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Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tearing
http://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=25106		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  ryan461 [ 05 Dec 2012, 03:22 ]
Post subject:  Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tearing
I recently got a couple extra monitors, as well as a second video card. Im running an MSI and Visiontek 7970s in crossfire. I have two dell 24" IPS monitors, and the third is a Benq 24". One of the dells is mini DP to DP. The other two monitors are hooked up to DVI.

I was noticing occasional tearing. But with FarCry 3 out today I updated to the beta drivers with the new profiles. I noticed a fair bit of tearing in the game, and then noticed it by dragging windows side to side (unless it was on the primary display).

I read here and on AMDs site to use all display ports, but with my cards having just two mini display ports each, I wanted to see the best way to do that.

Can I hook up two monitors to the primary card and one to the secondary card. Also, my Benq monitor does not have a display port adapter. Can I use a mini DP to DVI cable, will there still be flickering?

Open to other suggestions as well.
Author:  Haldi [ 05 Dec 2012, 16:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
If you want to be 100% sure you'd need to use all 3(exact same!) Monitors with the exact same (native) Connection!
The only way possible to do this would be an "Eyefinity 6" or another card with 3 or more Displayport connections. (Because i have never ever seen a card with 3 DVI or 3 HDMI ports ( from AMD....))
If you use miniDP to DVI Adapter then you'll still get tearing!


But i have to say... i'm running 3x Dell U2311H with 2x MiniDP and main Monitor via DVI. and i don't have any tearing at all. (or i'm just way to blind to realize it!) :thumbup:
Author:  Bifurk8 [ 05 Dec 2012, 17:16 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
I never had any tearing on my old 2x 5870s when using 1 native displayport and 2 DVI. But, I do get tearing with 2x 7950s when using 1 mini displayport to displayport, one DVI, and one HDMI. I get the feeling that you can just luck out with a particular card/port/monitor combination that doesn't get tearing but that Haldi is correct that the only way to be certain that you won't get tearing is to use all displayports, which would require a non-reference card.

I've found that it's impossible for me to eliminate tearing altogether with my current 2x 7950 setup. But, I find that different games respond differently to the use of v-sync. Some games will tear on the center monitor unless I turn v-sync on. Then, tearing will move to my side monitors where it's not as noticeable. On the other hand, other games will having tearing on the side screens with v-sync off but will move tearing to the center screen when vsync is on.

So, it takes some fiddling to get "optimal" tearing. I'm really hopeful AMD will work on something similar to NVidia's "adaptive v-sync" technology that eliminates multimonitor tearing. HardOCP did a good write-up on it a while back:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review/
Author:  ryan461 [ 06 Dec 2012, 01:12 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
Thanks guys,

I picked up a miniDP -> DP cable on the way home and hooked up my 2nd dell monitor. That fixed most of the tearing. I have it the odd time when draggin a window to the dvi monitor. But played FarCry 3 for a few minutes and didn't see any.

Now just hoping for a crossfire profile for FarCry 3 and get them settings maxed out on 3 screens :D
Author:  Wijkert [ 06 Dec 2012, 14:46 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
Make sure that your primary monitor is using DVI (when your setup is DVI, DVI, DP). That way you only get tearing on the monitor that is connected via DP. Games can act differently, but for me the tearing was always apparent on the desktop.
Author:  Delphium [ 06 Dec 2012, 17:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
Interestingly enough I am using a reference AMD 7970 with DVI, HDMI, mini-DP, mini-DP output connections on the card.

Using 3 identical Dell monitors all using DVI as the input, so my connectivity is:-

Card: DVI > DVI :Monitor 1
Card: mini-DP > Passive DP to DVI adaptor :Monitor 2 (primary monitor)
Card: mini-DP > mini to normal DP adaptor > Active DP to dual-link DVI adaptor :Monitor 3

I have not noticed any tearing with my own configuration... thankfully!!
Author:  suiken_2mieu [ 06 Dec 2012, 23:48 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
I don't have tearing on my setup. I'm using 3 miniDp->DL-DVI adapters, with 3 dell 3007wfp-hc's on a 7970 Lightning.

No tearing on my other setup either which is 5 Dell 2209wa's with 2 Passive miniDP->DVI and 3 miniDP->VGA adapters on a 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition.

I've gotten Tearing in a couple of my setups in the past though.

5870 E6, 2 miniDp->DL-DVI, 1 Passive miniDP->DVI adapters, Dell 3007wfp-hc / Apple 30" ACD / Dell s2409w
5870 E6, 4 miniDp->DL-DVI, 1 Passive miniDP->DVI adapters, 4x Dell 3007wfp-hc / Dell 3008efp

I got tearing when my monitors were not the same and when I used a passive miniDP->DVI adapter.
Though using the passive adapter does not equal tearing. I think timing may be different when using different monitors. Some may get lucky though. You may be able to change timings using EDID settings.
Author:  ryan461 [ 07 Dec 2012, 00:04 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
Wijkert wrote:
Make sure that your primary monitor is using DVI (when your setup is DVI, DVI, DP). That way you only get tearing on the monitor that is connected via DP. Games can act differently, but for me the tearing was always apparent on the desktop.


So this is what I had, and i tried swapping the primary monitor setting to each monitor. No matter what i swapped to, the non primary monitors experienced tearing. It's interesting how it works differently for different people.
Author:  Haldi [ 07 Dec 2012, 00:32 ]
Post subject:  Re: Help clarify eyefinity and the ports to use to avoid tea
So... most people with 3 equal monitors don't have problems with Tearing?
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