Gigabyte R9 X280 can't use 3 monitors

[inormous]

Hello,

My GFX has 1xHDMI 1xDVI 2xMini DP
I have 3 monitors, 1-TV(connected via HDMI to HDMI) 2-AOC 23" (connected via DVI to DVI) and a third monitor 3-DELL connected via DVI to DVI to onboard graphics card.
1+2 = Clone (same resolution) 3= Extended (different resolution)
I wanted to connect all three to my GV-R928XOC-3GD (rev. 1.0).
yet it always asks me to disconnect one monitor instead of allowing for the third one to work.

I've connected the third one (3-DELL) to my GFX via PASSIVE Mini DP to DVI adapter.

I've been researching this problem on the internet and it seems that although when trying to have 3 monitors to work at the same time you should use active, yet it was also said that on the new R9 series you can easily use a PASSIVE adapter and get it to work.

Since active adapters are very expensive and rare in my country i want to make sure:

Even on my R9 280X i must use an ACTIVE MiniDP to DVI adapter in order to connect the 3-DELL monitor to my GFX?

Thank you!

 

[bignastyid]

For a 3rd monitor an Active Display port adapter is required. On the r9 290 and 290x a passive adapter would work, but the 280x needs active adapters since it based on an older architecture(its basically a relabeled 7970).

 

[Gunmetal_61]

I would guess that that's the case. AMD is wonky with all of this. Just had to go through this with two new R9 280's I got a week ago. So apparently from what I can gather, you can't use both DVI ports (if you have two) at the same time since they are essentially connected to the same clock, or circuit on the board output. Basically means that it's like they just decided to make a T-junction from one output wire to make it look like two.

I would guess that needing an active adapter would be the solution (unfortunately) since this is a hardware issue. Only the R9 290, R9 290X, R9 285, and R9 260 (I believe) are truly next-gen cards; that is, built on an entirely new architecture or extensively modified instead of being a rehash of old Radeon HD 7000's and whatnot. They don't even need bridges for Crossfire, goes all through the PCIe. If there are cards that support passive adapters, my guess would be that it would be those. But I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. Almost makes me want to pay more for Nvidia.

(I'm not sure if this is all correct, fact check it if you want to be sure.)

 

[inormous]

okay guys, thanks for the answers, i hope this thread will assist others encountering this issue.
as it seems its a problem that many have to deal with.

any specific adapter you suggest i'll order (i decided to wait and order one online instead of paying x3 locally)
i heard the sapphire one is good.

 

[Gunmetal_61]

okay guys, thanks for the answers, i hope this thread will assist others encountering this issue.
as it seems its a problem that many have to deal with.

any specific adapter you suggest i'll order (i decided to wait and order one online instead of paying x3 locally)
i heard the sapphire one is good.

Not really. I just chose a random one that was decently priced on Amazon which happened to also have a ton of good reviews for people with Eyefinity setups.