Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey guys,

I am at my witts end with this eyefinity.
Here are some bullet points to make things faster:

- Have 6 x 24" monitors 3x3 - mounted - looks sick
- Can only get 5 to work
- Windows knows there is another monitor there.
- try to extend on windows - unable to save display settings.
- go through Catalyst control center - does not give me the option to extend further.
- All DP adaptors are the same, all active.
- Drivers are up to date.
- GFx card is: an ASUS HD 7970 Direct CUII TOP.

If somone can get this to work I swear to god I will want to send you money, not sure if allowed but will send $50.00 (NZD) if their advice gets this working- not trolling just my mind has had about enough *sigh*

Ive had 6 monitors for about a year now with just no luck

EDIT:
some screens:

The GPU in question supports 6 outputs, via 2x DVI and 4x DP, I assume you have your monitors connected like so:-

DVI > DVI - Mon 1
DVI > DVI - Mon 2
DP > DVI - Mon 3
DP > DVI - Mon 4
DP > DVI - Mon 5
DP > DVI - Mon 6

?? - please confirm.

If you switch the monitor to another output does this work?
Can you please provide the model/part number of the active adaptors in use?
Can you confirm the active adaptor connected to the non working monitor, does work with another gpu output and monitor?
Can you get the non functioning monitor to work when switching location/cable from a known working monitor?

Hey mate, thanks for your reply.

That is exactly how they are set up:

DVI > DVI - Mon 1
DVI > DVI - Mon 2
DP > DVI - Mon 3
DP > DVI - Mon 4
DP > DVI - Mon 5
DP > DVI - Mon 6

If you switch the monitor to another output does this work?
No.

Can you please provide the model/part number of the active adaptors in use?
in about 10 min. the fact that I can get 5 means that the connections are correct?

Can you confirm the active adaptor connected to the non working monitor, does work with another gpu output and monitor?
I can get monitor to work but i need to disable another first.

Can you get the non functioning monitor to work when switching location/cable from a known working monitor?
Yes.

Hi, it is starting to sound like potentially one of your active adaptors is faulty or is somehow reverting to a passive adaptor mode.

If you disconnect one of the DVI > DVI monitors form the GPU, does the offending monitor attached via DP work ok?
I would expect that you get 5 displays working, 4x DP and 1x DVI from the GPU.

This could be due to falling back to a passive adaptor mode or the adaptor really is passive? and thus is using the output of the DVI connector - re-routed to the DP output.

You have stated that the monitor does work, and will work when connected to another output switching over cables.
This seems to indicate a fault with the adaptor in use for this display.


This behaviour is quite typical when using passive or faulty active adaptors.

A bit of background information as to why this happens.

VGA, DVI, HDMI and some other video signal formats use a TMDS (Transition-minimized differential signaling) chip to create a carrier signal for the video data to transmit.

The Displayport signal type does not require a TMDS carrier, as it uses its own protocol which delivers data in a packet method, much like a network switch rather than a constant stream of video signal like the signals listed above, however to do this it must use an active adaptor

Typically a GPU will have a single TMDS chip which has 2 or 4 channels, these channels are connected to the VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs of a GPU, although they can be re-routed through a Displayport output when using a passive adaptor to dvi/hdmi.
All DP>VGA adaptors are active.

Dual-link DVI will uses 2 of these TMDS channels, so on your card with the pair of DVI dual-link outputs all 4 TMDS channels are used.
Single-link DVI uses just 1 channel.

This of cause limits the GPU to driving 2 displays at any one time, with additional displays driven using the DP packet data protocol.

You may notice that the Sapphire Flex Edition cards are able to output to 3 displays without the need for any adaptors, this is because the 4 TMDS channels are split and shared between the 3 outputs, giving the user the option to display a 3rd display at the cost of max output resolution allowed.



When you disconnect the DVI output from the GPU, you also release 2x TMDS channels that may be re-routed to another output, if the DP>DVI adaptor is a passive adaptor, then it will use these 2x TMDS channels.

This could be why you are only able to get 5 of the displays working.
I would suggest you try pickup another adaptor and test with a new active adaptor to see if this helps.

I hope this background in the signalling system helps shed some light and understanding of the problem, which can be difficult to debug issues like your experiencing without understanding the greater picture.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

I have another active adapter I have been using. This creates the same issue.
To me it seems all the adapters are fine. All the monitors are fine, simply the software will not allow it...
Its not just the one monitor, Like I can get all of them working just not at the same time
I've changed all the cables around, used 3 different kinds of adapters and still the same issue.

Are you saying most users can just activate the 6th monitor like any other extension?! I've never been able to do it. I dont know anyone with experience with eyefinity sadly.

dont know if this helps but this is the adapter that im using..

MrJingles111 wrote:I have another active adapter I have been using. This creates the same issue.

This is slightly strange.

MrJingles111 wrote:To me it seems all the adapters are fine. All the monitors are fine, simply the software will not allow it...

This would not be a software limitation, Windows will allow you to connect as many more monitors, I have seen systems with nearly 20 extended displays on a windows PC, so this is certainly no software limitation at this point, however due to a hardware issue the software is unable to enable the 6th hardware device.

MrJingles111 wrote:Its not just the one monitor, Like I can get all of them working just not at the same time
I've changed all the cables around, used 3 different kinds of adapters and still the same issue.

This sounds exactly like the issue people have when trying to use a passive adaptor for the 3rd display that we frequently get on these forums.

MrJingles111 wrote:Are you saying most users can just activate the 6th monitor like any other extension?! I've never been able to do it.

That is correct, this is how it worked on my older AMD5870E6 card, and also how it works on the card you have.
The card you have I have also used in a 6 monitor flight simulator mounted around a real life Spitfire cockpit with real controls hosted in a large barn.
However the simulator used 4x dual-link DP>DVI adaptors which use external USB power to power each of the adaptors rather than drawing power from the GPU output.

MrJingles111 wrote:dont know if this helps but this is the adapter that im using..

I am afraid that this pic does not really give much away, I can barely make out that it has "active" printed down one side.
If you could maybe share with us the make and model of the adaptor instead. cheers.

One way to test each of the adaptors to ensure they are indeed OK would be to connect up 3 displays, 2x DVI>DVI and 1x DP>DVI.
Test each of the adaptors you have in this configuration, this will test that each adaptor is working in an active mode, allowing you to output to 3 displays.
Please ensure you test all the DP>DVI adaptors in this way. One should expect to display on 3 displays without issues.

Mhmmm, I think i've seen cards with 6x miniDP->DVI active Adapters working. So the power problem should not exist. But if you have an Active (usb powered) Dp->DVI adapter lying around it might be worth a try.

What have you tested on the software side?
New partition(or unused HDD) fresh windows install, new drivers? Might as well be a unknown driver problem.

It works for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 just not 6. So can set eyefinity for those.
I do have another adapter here with a usb for power and still the same result.
I have also tested all the adapters I have used in different configs. Somtimes it dosent even recognise the monitor, other times it does.
This is the closest I have gotten so far, with 5 being active and the 6th showing on the software.

Just to confirm I can use 3 displays with zero issues - using different configs.
Could it be a power issue? I think my PSU is 550W...

No. The PSU is as close as unrelated. The only power related thing could be the GPU itself.

I dont know how we done it... but its working.
I rebuilt my PC, installed the latest AMD BETA driver and it just worked...
AFTER YEARS OF TRYING, AFTER IT ALL IS DONE, I HAVE NO IDEA HOW. fml.
Thanks guys for the ideas but solved I suppose?







Now I need to find out how to run games that work with 6 monitors.. haha

Hey,, really glad you managed to get it all working.
We know just how infuriating it can be when its not working when it simply should, obviously there can be a number of related issues as we have found over the years, such as those suggestions mentioned above in previous posts.

However, your setup looks ace now its all working.

Good luck and have fun!