Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 Multi display

[xCluck]

I have a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950, and I'm trying to run an asus vs248(main, middle) a Dell U2312HM, and a Samsung(it's a tv, 1680x1050 resolution, and I don't really care about this looking great)

At my disposal, I have an hdmi cable, mini dp to hdmi adapter, a mini dp to hdmi cable, and a dvi cable. I'm running the dvi cable on the dell, hdmi to mini dp cable on the asus, and hdmi cable on the samsung. I cannot figure out how to get more than two displays at one time running. I was under the impression I could run three displays at a time with eyefinity, but it's not working out. Can anyone shed some light on what I'm doing wrong?

 

[griptwister]

It should automatically detect the other displays. Check your desktop properties and see if it sees a secondary display. If not. Try updating to the latest drivers.

 

[huilun02]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-803443/eyefinity-setup-guide.html

 

[Jingkun]

Well the real question here is whether or not you're planning on using eyefinity. I myself am on a triple display on a 7970 and can relate a bit to what you're going through.

For starters you will be able to run all 3 monitors/tvs at their native resolutions even if they are different as long as you aren't trying to use eyefinity. Since 1680x1050 seems to be your lowest running resolution out of the 3 then enabling eyefinity would try to force all the monitors to no higher than 1680x1050 which would bring up a resolution of 5040x1050 assuming all horizontal.

Second is the fact that you are only having 2 displays working at a time. Now while most cards might have 2 dvi or 2 mini dp etc only so many of these at a time are active ports from the card, and usually only 1 at a time is considered "active" but I have seen 2 alot more since the 7xxx series. You might still need to make sure that the adapters you are using are active mini dp to hdmi adapters. Typically when buying one it will state that it is active somewhere in the name or the product description. I myself am using 2 active mini dp to dvi adapters for my setup and they shouldn't run you more than 35 bucks an adapter unless you get one of the dual link active adapters.

 

[xCluck]

Well the real question here is whether or not you're planning on using eyefinity. I myself am on a triple display on a 7970 and can relate a bit to what you're going through.

For starters you will be able to run all 3 monitors/tvs at their native resolutions even if they are different as long as you aren't trying to use eyefinity. Since 1680x1050 seems to be your lowest running resolution out of the 3 then enabling eyefinity would try to force all the monitors to no higher than 1680x1050 which would bring up a resolution of 5040x1050 assuming all horizontal.

Second is the fact that you are only having 2 displays working at a time. Now while most cards might have 2 dvi or 2 mini dp etc only so many of these at a time are active ports from the card, and usually only 1 at a time is considered "active" but I have seen 2 alot more since the 7xxx series. You might still need to make sure that the adapters you are using are active mini dp to hdmi adapters. Typically when buying one it will state that it is active somewhere in the name or the product description. I myself am using 2 active mini dp to dvi adapters for my setup and they shouldn't run you more than 35 bucks an adapter unless you get one of the dual link active adapters.

I don't really care about eyefinity, I just want three working displays.

Do I need an active adapter? I'm not using any adapters at all at the moment, unless the hdmi to mini dp cable counts as an "adapter." Currently the dell is using dvi, asus is hdmi to mini dp, and samsung is hdmi. I can get any two working at once, but not all 3.

 

[Jingkun]

I think I might have been stating a slightly confusing bit of help earlier. Considering that what I was calling an adapter could apply to basically any port on the graphics card, converter may have been a better word. Basically to run 3 monitors you're going to need them hooked up to an active port at all times. The idea behind an active adapter is to change a passive port to active by supplying the proper connections. Since you are getting 2 monitors to work at a time you probably will only need 1 active adapter for your setup, but you still might require 2 considering the card is the big decider on this. I'm not sure on the linking policies here as this might seem like advertising to some but here is an example of an adapter that you might use to replace the mini display port to hdmi cable you're using http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812996112 of course there are other options on newegg; if you feel like searching just try searching for "active display port" and it will bring up a few selections, but just make sure that it states that it's an active connector.

Looking back at everything I just typed I feel like I just ignored the active adapter question. Typically yes, to go beyond 2 monitors you will either need an active adapter or a separate card to output to anything past the first 2 monitors. Some cards will handle 2 monitors but alot of them will only push 1 card without an active adapter. If you choose to use crossfire (assuming you're using an AMD/ATi card since you brought up eyefinity) then you will only be able to use 1 card to output to the monitors. This is kinda annoying considering I'm running 3 cards myself but I feel I should bring that up since it is an option that you might take, if not here then potentially later down the road.