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Side monitors auto-black-out
http://www.wsgf.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=27026		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  GeneralX [ 21 Jan 2014, 01:57 ]
Post subject:  Side monitors auto-black-out
Dear Widescreengamers,

For a few years I have been using a lovely 3x1L setup with an HD6970. This has been largely to my satisfaction, except from 2 issues. The other one I shall post in a new topic, since it is totally unrelated.
My issues is related to games that to do not support Eyefinity and that cannot be fixed/will not be fixed in the foreseeable future. I would like to run these games on 1 monitor, but I have specific wishes for the other 2 monitors:
- I definitely do not want to unplug them
- I do not want my GPU to duplicate the game to 3 outputs, so just disabling the monitors is not a solution; the GPU would still be sending the duplicate streams.
- I would prefer not having to disable the Display Group. I recently updated my drivers, which always destroys the Display Group (Why AMD? :thumbdown: ) Re-enabling it has always been a pain and usually takes me more time than I am willing to sacrifice.

BTW, one good thing about the recent driver update is that it does remember the position of most ( :?: Why not all :?: ) of the shortcuts on my desktop.
:think: How can it remember that stuff, if it does not remember the Display Group :think:
:think: How come it remembers that stuff, but not window size and position (see my other post for this issue) :think:

But I'm digressing. A friend of mine runs the same setup as I do: identical monitors, GPU, CPU, MoBo, RAM, Hardrives, OS, even identical PSU. The only difference: he has two of my GPU's on one card; he uses a HD6990. For some reason, probably firmware related since the drivers are the same, games ran on a resolution of 1920*1080 will cause his outer screens to go black automatically. The monitors are on, the GPU just does not duplicate its stream of video output to all screens. I WANT THAT :thumbup: But it does not happen with my setup. Do you guys know why and do you know how I can get that?

Looking forward to your replies,
GeneralX
Author:  Haldi [ 21 Jan 2014, 19:53 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
Wait, you mean you play the SAME game but on his computer the side monitors go black while your's triple the output to all 3 screens ?

So you do not like to turn of the side Monitors ? AFAIK the GPU does not send a picture to a Offline Monitor.
And i'm kinda sure that if you would do a Benchmark with 3x the same Image, Side Monitors Offline and Side Monitors unplugged you would not see a FPS difference.


I always tought that if your side Monitors go Black or you have 3x the same Image is depending on the Game and not the GPU drivers.
Tough i never used Single Monitor resolutions in Eyefinity in the last few months.
using Windows+P or CCC Presets i switch from Eyefinity to Extended in 5 seconds.
Also after a driver update when i set up Eyefinity and bezel correction i mostly just press next. Even bezel correction works fine as i set it years ago.
Author:  GeneralX [ 22 Jan 2014, 00:25 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
Regarding not sending data to disabled monitors and benchmarking: Call of Duty Ghosts on 1 screen, 2 disconnected results in very smooth gameplay. Using Fraps (unreliable, for overlays are affecting fps in Ghosts) +/- 60 fps. Using same settings in CoD with 3 monitors connected, 2 disabled (But still with duplicated streams, I presume): 20 fps. Does that look like a 3:1 ratio? Yes, very much so. Is this a representable benchmark for all situations? Probably not, but it is a real life example and the main reason that I am looking for a fix after all these years. I payed 38 Euro for the game and I want to play it my way. If Eyefinity is impossible (it really is, the fix ain't working for me), at least I need a fix for the 3 screen issue. I am definitely not going to disconnect my screens every time I want to play CoD.

Regarding extended desktop: not sure if I know what you mean. Windows+P certainly does not do anything to my setup. I'm guessing I need to change settings in Windows, but have no clue where. When Eyefinity is on, Windows only finds 1 screen. How can I change that to extended? And getting from Eyefinity to extended desktop has to be done in Eyefinity; disabling Display Groups is easy and this looks like a solution. Except it always takes up 30 min of my time to revert that change: I have to fix the Display Group because CCC claims my monitors are set to extended and therefore I can not combine them to a Single Large Display. So I disable two, then try to make a Display group and it will say: No can't do, they are Disabled. So I enable them and then CCC usually allows me to combine them. Sometimes it doesn't and I have to repeat the process. I have had to do this 5 times over in some cases. In 1 or 2 cases I really messed up and had to reinstall Windows because it claimed I had 6 different VGA devices. How can Eyefinity even change that?
And it gets worse: I have to set my shortcuts on desktop back in their old position. My desktop is almost filled with them, I like direct access to stuff I use a lot.
So: not really a valuable option. If you have any other suggestions, or if my assumptions are wrong, please let me know.

Regarding the auto-black-out: Which part of AUTOMATIC needs clarifying? ;)
Same game? Of course... since it happens with every game. Hence my explanation about the hardware setup. Why would I mention that if it was about two totally different games? In that case I would obviously post it at topic of the specific game. Does your card also triple the output or does it automatically black out?

Regarding Bezel compensation: :evil: :( :evil: :( :evil: I'm fucked again. I just tried enabling it while I was writing this post. If I press the button for compensation, two screens will black out. End of story. The way to undo it, is probably displayed on one of those 2 screens that I can no longer see. So I will submit this now, go cry in a corner for 5 minutes and then try to fix it AGAIN.
:wtf: But there are actually people with a working bezel compensation? :wtf:
How does that work in games? What is your resolution? How do you apply Dopefish WidescreenFixer with this resolution?
Author:  Haldi [ 22 Jan 2014, 18:47 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
Okay, sorry the last time I tried, was ages ago, I did NOT have any performance issues. Gotta retry that soon.

You do seem to have a lot Problems! Do you have win 7 or XP?
When was the last time you made a clean (with Display Driver Uninstaller) driver update?

I can switch CCC presets in 15 seconds and everything works.

As for bezel correction. Yes you get a Black screen and a Yellow triangle on the corner of both screens. Then I get an Eyefinity resolution of 6048x1080 instead of 5760x1080
This works fine for 99% of all Games and Widescreenfixers.
Author:  GeneralX [ 22 Jan 2014, 19:03 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
When you do get back to me/this topic: Disregard what I said about Bezel compensation last night. I rebooted my PC because I could not see the 2 other screens and step 1 of troubleshooting is: Have you tried switching it on and off again?
That actually worked: I had a properly compensated bezel. Which sucks, in my opinion. My bezels are just to big, so I move the bezels of the outer screens behind the middle one. That means that you would actually have to move the image upwards to correct for the bezels. Which is not possible. And it also gives enemies the opportunity to hide behind my bezel :doh:
Author:  GeneralX [ 22 Jan 2014, 19:11 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
Oops, I forgot to reply to your inquiry about clean driver update: my installation of 13.9 or 13.10 was "clean". (can't remember which one I was using, but I installed it right after I installed Win7). Then I updated to 13.12 two days ago, which is the latest stable version. I could of course try to deinstall it, remove all related folders and then install it again, but given the the issues I ran into when I updated (I mentioned that it took me 30 minutes to reconfigure, right?) I might just not do that. These issues have persisted since forever and I assume that they won't all of a sudden disappear after cleanly installing another driver. If this really is the only thing this forum can come up with, I might just sell CoD Ghosts and go play some other game :rockout:
Author:  Haldi [ 22 Jan 2014, 19:26 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
The question would be WHY do you have such driver Problems!
I have a 2nd PC with Windows 7 and a 6970.
I'll try a driver update and make a video on how it works.
Author:  Micro [ 24 Jan 2014, 05:21 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
I will assume you know how to set a "preset" in CCC and use Windows 7.
What you want is easy, as Haldi indicated (and just to expand on that).
I have found it is easiest to setup in the following order -

1) In Windows 7, select Screen Resolution, decide which monitor you want to use solo and set it as your "main display", then select the other monitors and select "disconnect this display".
You must select "apply" between steps.
Once you have "disconnected" the other 2 monitors, save this as a "preset" (solo or single)
The disconnected monitors are still powered on, Windows 7 simply does not feed them a video signal.
2) Enable all monitors and select "extend desktop to this display" for the 2 monitors that are not your main display.
Then simply set a "preset" (extended) for your extended desktop (assuming like most of us you also use 3 monitors for actual work :)
3) Set up your eyefinity setup including bezel compensation, then set a "preset" (eyefinity) for your eyefinity setup

Switch between "presets" as you set them up to check your work, and if you screw it up simply delete that "preset" and do it over.

Just be aware that when switching between modes there may be some flashing and what appear to be mistakes or false starts (not really much, a couple seconds at most, it just seems long and disconcerting the first time :) )

Once you have it right, you can switch between any of the 3 modes by either right-clicking on the CCC icon in the taskbar and invoking a preset, invoking a preset after opening CCC, or from a "hotkey" keyboard shortcut that you can create when setting up a "preset".

Upgrading the driver will preserve the "presets", but a clean install with driver removal will require you to setup the presets again.

I've been using this "preset" setup since I started using eyefinity several years ago and it works perfectly.
No fuss, no bother, just a couple of mouse or keyboard clicks :)
Author:  tepescovir [ 30 Jan 2014, 04:41 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
I got around this issue as my computer desk is so big that i cant access the power points to turn on and off plugs. So i used the remote control power adapters that you can get on amazon or ebay cheaply and they come with 3 plug adapters.
One adapter for the pc aand center screen, one for the amp and i have my 2 outer monitors on the same remote plug. so just press a button on the remote to turn them off when i gaming in a single screen and again to just turn them back on.
Author:  suiken_2mieu [ 03 Feb 2014, 11:40 ]
Post subject:  Re: Side monitors auto-black-out
Well, if you have a crossfire setup, it automatically shuts off the side monitors if running a single monitor resolution in a game.
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