7970 Lightning 3 Displayport Nightmare

[hishutzi]

Pulling my hair out with this lol. I'm trying to avoid the whole adaptor/ multi-output/ v-sync/
tearing fiasco by going with this setup. My video card has 4dp outputs. My 3 monitors are identical
and all have dp inputs. I'm using simple cables (mdp --> dp) for each. I cannot get all 3 displays
to work at the same time on dp, no matter what. I have confirmed all monitor dp inputs work. All
video card outputs work, and all the cables work. How? At one time or another, by swapping
everything around, every monitor dp input and every video card output have worked, just not 3 at the
same time, only 2 at any time. I have latest MB bios and 13.5 beta Catalyst video drivers (heard
good things about and seem to work great). I tried swapping cards around, thinking there were bad
outputs on video card, no dice, behaves exactly the same. I tried the bios switch on the cards, no
dice. Could I really have 2 cards that are duds??? Highly doubtful. It seems hardware related. No
matter what, when I try the 3dp route, 2 monitors always light up instantly upon early bootup,the
3rd never gets a signal (yes I make sure monitor input is set to dp) but yet Windows and CCC seem to
recognize 3 monitors!?!? Everything is at stock speeds (at least until I get this figured out)
except for the ram, I enabled XMP in bios. I just built this rig and all software installs are
fresh. I did have different cards at one time though, but they were MSI 7970 NON-Lightning Boost
Edition and had terrible overheating issues. They use the same drivers as the lightnings so I
figured just swapping should be fine. Could it be as simple as re-installing drivers? Also seems
doubtful, especially when it seems to happen at bootup?

Now, if I use 1 dvi/hdmi output with 2dp outputs it works great. Only problem? TEARING! Which is
exactly what I was trying to avoid! Everything really does work well besides that, no glitching,
freezing, crashing, games run awesome. But I paid extra to NOT have tearing and I know this should
work. Just can't figure this out. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.


CPU Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core
CPU Cooler Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid
Motherboard Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 ATX LGA1155
Memory Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240GB 2.5" SSD
Storage Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Video Card 2x MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning BE 3GB
Case Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply SeaSonic 850W ATX12V / EPS12V
Optical Drive Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Monitor 3x Asus VE248Q 24.0"
OS Windows 7 64 bit

[LuckyNoS7evin]

According to this review http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/20/msi_r7970_lightning_video_card_review it can support 6 screens.... Also confused about your comment on HDMI as according to the photos on this review it doesn't have HDMI.

I'm surprised you can't get 3 working correctly if it supports 6!

[BHawthorne]

Quick question, can you snap a photo of the cables you are using -- particularly a photo showing both port connector ends? Where did you source your cables from? What length are they?

[hishutzi]

Sorry about the confusion. It's actually the dvi output with a dvi/hdmi adaptor.

[hishutzi]

This is the exact one here. I'm using 3 of these.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSTDHQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Mawrtin]

Isn't this something about having to have something connected to one dvi? like a dvi dummy plug or attach some random monitor just to try it out

[BHawthorne]

Isn't this something about having to have something connected to one dvi? like a dvi dummy plug or attach some random monitor just to try it out

no

[BHawthorne]

This is the exact one here. I'm using 3 of these.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TSTDHQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Odd, the cable length and type looks just fine.

[Haldi]

Strange.... did you contact MSI customer support and ask them ?

[hishutzi]

Strange.... did you contact MSI customer support and ask them ?

Yes. They were the ones who told me to update the MB bios which I did. I am calling them again tomorrow to let them know bios update did not help and see what they say. They did confirm that this setup should work, which I knew but it's nice to have confirmation. I'll keep you guys posted and thanks for the replies, VERY much appreciated Keep'em coming

[suiken_2mieu]

This might be a stretch, but it could be the cables.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33998432

[hishutzi]

This might be a stretch, but it could be the cables.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33998432

I was starting to think this myself. That thread doesn't talk about the same exact issue but maybe it's related? When I look up the cables they talk about, there are conflicting reviews. And now this pin #20 thing? All I know is, after hitting the power button, I can tell wether or not it will work because the 2dp monitors light up almost instantly but never the 3rd.

[hishutzi]

Called MSI support, talked to Greg, and informed him updating the MB bios did not fix the issue. His next troubleshooting tip was to have me try each card only 1 at a time, in each slot. Result? Same exact issue with each card in either slot. So I think that rules out the MB. When I told him the only way to get eyefinity working with this setup was to use 1 dvi/hdmi port he said that is how it's supposed to work, you have to have at least 1 monitor plugged in to the dvi. I said wrong. 2 other of your support guys said it should work and this card supports six monitors. That means you would have to have 4 dp and 2 dvi. I can't even get 3 dp to work. So for giggles, I tried adding another monitor using dvi along with the 3 dp monitors and guess what? Same issue lol. Windows and CCC recognize all the displays but the 3rd dp monitor will not display anything no matter what I do.

[suiken_2mieu]

This would piss me off to all hell. I feel for you (especially because I have similar cards and configuration. The only thing I would think to try is another cable at this point (since it happens with either card). You could also try different drivers, but it doesn't stink of shitty drivers.

[hishutzi]

I've decided to try these http://www.accellcables.com/B143B.html They are supposedly VESA compliant. Tiger Direct has them on sale.

Should get them this week and I'll post my findings.

I've also opened a support ticket with AMD for the heck of it.

It could be worse. I can still enjoy this PC. It's just the annoyance of paying extra to avoid these things and getting them anyway

[hishutzi]

Tested the cables and issue still exists. I really thought Eyefinity would have been more fleshed out at this stage of the game. Pretty dissapointing really. Well at least now I can concentrate on the xfire micro-stuttering

[hishutzi]

The saga continues lol. My email was down a few days so I thought AMD support had written me off. They have been actively helping me now and a solution might be in sight.

AMD Global Support: Thankfully for our FirePro and Radeon products, only one connection out of 3 needs to be active. The card can fully support 2 passive connections (generating 2 unique timings for those monitors), but the third timing needs to come from an active adapter. So you will only need one active adapter to get all 3 up and running.

I knew active adapters were needed in a lot of cases, but I had no idea it still applied to using only 3 displayports. I have ordered this: http://www.accellcables.com/B112B-001B.html (note eyefinity certification) for 3rd monitor. So the last MSI support guy I talked to was sort of right, but I wanted an all dp solution to eliminate the tearing. Hopefully this will do it, fingers crossed...

[suiken_2mieu]

The saga continues lol. My email was down a few days so I thought AMD support had written me off. They have been actively helping me now and a solution might be in sight.

AMD Global Support: Thankfully for our FirePro and Radeon products, only one connection out of 3 needs to be active. The card can fully support 2 passive connections (generating 2 unique timings for those monitors), but the third timing needs to come from an active adapter. So you will only need one active adapter to get all 3 up and running.

I knew active adapters were needed in a lot of cases, but I had no idea it still applied to using only 3 displayports. I have ordered this: http://www.accellcables.com/B112B-001B.html (note eyefinity certification) for 3rd monitor. So the last MSI support guy I talked to was sort of right, but I wanted an all dp solution to eliminate the tearing. Hopefully this will do it, fingers crossed...

Well that's untrue. You can run up to 4 displayport native monitors off my cards (power edition and lightning). So yeah.

[hishutzi]

The saga continues lol. My email was down a few days so I thought AMD support had written me off. They have been actively helping me now and a solution might be in sight.

AMD Global Support: Thankfully for our FirePro and Radeon products, only one connection out of 3 needs to be active. The card can fully support 2 passive connections (generating 2 unique timings for those monitors), but the third timing needs to come from an active adapter. So you will only need one active adapter to get all 3 up and running.

I knew active adapters were needed in a lot of cases, but I had no idea it still applied to using only 3 displayports. I have ordered this: http://www.accellcables.com/B112B-001B.html (note eyefinity certification) for 3rd monitor. So the last MSI support guy I talked to was sort of right, but I wanted an all dp solution to eliminate the tearing. Hopefully this will do it, fingers crossed...

Well that's untrue. You can run up to 4 displayport native monitors off my cards (power edition and lightning). So yeah.

Are you f'n serious!!?? I haven't received the adaptor yet but this is getting extremely aggravating and getting more and more bizzare by the minute. Did you actually run that setup or is it something it's "supposed" to do? If so, can you tell me what cables you used? Thanks.

[hishutzi]

Got the adapter. I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to work but AMD support seemed pretty confident. It didn't. So when I told them, I got this in response:


Your service request has been escalated to one of our
experts who can better address your questions. We appreciate your
patience, and thank you for your interest in AMD.

Best Regards,

AMD Global Customer Care.


I'm moving on up!