Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi.
I finally (almost) realized my dream...

Bought 3x 23EA63V monitors

VGA
HDMI
DVI-D (dual link)

And a MSI RADEON R7 250 OC 1GB GDDR5

Single-link DVI-D x 1
D-Sub x 1
HDMI x 1(version 1.4a)


http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MSI-R725D1

Like many other shops, as you can see it says:

"This Video Card Supports:
AMD Eyefinity Technology"


But I can't get the 3rd monitor to work. Windows recognize 3 screens but they can't work at the same time.

On the eyefinity panel it shows only 2 digital screens. I can get eyefinity with VGA + HDMI or VGA + DVI but not the same 3 connections at the same time.

Then I went to the website http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7_250_1GD5_OC.html I did a word search and the eyefinity word doesn't shows up. Now I'm lost...

I just want some advice before contacting the MSI support:

Does this card support eyefinity or not?

In order to use Eyefinity you MUST use at least one displayport connection on the card. If your monitors don't have a displayport connection, you'll need to purchase an active displayport adapter.

*Edit: Gross, that card does not have a displayport on it. In that case, I'm inclined to believe that the product description on the website you linked is incorrect. AMD Eyefinity does not work without at least one displayport connection.

*Edit 2: Realistically, you're going to need a more powerful card to use Eyefinity anyway. Rendering three times the resolution requires roughly three times the GPU power as a single card. So, if the minimum requirement for a particular game was a R7 250, you'd realistically need 3 R7 250's to push three screens. Although, nobody would actually do that. You'd just get a single, higher powered card.

At the very least, I would recommend an HD 7870 or an R9 270. Even then, those will be a little under powered and you won't be able to run newly released games at the highest quality settings. But, they're serviceable.

Honestly, I've been on AMD for years and years. I like them a lot. But, if you are just jumping in to multi-monitor gaming and you already have three of the exact same monitors, you may be better served by picking up an Nvidia card with NVSurround. It will not require you to have displayport connections like AMD cards do. Unfortunately, I don't have the experience with them to recommend a specific Nvidia card, but you should probably start looking around the level of a Geforce 660ti or so for decent multimonitor support.

Thanks

I'm using nvidia since 5200 FX but I'm in love with my first AMD card, I'm impressed with the power of this card, seriously it's unbeliveble for the price.
But I forgot to tell that I don't intend using eyefinity for gaming... well, maybe for some 2006 games like RACE 07 or TDU.

Newegg doesn't show eyefinity technology but like 80% of the shops says eyefinity technology. Maybe it is eyefinity compatible with in CROSSFIRE mode..?

(I was having some HDMI problems. Overscan, Flickering, etc... I've uninstall the drivers, reinstall but it got worst. Run uninstall utilities, and than Driver Sweeper the colors just went crazy, I thought I've burned the graphics card.
I've formated my HDD, installed the latest beta driver and all is running smoothly, except for 3rd monitor)



1) But isn't possible to use the 3rd monitor as a auxiliary\accessory display ?

Windows (almost?) recognize it, but Catalyst won't...




2) Can I make eyefinity in crossfire mode ?

2.1) If so should I buy another 250 and crossfire it or just get a 750Ti ?
(again, it's only for programs, and some old games non gpu intensive)


It's really frustating can't use no more than 2 monitors...

Gotcha. Eyefinity isn't just running three monitors from the same card, it's tricking your PC in to thinking that the three combined screens are one big monitor so that 3D applications can be rendered across all three screens. So, if you just want to use 3 monitors for traditional computing, you don't necessarily need "Eyefinity" support.

There is absolutely no way to get Eyefinity working on a card that doesn't have a displayport or mini-displayport connection, I'm afraid. Adding a second card in Crossfire mode won't make Eyefinity functional.

But, you may be able to use all three monitors in traditional extended display mode instead of Eyefinity. In order to use all three monitors in extended display mode, your graphics card needs to have more than one RAMDAC and most non-Eyefinity, non-NVSurround cards don't have more than one RAMDAC. I'm guessing that's the problem here. Your card probably only has one RAMDAC and can probably only output to two displays at a time as a result. The only reason it has three different outputs on your card is so that you have a choice of which to use.

The easiest way to get the third monitor working at this point would be to use your motherboard's built-in VGA port for the third monitor, if your motherboard has one. That way, your R7 250 will be powering two of the monitors and your motherboard's display adapter will be powering the third monitor. If your motherboard doesn't have a VGA port, you could add a second video card to power the third display. However, it will not be running in what you'd call Crossfire mode. "Crossfire" means two cards doing the 3D rendering, but only one being used for outputting video. So, if you need to add a second card, you could add pretty much any card at all - even a really old crappy card would work.

*Edit: According to AMD's product page for the R7 series, only the R7260X supports Eyefinity.

Thanks Bifurk8 that was very informative I really appreciated!

I have got a total of 6 video outputs on my system... I've got a H81M-Plus with the same outputs as the graphics card. On the website it says:

Integrated Graphics Processor
Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DVI/RGB ports
- Supports HDMI with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz / 2560 x 1600 @ 60 Hz
- Supports DVI with max. resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
- Supports RGB with max. resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz

But it has the same problem of the graphics card, it only let's two monitors at the same time.
Anyways...
Now I'm using iGPU technology, combining onboard with graphics card on extended view mode. It goes like this:

| Left Monitor | Center Monitor | Right monitor |
Onboard HDMI | Graphics HDMI | Onboard DVI |

But the thing is I would like to take the benefits of eyefinity like the desktop taskbar extended with all the monitors instead of only one. (and of course play some old racing games just for chill)

You could look in to something like Ultramon for enhanced taskbar support on 3 monitors in extended mode. I've been using Ultramon for years and it does some really cool stuff with multiple monitors in extended mode.

Now that you've got all three monitors working in some fashion, you could check to see if the racing games you're interested in playing support borderless windowed mode. That *may* allow you to span all three screens even in extended mode.

You may also want to check the forums here for more information about SoftTH. I believe it's possible to use SoftTH to get Eyefinity-like behavior with the way your monitors are currently configured. But, I'm afraid I don't have any personal experience with it.

I'm definitely going to check that!

But I was looking at this card http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4948#ov it says: "Up to 4 displays on a Single Card" but no mention of Surround. That's because of the lack of displayport right? But...

But on this site about the 750 Series http://ar.gigabyte.com/press-center/news-page.aspx?nid=1272 it says: "Gamers can also achieve a smoothly gaming performance and to have the best experience with realistic visuals through NVIDIA® 3D Vision™、3D Vision™ Surround."

I'm lost again. I don't get these advertisements...

No worries!

Eyefinity is the AMD tech for spanning multiple displays and it requires displayport.

NVSurround is the Nvidia tech for spanning multiple displays and it does not need displayport.

The Geforce GTX 750 Ti supports up to 4 displays on a single card and supports NVSurround.

The Geforce GTX 750 supports up to 3 displays on a single card and supports NVSurround.

That said I conclude that if a reference card says it support some technology, all the other re-brands most support it...

I'm going to test the tips that you give me and I'll tell you later how did they work.
...

You know, you're right... It's my second day with triple monitor and I'm starting to notice an exponential will or need on getting a more powerful card, I feel I'm going to be addicted on WS gaming xD

I'm thinking on saving some money in the future, let's say in the next couple of months. But after this forum https://forums.geforce.com/default/boar ... -surround/ I'm very afraid of Surround Technology. I'm not saying eyefinity don't have issues but I've noticed better support by the red team on this field. I could be wrong though...

I like the improvements on eyefinity 2.0
The price for a MSI Radeon R9 290 Gaming 4GB GDDR5 is a very good deal, at least on my country, so...
Maybe I'll stay on the R9 side...


Thanks again I really appreciate the time you spent on my assistance

Yeah, my experience has been that most manufacturers are not going to stray far from the reference card specs. Pretty much the only thing that ever gets changed is the cooling package and clock speeds, really.

I'm absolutely happy to stick with AMD. But, I don't think you can really go wrong either way. The one thing you're going to run in to with AMD that NVidia does better is that displayport requirement. There's two big gripes with AMD's Eyefinity tech currently:

1. If your monitor doesn't have a displayport, you have to purchase an active displayport adapter to use on at least one screen.
2. If you mix and match output types (like having 1 via displayport, 1 via HDMI, a 1 via DVI) then you will get screen tearing on at least one or two screens similar to what you might see on a single monitor when v-sync is disabled. It's not terrible, but it is noticeable. I've long since tuned it out and don't even notice it. But, if you find that regular tearing you see on a single screen with v-sync disabled bothers you a lot, then you'll probably be bothered by the Eyefinity tearing that comes from not using identical outputs on all monitors. I don't think NVidia has this problem when you mix different outputs.

I'm sure NVidia's got their own problems, but I've been on AMD so long I wouldn't know.