMI port so I'm running straight cable. I can confirm that using a DVI-HDMI adapter will not work if you want to run 3 monitors without the displayport.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Sorry about that.

Thanks for the info. So, it seems two monitors that are the same and a 3rd monitor that is different is also allowed on the R7 and R9. Thanks for confirming that.
(So, if some sites were wrong about this, could they also be wrong about support for other monitor setups? :) although 3 different ones is probably still not possible on HDMI/DVI.)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i cant get the 3 monitors to work either but only on the latest version of the drivers 14.7
i found that if i downgrade the drivers to 13.12 it works perfectly
and i can use the cross fire as well.
has anyone found how to get the latest version of the drivers to work yet?

currently using 3 x 1200*1920 res monitors
2 x dp
1 x d-dvi

running 2 x r9 280x graphics cards
crosshair v formula z amd board
amd 8350 processor
windows 7 64bit
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Found something interesting on the Sapphire page. Apparently, they actually say if 2 of the monitors are the same you can have 3 monitors on only DVI/HDMI.
To support 3rd monitor without DisplayPort cable connected, 2 of the 3 monitors should be the same model with DVI ports connected. The driver version should be v13.12 or above.
Click to expand...
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/product_index.aspx?pid=2024&lid=1

Interestingly, the drivers matter too.




I really don't know the answer. The Crossfire setup makes things a little different, but it should still work. However, I think other people have had problems when getting new drivers too.

Apart from sticking with the older drivers, some things you could try:
* Try Jonathan Cave's suggestion here. Maybe after messing with those settings several times (and rebooting a few times) you can get it to work again.
* Use this program to remove all AMD and Nvidia graphics drivers: http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html or manually try removing all the files. Then re-install the very latest driver version. There's a good chance some old files from the previous version is causing the problems.
* Make sure all 3 monitors are connected to the "primary graphics card" from here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/search/faq/20 There was also a thread that mentioned something similar here: here.
* Go into each monitor's menu and force it to use DVI or Displayport (depending on which it is connected to) instead of auto-detecting.
* Make sure all 3 monitors are enabled to run when the computer and Windows starts up.
* Test each monitor individually and make sure each is still working by itself with that particular plug and cable.
* Try using 2 monitors on DVI and HDMI, and the 3rd on Displayport instead. http://support.amd.com/en-us/search/faq/21

* Maybe ask on the AMD forums, file a support request with AMD, and file a support request with your video card manufacturer to see why it doesn't work with the new drivers or if they have any suggestions to get it to work. (Although, there is a good chance you won't get any good information out of this though. 🙁)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote







Thanks for taking the time to ans. I wil try some of these later next week once the computer has been rebuilt and let u know how it went.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sorry to hijack the thread, but this seems to be the only active one at the moment in regards to this. I have been looking for a specific answer to this, but no-one has actually asked this question.

Most r9 cards follow the reference and thus come with two dvi outputs. One of the timing generators serves one of the dvi ports and the second one is then shared between the second dvi and the hdmi port.I can confirm that this works as I just had an XFX card in my system with dual dvi and did not need an active adapter. ( 2 monitors dvi to dvi and 1 monitor hdmi to dvi). This worked perfectly (however the card is faulty and must be replaced.)

I am now looking for a second r9 280x to replace the faulty one and have come across some (gigabyte/msi) which do not have two dvi outputs. My question is as follows, if a card only has one dvi and one hdmi output, is it possible to share one of the timing generators with a dvi output by using a passive mini display to dvi converter and therefore still drive 3 dvi monitors?

I want to do this as I do not want to use an active adapter ( I already have one that I use with two 7970s I currently have in the system), that tear due to the sync issues one of the monitors really bugs me.

I would like to assume that a passive adapter would work because all cards should have the same timing generators and the card would just see the connection as another dvi, but what holds me back from purchasing one of those cards is that none of the manufacturers that don't include two dvi ports mention anything about running the three displays, having same monitors...etc.

I obviously have 3 identical monitors, so that would not be an issue, but I am still worried if I buy a card without dual dvi outputs, I might be stuck using the active adaptor and the the eyefinity tear.

Just on the side, I currently have two 7970ghz in my system and they crossfire perfectly with the r9 280x, so it is a great idea if you already have a 7970 to crossfire it with a 280x in order to gain the ability to drive 3 monitors without that annoying tear.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote




Hey. Well I use 2 r9 280x twin frozr msi which have the single dvi, 2 dp and 1 hdmi and I am able to use any combination to gwt 3 displays working. But only as long as I use the 13.12 drivers
And stability wise I have no issues.
My current combination is 2 dp to dvi and a straight dvi connector.
And as far as the cards go upgraded from a 7950 and the performance was a good jump. Only probs with the cards are I have the version which is not compatible with water Cooling. So if water Cooling is an issue for you. Watch what series you buy as you might have compatibility problems.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Well, you pretty much understand most of it. Suffice to say, I am not 100% for sure, but I suspect that it should work (but I don't know enough to say for sure). Definitely try different plug combinations if you can't get it to work right away, in case the sharing (hardware and/or drivers) is picky.
Anyways, you might as well give it a shot; since, even if it doesn't work, an "active" mini Displayport to DVI adapter is only around $20: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=9425&seq=1&format=2

Do you suppose you could mention the model Displayport to DVI adapter you used or give a link to the product page?


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Anyways, you might as well give it a shot; since, even if it doesn't work, an "active" mini Displayport to DVI adapter is only around $20: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&c...
Click to expand...

I could always use an active dp adapter (and I do have one already), but then it would generate it's own timing (at least that's how I understand it) and it would be out of sync with the other 2 monitors.

The cable on amazon does not mention that it is active and given the price I would say it isn't. In addition i think if he was using active adapters then he would be getting a tear in at least one of his monitors.

Hey. Well I use 2 r9 280x twin frozr msi which have the single dvi, 2 dp and 1 hdmi and I am able to use any combination to gwt 3 displays working. But only as long as I use the 13.12 drivers
And stability wise I have no issues.
Click to expand...

Do you have any eyefinity tears with your current setup?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
i'm running eyefinity on sli at a res of 3600*1200 with the cables i've stated. all connected to the same card.
i have not noticed any tears but it does tear if you put all the settings to max on games like assassins creed 4. but you would expect that since they aren't top of the range cards. i can play the game with mid to high settings with no lag or tear.
my monitors are 3* samsung syncmasters 24" max res 1920*1200
for watching films or 3d modelingi have not noticed any tears or the monitors going out of sync.
this set up seems to be stable for me. i have used this set up for the last 3 months with no complaints.

the only time this set up has given me bother is when you try to use the latest drivers. and if i use the latest drivers for 2 monitors then i get the odd tear or lag/monitors going out of sync for a few milliseconds.
i have tried loads of different combinations for multi monitoring but this one for me seems to give the best results. just a pity the drivers are not very good.
from my experience you can get rid of most of the little faults by using older versions of the drivers. v13.12 works for me but you might have slight issues with them depending on hardware.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Thanks. Sadly, I can't tell if it is passive or active. It does seem like it might be a "passive" one considering the price and that the active ones are often (if not always?) pretty short. "Active" adapters are generally more like $20 from other companies (vs $10 for that one).

The reason I asked is because this has an effect on certain monitor setups. If the adapters are active, then you are using 1 DVI and 2 Displayport outputs. If the cables are passive, you are using 3 DVI outputs.


Sorry, didn't know you had one already.
I doubt the adapter will have an effect on screen tearing, since that is usually an issue related to the video card (or other component) being too slow to output a constant 60 FPS... (which purple penguin seems to have mentioned in his reply). No matter which cable you chose, you will probably still get screen tearing in some games due to the video card not being able to keep up (but this will affect all the monitors).
Of course purple penguin did mention a few issues he's had with drivers and whatnot... and I guess fewer conversions is ideal.


However, you did mention your concern about the conversion process an "active" adapter uses. While I don't really know the answer, I can give you some info to consider. Some of this you already know, but maybe it will help others too.

* As you know, DVI and HDMI use a TMDS to make the cable work. You can only have as many monitors as you have TMDS on the video card. Current generation Nvidia cards have 3 TMDS, I think. AMD 7xxx has 2 TMDS. AMD R7 & R9 also have 2 TMDS, but can share them with similar monitors (so they support more than 2 monitors).
* TMDS only limits the DVI and HDMI ports, not Displayport. You can add many more monitors using the Displayport plugs. Displayport supposedly uses some type of packet system (like networking, but without the error correction maybe?? could be wrong on this)

* What if you use a Displayport to DVI/HDMI cable? If HDMI/DVI are so different from Displayport, how does this cable even work?
Well, oddly enough, the cable does not "convert" the signal from Displayport to HDMI/DVI.
Instead, the Displayport specification includes a special "compatibility mode" for HDMI and DVI: the cable simply switches to DVI or HDMI. So, if you connect a Displayaport to HDMI/DVI cable, the system will send a HDMI or DVI signal instead of a Displayport signal. As you might guess, this means you run right back into the TMDS limit, which limits the number of monitors you can have. (Side note: This type of setup is limited to single link DVI, due to something about not enough pins for dual link DVI. So, you are limited to monitors somewhere around 1920x1200@60Hz.)

* Now, the "active" Displayport to HDMI/DVI adapter you were referring to includes a chip inside it like this one:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slas583a/slas583a.pdf
The chip does an actual conversion of the Displayport signal into HDMI or DVI signal. To do this, the converter actually includes an extra TMDS or whatever. The result, is that the video card outputs a real Displayport signal, then the converter converts it to DVI or HDMI (and includes an extra TMDS) for the monitor. So, with this type of converter, you can add more HDMI or DVI monitors beyond the TMDS limit your video card has. (Side note: Some single link DVI active adapters can be quite cheap (less than $20), but the dual link DVI active adapters, are still quite expensive I think).


Anyways, a lot of that you may have known ... and it doesn't really address your question ... but looking from that, I don't think anything there should cause screen tearing (unless there is some weird thing about the monitor having to communicate with the video card, which is then used to sync the frames differently??)
However, now that you brought it up, I do wonder if converting the signal might delay the screen slightly. It's possible this conversion process could affect input lag on that particular monitor. (It may affect the time it takes for the changes to show up on that monitor). However, it may be so minor that you can't even notice a difference between monitors ... or maybe it could be noticeable between the different monitors... I just don't know.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


This indeed does happen and it is actually the tear that I am referring to, sorry if perhaps I didn't explain myself properly as to what tear I was referring to. I believe this is termed an "Eyefinity tear" It still happens between monitors that are exactly the same, and is actually visible at any given time (you can just drag any open window across the desktop to appreciate this).

I have purchased a new 280x with 2 dvi outputs and so I have not yet tested it out for myself, but I assume Purplepenguin would have noticed and mentioned this on-screen tear if it had been present on one of his monitors.

Ultimately I guess that sharing (not exclusive use) of a clock generator is not hardwired or limited to just dvi and hdmi ports and that the card would autosense a dvi output on the display port and assign the generator to it.

Of course, as always, the sharing can only happen upon cold boot.

It would be really cool though if somebody actually confirmed this as a fact, at least for all those prospective eyefinity buyers, as I know I was unable to find explicit information about this anywhere on manufacturers' websites and forums.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hope somebody is still able to help in this thread.

I am having the same problem as the original OP. I have a R9 280x with the same 3 monitors and cant get the 3rd monitor to work.

Tried to follow the steps decribed by Jonathan, but when I try to duplicate the monitors Windows doesnt let me save the config.

I was able to make the third monitor work with a DP to VGA adapter though. The problem I had with this option was that after trying to configure eyefinity, Windows reports problems in the VGA monitor, saying it is incapable of high resolutions (even though it was in full HD before the eyefinity).

At the moment AMD catalyst is at version 13.12, as someone mentioned it could be an issue with the new driver.

Help?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Do you mean you havent used the Windows management at least to make the third monitor active? I understood that you have to make the 3 active via Windows and then use Catalyst only to create the eyefinity group.

Am I wrong? Should I try to activate the third monitor via Catalyst first?

Thx
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Holy crap this thread exploded.

So, after looking at everyone's advice. I've come to one realization. There are two problems with my situation, that should solve the issue.

MOST LIKELY -> Due to the fact that my LG monitor is 2560x1080 while the other two are 1920 x 1080, the LG must be using either HDMI by itself, or Displayport, while the other 2 monitors, are both running off DVI. This is all based on the theory that it should work with 2 dvi + 1 HDMI. the science behind it is the amount of languages that the GPU can produce & convert at the same time. It can't produce HDMI or DVI data stream through the displayport on it's own, which is why it needs the active adapter.

Possible solutions that I am going to try, starting from the first thing I'm trying, to the last.

Step 1 -> getting a Displayport cable from C2G that is VESA certified. I will try that with that hooked up to my LG monitor and the other two monitors will be on HDMI/DVI. this SHOULD solve the problem per AMD's specs and all the info I can find about how eyefinity works.

IF this doesn't work, I'm going to try the double-DVI/HDMI method, put the 2 side monitors both on DVI->HDMI, and the LG on HDMI alone.

If these two things don't work, I'm going to be very upset, because from what I'm reading, i've tried literally everything else and these are the only 2 options that work for people.

From what I've read, it all has to do with the type of data that the GPU has to produce to send video to your displays. It can do 3 , but it can't convert the displayport data on it's own.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Do you mean you havent used the Windows management at least to make the third monitor active? I understood that you have to make the 3 active via Windows and then use Catalyst only to create the eyefinity group.

Am I wrong? Should I try to activate the third monitor via Catalyst first?

Thx
Click to expand...
I didn't use the windows management at all, the problem with it is that it doesn't understand how r9 gpu's work so it can't create an eyefinity group without detecting a dp monitor. You have tu use catalyst and catalyst ONLY since its twice more powerful and it does understand the r9 logic.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


So I had once been a victim of this issue and had looked at this exact forum for the fix... That last time I had used the solution above to fix my problem and it had worked for a little while till one day I had turned my computer on to find yet again this had pillaged any hopes of playing BF4 or Arma 3 on all 3 of my monitors... I had been dealing with this for some time now, and thought I'd look back at this post to see if there was a revision of this solution as yet again I was unable to fix my problem with this solution (still referencing the one above)...

I have the absolute latest driver from AMD, an active adapter from MDP to HDMI as well as a connection I can alternate between HDMI and DVI between the card and monitor. I've searched high and low for the answer but always led back to here... for lack of time and sanity reasons, I ask of this kind community to please lend a hand in this gamer's time of need.

I have a post Here with all the info of my build that explains my hardships with this issue...

Still open to suggestions so if ya got an idea lemme hear it!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Sorry to resurrect the thread but the R9 280x is still fairly relevant and this is one of the pages that comes up when searching for 3 monitor issues and TMDS on the Asus R9 280x.
I was using the Asus 7790 with the following setup : 1 DVI 24" 1920x1200, 1 VGA to DVI 24" 1920x1200, 1 HDMI 17" 1280x1024. ( My Acer has a weird issue it doesn't wake from monitor sleep in DVI, I have to cycle power to get video output, but the VGA seems to work correctly). The R9 280x seems to have the exact same output ports, however the same 3 monitor setup does not work. I can only get 2 monitors to work at a time. I bought the card used so I didn't have all the cables, ordering the OEM active miniDP to DVI cable from ebay hoping it will enable a third monitor, but just annoying that I had to buy an adapter for it raiding up the total cost of the card. I find it really weird that the exact same setup worked on the 7790 but not the 280x and miss my third monitor. From all the descriptions they should both have two TMDS enabled, and the two 24" should use the same clock, and the third should get to use the second clock, but some cards only work with all the same clock/size monitors? I don't know if its a physical limitation or firmware limitation on the 280x, or driver limitation since it was enabled by drivers later in release for the 7790.

Also weird that the miniDP to DVI cables are fairly cheap for being active, the OEM ones for the 280x (as I type this I realize its for the MSI version of the card, the ASUS requires a normal sized DP to DVI adapter cable, with an active one being quite expensive for what it is ).

I'm not even trying to get eyeinfinity just trying to use 3 separate monitors.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you get this problem try these steps:
1) Start your computer with all the displays connected
2) Go directly to AMD Catalyst
3) Common tasks > Detect displays
4) And then try creating a eyefinity group (it might be hard since AMD messed up the monitor placement in the new drivers)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
This is more of an issue with the implementation of the video sources on this card not that its not being done correctly. The Asus 7790 has the exact same output ports as the asus 280x, same steps, same drivers same configuration, it does not support 3 monitors the same way the 7790 does ( 2 dvi (one can be dvi to vga), 1 hdmi, regardless of resolution or size ). Somehow its internally different as far as how many signal clocks it has or is configured, by firmware, software, or hardware configuration. Kind of ridiculous that you have to buy an active display port adapter to make it work, if that's included in the original package I can't complain I bought mine used. It shouldn't be this hard to make it work on 3 monitors without an active display convertor. I've used many cards, and use up to 6 monitors, not a noob in multi monitor setup... I am just confirming that my configuration, which should be quite common, dvi -dvi-hdmi, does not work on the asus 280x, the same setup worked on the asus 7790 no issues.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
My active display adapter to DVI came today from ebay. I can confirm 3 monitors works right away as soon as I used the display port for the third monitor. Its a smaller monitor than the other two, and I didn't have to do anything special, just click extend. This is confirming that the 7790 did not need the display port for 3 monitors, but the 280x Asus does. Not sure if you can use a passive display adapter I assume not, I bought a cheap active one on ebay just in case. If someone can confirm a passive one works it should save people some money.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom